Stop big cities running on just coal power plant

[Soxirella]

If you have 2,000 infra per city then you'd most likely have one nuclear power plant. During war, whether it be from regular or nuclear attacks, if you have your power plant destroyed, your city would go powerless impacting your economy and military. You'd be forced to decom improvements until you can build another power plant. The odds on this are already very low, so it would be immensely rewarding to the attacker:

 

Probability of losing power = 1/3 (getting immense triumph) * 1/10 (10% chance of destroying improvement) * 1/40 (one in 40 improvements) = 1/1200 = 0.083%.

 

Now, if you have over 2,000 infra, then you'd also have a coal or oil power plant, may be two. Originally, the coal power plant can power 10 improvements, or 500 infra. A 2,500 infra city would have 50 improvements. Thus, if they lose their nuclear power plant, a single coal power plant will find itself powering 40+ improvements, or four times its capacity. This is unrealistic and unscientific.

 

The game lets you keep your improvements even when infra is destroyed, and you could argue that the improvements were built when the infra was good and just because they are in disrepair, that doesn't mean the improvement will also be so. However, a power plant can only produce as much power as it is capable, or it will be overworked, and will certainly not be able to power four times as much as its capacity.

 

Hence, I propose the following alternatives. Any one can be implemented:

1) The balance (coal/oil) power plant only powers that many military (during war) or commerce (during peace) improvements as it is capable, when (Infra/50) < The total number of improvements built

2) The power shuts in that city, following 12-36 turns after loss of any power plant, provided infra capacity of the surviving plants < number of surviving improvements * 50

3) The power shuts down immediately in case #2

 

Let me know your thoughts.

[Rozalia]

... The coal power plant doesn't power the extra infra if the nuclear power plant goes down... or is there some bug I'm unaware of?

[Soxirella]

6 hours ago, Rozalia said:

... The coal power plant doesn't power the extra infra if the nuclear power plant goes down... or is there some bug I'm unaware of?

Yeah, that is a common reply that many people have given to me on Discord. It is not a bug. Actually, this phenomenon is more likely when hit by a nuclear bomb, where a 2,500 infra city can be reduced to 250 infra. In such as case, when the nuclear power plant is destroyed, the game code thinks that it has sufficient power, since 1 coal power plant is valid for up to 500 infra. However, if you look at the improvement count, then it'd be around 40, which is the same number of improvements one would have at 2,000 infra.

Hence, in such a situation, I feel the city should be powered off in one of the three ways, since it'd be overworked in a more realistic scenario.

Edited March 29, 2018 by Soxirella

[Rozalia]

48 minutes ago, Soxirella said:

Yeah, that is a common reply that many people have given to me on Discord. It is not a bug. Actually, this phenomenon is more likely when hit by a nuclear bomb, where a 2,500 infra city can be reduced to 250 infra. In such as case, when the nuclear power plant is destroyed, the game code thinks that it has sufficient power, since 1 coal power plant is valid for up to 500 infra. However, if you look at the improvement count, then it'd be around 40, which is the same number of improvements one would have at 2,000 infra.

Hence, in such a situation, I feel the city should be powered off in one of the three ways, since it'd be overworked in a more realistic scenario.

Ah... I see, I get you now. I misunderstood what you were saying sorry mate.

[Soxirella]

Well there have been quite a few votes on this topic but no one has bothered to detail their reasons. Probably many others also misunderstood the context of the suggestion. Can people who voted please say why or why not this suggestion be implemented.

[Them]

1 hour ago, Soxirella said:

Well there have been quite a few votes on this topic but no one has bothered to detail their reasons. Probably many others also misunderstood the context of the suggestion. Can people who voted please say why or why not this suggestion be implemented.

Basically, getting a power plant blown up by a nuke is pretty terrible as is and people shouldn't be more punished by RNG that is out of their control.

[Soxirella]

2 hours ago, Them said:

Basically, getting a power plant blown up by a nuke is pretty terrible as is and people shouldn't be more punished by RNG that is out of their control.

Yes, but the probability of a power plant getting blown up by a nuke is 4% at best, 0.083%, if conventional. Hence, I'd say, it's only fair to get that additional reward for hitting that low probability. Besides, if you don't want people "punished" by getting nuked, then the game should not have nukes.

In my scenario, if a city is nuked to below 500 then they will not lose power, but if they get nuked less (ordinary war mode or perhaps 3000 infra to 750), then they'll end up losing power and will need to rebuy infra or sell and replace their improvements.

So essentially I am just advocating for the game to work the way it was intended to, not something new... which is, a coal power plant cannot be expected to power more than 10 improvements, certainly not four times as much.

[Ukunaka]

Basically you are saying that whether or not a city is powered should be based on the number of improvements built as opposed to the improvement slots (Infrastructure) 
i agree that this would solve that problem.

[Soxirella]

On 4/1/2018 at 0:12 PM, ukunaka said:

Basically you are saying that whether or not a city is powered should be based on the number of improvements built as opposed to the improvement slots (Infrastructure) 
i agree that this would solve that problem.

That's right. The 1 coal power plant for every 500 infra essentially implies that the power plant is capable of running only 10 improvements, so how can it power 40+ improvements.

Ideally, in any scenario power plant should be based on the basket of improvements.

Let's say a coal power plant can produce 100 units of power, and...
Resources types of improvement cost 1 unit to run, first three civil and commerce can cost 5, subway and stadium cost 8, manufacturing can cost 10, and defense can cost 15.

Thus, in that scenario, a coal power plant can power a farm state with 100 resource/mining improvements.

 

But that is another suggestion altogether