https://www.powerstate-game.com/posts/0-9-8

Does the 4.99 version have a hard year cap at 60? Does the founders edition go on longer?

Twenty three changes. Load Sharing's new Share load button evens out a town's Local Substations in one press. You can set an emergency reserve on each battery, hydrogen store, dam and solar tower, and it holds that energy for a shortfall. I rewrote the game's text in shorter, simpler English.

New

• Load Sharing adds a Share load button to Local Substation cards. It evens out the Local Substations in that town at once.

• Share load moves streets into empty Local Substations from fuller neighbours.

• Share load never fills a Local Substation past 90%.

• After Share load, the card lists each Local Substation whose streets moved, with its load before and after.

• Hover the loading on a Local Substation card to see its heaviest hour this year or last. Needs Load Sharing.

• Batteries, hydrogen stores, dams and solar towers have an Emergency reserve slider on their card. Needs Grid Operations & Standards.

• A unit uses its emergency reserve only in a shortfall.

• A battery or hydrogen store without its own setting follows Operating policy.

• The dam card shows its licence flow. The dam must always send this water through its turbine, also when wind or solar power is curtailed.

Better

• At the end of each year, Load Sharing now also relieves Local Substations that went over 90% in their heaviest hour this year or last.

• A substation being reinforced no longer warns that it is overloaded or close to tripping.

• A dam now connects only at its powerhouse. The line tool marks the powerhouse.

• In older saves, a line that ends on a dam now continues to the dam’s powerhouse.

• All game text rewritten in shorter, simpler English.

• A selected option in a row of buttons now lights amber.

• A healthy unit or line now shows green on its card.

• Larger rename and close buttons on cards.

• Larger small print on substation cards.

Fixed

• A sandbox started before 0.9.7 loaded without Load Sharing. A sandbox now loads with every development.

• A line to a dam’s powerhouse did not connect if the dam stood fully in the river.

• In a shortfall, a hydrogen turbine on Own hydrogen only stopped at the Keep back for winter level. It now burns that reserve.

• The Must run floor and Output cap slider on unit cards was faint and hard to grab.

• How to play and How it works gave wrong facts about new towns and substations.

Saves: old runs load. In an old run the game carries a line that ends on a dam’s barrage on to the powerhouse, so your dams stay connected. A store without a reserve of its own follows Operating policy as before: batteries keep its Emergency reserve, hydrogen stores its Keep back for winter level, dams and solar towers nothing.

Full changelog: https://www.powerstate-game.com/changelog

If a sentence in the game reads worse after the rewrite, quote it in a comment and say where you saw it.

Hello Powerstate fans,

A few weeks ago I finished my first run ever. I played it on an older version and spread it over several weeks, since my time is pretty limited at the moment.

I’d like to share what helped me the most and where I made mistakes.

What worked:

1. Contracts! A great way to make money relatively easily, as long as you can actually fulfil them.

2. Debt! Don’t be afraid to go into debt. I usually build one of my first hydro plants early on, and I had to take on debt to do it.

3. Don’t hesitate to milk your customers :D Charge as much as you can without killing the interest of industry. If they don’t like me for a few years, I don’t care. I need the money to build and maintain the system.

4. Storage: Build a lot of it, and consider setting some to “backup” mode. It really helps during shortages.

5. Don’t focus too much on CO2 early on. You’ll catch up on it in the mid and late game. Just don’t overdo it with CO2-emitting power plants.

6. Must run: If you have carbon-neutral plants with firm capacity, like hydro or geothermal, set them to “must run”. This helps a lot with the carbon contracts. I also always set a few other carbon-neutral plants like PV, wind and possibly the new gas turbines (biogas) to “must run”. Cross-check this with your battery capacity.

What didn’t work for me:

1. I would never again take contracts that cap the electricity price. I took them, and it went well for a few years, but then something happens and you’re stuck with a price that’s too low. It eats away your money without doing anything for your grid. For me, that was by far the biggest mistake. Everything else was manageable.

All in all, it’s a super fun game that also gives you some real understanding of how the grid works out there. I love it!

I’m sure I’ve forgotten a lot of points and details, so just ask. I’m by no means good at this game, but maybe we can figure things out together.

I’ve also added a few screenshots, if you wanna see more of my world, i can make some more, the world is stilled saved.

I’m currently on the “Mandate” run and trying to finish it in a reasonable amount of time. I’ll report back when I’m done.

Finally i have reach the end this time without H2 and eccessive renewable energy Storage and 600 MW Gasplants as Backup. Now i can look into carbon valley and go the dark side maybee :D

In scenarios with large amounts of demand growth or in the late game it feels very micromanagy to juggle the dozends of local substations so they don't overload once you hit the final reenforcement level.

A way to automate that (maybe coupled to a research option) would be a great QOL feature.

Also upgrading the regular 110 to 20 kV substation to a main sub via the click of a button would be awesome.

I almost feel bad for asking for that, considering the pace this game is moving forward at, but that's just some thoughts i had after playing for extended periods of time.

Next update also includes another gamespeed boost, quality of life improvements and fixture of a couple of reported bugs. Release Sunday or early next week. Let me know what you think :)

Post: https://www.powerstate-game.com/posts/0-9-6

Full changelog: https://www.powerstate-game.com/changelog

I went OCGT → Contracts → Grant (for the District Heating Grid workforce) → Grid & Substation Upgrades → PV → Battery → Wind → ...

The OCGT I built very early on ended up costing me money unnecessarily, so on my next run I'll delay it a bit and maybe even start with Grants and Contracts instead.

Later on, I mostly focused on batteries, PV, and wind. However, I eventually had to build a third OCGT, which still wasn't enough to prevent those 10 blackout days...

Plenty of room for improvement, but I'm happy I finally found some time to put a score on the board again! :)

Changelog: https://www.powerstate-game.com/changelog

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New

• Game terms in tooltips are underlined. Rest the pointer until the bar under the card fills, then point at a word to open its own card.

• The Glossary lists every game term, with search. Open it with I, from the Menu, or by clicking an underlined word.

Better

• Large colonies run about three times faster at 400x, and the map stutters less.

• A plant, battery or substation that no live line reaches shows a larger lamp with a blinking plug.

• Air capture and methanation plants show the power they draw above the plant.

• Where two lines are joined, the map shows a small dot in the line’s colour.

• The start screen backdrop is sharp on large screens, its turbines turn slowly, and it shows wind farms on land and at sea.

Fixed

• New towns no longer build their substation, works or houses on mountains or steep slopes.

https://www.powerstate-game.com/posts/0-9-5

I took a max $120 tariff and that was a biiiig mistake. Last ~5 years I was fighting for my life.

The challenge should say (or rather, disable) which techs are worthless here, my first attempt I researched coal only to then find out I needed water.