Electrifying
It’s time to get ready for an electrifying expansion. This update was a wild ride internally, with multiple delays and unexpected complexities, but finally, we’re ready to share the details with you. The ultimate intention was always to introduce electric locomotives and an alternative way of managing fuel. Moreover, craftsmen and tradesmen will require electricity in their daily lives, adding another layer of management with power poles. This will influence settlement designs if you choose to play with the electricity requirement. Structures requiring electricity will be optional and disabled in saves made before v.1.1.0. It can still be turned on using the console, but it will require some management to make old maps workable. This means that there are no save-breaking changes. You will be able to build power plants and electric trains, even with electricity requirements disabled.
Let's dive into what is new in this experimental. Here is the changelog:
Main Features
- Added electricity system grid.
- Added Coal Plant.
- Added Wind Turbine.
- Added Offshore Wind Turbine.
- Added High Voltage Power Pole.
- Added Low Voltage Power Pole.
- Added Substation.
- Added ET10 locomotive.
- Added ET20 locomotive.
- Added ET20 wagon.
- Added electric rails.
- Added electricity newspaper entries.
- Added train battery logic.
- Added couriers protect per filter slider.
- Added distribution center's ability to support connecting industries.
- Added distribution center input and output filters with protect sliders.
- Added couriers throughput tooltips support section to show how much help is being provided.
- Added more information in the wiki.
- Added electricity problem.
- Added happiness debuff for residences when no power is provided.
- Added productivity debuff for production facilities when no power is provided.
- Added new sounds.
- Improved optional conditions UI.
- Made residences power consumption based on inhabitants.
- Made industrial structures power consumption based on efficiency.
- Made service structures power consumption based on if service is being provided.
- Made industrial structures efficiency based on sum of power consumption efficiency.
- Increased tier 2 goods wagons speed limits to 100 km/h.
- Increased Jet10 locomotive speed values.
- Increased Jet20 locomotive speed values.
Plans For Experimental
- Fixing bugs
- Balancing
- Adding most requested features
- Adding new tender wagons
You can view the full changelog in the game.
Electricity
Let's start with details on how electricity will work. Coal power plants and wind turbines will produce power that can then be transferred throughout the map using high-voltage power poles. This will create a power grid showing production and consumption. There is no limit to how many power grids you can have. For structures to use electricity, it will need to be converted to low-voltage using substations. From there on, electricity can be transferred using low-voltage power poles to where it is needed. Low-voltage power poles should have limited range, but that is not yet in the game. Further testing with all of you will determine if it needs to be included.
Power Poles
Drag-building power poles and connections are all automatic and distance based. It is quite enjoyable to build power poles and see how they find their path through obstacles.
Electric Trains
Once you build high-voltage power poles near rails, they will become electrified, showing overhead power lines. This will be much faster than upgrading each line individually and allowing electric trains to get the needed charge. Locomotives will also have internal batteries to allow up to an hour of travel without an electric charge. This will allow you to go to places where there are no eelectric rails or keep running in power outages.
Distribution Center
At first, distribution centers were made only for the sake of connecting multiple industries together. With the courier update, they felt lacking, even with the added internal couriers. Now two main additions will make them very useful again. First, distribution centers will get filters per input and output so that you will be able to control exactly which goods go in and out. Secondly, unused distribution center couriers will be able to support connecting industries by lending some workers to them.
Courier
Courier shack and station also had some love with the addition of protect sliders per filter. This is in case you need to keep some types of goods and do not want to build multiple structures.
There is still much work to be done. At long last, with electricity, Sweet Transit is what I have envisioned from the start. While the game is not perfect and has flaws, I am very proud to have reached this point together with all of you. As always, please share your thoughts by leaving feedback on Discord or Steam.
