Power Plant Stacking

[Grav]

I haven't seen it explicitly stated, but does anyone know if the +% production from power plants is cumulative in Civ 5? In previous civs, they were not. Once you had a power plant of one type, the others had no effect. However being as some power plants (hydro, nuclear) consume a resource, the price seems rather high to have the effects not stack.

 

[Olleus]

AFAIK, the concept of "power" which made your factories more productive has been eliminated in Civ5. Therefore, power plants act just like every other building and the effects stack. I assume so anyway, only thing that makes sense and the opposite isn't said in the manual.

 

[Selous]

then just build 1 type of power plant ...

 

[migkillertwo]

I haven't seen it explicitly stated, but does anyone know if the +% production from power plants is cumulative in Civ 5? In previous civs, they were not. Once you had a power plant of one type, the others had no effect. However being as some power plants (hydro, nuclear) consume a resource, the price seems rather high to have the effects not stack.

There isn't any "power" in Civ 5, so I'm guessing that the power plants (I miss the coal plants) do stack. Makes sense that cities can build hydropower plants and nuclear plants and solar plants.

 

[Pragmatic]

If the manual is to be believed, the Hydro Plant requires Aluminum (and a decent number of rivers) and Nuclear Plant requires Uranium. (Solar Plant doesn't seem to require anything aside from a desert...)

It'd have to be a very productive city to be worth (for instance) giving up a Stealth Bomber and a Nuclear Missile.

 

[XOVERX]

Does it work that way?

If you build a nuclear plant, does the "use" of uranium in building the plant reduce the number of units you can field? Or are buildings and units "independent" in terms of usage?

 

[Tylerryan79]

There is x amount of strategic resources, everytime you build a unit or building that requires a resource one is subtracted from the total. So if a nuclear power plant needs one uranium, subtract one from your total, just like you would with units.

 

[Pragmatic]

It's a limiter. You can use Uranium to build a Nuclear Plant, an Atomic Bomb, a Nuclear Missile, or a Giant Death Robot. If you use a Uranium for the Nuclear Plant, that's one less Uranium to use for units.

Similarly, Aluminum is used for Hydro Plants, Spaceship Factories, Helicopter Gunships, Jet Fighters, Missile Cruisers, Mobile SAMs, Modern Armor, Nuclear Submarines, Rocket Artillery, and Stealth Bombers. If you want to put in a Hydro Plant (or a Spaceship Factory), that's one less Aluminum available to go towards your military.

It's all part of the apparent design of "millions on defense, thousands on offense." You can have as many (for instance) Mechanized Infantry as you can support (subject only to the "# of cities + # of citizens + game-difficulty-modifier" limit), but if you want anything more, you're going to have to make hard choices.

Solar Plants only require the city border (or be on?) a desert. No (known... so far...) requirements for strategic resources. However, if your city has a desert tile within the "first ring" of city radius, it probably has a LOT of desert tiles in its radius. So you're getting compensated for already-bad terrain.

 

[PawelS]

So it seems there will be a "power plant stack of doom"

 

[King Jason]

I would say they stack. Primarily because all of them except one consume a strat resource. Additionally, only the factory is a 50% boost, The Nuclear and Solar are 25% boosts... so the stacking effect (for a 100% boost) seems allowable. Additionally, A hydro plant should stack since it isnt a % boost but rather adds +1 hammer to river tiles.

Also, they all cost maintenance.

 

[KrikkitTwo]

I would say they stack. Primarily because all of them except one consume a strat resource. Additionally, only the factory is a 50% boost, The Nuclear and Solar are 25% boosts... so the stacking effect (for a 100% boost) seems allowable. Additionally, A hydro plant should stack since it isnt a % boost but rather adds +1 hammer to river tiles.

Also, they all cost maintanence.

Also it seems Designed to stack...
You have limited Factories (based on Coal) so they will be in your more productive cities
You have probably even More limited Uranium so those will go in your most productive cities

Your limited Hydro plants would be best if they wint in cities with a large production bonus... so First priority is ones with Factory+Nuclear Plant, +Solar Plant if Possible,
and then the Stragglers go into cities with only Factories.

The Solar Plants then go anywhere the city is a decent size and worth spending the $

 

[Pragmatic]

Don't forget the terrain limitations.

The Hydro Plant, to be worth building, will tend to go to cities with lots of river tiles, AND it has to have a river bordering the city. No point in putting it in a city with less than a half-dozen or so river tiles, if you're giving up an Aluminum.

Likewise the Solar Plant. No requirement for strategic resources, but you've got to watch the terrain. You've got to find a city that borders a desert, but still manage to have enough food and production tiles to be worth upgrading (at 3 gold per turn). Maybe, if you're lucky, the desert tile bordering the desert will be a Flood Plains. But more likely, you'll have a half-dozen to a dozen tiles lost to desert and other halfway-worthless terrains.

 

[Songkok]

Does it work that way?

If you build a nuclear plant, does the "use" of uranium in building the plant reduce the number of units you can field? Or are buildings and units "independent" in terms of usage?

I believe when the manual mentions "consumes" it does "used up" the resource. so building a nuclear plant will left you with less for atomic bomb or GDR,

 

[KrikkitTwo]

Don't forget the terrain limitations.

The Hydro Plant, to be worth building, will tend to go to cities with lots of river tiles, AND it has to have a river bordering the city. No point in putting it in a city with less than a half-dozen or so river tiles, if you're giving up an Aluminum.

Likewise the Solar Plant. No requirement for strategic resources, but you've got to watch the terrain. You've got to find a city that borders a desert, but still manage to have enough food and production tiles to be worth upgrading (at 3 gold per turn). Maybe, if you're lucky, the desert tile bordering the desert will be a Flood Plains. But more likely, you'll have a half-dozen to a dozen tiles lost to desert and other halfway-worthless terrains.

You have 36 possible tiles in the city radius, the City culture wil probably avoid them, so you will get the productive ones first.

If 2/3 of them are Desert, that still leaves 12 productive tiles... almost certainly enough to make the Solar Plant worthwhile

 

[Pragmatic]

You have 36 possible tiles in the city radius, the City culture wil probably avoid them, so you will get the productive ones first.

If 2/3 of them are Desert, that still leaves 12 productive tiles... almost certainly enough to make the Solar Plant worthwhile

Productive in what way?

If I settle a city in a grasslands area, I can be pretty sure I'm going to get lots of food. If it's in a plains area, I can hope for a decent mix of food and production. If it's hilly, I can hope for lots of production.

The good stuff compensates for the marginal and worthless tiles in the city radius.

But if I settle in a desert or tundra region, the majority of the tiles ARE the marginal and worthless tiles.

There will be the occasional desert city that it will be worthwhile to put in a Solar Plant. Until I see otherwise, I'm considering it the exception.