Rules for building Hydro plants (?)

[phooey73]

Where may Hydro plants be built? Anywhere?

Is it just in cities built right on rivers?

Is it in any city containing a river? If so, does that include a river right on its radius border?

I can find anything referring to a restriction other than the textual historical blurb that says they are built on moving water.

The situation I'm in, I put off Scientific Method for a long long time so I could get Monasteries in the queues of my border cities. So I've got Assembly Line and Combustion, and lots and lots of cash due to my stalling on Scientific Method.

I have many factories, and I'm ready to build coal plants in some cities that are not on my main continent. But I'm going to be steamrolling towards 3 Gorges Dam and Hydro plants, and it shouldn't be long, since I already have Assembly Line and Combustion. I don't want to build stinky coal plants if I can delay for just a bit and build hydro.

[drsparnum]

I cannot say about hydro plants. I think the city's gotta be right next to it, I'm not sure.

HOWEVER...if you get 3 gorges dam it will power every city, not just cities that could have had a hyrdo plant.

[phooey73]

3 Gorges Dam will power every city of yours on its continent, just like the Statue of Liberty gives a free specialist to every city of yours on its continent.

I'm specifically not building power plants at all on my big continent.

But the other landmasses need power. My dilemma is whether or not to build coal plant now in a few cities, or wait for Hydro.

The main continent has factories, but they are building other things while I wait for 3 Gorges Dam.

[fed1943]

It's just an health problem.How many health resources and population,now and after,in the cities of that continent?
Best regards,

[phooey73]

I have all the resources, though I have to trade to get deer and sugar, but the sick faces do add up.

I've identified 3 cities as likely Hydro candidates. The one that's already started coal, well obviously I'll finish it, but the other two are ready to start something now. One is right on the river, but the other is not, it just has a river running through the radius.

I'd rather build something else first, and do hydro when it becomes available, but how do I know if it will be available?

[johnmcd]

see when it says 'on this contintent' do landmasses without ocean seperating them count as the same continent?

[phooey73]

I'm pretty sure the answer to that one is no. I have Statue of Liberty built and the nearby islands are not getting the bonus.

[HaplessHorde]

I was wondering the same thing about hydro. Add in that you've got a sick city and the production queue recommends a coal plant! I'm not really clear on what/how much benefit a power plant supplies, either. It's supposed to provide more hammers, right, but I haven't seen much improvement in build times with power.

[Urban Ranger]

You can only build hydro plants in cities right next to a river. Hydro plants are great.

[phooey73]

All power plants provide "power" to your factory.

So for building, you get +25% from your forge, +25% from your factory, and +50% from power (if you also have a factory).

Without power you're operating at +50%. With power you've got +100%. So for ordinary building, power increases your hammers from 150% to 200%, a 33% increase.
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Thanks Urban for answering my question. So, basically the city would have to have "fresh water" access, and specifically from a river. Those are the only cities that can build hydro. Is it the same rules for three gorges?

[Urban Ranger]

Yep. You can only build the Three Gorges where you can build a normal hydro plant.

This isn't a bad restriction BTW. I remember I used to be able to build the Hoover Dam in any city in Civ 2, but it was absolutely useless unless it's in a city on a river.

[phooey73]

Cool. Guess I've got the perfect site then.

And I'll be finishing the iron works there just as I'm landing the Plastics Tech...

[SorvinoBackhand]

Do you get different amounts of power from the
1 Coal Plant
2 Hydro Plant
3 Nuclear Plant

or do they all top off in the same way?

[marvinkosh]

All power plants give the same benefits, they just require different things to work. Coal and nuclear each have their downsides, hydro is only available to cities next to fresh water.

[Nacht]

I think it's annoying that once you've build a hydro plant the coal plant keeps appearing in the build menu, since there's really no reason to built one anymore.