Alpha Centauri 2

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri & Alien Crossfire => Modding => Bug/Patch Discussion => Topic started by: Nexii on December 28, 2015, 03:22:26 PM

Title: Tree Farm / Hybrid Forest and ecodamage
Post by: Nexii on December 28, 2015, 03:22:26 PM

Ok so most know, Tree Farm and Hybrid Forest reduce the effects of terraforming ecodamage caused by 50% and 100%.  However this also applies in the case where terraforming ecodamage is negative.  This occurs when a base has many forests which provide -1 each to terraforming ecodamage and few improvements.  So in the situation of base with all forests, building a Tree Farm or Hybrid Forest can actually increase overall ecodamage.  Bug, intended?  Something else?

Title: Re: Tree Farm / Hybrid Forest and ecodamage
Post by: Lord Avalon on December 29, 2015, 11:41:49 PM

I'd say bug. Tree Farms & Hybrid Forests shouldn't reduce the good effect of having lots of trees. So if terraforming ecodamage is negative, then they should have no effect on that.

Title: Re: Tree Farm / Hybrid Forest and ecodamage
Post by: Mart on December 30, 2015, 01:06:44 AM

Negative ecodamage could be understood as "environment healing"
I do not know, how exactly ecodamage works there, if it is cumulative from turn to turn, if yes, then negative values are very much needed for green-minded factions.

Title: Re: Tree Farm / Hybrid Forest and ecodamage
Post by: Nexii on December 30, 2015, 03:49:47 AM

It's not cumulative.  Ecodamage from terraforming at a given base is just on a current basis.

So right now, negative ecodamage from terraforming reduces ecodamage from mineral production as well.  Although typically if you play with 1/2/1 Forests, the ecodamage from working the forest will outweigh the terraforming effect.  It can depend a bit on what mineral divisor you use.

I was leaning more to #3, that ecodamage from terraforming shouldn't go negative.  But these are pretty good arguments for #2.

This would come into play more if terraforming and ecodamage functionality gets expanded.  Right now Forests are hardcoded to be -1, so typically advanced terraforming outweighs their benefit.  It only takes a few roads and a borehole to make the terraforming value positive.  I've kind of felt that Fungus should also have a negative value but it's set at 0.