Disabling pollution?

[Greizer85]

Yes. I don't want to see a skull on my map ever again (unless I use nukes ofc). With the clunky interface in this game, and lots of things for workers to do (farmland upgrade) and them eating godawful amounts of food each turn, it's too much of a chore in this day and age. So, how do I do it? It's done in most scenarios, so it must be possible; I tried googling and the search feature on this site, but nothing worthwile came up.

While we're at it, disabling barbs from huts would be good too. It's kind of over the top how it spawns 8 horsemen in 3500 bc... The only sensible options are to reload or to never pop huts at all. This is less important than the pollution thing, but these are my two main annoyances that currently prevent me from playing another game.

*Note that I don't need moral lessons about 'cheating', only solid, concrete advise. If I get any pangs of conscience from misusing pixels, I'll be sure to get back to you when your plane from Darfur lands & before you head to the Chinese industrial wastelands...

 

[Valka D'Ur]

My advice about pollution? Don't build factories unless you really, really need them. Research or steal the anti-pollution techs as fast as possible, and build the applicable improvements as fast as possible. Keep settlers/engineers at hand to swoop down on any pollution that does crop up.

(no, I don't know how to disable it, either)

As for barbarians... either play without them (you can do that, with a 50-pt penalty to your final score), or save immediately before popping a hut. If you like what you get, keep it. If you don't, just quit, reload, and repeat. It might take awhile, though, since the game gets a notion that you really NEED a city exactly in a really DUMB place, or a Phalanx is a terrific unit to get waaay after you're past Gunpowder. Sometimes barbarians are handy, though, for sources of unsupported fighting units, so have some diplomats handy.

(no, I don't know any other way to play without barbarians)

 

[Jokemaster]

You will need to use a Scenario game to get the option to disable pollution. You enter the game, toggle Cheat Mode, click on ''Scenario Parameters'' (or something like that, should be the second lowest option in the dropdown menu) In the following option, click on ''Edit Special Rules'' You will see an option to eliminate pollution. Click on that option ONCE to set the marker to ''1'' that will mean ''true'' and eliminate pollution. Afterwards, save your scenario and replay it. (NOTE: I haven't figured out the way to alleviate the ''no wonders can be built'' problem with Scenarios. Maybe someone that is more knowledgeable than I with scenario editing will help you on this problem.)
But on another note, with Hoover/Mass Transit, you should have zero problems with a fair chunk of your cities, and Solar Plant/Recycling Plant can take care of the rest, depending on how much shields your city produces (I personally never build a single factory without getting Hoover... only exceptions are OCC and when I lose to Hoover (almost never happens anyway) And rush building them as you get the option/need to do so is not that big of a nuisance... especially considering Engineers will be able to do other stuff meanwhile. And hey, in the meanwhile they can still clean pollution!

As for the barbs... no luck. Only way I can think of is to try to wipe out all huts using the same trick I mentioned earlier for pollution (on the first Scenario Parameters screen you will get the option to eliminate all villages, IIRC) You will also need to play with the settings ''villages only'' if you also do not ant any uprisings (at the cost of 50 points in your score) Not worth it in my opinion seeing that ''goody huts'' are not called that way for nothing. But again, dealing with barbs is not that hard in regular levels (and 8 barbs from a hut in 3500 BC? never seen that, not even with Barbarian Wrath (but I have to admit I haven't played much with Barb Wrath) Early on you only get one barb horse, and they are easy to kill if your explorer is four-legged because you should often get the first attack.)

 

[Prof. Garfield]

You can also avoid barbs from huts by building a city close to the hut before popping it. This also suppresses advanced tribes, however.

(NOTE: I haven't figured out the way to alleviate the ''no wonders can be built'' problem with Scenarios. Maybe someone that is more knowledgeable than I with scenario editing will help you on this problem.)

I think that is a result of using the "count wonders as objectives" flag.

 

[Greizer85]

Thank for the answers, guys (and girls, if any). Earlier, I gave Google one last shot and found the same advice that you gave, Jokemaster. So far, I've not noticed any ill effects from my little trick concerning wonders. We'll see if I did it right and no pollution appears. I have King Richard's Crusade built in the Urals now, so if it's still there, it should soon manifest itself.

The barb thing I can live with (and yes, 8 horsemen was an exaggeration; I just don't want barbs messing with my infrastructure one bit, which is why I play with Villages Only). Although it would be nice to have more "NONE"-units, now that you mention it. The micromanagement is kind of overwhelming, though, with Freights, Spies and Diplomats to worry about, in addition to normal units... This being a laptop, I can only move units diagonally with the mouse GoTo-command, which is a real PITA to say the least. At least now I have one annoying thing less to worry about! The game itself is superb, much better than I remembered, although even Tic-Tac-Toe is superior to Civ V imo.

 

[Valka D'Ur]

Yep, I'm a girl.

It's really handy to have a diplomat early on, to bribe a couple of barbarians (I hold out for the ones that travel 2 spaces in one turn), since they can explore and fight and you don't need to worry about feeding them. That's why I like to have diplomats doing some of the exploring (in partnership with a nearby fighting unit, for protection).

Regarding your laptop problem: I had the same problem, until I bought an external numeric keypad. They're not expensive, but oh, so handy!

 

[Magic_gorter]

If I'm right you could use the next keys too:
pd dn = southeast
end = southwest
home = northwest
pg up = northeast

 

[killing time]

i cheat-save all the time when im popping huts or about to start a risky venture. its ok though, i mean everyone does it right?

i mean whats the point of playing God if you cant be omnipotent?

yeah pollution is annoying but not if you have at least 1 settler/engineer patrolling each and every city. i just sleep them if theres no more roads or land improvements to do.

but each to his own i guess.

 

[Theov]

Eh maybe I'm stating the obvious, but if you can delete pollution from a scenario or mod, then why isn't it possible to delete it from the default game?

 

[Catfish]

I think that is a result of using the "count wonders as objectives" flag.

You think right.

Eh maybe I'm stating the obvious, but if you can delete pollution from a scenario or mod, then why isn't it possible to delete it from the default game?

Because those scenario parameters are not saved in regular saved games. They're appended to the file when you save as a scenario.

 

[Ali Ardavan]

i cheat-save all the time when im popping huts or about to start a risky venture. its ok though, i mean everyone does it right?

No, not everyone does it. Any player can win with a good hand (obtained via luck or cheating), a good player can win with any hand.

 

[Bestbank Tiger]

One other way you can get rid of pollution: Make the anti-pollution improvements super-cheap to build and maintain. You can hack the rules.txt file so Superhighways only cost one shield and 0 maintenance. Same for Recycling Plant. You can also set those to nil as a tech prerequisite.

 

[timtofly]

The only two buildings you NEED to control polution are the Mass Transit and the Solar Plant. You do not need the Recycling Plant. By the time this comes along, you should be close to the Solar Plant. You may start building Reycling Plants, but switch them for Solar Plants as soon as they come online.

 

[Jokemaster]

The only two buildings you NEED to control polution are the Mass Transit and the Solar Plant. You do not need the Recycling Plant. By the time this comes along, you should be close to the Solar Plant. You may start building Reycling Plants, but switch them for Solar Plants as soon as they come online.

True. But Recycling Plants are cheaper to build (200 shields versus 320, taken from MGE) and to maintain, than Solar Plants. I don't remember the exact number of shields Hoover+Mass Transit+Recycling Plants guarantees without pollution, but I think, IIRC, that the number is 60ish. Enough to completely eliminate pollution for a fair share of cities. (But not all, I admit. Dozens and dozens and dozens of them will be over that, and that's where the Solar Plant comes along)

But please note that I haven't checked for myself if that is true, due to lack of time.

 

[timtofly]

At that point of the game, if you are worried about finances, you are just pinching pennies.

 

[Theov]

or edit that all buildings reduce pollution

 

[Catfish]

Not possible.

 

[Bestbank Tiger]

The only two buildings you NEED to control polution are the Mass Transit and the Solar Plant. You do not need the Recycling Plant. By the time this comes along, you should be close to the Solar Plant. You may start building Reycling Plants, but switch them for Solar Plants as soon as they come online.

Duh, I forgot about that. I went back and checked and with my suggestion pollution would be much lower but still possible.

Only problem is a Solar Plant also boosts factory production. That might be an effect the OP doesn't want since it would skew other parts of the game.

 

[killing time]

No, not everyone does it. Any player can win with a good hand (obtained via luck or cheating), a good player can win with any hand.

lol im sorry i thought i was playing civ2 on my laptop at 1am with a scotch, not competing at the world cyber-games tournament ahahaha

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[Ali Ardavan]

Guilty as charged. It is a game after all and should not be taken too seriously.