Pollution. The bane of nature.

Civ 3 REALLY goes overboard with this one. I have over 20, count em, TWENTY workers in my realm who do nothing but clean pollution each turn, and its like fighting The Hydra. I clean one square, three more pop up next turn.

It's getting incredibly irritating. Despite spending 90% of my turn coordinating where to clean (this stupid AUTOMATE AI wont clean, it will jsut make needless improvements anywhere it happens to stumble), I'm getting global warming.

Recycling is far off. It's in the modern age, and I'm finishing up the Industrial Age. Should I go rip down all those bloody coal plants!? I've got better things to do than play virtual janitor with my spare time!!!

This was bothering me too, but I noticed they do clean it up. Very quickly. It's just that, the way the turns work in this, you don't notice it as much. But trust me, they send a huge squad to clean it up. It helps, too, to have a tight compact and railroaded Civ core.

Also, press SHIFT-A instead of just A. That will keep them from changing improvements that are already there. Otherwise you get an idiot that keeps switching from irrigation to mining.

aaaaa

Has anyone figured out what causes the AI civs to decide whether or not to clean up? In my first true game, on the standard world map, I was micromanaging my cleaners (which was okay, as it made sure I had a reason to stop and think during the turns where nothing else was going on), and my friendly neighbors, the French and the Russians, were also seeming to do a pretty good job, given how clean their lands were.

However, upon sailing by Australia (where the British were), I was taken aback by the fact that nearly the ENTIRE continent had developed was looked like one solid mass of orange slime. I was revolted...but there really wasn't much I could do. I suppose I COULD have taken out a rite of passage agreement with them and then sent in some workers to clean up for them (which probably would've pissed them off anyway) or I could've broken my peace treaty and invaded them (which would've started a world war at this point).

I wish there was a diplomatic action that suggested or demanded that a certain civilization clean up their pollution...after all, as I was experiencing, global warming was EVERYONE's concern. Perhaps this could be one of a few REAL functions for the UN...bringing suggestions for enforced requirements that everyone else can vote on or something along those lines....

Yeah some diplomacy on that point WOULD be a good addition to the game... are you sure they had THAT much pollution- Mean it makes it impossible to work the square at all- or maybe (since it was australia) it was just the desert they were letting go to pot as it produced not much anyway...

Good idea, Southpaw Samaurai. Of course, then every time the Civ got a new leader he could completely dissolve and ignore these internationally-agreed upon pacts (let's just call them "Kyoto Protocols" for argument's sake ;) ) and then there would still be pollution.

And yes, SHIFT-P does work, but only when there existing pollution - automated workers will clean up pollution whe it needs to be cleaned up, and do other things when it doesnt. In my experience Pollution cleanup is a high priority, and if you have enough workers there are bound to be a couple that are open when squares get dirty.

I've also noticed that the AI won't clean up after itself all the way. I nuked a few cities once, which produces a ton of polution and the AI cleaned up most of it, but also left a lot. And they left it for a very long time, so I know that I hadn't given them enough time for it.

But I guess they don't ever get tired of cleaning up because I nuke them every time they go to war with me :þ

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I can see it now.

A council of all the leaders come into the Austrailian Office, looking quite grave and all wearing clothespins on their noses.

"Queen Elizabeth, you need to clean up. We can smell your continent all the way up to Greenland. Do it or face the consequences!!"

Seriously, I'm happy to see the AI will clean up. I never used Nuclear Weapons in Civs 1 and 2 because the AI would just let the waste fester and screw up the planet before I could get to it and fix it.