release notes · Jul 7, 2026

Grid Town v0.0.2 — Release Notes

The biggest update since Grid Town became playable: a difficulty overhaul, a new art pass, and a reworked build flow. Changes by area below.

Difficulty & balance

Wind rebalanced — it now follows a realistic daily curve that sags into the evening peak, at much lower output. It's bulk clean energy, not a win button.
Wake losses — turbines packed together cut each other's output, so farms have to be spread out.
Siting matters — every cell has sun and wind quality (shown in the placement preview), and nuclear needs adjacent water or runs derated.
Maintenance economy — every plant costs ongoing upkeep for as long as it stands, so overbuilding steadily drains cash. This replaces the old escalating build-price mechanic.
Diminishing tax — the first dozen homes pay near full rate, then income tapers, so a big grid has to be efficient, not just big.
Gas is a bridge, not a crutch — pollution disperses slowly, so a short gas bridge is survivable, but sustained gas races the emissions cap.
Electrification creep — each home's demand rises over time, so a grid you "finished" early falls behind.
Electrification pays — homes now pay for half of that extra consumption, so a growing town's bills rise with its appetite.
Late-game death spiral fixed — wire upkeep's sprawl multiplier now caps at 2×, and the large-town tax floor is higher. A well-run big grid reaches a tense steady state instead of inevitable bankruptcy.

Town trust rises and falls with how reliably homes are powered, and scales your tax income up or down.
Homes move out — those left dark too long accumulate grievance and eventually leave town.
Mass blackouts are now a flagged crisis: grievance spikes and trust collapses at double speed.
Cash Flow graph — the control room now charts revenue against running costs with a live net-income figure.

Relaxed mode is now winnable — the Sustainable City goal scales to the smaller town that pace actually builds.
Nuclear costs less, making it a more reachable late-game clean-baseload anchor.

Full cel-shaded art pass inspired by Breath of the Wild — warm/cool shading, aerial haze, painterly ground, layered trees, and drifting clouds.
Redesigned buildings — houses with real variety and hand-crafted power assets.

Default navigate cursor — you now roam and hover to inspect, and only enter build mode when you pick a source (press 1–5 or click the build guide). Esc or right-click drops back to navigating.
The build guide collapses to a reopenable 🔧 tab instead of disappearing.
Upkeep shown before you build — the placement quote now includes a plant's ongoing cost.
Upkeep breakdown — the control room itemizes running costs into wires / plants / fuel and flags the dominant drain, so you can always see where the money is going.
Clearer build rules — you can only build on open ground (water, houses, and roads are blocked, and the ghost turns red).

These release notes are written by Claude, based on direction from Trevor Hinkle.