On playing my first game of Gathering Storm to the late game I very much enjoyed the challenge of the climate change mechanics. However, after playing a game with the goal of diplomatic victory and therefore focusing much more on climate change mitigation and carbon capture, I became disappointed with the simplicity of the climate change system.
I’m sure others have offered criticisms and made suggestions, but I wanted to write down and share my thoughts. I have (many) more written down, but these three additions are quite simple and intuitive, would make the climate change simulation feel more authentic, and would make the late game just a bit more interesting.
1. Forests and rainforests hold Green House Gases (GHGs) - Forestation and afforestation therefore become additional mechanisms by which the player may have some control of climate change progression. In particular, planting trees as a means to slow climate change before the future era when direct air capture is researched. This would be a useful strategy when competing in the climate diplomatic competition, but additional benefits would be needed. I suggest that at each new stage of climate change, the difference between your GHG sequestration and contribution yields diplomatic favor, and the addition of a diplomatic vote for “Cap and trade” which would make each unit of GHG cost a small amount of gold when produced, but planting a forest or rainforest produces that same amount of gold per unit of GHG.
2. Desertification - Deserts expand as climate change progresses. This can be functionally the same as the system for sinking tiles with rising sea levels, but affecting tiles adjacent to large deserts rather than oceans. This would include the protective mechanism, with a “tree barrier” instead of sea barrier.
3. Arctic warming – Arctic tiles become grassland and snow tiles become arctic. Because this will usually only be beneficial to players, I don’t think the warning system that is used for rising sea levels is necessary. Most, or even all, tiles at the 2 or 3 rows along the arctic-snow border may shift. The number of rows may depend on the disaster intensity and the GHG level. More than new trade routes, this adds a serious beneficial effect of climate change, and therefore motivation for some players to use climate change as a strategy. If there is concern that this unbalances the competition against equatorial civilizations, perhaps this should be an optional selection, but I’d like to try it.
I have pages more written in suggestions, including some more detail about afforestation, but also many other sources and sinks of GHGs. Once I got started, I got thorough.
In general, I think Gathering Storm’s depiction of climate change is much too simplistic, as if coal and oil are the only problems and wind and solar are the only solutions, and I had a lot of fun imagining how a detailed picture of the problem and potential solutions could really enrich the mid and late game. For example, geoengineering, vegetarianism, biofuels, and population management as mitigations to climate change. But also, there could be fun representations of other forms of much-earlier man-made changes to the earth, like farmland soil degradation and the productions of biological, industrial and plastic wastes. These could contribute to the early and mid-gameplay, where GHGs largely only affect the late-game.
If you’re reading this and are interested, let me know and I’ll post the rest of my thoughts. Also, if you know of any other discussions on this topic that you’d recommend, please do. I’d love to hear other thoughts on it.
I’m sure others have offered criticisms and made suggestions, but I wanted to write down and share my thoughts. I have (many) more written down, but these three additions are quite simple and intuitive, would make the climate change simulation feel more authentic, and would make the late game just a bit more interesting.
1. Forests and rainforests hold Green House Gases (GHGs) - Forestation and afforestation therefore become additional mechanisms by which the player may have some control of climate change progression. In particular, planting trees as a means to slow climate change before the future era when direct air capture is researched. This would be a useful strategy when competing in the climate diplomatic competition, but additional benefits would be needed. I suggest that at each new stage of climate change, the difference between your GHG sequestration and contribution yields diplomatic favor, and the addition of a diplomatic vote for “Cap and trade” which would make each unit of GHG cost a small amount of gold when produced, but planting a forest or rainforest produces that same amount of gold per unit of GHG.
2. Desertification - Deserts expand as climate change progresses. This can be functionally the same as the system for sinking tiles with rising sea levels, but affecting tiles adjacent to large deserts rather than oceans. This would include the protective mechanism, with a “tree barrier” instead of sea barrier.
3. Arctic warming – Arctic tiles become grassland and snow tiles become arctic. Because this will usually only be beneficial to players, I don’t think the warning system that is used for rising sea levels is necessary. Most, or even all, tiles at the 2 or 3 rows along the arctic-snow border may shift. The number of rows may depend on the disaster intensity and the GHG level. More than new trade routes, this adds a serious beneficial effect of climate change, and therefore motivation for some players to use climate change as a strategy. If there is concern that this unbalances the competition against equatorial civilizations, perhaps this should be an optional selection, but I’d like to try it.
I have pages more written in suggestions, including some more detail about afforestation, but also many other sources and sinks of GHGs. Once I got started, I got thorough.
In general, I think Gathering Storm’s depiction of climate change is much too simplistic, as if coal and oil are the only problems and wind and solar are the only solutions, and I had a lot of fun imagining how a detailed picture of the problem and potential solutions could really enrich the mid and late game. For example, geoengineering, vegetarianism, biofuels, and population management as mitigations to climate change. But also, there could be fun representations of other forms of much-earlier man-made changes to the earth, like farmland soil degradation and the productions of biological, industrial and plastic wastes. These could contribute to the early and mid-gameplay, where GHGs largely only affect the late-game.
If you’re reading this and are interested, let me know and I’ll post the rest of my thoughts. Also, if you know of any other discussions on this topic that you’d recommend, please do. I’d love to hear other thoughts on it.
