Power to the People news & patch notes

• Added new upgrade option for Basic Substation, which reduces its NIMBY radius and also provides a small efficiency boost. A fully upgraded Basic Substation is now a great alternative to the more expensive Advanced Substation, having a 65 MW capacity and a base efficiency of 95%. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38701633/a0b2c17e02ee361dfee183684968dc6700a7d5f3.gif {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38701633/d77ff988f92b95f02c3255739c3ed6d52df37850.png
• Fixed bug that made the "Careful Expansion" tech in the research tree not have an effect on upgraded Geothermal Power Plants.
• Small performance improvements to reduce GPU usage.

• A brand new level set in the "big island" of Hawaii, called Hilo! Can you keep the lights on in the Gemini North Observatory as well as in the little coastal towns? Luckily, you have geothermal sources in the island, which will provide you with plenty of inexpensive energy. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38701633/a72748587f74fa195a32ee7f4f78b4a32d15f25f.jpg
• New geothermal power plant, only available in selected areas of the Hilo level. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38701633/4ca5103864ea814c883bdde2d86a8e719ab46487.gif
• New feature to place multiple buildings (such as power plants or energy storages) without having to go into the "buy menu" again and again, by pressing the CTRL key. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38701633/9b38998498b0c2b0b27a5984695144d99695053e.gif
• Players are now warned if they have selected automatic turn on/off times that would conflict with the power plant's ramp-up/ramp-down times. For example, now you get a warning if you ask a nuclear plant to turn off at 3:00 and on again at 5:00, which wouldn't be possible.
• Players can now see the average electricity generation cost for all of their power plant types in the "end of day report", by hovering over the "generation costs" tooltip.
• Energy storage facilities now display at what power they are charging in their tooltip.
• Small performance improvements to avoid the game slowing down when trying to build long power lines towards an unreachable destination.
• Fixed bug that caused NIMBY ratings to not get recalculated properly after unlocking a NIMBY-reducing tech in the research tree. Changes used to only take effect after upgrading the power plant in question or restarting the game. Now they take effect immediately.

• Fixed bug that caused the "substation overloaded" warning icon to be incorrectly displayed for a while after upgrading an overloaded substation.
• Fixed bug that caused power plants and substations to get the "turn on/off automatically" toggle mistakenly activated against the player's will if setting the timer for midnight (0:00).
• "Power plant / substation / energy storage stats" window now remembers what was the last timeframe that was selected (1, 2 or 7 days) so players don't have to select it again (it used to default to 1 day every time it was opened).

New content

• Added decorative images to all random world event types. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38701633/32aac9495ca83c5c3657e9ea5f82485fb04175a4.gif
• New feature that allows players to randomize level modifiers when setting up a sandbox mode game. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38701633/85be24fadea3771eb2524806377320e7f4c97da1.gif
• Left-handed players rejoice! Now we allow players to remap controls to the arrow keys (for camera movement for example) even though they are also used to navigate the UI.

Fixes

• Fixed bug that caused the power line explosion visual effect to play again if placing a new power line next to one that had already failed in the past.
• Fixed bug that could cause the game to become unresponsive if deactivating the power line placement tool while the popup warning of a high voltage / low voltage conflict is being displayed.
• Fixed bug that caused the game to crash if loading a saved game that contained a broken underground power line.
• Fixed bug that caused high voltage power lines to overload instantly if placing an underground hub under them.
• Fixed bug that caused historic statistical information for power plants and substations to be lost when upgrading them.
• Fixed bug that caused money spent on upgrades not to be counted towards the "money invested" category in final score.
• Fixed bug that caused Taj Mahal to be displayed incorrectly after going into underground mode and then to the surface again.

New Content

• New feature that allows players to place low voltage power lines underground. It must be unlocked through the Influence Points tree with 30 IP (unlocked at the same time as cryogenic air technology and concentrated solar power). {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38701633/133f6ce89992c1228099937eaa8b968d8ad8131c.gif
• New tutorial that explains how to use underground power lines (the "Underground Tutorial").
• New feature that allows players to bind specific city buildings to a specific substation, accessible from the Substation Settings window. Once activated, the selected buildings will try to source their energy from that substation in particular as a first option. If unable, they will resort to the standard behavior (closest substations first). This gives players a lot more control and is particularly powerful when combined with underground power lines. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38701633/a9fd70e0aa370d9651e20b62fefdf28cf2699236.gif
• New Power Generation Mix Chart in the End of Day Report, which shows from which types of power plants the energy generated through the day came from. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38701633/2a5b2b6be75afec1d915caae39f6f945769902d1.png
• The High-tech Substation (unlocked by joining the Crytivo Club) can now be upgraded, similarly to the Basic Substation. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38701633/a039e66367dbcd87ebcf2b8bdff897eccbc5be26.gif
• Brand new placement and ambience sound effects for the Micro Substation.
• New special sound track for the Rio Grande level.
• Transmission efficiency in the side bar is now displayed with one decimal instead of rounded.

Fixes

• Fixed bug that could cause a crash upon saving the game after upgrading a power building that was being monitored by a switching station.
• Fixed bug that could cause the cursor to get stuck in the close button of the Sandbox Mode Window when playing with a gamepad.
• Fixed gamepad control hints for Fast Forward and Pause buttons that weren't displayed correctly if playing with an XBox One controller.
• Fixed bug that caused building tooltips to still be displayed as they were being bulldozed for a second or two after the fact.
• Mayors will now stay quiet while the game is paused, as not to distract the player when they are building and repairing their infrastructure.
• New icon for the "view charts" button in Substation / Power Plant / Energy Storage Settings Window, as the previous one wasn't matching the style of the other buttons correctly.

Final words

New Content

• New feature that allows players to place low voltage power lines underground. It must be unlocked through the Influence Points tree with 30 IP (unlocked at the same time as cryogenic air technology and concentrated solar power).
• New tutorial that explains how to use underground power lines (the "Underground Tutorial").
• New feature that allows players to bind specific city buildings to a specific substation, accessible from the Substation Settings window. Once activated, the selected buildings will try to source their energy from that substation in particular as a first option. If unable, they will resort to the standard behavior (closest substations first). This gives players a lot more control and is particularly powerful when combined with underground power lines.
• New Power Generation Mix Chart in the End of Day Report, which shows from which types of power plants the energy generated through the day came from.
• The High-tech Substation (unlocked by joining the Crytivo Club) can now be upgraded, similarly to the Basic Substation.
• Brand new placement and ambience sound effects for the Micro Substation.
• New special sound track for the Rio Grande level.
• Transmission efficiency in the side bar is now displayed with one decimal instead of rounded.

Fixes

• Fixed bug that could cause a crash upon saving the game after upgrading a power building that was being monitored by a switching station.
• Fixed bug that could cause the cursor to get stuck in the close button of the Sandbox Mode Window when playing with a gamepad.
• Fixed gamepad control hints for Fast Forward and Pause buttons that weren't displayed correctly if playing with an XBox One controller.
• Fixed bug that caused building tooltips to still be displayed as they were being bulldozed for a second or two after the fact.
• Mayors will now stay quiet while the game is paused, as not to distract the player when they are building and repairing their infrastructure.
• New icon for the "view charts" button in Substation / Power Plant / Energy Storage Settings Window, as the previous one wasn't matching the style of the other buttons correctly.

Final words

Underground power lines

New tutorial

Better analysis tools

Substation filters

Final words

NEW FEATURES

• A brand new level: "Río Grande, Argentina"! Level description: "At the world's end lies one of the most unlikely factory towns. Thanks to some tax exemption shenanigans, 25% of all laptops and smartphones used in Argentina are being produced here." {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38701633/fd8833a78c0b5df642b6e545fb90ec045a979c69.png
• New "Micro Substation", which only takes 1x1 tiles. It has low power output and only moderate efficiency, though.
• New "Screenshot Mode", that allows players to hide the UI in order to take screenshots. By default this is bound to the F11 key.
• Substations can now be upgraded to increase their power output and efficiency. Some of them have 1 and some of them have 2 upgrade levels. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38701633/1fdbbd7bd6011c4af3022e80b86625895bdb105d.gif
• Lots of new random world events, that will affect power generation costs for different types of power plants (e.g. "a new coal deposit has been found in the area, so your coal-fired plants will have lower operating costs for a few days")
• New "historic city power usage charts", that show how much power each city has tried to draw from the grid during the past 7 days. These can be found inside the company information window or by clicking the little icon next to the city name.
• 3 new buildings for cities in all levels: Library, Theater and Industrial Complex. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38701633/a9c886562a56165361b050ec01e0b4728609cfbc.gif
• Players can now see where the next city is going to be built 48 hours in advance. It's shown in-game as a big construction site.
• Substations now have a setting that allows players to configure for how long they have to be overloaded before the automatic shutdown takes place.

IMPROVEMENTS

• Diesel generators no longer need to be placed close to water, as they are direct drive and they do not require a water source to generate steam or for cooling.
• High voltage power lines now cause unhappiness to city buildings if placed directly adjacent to them.
• Sandbox games can now be configured with any number of special modifiers, from 0 to 3. Before it was mandatory to always select 3.
• Leaderboards now also show "money left in the bank" category.
• Switching stations now have a higher capacity (300 MW) to make them more useful.
• Power plants and substations now remember the last time that was set in the automatic turn on/off setting if they are turned off. Before, the times would always get reset to 5:00 and 22:00 if they were disabled.
• Fixed bug that caused land leasing costs to be calculated incorrectly when placing high voltage power lines within city limits.
• Fixed bug regarding the "composite turbine blades" technology in the research tree. It was supposed to let wind turbines operate at lower wind speeds but it wasn't working. It was only providing a 10% power generation boost.

PERFORMANCE

• Small changes to the shader used for rendering cables, in order to reduce draw calls and therefore GPU load.
• Rewrote the code for NIMBY calculations from scratch, in order to make it multithreaded for improved performance.
• Moved some small housekeeping functions to a separate thread for improved performance.

• A new level, with some pretty unique challenges.
• Almost 20 new random world events, that will alter the cost per MWh of different types of power plants.
• Upgradeable substations.
• Players will be able to preview where the next city is going to be built 48 hours in advance so they can plan accordingly.
• A new type of substation, designed specifically for those tiny spaces left in cities after you have unlocked "land leasing".
• Customizable timer for substations' auto shut down feature.
• Ability to start sandbox games with fewer than 3 level modifiers (or none at all if you wish).
• Lots of small usability improvements and bug fixes.

• Customizable perks and challenges in sandbox mode, allowing players to choose them from the pool of all available ones in all levels. This new mechanic should allow for some very interesting combinations! {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38701633/78bd697df8b140c116628bb3f8acb2cca8d41e5d.png
• New scoring system including satisfaction bonus (10,000 extra points for every % point over 90% of historic average satisfaction). {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38701633/ad6a3f0e5f98f0b8ee3327a5a7ae7381bfb9c96b.png
• Allow players to see last end of day report in the company information window whenever they want.
• New setting to disable "game is paused" warning.
• New games in strategic mode start paused (as if it were the end of a day) to allow players more time to set up their infrastructure.
• Fix UI bug that caused the weather report to show up under the "game is paused" warning instead of on top.
• Fix a potential infinite money exploit that was reported by one of our players.

Gameplay

• Now every level and every power building are unlocked in the Sandbox.
• Add Free Play as a game mode in the Sandbox, which allows players to pause whenever they want. {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38701633/99ca8637042350914ebd89b343b8266c7320a334.jpg
• Players can now get 100% refund on power lines and buildings that were just built if the game is paused (either at the end of the day or in Free Play mode).
• Add options to see a longer period of time in power building charts (1, 2 or 7 days). {STEAM_CLAN_IMAGE}/38701633/fab146472e06a5aaedbdc02fb80c46541a267c43.jpg
• Loans now show information on how much the player has to pay if they want to cancel them before they are due.
• Add information about power generation predictions to chart on the left (based on weather and power plants' schedules).
• New shortcut to automatically go to unpowered blocks.

Fixes

• Major overhaul for the French localisation.
• Small fixes for the Chinese localisation.
• Fix bug with bulldozer tool that caused tiles to be demolished anyway if pressing right mouse button or escape to cancel an ongoing bulldoze action.
• Fix bug that caused the "new city has just been built" notification to show up when it shouldn't after loading a saved game.
• Fix race condition that, under specific circumstances, could cause a strategic game mode to become unpaused at midnight after saving and loading again.
• Add tooltip to the magnifying glass button on the leaderboard.
• Allow enabling / disabling High-Tech substation in Sandbox Mode if it has been unlocked via the Crytivo Club.
• Players must now place power lines in order to power all houses in the basic tutorial.

Performance

• Major performance improvements in the way that the load factor for power lines is being calculated.
• Performance improvement for city growth algorithm.
• Performance improvements in the methods that draw the charts on the company information bar.
• Add LOD (level of detail) meshes to power lines, so the GPU has to draw fewer triangles when zoomed out.

• First step towards an improved system for calculating high scores. Now, whatever money is left in the bank will also give players points, as if it had been invested it on infrastructure. We thought this would be a good way to start addressing the concerns that players have expressed without breaking backwards compatibility too much. In the future, players will also get bonus points for keeping the satisfaction level high throughout the entire game.
• Now if players load a game that was saved at midnight in strategic mode (or autosaved) it will be paused when you load it again.
• Redesign power lines load overlay. Now low voltage power lines have a completely different pattern, making it easy to tell them apart from the high voltage ones. See image below.
• Display how many influence points a player can get by playing a level when hovering over a level icon on the globe.
• Reduce the intensity of the overlay that indicates valid placements for power plants, as it was overpowering the terrain, not letting players see what was below.
• Performance improvements to the code that was displaying the "unpowered building" icons. This one should provide a few extra FPS when the screen is cluttered with icons.
• Fix bug in sandbox mode window that would cause players to get stuck if they deselected all power plants and went back to step 1. This used to require a restart of the game to fix it.
• Fix bug that would cause special event buildings (such as water heaters and research centers) to spawn in locations that are unreachable by power lines.
• Fix bug that would cause the game to become unstable if demolishing a power plant while trying to upgrade it at the same time.
• Fix bug that would, in extremely rare occasions, make cities spawn with no roads at all, causing the game to become unstable or crash.
• Add Discord and Twitter buttons on the bottom-right corner of the main menu.

Short term

Mid term

Long term

Dreams for the future

Conclusions

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• Massive performance improvements, particularly when multiple power lines fail at the same time or when there are tons of power lines being built at the same time.
• Fix bug that didn't allow players to place low voltage power lines on bridges sometimes.
• Fix visual glitch that made it look like power lines were conducting electricity when they weren't if placed very close to other power lines.
• A few localisation fixes for the French version.

• Steam Achievements now get unlocked as you play instead of all of them at the same time when exiting the game.
• A few improvements to the soundtrack here and there.
• Fix "A Green World" achievement, that was not being triggered if using offshore wind turbines.
• Fix issue with titles in the research tree sometimes getting cut off when playing in 1440p.
• Fix some tutorial texts that were being displayed incorrectly in German, causing words to be displayed too close to each other.
• Fix bug that caused the sound effects in the level selection screen to ignore the UI volume setting.
• Fix potential crash related to the usage of Crytivo Club with a slow or unstable internet connection.
• Fix potential crash when trying to repair a power line at the same time that nearby power lines are being built or demolished.

• Add a warning icon to modal dialogs that prompt potentially destructive actions (such as demolishing a power plant, deleting a saved game or making a planned power cut). Also made modal dialogs slightly wider to better accomodate longer texts (such as those from random world events).
• Fix position of NIMBY circles for small buildings (such as the local substation).
• Fix bug that prevented players from demolishing power lines or buildings when having negative money in the bank.
• Fix bug that was causing high scores to be calculated slightly inaccurately under specific circumstances.
• Fix bug that could cause the game to become unstable when placing power lines close to the edges of the map.
• Small localisation improvements for French language.

We did it!

First patch

Your feedback

The future

• Fix bug that caused energy storage facilities to ignore the power distribution profile.
• Fix potential crash during the "Lumberjack Challenge" event.
• Minor localisation fixes for Spanish and French.