pineappledan's Power Plants

[pineappledan]

Reworks the 4 existing power plant buildings, and adds a 5th: the Tidal plant.

• All power plants now require Factory (previously, only Solar and Nuclear did)
• All Power plants now give +10% to Yield processes
• Nuclear plant stays as an option with no terrain augmentation, offering greater GP generation and a higher base production instead. Great for a city focused on specialists
• Solar plant re-focused to production on landlocked and desert cities.
• Hydroelectric Plant split with Tidal Plant into Freshwater and saltwater focuses. Hydro gives more yields than wind if you have lots of freshwater access. Tidal gives very high yields for island and ocean-focused cities.

Power Plant details. Changes in Bold

• Hydro Plant (Requires 1 Aluminum, City must be on a River):
  • +10
  • +333 to River and Lake tiles
  • +10% to all Yields Processes in City
• Wind Plant (Requires 1 Aluminum):
  • +10
  • +1 11 to All Tiles
  • +10% to all Yields Processes in City
• Nuclear Plant (Requires 1 Uranium):
  • +20 , +33%
  • +25% Great Person Rate in city
  • +1111 to all Specialists in City
  • +10% to all Yields Processes in City
• Solar Plant (Requires 1 Aluminum, City must be on or next to Desert):
  • +10 , +10%
  • +11 to Non-Desert Land tiles
  • +33 to Desert tiles
  • +10% to all Yields Processes in City

• Tidal Plant (Requires 1 Aluminum, City must be on Coast)
  • Unlocked at Alternative Energy
    
  • +10
  • +2222 to Coast and Ocean tiles
  • +10% to all Yields Processes in City

Credits:
Tidal Turbine icon - Scottish Energy Industries Council

 

[pineappledan]

V2 Update: Process modifiers are live! Added +8% to all processes to all powerplants (ie. powerplants increase process yield conversion from 25% to 33%)

The mod now also reworks some non-powerplant buildings and wonders.
Agribusiness:
Removed +15% Farming Process modifier
The Agribusiness' process bonus got in the way of the Powerplants' across-the-board bonus

Brandenburg Gate:
Removed the Free Great General on Construction
Added Free Military Academy on Construction
Increased XP to all units trained in City from 15 XP to 25 XP
There are 2 other buildings that give free Great Generals (Great Wall & Heroic Epic), so it wasn't a unique bonus. The free 15 XP was very low considering Armories give 20XP and Military Academies give 25 XP. The combination of a free Military Academy and increase to 25XP Gives Brandenburg a more unique niche as the pure unit training military wonder.

Pentagon:
Removed the +1 copy of all existing military units bonus
Added Free Military Base and 5 Special Forces units on construction
The +1 copy of all military units you already posses is a carbon-copy of the Terracotta Army's bonus. At this late stage in the game, this will often result in many free copies of obsolete/useless units that need to be upgraded or deleted. The military base is unlocked 1 tech after the Pentagon, and Special forces are unlocked 2 tech levels after Pentagon. The combined production value of these free bonuses is 7250. Very much worth the price. Special Forces can be quickly re-deployed to the front-lines, so there is no danger of being bogged down in cumbersome micromanagement after you get 10+ garbage units and 5 useful ones from a late-game Terracotta bomb.

 

[Padre19]

Where we find this update ? The files attached in the first post are not updated.

 

[Padre19]

version 2 has sql errors...

 

[pineappledan]

Okay, give that a go

 

[hokath]

The wind plant doesn't boost processes in the OP, is that correct?
I was reading some discussion of tile balance the other day and I did think that coast/sea tiles do get very weak. The Tidal Plant is probably a good idea independent of the other changes. Where did you get that picture by the way?

Your changes to the military wonders are very sensible.

 

[pineappledan]

Fixed OP. All plants give +8% to processes.
The picture for the tidal plant is from the Scottish Energy Industrys Council

 

[Guynemer]

I like the Pentagon change, as having two Wonders that do the exact same thing just feels off.

BUT, I've never liked the Terra Cotta Army effect to begin with--it is fun, but it is extremely exploitable. When I'm building TCA, I look at what units I've haven't built yet, and try to get all of those units built a turn or two before the TCA is finished; this is a major advantage for the human vs. AI, who can not exploit the effect in the same way. Having TWO Wonders with such an exploit is mad, but I'd prefer zero to even one.

Have you considered changing the TCA at all? Adding science and culture every time a unit is built, or kills another unit, or something like that?

 

[pineappledan]

I like the Pentagon change, as having two Wonders that do the exact same thing just feels off.

BUT, I've never liked the Terra Cotta Army effect to begin with--it is fun, but it is extremely exploitable. When I'm building TCA, I look at what units I've haven't built yet, and try to get all of those units built a turn or two before the TCA is finished; this is a major advantage for the human vs. AI, who can not exploit the effect in the same way. Having TWO Wonders with such an exploit is mad, but I'd prefer zero to even one.

Have you considered changing the TCA at all? Adding science and culture every time a unit is built, or kills another unit, or something like that?

I will leave that up to @Gazebo to play with. The community is very protective of early game wonders because they are more thoroughly tested, people are more familiar with them, and there are better-defined strategies/techprogressions/build orders that rely on those wonders. I’m not really interested in opening up that Pandora’s box and inciting a backlash. With this mod, I aimed at late-game buildings because those are still very much in flux, and suggesting alternatives for their current, base VP function is relatively uncontroversial.

For instance, between the GWall and BBurgGate, I actually think GWall is the better candidate for having its GGeneral removed, since the Heroic Epic comes in the same era, and does the same thing. I don’t think VP has really gotten around to interrogating what, exactly, the BBurg gate should be in VP.

I should make a post about BBurg, GWall, and HEpic; I actually have a lot of thoughts on them

 

[AndreyK]

Hi, I am playing 10-23 4UC and some other mods as Japan. Built BBurgGate it didn't give Military Academy

 

[pineappledan]

There’s an error with pentagon and BBurg. I set the free building as the building instead of the buildingclass. I’ll post a fix soon

edit: fixed

 

[saamohod]

Brandenburg Gate (replaces free GGeneral with a free building

Could you specify what building this is?

 

[Kim Dong Un]

Could you specify what building this is?

I believe it's a free Military Academy.

 

[civplayer33]

Very nice! I'd vote for this to be incorporated in VP proper, though personally I'd probably mod it to remove the Wind Plant yield boost on ocean, as you can't build those things too far from the coast and it'd just feel weird.

 

[pineappledan]

While I agree in theory, being able to say “all tiles”, and having a full tile coverage option is too attractive, more than worth a little unreality.

im wondering if the yield types and amounts are reasonable for each plant type? Maybe a 3/2/2 tile yield is more reasonable for hydro and solar? I’m sure @BiteInTheMark has an opinion for us.

 

[BiteInTheMark]

Well done, but I think I would stick with my mentioned idea of 2 layers of power plants. (The idea with the tidal plant is great, with all that buffs to land improvements, that sea tiles got really worthless)

• ----- Plants exclude each other, construction cost reduced to 2/3, no building or ressource required ----
  
• Auqatic Industries (unlocked at Refrigeration, Maintenance increased to 14):
  • 1 Specialist no longer produces Urbanization Unhappiness.
  • +5% //
    
  • +222 to River and Lake tiles
  • Process conversion rate increased by 5%
• Onshore Energy Parks (unlocked at Computers, Maintenance increased to 14):
  • 1 Specialist no longer produces Urbanization Unhappiness.
  • +5% //
  • +1 11 to All tiles (grassland/plains/desert/tundra/snow)
  • Process conversion rate increased by 5%
• Offshore Investments (unlocked at Electronics, Maintenance increased to 14)
  • 1 Specialist no longer produces Urbanization Unhappiness.
  • +5% /
    
  • +1 to Coast and Ocean tiles
  • Process conversion rate increased by 5%

• ----- Plants exclude each other, construction cost reduced to 2/3, needs factory and a ressource to be build ------
  
• Nuclear Plant (unlocked at Nuclear Fission, Needs 1 Uranium):
  • 1 Specialist no longer produces Urbanization Unhappiness.
  • +25 , +25%
  • +3 for Engineer and Scientist
    
  • Process conversion rate increased by 5%
• Solar Plant (unlocked at Ecology, Needs 1 Aluminum):
  • 1 Specialist no longer produces Urbanization Unhappiness.
  • +10% //
  • +3 for Engineer and Scientist
    
  • Process conversion rate increased by 5%

 

[pineappledan]

eeeeeehhhhh.... That would require all new art assets though....

 

[BiteInTheMark]

eeeeeehhhhh.... That would require all new art assets though....

I think the current pictures still fit the new names, but the old names could also simply stay, and ok.
It was simply a bit strange for me that a hydro plant or tidal plant are improving the food generation in an area, while those are normally only generating electrical power. But I like to stay with those yields.

Another idea I have for those tile improvement plants, make them like Caravansery or Machu Picchu. (get the bonus for chosen tiles without necessarily working them)
I would prefer the first version, cause it makes citizens working normal tiles more worth, which I like. But they could also give for example:
For Tidal Plant: +1 for every coast and ocean tile within 3 tiles of the city

It would make those buildings more attractive even for small cities with a lot of specialists, but would make them also a bit to no brainer. To solve this, the former requirement for aluminium could be reintroduced.

Please dont think that I dislike your proposal, I think its better than the current VP solution, but I think those are still a bit too strong. Its your ModMod, and I simply said my opinion, up to you what you do with it.

 

[pineappledan]

Another idea I have for those tile improvement plants, make them like Caravansery

Caravansary requires you to work the actual tiles. It's only machu picchu and observatories that work that way, because the code only looks for mountains, and having a code that loops through every workable tile looking for 1 of many feature/improvement/etc. types is too much computation. The code currently ONLY looks for mountains.

It was simply a bit strange for me that a hydro plant or tidal plant are improving the food generation in an area, while those are normally only generating electrical power.

A stable, consistent and plentiful source of electricity is required in almost everything we do these days. In my own region, farmers are up in arms because a carbon tax would raise the price of running the massive heaters they use to dry their produce after it has been harvested. Any of the tile yields are appropriate because any human work is enhanced by access to electricity.

I wanted to put on 1-2 of the plants as well, but thought that would simply make those too powerful/hard to balance. Maybe the wind plant could be changed to 11, but meh.

To solve this, the former requirement for aluminium could be reintroduced.

All the plants in my modmod currently require aluminum

 

[BiteInTheMark]

Caravansary requires you to work the actual tiles. It's only machu picchu and observatories that work that way, because the code only looks for mountains, and having a code that loops through every workable tile looking for 1 of many feature/improvement/etc. types is too much computation. The code currently ONLY looks for mountains.

Thats what the description say, but this isnt true. A conversation with one of the developers lead to the result, that the Caravansery works like Machu Pichhu, you dont have to work the tiles to get the benefit.

To reduce the computing time, you could set the resulting number to the maximum number of tiles (36) and simply subtract the ocean, coast and sea tiles, so you would need only to ask for 3 types of terrain. And cause the terrain never change, would it be really necessary to ask every turn for it or just simply ask for a variable after the construction?

A stable, consistent and plentiful source of electricity is required in almost everything we do these days. In my own region, farmers are up in arms because a carbon tax would raise the price of running the massive heaters they use to dry their produce after it has been harvested. Any of the tile yields are appropriate because any human work is enhanced by access to electricity.

Its only by my own flavor, but nothing important for me, if it would stay as it is, its fine.

I wanted to put on 1-2 of the plants as well, but thought that would simply make those too powerful/hard to balance. Maybe the wind plant could be changed to 11, but meh.

Even small tradition empires earn several thousands of culture per turn in the lategame, I dont think it would be too powerful. I think giving the Onshore/Wind Plant the culture would make sense, cause like it is here in Germany, rising the appearance of renewable energies is also a cultural transforming process.

For the Tidal Power Plant, you could consider doing the Caravansery stuff, cause unless you have Imperialism and/or Centaur Extractors, sea tile could be still too weak, even with a buff from the building.
This or a small buff to every ocean tile like +1 and another +2 for any sea ressource. Only some ideas, if you lack some.