Bug report (and questions) about rising waters

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Author Topic:   Bug report (and questions) about rising waters

Aillas posted 03-29-99 09:48 AM ET
In my current figure-out-how-things-work (Talent-level) game, I decided to experiment with melting the ice caps. In general, things went pretty much as predicted, with the waters rising here and there over time, up to a new level. However, I saw a few things that have to be bugs, and some others that might be considered bugs, and wondered if anyone else had seen the same things.
Bugs:
1. The volcano got capped. The unusable magma hole on the top was replaced by a standard moist-rocky square. Huh?
2. I had a base in a square that flooded. No adjacent squares flooded. I had a pressure dome in the base. However, after the flood, the game did not recognize the base as an ocean base -- I couldn't move non-amphibious units in and out, but I also couldn't build sea units (such as the transport or IotD that would let me move normal units in and out).
3. At one base, two non-flooded squares within the base's usable area became unavailable. From the base management screen, they looked browned-out, as if they were in use by a neighboring base. However, there was no neighboring base.
4. I'm pretty sure that, as the elevations of land squares changed, the energy production of those squares was reduced. This makes no sense; the altitude dependence has to do with atmospheric attenuation, not elevation above the water. Raising the seas doesn't reduce the amount of sunlight falling on any given bit of dirt, except those bits that are now under water.
5. The flooding was out of sequence. My lowest-elevation base never actually flooded, while other parts of the map flooded well before the 20 years were up. There didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to what flooded when. Are ENDANGERED squares flooded in random order? I can understand tidal wave damage being randomly distributed, but actual changes in sea level should happen uniformly around the globe.
Questions:
1. Garland Crater flooded. (Actually, that's where the neither-land-nor-sea base bug happened.) This only makes sense if Planet is awfully porous. Was this deliberate?
2. Garland Crater's south rim collapsed. Is this an erosion-from-tidal-waves effect?
3. Lots of above-the-waterline improvements were destroyed. Again, I assume this is a side effect of tidal waves. Deliberate?
4. Many mining platforms and tidal harnesses were submerged below working depth, but were unharmed when I later raised the sea floor in those spots. Was this deliberate? Why weren't they destroyed?
5. Resource/nutrient specials appeared in a number of new water squares, where there had been no land special before. Is the assignment of these random? Does it follow the same grid pattern left over from Civ 2?
6. When you 'raise ocean floor' with sea formers, what increments does it raise in? Is is possible to go around raising the sea floor under those mining platforms and tidal harnesses that will be submerged after the rise? Or will you sometimes get the "can't do that here" message when the square is too shallow to raise, but too deep to survive?
Suggestions:
1. Someone earlier suggested that highlighting all ENDANGERED squares in the map view, either the main map or base local maps, would be tremendously valuable. I agree.

ViVicdi posted 03-29-99 08:46 PM ET
Excellent suggestions! I think, though, the altitude model for solar power could be explained by atmospheric water vapor, in which case meters-above-sea-level is believable. (The game would be terribly unwieldy if the altitude / power model were not straightforward.)
I would also like to add that "Terraform UP / DOWN" be reduced in cost by a factor of 3, and that they raise / lower land 333m at a time. That way you could raise a 2999m to 3000m in 1/3 the time AND save your "endangered" territory without changing its basic layout.
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Author	Topic: Bug report (and questions) about rising waters
Aillas	posted 03-29-99 09:48 AM ET In my current figure-out-how-things-work (Talent-level) game, I decided to experiment with melting the ice caps. In general, things went pretty much as predicted, with the waters rising here and there over time, up to a new level. However, I saw a few things that have to be bugs, and some others that might be considered bugs, and wondered if anyone else had seen the same things. Bugs: 1. The volcano got capped. The unusable magma hole on the top was replaced by a standard moist-rocky square. Huh? 2. I had a base in a square that flooded. No adjacent squares flooded. I had a pressure dome in the base. However, after the flood, the game did not recognize the base as an ocean base -- I couldn't move non-amphibious units in and out, but I also couldn't build sea units (such as the transport or IotD that would let me move normal units in and out). 3. At one base, two non-flooded squares within the base's usable area became unavailable. From the base management screen, they looked browned-out, as if they were in use by a neighboring base. However, there was no neighboring base. 4. I'm pretty sure that, as the elevations of land squares changed, the energy production of those squares was reduced. This makes no sense; the altitude dependence has to do with atmospheric attenuation, not elevation above the water. Raising the seas doesn't reduce the amount of sunlight falling on any given bit of dirt, except those bits that are now under water. 5. The flooding was out of sequence. My lowest-elevation base never actually flooded, while other parts of the map flooded well before the 20 years were up. There didn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to what flooded when. Are ENDANGERED squares flooded in random order? I can understand tidal wave damage being randomly distributed, but actual changes in sea level should happen uniformly around the globe. Questions: 1. Garland Crater flooded. (Actually, that's where the neither-land-nor-sea base bug happened.) This only makes sense if Planet is awfully porous. Was this deliberate? 2. Garland Crater's south rim collapsed. Is this an erosion-from-tidal-waves effect? 3. Lots of above-the-waterline improvements were destroyed. Again, I assume this is a side effect of tidal waves. Deliberate? 4. Many mining platforms and tidal harnesses were submerged below working depth, but were unharmed when I later raised the sea floor in those spots. Was this deliberate? Why weren't they destroyed? 5. Resource/nutrient specials appeared in a number of new water squares, where there had been no land special before. Is the assignment of these random? Does it follow the same grid pattern left over from Civ 2? 6. When you 'raise ocean floor' with sea formers, what increments does it raise in? Is is possible to go around raising the sea floor under those mining platforms and tidal harnesses that will be submerged after the rise? Or will you sometimes get the "can't do that here" message when the square is too shallow to raise, but too deep to survive? Suggestions: 1. Someone earlier suggested that highlighting all ENDANGERED squares in the map view, either the main map or base local maps, would be tremendously valuable. I agree.
ViVicdi	posted 03-29-99 08:46 PM ET Excellent suggestions! I think, though, the altitude model for solar power could be explained by atmospheric water vapor, in which case meters-above-sea-level is believable. (The game would be terribly unwieldy if the altitude / power model were not straightforward.) I would also like to add that "Terraform UP / DOWN" be reduced in cost by a factor of 3, and that they raise / lower land 333m at a time. That way you could raise a 2999m to 3000m in 1/3 the time AND save your "endangered" territory without changing its basic layout.