In this step, you are going to power the different areas of your city. If you don't know how to use the toolcircle, please read the step 1 - the toolcircle tutorial first.
Image 2-1: OpenCity power toolcircle
On the main toolcircle, click on the yellow button with a thunder sign inside. The OpenCity power toolcircle will show up as in the Image 2-1.
There are 4 buttons: the blue back button that you've already seen in the step 1 and 3 other buttons. There are 2 kinds of power plant in OpenCity: the coal power plant and the nuclear power plant. The last button is the electric line button.
Image 2-2 : Wrong place of a building
In the power toolcircle, click on the yellow button with the chimney icon inside. You are now ready to build a coal power plant.
A building such as the coal power plant need a big area to build. You can not place it everywhere. And you have to choose a flat area. If the chosen area doesn't suit, when you hold the left mouse button down, a red halo will surround the building as in the Image 2-2.
If the area doesn't fit, try another area. If the area is suitable for the coal power plant, a green halo surrounds the building and you can place the building there when you release the mouse button. In case you don't what to build the building, hold the left mouse button and click the right mouse button at the same time. This action cancels most toolcircle commands.
Image 2-3 : Right place of a building
In the Image 2-3, we've placed the coal power plant in the North of the city. But you can place it somewhere else if you'd like to.
By the way, the Image 2-3 seems smaller than other images. It's normal because we can zoom in and out in OpenCity freely. We've made a zoomed out version of the city in order to show a better view of the situation.
Now you have a coal power plant built far away from the city center. But how can you power the different areas of your city ? The answer is: the power lines.
In the power toolcircle, the yellow button which is near the blue back button is the power line button. It's highlighted in the Image 8 below. Open the toolcircle by clicking the right mouse button anywhere on the city map then choose the power line button.
Image 2-4 : OpenCity power lines
Now connect your power plant to the industrial area by building the power lines as in the Image 2-4. When the industrial area is powered, the other areas which are 1 square far away across the roads will also be powered. You don't need to connect them to the coal power plant.
Currently, OpenCity doesn't let you build the power lines across the roads. We're aware of the problem and we'll try to resolve this in the future.
If you have done everything right so far, you should see something like the thumbnail showed in Image 2-5. Click on it for a full size version of the screenshot.
In the step 3, we are going to describe the blue main status bar at the bottom of the screen. You can also return to the step 1 to learn how to master the toolcircle.