Instead of burning sands, with their ubiquitous infernos, I'd rather simply "Uncomfortably Hot Sands."

The flames prevent movement over the tiles (at least my units, AI doesn't suffer from this) and looks bloody annoying after a while. The animated flame tile isn't that spectacular when it's meant to be spread over several adjoining tiles.

Perhaps a shimmering effect with some light smoke would be good, but I would rather remove the flames entirely from my game.

A) The flames are supposed to appear semi-randomly, for short periods of time I read. Why isn't this happening?

2) How can I remove the flames entirely, so that I can move my units around?

Either sanctify or spring, when cast adjacent, will put out the flames.
Giving your units fire resistance (not easily done, you need combat 4 or 5 to get the magic resistance pre-req.) will allow you to pass without putting it out.
It does in fact affect ai units, but demons and orcs have enough fire resistance innate to pass through, so the most common ai units to see nearby can make it through.

I'm sure someone can tell you how to mod them out entirely, if that is what you are asking, though.

The orc's innate resistance would explain how they didn't seem to be slowed.

However, my scenario contains pre-existing hell terrain and I'd like to keep the burning sands in there, just not in flames.

I'm going to GUESS that if you deleted:
<TerrainBoolean>
<TerrainType>TERRAIN_BURNING_SANDS</TerrainType>
<bTerrain>1</bTerrain>
</TerrainBoolean>
in the flames feature section,
from the Civ4features.xml in the
C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Beyond the Sword\Mods\Fall from Heaven 2 032\Assets\XML\Terrain
folder, it would not spawn. No promises, but it's a good point for experimentation.

I'm going to GUESS that if you deleted:
<TerrainBoolean>
<TerrainType>TERRAIN_BURNING_SANDS</TerrainType>
<bTerrain>1</bTerrain>
</TerrainBoolean>
in the flames feature section,
from the Civ4features.xml in the
C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Beyond the Sword\Mods\Fall from Heaven 2 032\Assets\XML\Terrain
folder, it would not spawn. No promises, but it's a good point for experimentation.

I'm thinking that this would remove the burning sands entirely from the game, not the flames effect.

No, burning sands is a terrain with it's own listing. Each feature has that secion of TerrainBoolean, and for most of them it is blank, with that section I listed being under the 'flames' in the feature xml.

Thank you.
Its something that I'll have to try when I get back from holidays.
The only problem I can see would be that as soon as I install the latest and greatest patch and or version of FfH, I'll have the damn bloody flames again.

I switched to Hyborem in my last game and had 6 burning sand tiles around my city. Makes the city quite useless :/
Later on I put out the flames with a waterI Adept and was hoping to be able to upgrade burning sand just like you can upgrade desert to plains with waterI, but it didn't work.

Is their a way to "upgrade" burning sands terrain to a plains like terrain?
...except using a combination of lifeI waterI spells?!
Using life magic as hyborem seems kinda silly to me.

I think that the burning sands should just be a barren desert.
Keep the red look of it and all, but retard the flames.
Perhaps have a low chance of flames appearing per turn, say 2-5% for 1-12 turns.
This way they aren't as bloody useless and annoying, but still fun.

Is their a way to "upgrade" burning sands terrain to a plains like terrain?
...except using a combination of lifeI waterI spells?!
Using life magic as hyborem seems kinda silly to me.
Yes. Sanctify first (Life 1) then Spring (Water 1). You'll usually need to do it in the same turn, or the plot will revert to Burning Sands the next turn. (Not always, but if you're Hyborem, whatever counter that controls hell terrain is set high, and the plot will revert. A regular evil civ, the plot might stay normal for a turn or two before changing.)

I switched to Hyborem in my last game and had 6 burning sand tiles around my city. Makes the city quite useless :/
Later on I put out the flames with a waterI Adept and was hoping to be able to upgrade burning sand just like you can upgrade desert to plains with waterI, but it didn't work.

Is their a way to "upgrade" burning sands terrain to a plains like terrain?
...except using a combination of lifeI waterI spells?!
Using life magic as hyborem seems kinda silly to me.

Bah. No hyborem city is useless so long as you are running a civic that gives you unlimited specialists...

Yeah burning sands is not useless for Hyborem, a bit of strategically placed fire can completely block an enemy invasion while leaving your units free to pass through.

Yeah burning sands is not useless for Hyborem, a bit of strategically placed fire can completely block an enemy invasion while leaving your units free to pass through.
I've both used and been stumped by Burning Sands. Whe Dis in on them, only Orcs or stacks with Adepts with Water 1 can attack. Which is both bad and good. Good if your Infernal, Bad if your not.

I just dont like the way the fire eats up your graphics engine. I would like them to stay the same without all the flames...

Ya, the graphics are a problem, I agree.