Upon creating an account, your initial task is to select a location on the map. It's crucial to note that this choice is permanent; there won't be any opportunity to expand or alter your chosen tile. Choose wisely.
The map consists of a hexagonal grid comprising 331 tiles, visualized on Community > Map. The map can be considered as an island with rivers flowing from inside to the coast. The south of the map is considered to be at the equator, while the north is close to the north pole.
Each tile offers a specific assortment of resources and location specific climate risks. The six natural resources can be categorized into renewable and fossil fuel types:
Renewable Resources
Note: In the following subsections, the concept of "locations" is used to explain how wind/hydro potential works. Players do not see the specific locations of the facilities.
Solar Potential
The solar potential is expressed in Watts per square meter (W/m²), indicating the maximum irradiance achievable at this latitude. The higher this maximum irradiance, the greater the power production of photovoltaic (PV) and concentrated solar power (CSP) plants. See solar power generation for more information.
Wind Potential
Wind potential is a percentage value that represents the suitability of each tile for installing wind facilities (windmills, onshore, and offshore wind turbines). The initial wind facility is always placed in the most optimal location, with the highest wind speed multiplier and therefore the highest capacity factor. However, as players build more wind facilities, the wind potential in new locations decreases, resulting in a lower wind speed multiplier and lower capacity factors for each subsequent facility. This decrease happens more rapidly for tiles with lower wind potential.
The capacity factor of a wind facility is the ratio of the actual power generated by the facility to the maximum power that could be generated if the facility operated at full capacity all the time.
The following table illustrates the capacity factors of a wind facility based on different wind potentials (columns) and the number of facilities built (rows):
| Wind potential | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0% | 20% | 40% | 60% | 80% | 100% | |
| 0 | 47% | 52% | 52% | 52% | 52% | 52% |
| 2 | 20% | 46% | 50% | 51% | 52% | 52% |
| 4 | 10% | 34% | 45% | 49% | 50% | 51% |
| 6 | 7% | 24% | 39% | 45% | 48% | 50% |
| 8 | 5% | 18% | 31% | 40% | 45% | 48% |
| 10 | 4% | 14% | 26% | 35% | 42% | 45% |
| 12 | 3% | 11% | 21% | 30% | 37% | 42% |
| 14 | 3% | 10% | 18% | 26% | 33% | 39% |
| 16 | 2% | 8% | 15% | 23% | 30% | 36% |
| 18 | 2% | 7% | 13% | 20% | 27% | 32% |
| 20 | 2% | 6% | 12% | 18% | 24% | 29% |
For more information about the power generation of wind facilities, refer to Wind Power Generation.
Hydro Potential
Hydro potential is expressed as a percentage and indicates how suitable each tile is for the installation of hydro facilities (watermills, small and large dams). The first facility is built in the most accessible location, keeping costs low. As more hydro facilities are constructed, the investment and operational costs increase, modeling the difficulty to build an do maintenance in less suitable locations. This increase is more pronounced for tiles with low hydro potential.
Note that pumped hydro facilities are not affected by hydro potential.
The following table shows the cost multipliers applied to hydro facilities based on different hydro potentials (columns) and the number of facilities built (rows):
| Hydro potential | ||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 0% | 20% | 40% | 60% | 80% | 100% | |
| 0 | 8.0 | 2.2 | 1.4 | 1.2 | 1.1 | 1.0 |
| 1 | 55 | 6.0 | 2.6 | 1.7 | 1.4 | 1.2 |
| 2 | 99+ | 18 | 5.3 | 2.8 | 2.0 | 1.6 |
| 3 | 99+ | 60 | 12 | 4.9 | 3.0 | 2.2 |
| 4 | 99+ | 99+ | 27 | 9.0 | 4.7 | 3.1 |
| 5 | 99+ | 99+ | 62 | 17 | 7.7 | 4.6 |
| 6 | 99+ | 99+ | 99+ | 33 | 13 | 6.9 |
| 7 | 99+ | 99+ | 99+ | 63 | 22 | 10.6 |
The formula for the price of the nth instance of facility i is:
-
\(p_{i,n} = p_{i,base} \times pm(hp, n_i)\)
With \(p_{i,base}\) being the base price of the facility i, and \(pm(hp, n_i)\) the price multiplier as a function of the hydro potential \(hp\) and the number of installed facilities \(n_i\) (see table above).
Similarly, the operation and maintenance cost of the nth instance of facility i is:
- \(omc_{i,n} = omc_{i,base} \times pm(hp, n_i)\)
For more information about the power generation of hydro facilities, refer to Hydropower Generation.
General Notes
- For both wind and hydro facilities, when a facility is dismantled or decommissioned, its location is freed, making it available for a new facility with the same potential.
- When a facility is built, the optimal location is always chosen first, reflecting the best potential for energy production or cost efficiency.
Fossil Fuels
- Coal, Gas, and Uranium: These indicate the quantity of each resource stored underground on a specific tile. Extraction facilities allow you to extract these resources. For detailed procedures, consult the extraction facilities section.
Climate Risks
Each tile has a specific climate risk score, which indicates the likelihood and severity of climate-related events (higher means higher risks). For example, heatwaves will be more frequent in tiles near the equator, while cold waves will be more common in polar regions. For more information, refer to the section on Climate Events for more information.