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Power Balance

Updated for Green Cities
Green cities has added several new power plants, they have been slightly modified to fit in with the rest of this mods changes.

This is a mod that balances the effectiveness and costs of all the power plants so that player must make a choice over what kind of power they should use. This mod only changes the power output (MW) and the weekly maintenance costs of the power plants, the base construction costs have remained unchanged.

Dirty sources like Coal and Oil have become cheaper and produce more, but have a larger effect on pollution. Nuclear power produces marginally more power at the same cost, but now has a huge noise pollution radius to represent nobody wanting to live next to nuclear power. The fusion power plant has had it's maintenance costs increased.

The two wind turbines produce significantly less power and have a larger noise pollution, but still have the same weekly costs. This makes wind only useful for small towns and the most expensive way to generate power. Solar power is also much more expensive in order to bring it's weekly operating costs above nuclear, but it has a smaller noise pollution radius now. Hydro power has been unchanged.

The aim of this mod is to make choosing your power source difficult, with the aim to make a green city difficult. When starting your choice will be between Coal and Wind, the mid-game between Oil and hydro, and the end game with Nuclear and Solar. By making Wind and Solar more expensive it is no longer the default choice, and your city may need to specialise or work towards green power now.

Here is a breakdown about the changes for each power plant. Original values are recorded from Cities: Skylines version 1.1.0.

Wind Turbine:
Original: 0-8MW @ $80 ($10 per 1 MW)
New: 0-4MW @ $60 ($15 per 1 MW)
The wind turbine has been had it's maximum reduced from 8MW down to 4MW, meaning in all but the best of positions it is not going to generate much power. The maintenance cost has also been reduced, but not as much, meaning it is also more expensive to operate per MW. The noise pollution radius has also been increased by 50%.

Advanced Wind Turbine:
Original: 0-20MW @ $200 ($10 per 1 MW)
New: 0-8MW @ $140 a week ($17.5 per 1MW)
Like the nromal wind turbine, the maximum has been dropped, from 20MW down to 8MW and the operating costs also reduced, but not by as much. The noise pollution radius has also been increased by 50%, though this does not tend to effect this type of power plant due to it's often distant location.

Coal Power Plant:
Original: 40MW @ $560 a week. ($14 per 1MW)
New: 40MW @ $400 a week. ($10 per 1MW)
The cost of coal power has been drastically reduced and is now the cheapest form of electricy other than fusion power. It still produces 40MW, but its now $160 cheaper. This comes with significant downside of the pollution radius being doubled, which is a problem when many are needed for even a small city.

Oil Power Plant:
Original: 120MW @ $1920 a week. ($16 per 1MW)
New: 120MW @ $1400 a week. ($11.66 per 1MW)
Oil was previously the most expensive power source, so it has simply had it's cost significantly reduced. To make up for this cheaper value, it has had it's pollution radius extended by 50%.

Solar Power Plant:
Original: 160MW @ $1200 a week. ($7.5 per 1MW)
New: 140MW @ $2000 a week ($14.2 per 1MW)
Solar used to be the cheapest form of power behind fusion, which was clearly not balanced. It now produces 20MW less but costs $800 a week more. Now making it the most expensive other then wind. It has also had it's noise pollution radius reduced down to 25%, which means it only has an impact on adjacent buildings. Makes sense, as solar doesn't make much noise.

Nuclear Power Plant:
Original: 640MW @ $8000 a week. ($12.5 per 1MW)
New: 650MW @ $8000 a week ($12.3 per 1MW)
Nuclear is now the 'dirty' choice for a very large city, slightly cheaper then solar, but more expansive then coal and oil. It produces 10MW more and has it's cost stay at $8000. Since we cannot represent nuclear waste disposal, this plant has been given a massive noise pollution radius which represents people's reluctance to live next to next to a nuclear power plant.

Fusion Power Plant:
Original: 16000MW @ $8000 a week ($0.5 per 1MW)
New: 16000MW @ $16000 a week ($1 per 1MW)
This power plant is still just as overpowered as before, producing a stupid amount of electricity at only $1 per 1MW. This was not changed much as it is supposed to be an endgame reward and should stay that way.

Hydro Power Plant:
The hydro plant has remianed unchanged.

Geothermal Power Plant:
Original: 80MW @ $1040 a week. ($13 per 1MW)
New: 80MW @ $1100 a week ($13.7 per 1MW)
Not much was changed here as the plant was already fairly balanced. Added $60 to the weekly cost so that it was a cleaner round number.

Solar Updraft Tower:
Original: 240MW @ $2240 a week. ($9.3 per 1MW)
New: 180MW @ $2400 a week ($13.3 per 1MW)
This plant seems broken as all hell, so it's amount generated has been slashed and the price put up. This is now a slight more power and efficient version of the original solar power plant. Also produces a little bit more noise pollution.

Ocean Thermal Energy Conversion Plant:
Original: 480MW @ $6400 a week. ($13.3 per 1MW)
New: 500MW @ $6400 a week. ($12.8 per 1MW)
Only modified slightly to provide 20MW more power. This is the biggest and best clean energy plant now (excluding fusion plant), and I felt the balance for it was pretty good already. A good stepping stone before Nuclear, but completely green.

The first time you load a city each time you start Cities: Skylines the menu system for power plants will show the original values. This can be be fixed by reloading the city. This has no effect on gameplay and the pop-up from selecting a power plant will still show correct information.

This mod was made as i wanted a slightly different effect to what RPM provides and therefore it shares many similarities to RPM. This is my first Cities: Skylines mod.

I am always looking for feedback and although I've playtested it, other's may run into balance problems I missed. I already feel as if all power sources could have their costs increased some more, but I need to playtest more to see if that's the case.

Have Fun!