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Author Topic:   ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS...

dawgchild posted 04-16-99 09:49 PM ET
okay i'd like to know what you guys do about the ecological damage. i REALLY hate polar caps melting so i try to avoid this. but the only way i can think of is not to build the habitation dome but this prevents further growth!!! what do you guys do? so far i'm just playing in the easy level and i use mainly forests. another thing is that i couldn't see any increase in my energy output when i put the tidal harness in a fungus square or even on the geothermal shallows!!! i'm confused... help!!!
dbrodale posted 04-16-99 11:26 PM ET
Polar melting is the result of cumulative ecological damage - that is, not just what you do, but what *all* factions do.
So, your faction may be "safe for the environment" but what about the others? Usu. cap melting is difficult to avoid, unless you have poinded the AI factions back into the Stone Age. Generally, the question you must face as a faction leader is "Now that the caps are melting, what can I do to save my people?"
One approach is to accept the incoming tides and build pressure domes. However, if you are as attached to things as I tend to be, the strategy to take is to terraform endangered areas and hope to shore up as much as you can before the seas wash everything away. Note that terraforming costs are reduced for endangered areas, so it would seem that the designers of SMAC sought to encourage this approach.
Other than that, launching the solar shade (and increasing it, if needed) can wasilt stem rising sea levels and, in fact, increase available land masses.
Let me reiterate that the situation you describe is almost unavoidable, given the tendency of AI factions (yes, even Deirdre the Green) not to care about the environment - for whatever reason, they seem to enjoy the UN resolution to melt the caps despite the havoc it wreaks on their factions!
Should you wish to delay this situation from the outset, I would suggest playing on generated maps with large land masses and weak erosive forces.
Answer your question?
don
dbrodale posted 04-16-99 11:28 PM ET
"poinded" should be "pounded"
I have no idea where "wasilt" came from - I must have been sleep-typing.
dawgchild posted 04-17-99 02:45 AM ET
heheheh... thanks a lot don. the polar ice melting question was answered.
the only thing i want to know now is that how come the energy output in my sea fungus squares doesn't change(increase) whenever i put a tidal harness on top of it? ...and my sea colony by the geothermal shallows seem to be producing the same output as the rest of my other normal sea colonies(no extra energy). is it because of the fungus squares?
dawgchild posted 04-17-99 03:39 PM ET
HELLO..... any answers to my question? thanks in advance.
Plato90s posted 04-17-99 04:12 PM ET
You can't improve on the output of a fungus square with anything. Fungus is just fungus.
Rivers, altitude, solar collectors, etc... make no difference at all.
dawgchild posted 04-18-99 03:48 AM ET
oh okay. thanks... i just thought that it would be like forests.
Koshko posted 04-18-99 11:30 PM ET
Polar Ice Caps Melting? I've won multiple times and I've never experienced this.
S_Carton_Esq posted 04-20-99 04:18 PM ET
I have seen it happend due to the eco-damage of AI factions, but in my experience the eco-damage is more the result of atrocities and mineral output or terraforming (the AI never seems to develop it's bases enough for these to be a serrious problem). In one game I played, Chairman Yang decided to turn into a nuclear madman. I think he got a planet buster before anyone else, so he thought to himself "Hey, why not use it?". Of course, then everyone except me (UOP) declared permanant vendetta on him, so I guess he thought "Well, what have I got to lose by using them again?". He ended up using planet busters about 10 times against varrious factions (but never against me, I'm happy to say) and at that point he was causing unreal amounts of ecodamage in all of his scores and scores of bases and making me launch a solar shade every 20 turns (he was always voting against the proposal, too; even though he had the most to lose by rising sea levels). At this point I decided that enough was enough and interupted my program of peacefull research and development in order to wipe out his misbegotten followers with my arsenal of highly advanced weaponry. Sure enough, as soon as I captured one of his bases the eco-damage went down to zero, and once the Chairman was safely locked in the highest of the white towers of University Base the world was never troubled by global warming again.
Johnny V posted 04-21-99 08:36 AM ET
I got the ploar cap warning, but I'm puzzled. I've pounded every faction except the University back into the stone age. The only base I have with some ecodamage is the one working on Ascent to trascendence and I'm not dropping it mineral output. Is there someway I can see where the eco damage is coming from, and if I stop it will I get a new message telling me things are okay. Of course there are solar flairs so I can't convene the council (I'm sure I have the votes for anything I want). How do I us terraforming to help, if I teraform up will it destroy improvements? I don't want to drown! Of course the base building Ascent is on the coast :-(
Oleg Leschoff posted 04-21-99 12:08 PM ET
Ah, where are those old good days when I have had a base producing 100+ minerals without ecodamage? There was only forests around... Beautiful. They've killed this pleasure by corrupting the ecodamage formula in patch 3.0, and they didn't even document the new one. Bad. Maybe anyone knows it?
dawgchild posted 04-25-99 04:18 PM ET
johny v... terraforming up wouldn't destroy anything. you should be able to protect your cities from drowning by creating pressure domes... the only concern i have about caps melting is that all my hard work (terrain improvements e.g mag tubes, forests) goes down the ocean bottom.
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Author	Topic: ENVIRONMENTAL CONCERNS...
dawgchild	posted 04-16-99 09:49 PM ET okay i'd like to know what you guys do about the ecological damage. i REALLY hate polar caps melting so i try to avoid this. but the only way i can think of is not to build the habitation dome but this prevents further growth!!! what do you guys do? so far i'm just playing in the easy level and i use mainly forests. another thing is that i couldn't see any increase in my energy output when i put the tidal harness in a fungus square or even on the geothermal shallows!!! i'm confused... help!!!
dbrodale	posted 04-16-99 11:26 PM ET Polar melting is the result of cumulative ecological damage - that is, not just what you do, but what all factions do. So, your faction may be "safe for the environment" but what about the others? Usu. cap melting is difficult to avoid, unless you have poinded the AI factions back into the Stone Age. Generally, the question you must face as a faction leader is "Now that the caps are melting, what can I do to save my people?" One approach is to accept the incoming tides and build pressure domes. However, if you are as attached to things as I tend to be, the strategy to take is to terraform endangered areas and hope to shore up as much as you can before the seas wash everything away. Note that terraforming costs are reduced for endangered areas, so it would seem that the designers of SMAC sought to encourage this approach. Other than that, launching the solar shade (and increasing it, if needed) can wasilt stem rising sea levels and, in fact, increase available land masses. Let me reiterate that the situation you describe is almost unavoidable, given the tendency of AI factions (yes, even Deirdre the Green) not to care about the environment - for whatever reason, they seem to enjoy the UN resolution to melt the caps despite the havoc it wreaks on their factions! Should you wish to delay this situation from the outset, I would suggest playing on generated maps with large land masses and weak erosive forces. Answer your question? don
dbrodale	posted 04-16-99 11:28 PM ET "poinded" should be "pounded" I have no idea where "wasilt" came from - I must have been sleep-typing.
dawgchild	posted 04-17-99 02:45 AM ET heheheh... thanks a lot don. the polar ice melting question was answered. the only thing i want to know now is that how come the energy output in my sea fungus squares doesn't change(increase) whenever i put a tidal harness on top of it? ...and my sea colony by the geothermal shallows seem to be producing the same output as the rest of my other normal sea colonies(no extra energy). is it because of the fungus squares?
dawgchild	posted 04-17-99 03:39 PM ET HELLO..... any answers to my question? thanks in advance.
Plato90s	posted 04-17-99 04:12 PM ET You can't improve on the output of a fungus square with anything. Fungus is just fungus. Rivers, altitude, solar collectors, etc... make no difference at all.
dawgchild	posted 04-18-99 03:48 AM ET oh okay. thanks... i just thought that it would be like forests.
Koshko	posted 04-18-99 11:30 PM ET Polar Ice Caps Melting? I've won multiple times and I've never experienced this.
S_Carton_Esq	posted 04-20-99 04:18 PM ET I have seen it happend due to the eco-damage of AI factions, but in my experience the eco-damage is more the result of atrocities and mineral output or terraforming (the AI never seems to develop it's bases enough for these to be a serrious problem). In one game I played, Chairman Yang decided to turn into a nuclear madman. I think he got a planet buster before anyone else, so he thought to himself "Hey, why not use it?". Of course, then everyone except me (UOP) declared permanant vendetta on him, so I guess he thought "Well, what have I got to lose by using them again?". He ended up using planet busters about 10 times against varrious factions (but never against me, I'm happy to say) and at that point he was causing unreal amounts of ecodamage in all of his scores and scores of bases and making me launch a solar shade every 20 turns (he was always voting against the proposal, too; even though he had the most to lose by rising sea levels). At this point I decided that enough was enough and interupted my program of peacefull research and development in order to wipe out his misbegotten followers with my arsenal of highly advanced weaponry. Sure enough, as soon as I captured one of his bases the eco-damage went down to zero, and once the Chairman was safely locked in the highest of the white towers of University Base the world was never troubled by global warming again.
Johnny V	posted 04-21-99 08:36 AM ET I got the ploar cap warning, but I'm puzzled. I've pounded every faction except the University back into the stone age. The only base I have with some ecodamage is the one working on Ascent to trascendence and I'm not dropping it mineral output. Is there someway I can see where the eco damage is coming from, and if I stop it will I get a new message telling me things are okay. Of course there are solar flairs so I can't convene the council (I'm sure I have the votes for anything I want). How do I us terraforming to help, if I teraform up will it destroy improvements? I don't want to drown! Of course the base building Ascent is on the coast :-(
Oleg Leschoff	posted 04-21-99 12:08 PM ET Ah, where are those old good days when I have had a base producing 100+ minerals without ecodamage? There was only forests around... Beautiful. They've killed this pleasure by corrupting the ecodamage formula in patch 3.0, and they didn't even document the new one. Bad. Maybe anyone knows it?
dawgchild	posted 04-25-99 04:18 PM ET johny v... terraforming up wouldn't destroy anything. you should be able to protect your cities from drowning by creating pressure domes... the only concern i have about caps melting is that all my hard work (terrain improvements e.g mag tubes, forests) goes down the ocean bottom.