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).