Re: [Freeciv-Dev] Global warming effects

[Jeff Mallatt <jjm@xxxxxxxxxxxx>]

At 1999/03/22 08:54 , you wrote:
>Just played a longer game with a friend of mine.
>
>It seemed to us that the effects of global warming are very biting.
>Maybe it was the computer players (5 AIs) that where causing it...
>
>But I played Civ2 a lot and there was never that much effect.

I agree!  I'm just finishing a solo game in which I always kept my
pollution cleaned-up, but the AIs did not.  I suffered *three* bouts of
global warming in a dozen turns.  My entire empire was reduced to
jungle/swamp/desert, and all my cities were starving (-15 food really
shrinks a city in a hurry).

>Do AIs already react on global warmings?
>
>If not: is it possible to just ignore the AI's pollution meanwhile?
>
>Otherwise the game stops being playable at some point if there 
>are more AIs than human players...

In the wake of my catastrophe, I had a few ideas:

1. As a local defense, Settlers/Engineers could build "Dikes" on squares,
which would prevent global warming from changing so-equipped squares from
forest/plains/desert/grassland into jungle/swamp.  I haven't thought of a
defense for the forest/plains/grassland into desert effect.

2. A global defense might be nice -- one that directly counters the effects
of polluted squares lying around (like orbiting sun-screens for the polar
caps, or maybe the "Greenpeace" wonder, which makes any give pile of
pollution less warming).

3. Inflict the consequences of global warming more on those who are doing
the polluting (not *entirely* on them -- there'd still be a global
component).  I realize that this is unrealistic (it's not *global*
warming), but I think it may be a good thing for the balance of game play.
I've looked at the code, and this seems relatively easy to implement.


jjm