Annoying forest chopping bug

[screwtype]

I don't know if this one has been covered already, since I'm new to this site. I didn't see it in the known bugs thread.

This is when I chop down a forest to hasten production of something and instead of production hastening it actually reverses! So for example I'm building a Temple and it has 10 turns to go and I chop down a forest to hasten it and now it has 12 turns to go! This happened to me recently when I was building an important wonder, and I ended up getting beaten to it by another Civ by one turn. But it happens a LOT and it's really frustrating.

It appears I only have Version 1.00 of the game, does a later version fix this bug?

Oh - another problem is that if I replant a forest and chop it down to hasten production, it won't hasten production if a forest has already been chopped down in that hex. This didn't happen in Civ III. Is this a bug or not, and does a later version fix it? It *should* be a bug, because goodness knows with the rampant corruption in this game, you need SOME way to try and hasten production a bit in those outlying cities, especially when they're on another continent...

 

[Gray_Lensman]

I don't know if this one has been covered already, since I'm new to this site. I didn't see it in the known bugs thread.

This is when I chop down a forest to hasten production of something and instead of production hastening it actually reverses! So for example I'm building a Temple and it has 10 turns to go and I chop down a forest to hasten it and now it has 12 turns to go! This happened to me recently when I was building an important wonder, and I ended up getting beaten to it by another Civ by one turn. But it happens a LOT and it's really frustrating.

It appears I only have Version 1.00 of the game, does a later version fix this bug?

Oh - another problem is that if I replant a forest and chop it down to hasten production, it won't hasten production if a forest has already been chopped down in that hex. This didn't happen in Civ III. Is this a bug or not, and does a later version fix it? It *should* be a bug, because goodness knows with the rampant corruption in this game, you need SOME way to try and hasten production a bit in those outlying cities, especially when they're on another continent...

Don't know why the first problem happened (12 turns vs 10 turns) unless it somehow changed the total shields per turn being allocated. As for the second problem, replanting forests was deliberately disallowed in Conquests since it was being exploited too much.

 

[screwtype]

Yeah, well, the decreasing production bug happens to me a lot, and also happened when I was playing Civ III as I recall (although I could be wrong about that).

Now that I think of it, it occurs to me that it happens not just when you chop down forests, but also when you disband a unit in a city to try and hasten production. At least, I think it does, I can't remember now as it's a while since I tried to hasten production by that method.

If it only happened occasionally it wouldn't bother me that much, but it really seems to happen a lot.

I thought the other thing (about chopping down forests more than once per hex) might have been a new feature. Thanks for clarifiying that for me - now I won't waste any more time trying to increase production that way!

 

[wilbill]

Never heard of the "increased production cost" problem. But...
You can't use "tainted" shields -- from forest cutting, units disbanded, etc. -- for wonders or small wonders.
And since an early patch of Vanilla, you've only been allowed the shields from cutting a forest once per square.
You really should download and install the latest patches. 1.00 has some serious bugs.

 

[Catt]

You apparently "lose" production because a city laborer was working a 2-shield forest tile before you chopped and is working a 0-shield tile after the chop. If you had enough workers to replant the forest immediately, you'd find that your production (in number of turns) was either the same or improved -- 10 shields were added to your city's production box by the chop (but see below).

Chopping forests will not produce shields in several circusmtances: (1) when the forest is outside the city radius or your cultural border; (2) when the city production is a great or small wonder; or (3) when the forested tile has already been chopped down (yielding 10 shields). You can chop and replant to your heart's content; and you can even chop-replant-chop-replant on the same tile to your heart's content, but you enjoy the 10-shield bonus from chopping only once per tile.

 

[screwtype]

Thanks for the clarification Catt. I'm still not quite convinced this is not a bug though. I think what I'll do next time I play is take careful note of what happens whenever I chop a forest/disband a unit to confirm whether it is a bug or not.

Still I hadn't thought of the possibility I might be chopping down my own production rate! So you could be right it's not a bug. But I need to confirm that for myself.

And you're right, I obviously need to download the latest version. I only thought to check the version a few days ago, and was suprised to see I had version 1.0 as I bought the game just a few weeks ago. I'll probably download the 1.22 patch tonight as it's fairly large and I only have a dial-up connection.

Thanks once again for your help, much appreciated.

 

[philippe]

if im not mistaken if you replant and wait some turns and chop them you get shields back

 

[Sparrow3]

screwtype:
If it is Civ3 v1.00, you may want to download patch 1.29f. Patch 1.22 is for Civ3 - Conquests.

 

[DJMGator13]

I might be mistaken, but if you have Conquest it will automatically patch CivIII to 1.29f (and it includes PTW for free).

BTW in case no one welcomed you to the forums - "Welcome to the Forums"

 

[Grille]

-SNIP-
Chopping forests will not produce shields in several circusmtances: (1) when the forest is outside the city radius or your cultural border; (2) when the city production is a great or small wonder
-SNIP-

(1)
Just to clarify, the city radius here means the (future) 21-tile area, even if there was no cultural expansion yet; so you get the shields if you chop down outside of your cultural borders, but inside of a (future) 21-tile radius - that is, the forest tile must be neutral.
If it's covered by civ A's culture and civ B's worker cuts it down, the shields are wasted (and cannot be regained by replanting/rechopping). The AI sometimes goes chopping in your territory in order to irrigate their lands... you could steal their advantage, too, of course.
(2)
In case of tile overlap between city 'C' and 'D', you can redirect the shields to city 'C' by temporarily changing production to palace, small- or great wonder in city 'D'. This is sometimes a handy chop control.

Here's the entrance to lumberjack's paradise
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=32469
Note the tile overlap priority rules at the end of this thread.
How to keep track on potential tiles to harvest from is also described. At least if you have no special preference for city naming...


On a side note, you could chop/replant/chop... until the end of days in unpatched vanilla (except for wonder construction).

 

[Roi du Culture]

If you were working on a "important wonder", then you don't recieve the shield bonus. The creators were very careful about leaving no loopholes in the rules about wonder production.