[GS] Have you avoided Global Warming?

[MaryKB]

So far I'm finding it's really impossible to stop it, and I'm always getting those ice caps melting, lol. Part of it I think is I'm still learning all these new ways of playing, and I'm still not completely understanding how it works. I do feel you sort of get help for it really late (Carbon Recapture), and damage is already done.

In my game I'm playing now, I haven't built a single power plant, but I'm still generating lots of CO2. I'm playing as England and I'm Suzerain of Cardiff, which is really helping me! If you're not familiar, they give your cities 2 power for every Harbor building, which is really nice So anyway, I'm well powered, but I'm not making a lot of pollution. I don't chop anything either.

I'm still getting quite a bit, I guess that's from my units? I've got about half a dozen Battleships, and a few Infantry, and a couple Bombers, but that's mostly it. Do your units really make so much CO2? Is it just from your ones that use Coal and Oil? I'm not getting a lot of information from my climate reports, just that I'm about the second worst polluter in my game, but I'm not really sure what I'm doing.

My world's already in Stage 3 of climate change, and I've built most of my Flood Barriers, so I'm mostly protected. But still, I feel like catastrophic damage happens so fast, you know?

But also it's not really so bad, in my first game my world got all the way through on Climate Change, and it wasn't so bad. Yes I lost a couple wonders (lol!), but once those 3rd level tiles became submerged, it seems like that was it. I was expecting something worse, like I remember in Civilization 2 you'd eventually have everything turning to desert, I'm a little disappointed the world's not being truly ruined by climate change, just a little limited flooding of some coast spots.

What are your experiences so far?

 

[ggmoyang]

The only option would be wiping out all AI before the industrialization starts. Which would be quite hard on higher difficulty especially with wall buff in GS.

And yes, you get CO2 from unit maintenance resource consumption too.

 

[WillowBrook]

In my first game, I prioritized science on king, so I was well ahead of other civs. I was able to switch to mostly renewables for power by the time other civs were putting out much CO2, and once I was able to recapture carbon, I focused on that everywhere I wasn't working on my science victory. I was actually able to reduce the world carbon level a bit after the first sea level rise, delaying the second stage by decades. At least, the predicted time was extended - my exoplanet expedition landed soon after.

I agree the effects of global warming are a little underwhelming.

Also, I take the CO2 from units to be an abstraction of all transportation-related pollution.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

I haven't had problems with global warming, playing on disaster levels 2 and 3. But the only things I really do is run a couple ironclads, and lay a bit of rail. I haven't really felt it was worthwhile to make a powerplant.

 

[Yzman]

I'm actually trying to create pollution and don't have any right now. I have a coal power plant, but it still shows I have no emissions. It is powering a factory right now.

I'm wondering, is it because I have Cardiff so they are actually giving me all the power I need so I am not burning my own? That is annoying. I am actually trying to get sea levels to rise. But its still early so I guess I need to focus on

- creating units that use coal and oil?
- Do railroads contribute? They don't mention that they do but they do take a coal to make sooo maybe?
- Build lots of buildings that need coal / oil

 

[Tech Osen]

Did it once in a Maori game and I finished that with s cultural victory at stage one. But since you're also dependant on the actions of the AI I tend not to bother with it in general. Get those barriers up and don't look back.
I feel the polution from military units is way too high.

 

[Dux1]

Related to climate, does anyone know if the various power plant options still cause pollution if the city no longer requires them? For example, if you have a city being powered by coal, but then you build a hydroelectric dam, does the coal power plant still produce pollution even though its power is no longer needed? Is the pollution a set amount per power plant, or is it proportional the amount of resource that is being used?

 

[Vandlys]

Depends on what you count as "ever". Are we allowed to win before it happened? Then yes, twice or thrice. Maori culture victory was easy in my game, I had a religious victory (by accident) as my first game as Poland in turn 79 (quick speed).

I must admit that now, as soon as I reach factories, I start beelining for the flood barrier tech (electronics). It's ridiculous, all because I experienced that when the flooding starts to happen, the production can't keep up with the floods. Ten turns before the barrier is done. Seven turns before the water rises again. Seven turns later; oh the barrier now takes 29 turns to be done, and the water rises in 15 turns. And so on and so forth. It's ridiculous.

 

[GoodSarmatian]

So far I'm finding it's really impossible to stop it, and I'm always getting those ice caps melting, lol. Part of it I think is I'm still learning all these new ways of playing, and I'm still not completely understanding how it works. I do feel you sort of get help for it really late (Carbon Recapture), and damage is already done.

There's no way to completely prevent it as long as there are other civs, but you can reduce your own contributions by switching to nuclear and renewables and building as few coal and oil consuming units as possible.
Synthetic Technocracy also helps.

But also it's not really so bad, in my first game my world got all the way through on Climate Change, and it wasn't so bad. Yes I lost a couple wonders (lol!), but once those 3rd level tiles became submerged, it seems like that was it. I was expecting something worse, like I remember in Civilization 2 you'd eventually have everything turning to desert, I'm a little disappointed the world's not being truly ruined by climate change, just a little limited flooding of some coast spots.

I also found it a bit disappointing, but I've only seen stage 3. Maybe the storms, floods and droughts will get really bad later.

I'm actually trying to create pollution and don't have any right now. I have a coal power plant, but it still shows I have no emissions. It is powering a factory right now.

I'm wondering, is it because I have Cardiff so they are actually giving me all the power I need so I am not burning my own? That is annoying. I am actually trying to get sea levels to rise. But its still early so I guess I need to focus on

Related to climate, does anyone know if the various power plant options still cause pollution if the city no longer requires them? For example, if you have a city being powered by coal, but then you build a hydroelectric dam, does the coal power plant still produce pollution even though its power is no longer needed? Is the pollution a set amount per power plant, or is it proportional the amount of resource that is being used?

I'm pretty sure CO2 emissions are caused by resource consumption rather than the existence of power plants. Every clean source of power in range will reduce the emissions from the plant.
Railroads are the only thing I'm unsure about, but they don't use up coal every turn. If they contribute at all, their impact would be miniscule.

 

[DrJambo]

Preventing the CO2 rising seems almost impossible. Once it goes, it goes up really fast, so you (or the AI most likely on the harder difficulty levels) will have zero opportunity to utilise alternative power until it's already too late.

 

[Arent11]

Just ignore it.

 

[Uberfrog]

It's a shame they label which coastal tiles will get flooded, as it means I studiously avoid building anything important there thanks to my ancient people's psychic powers. I think they should make global warming slower to progress, but more serious at the final stages, with highly damaging storms occurring much more frequently. And don't tell us which tiles will flood!

 

[blackcatatonic]

It's only really been an issue on one of my first four GS games. That was an island map as Phoenicia. I had great fun playing a sort of "whack-a-mole" mini game trying to get all my flood barriers up. I avoided tiles being permanently submerged but only just.

In every other game I've either won too early or not had much coast to speak of. But I've never actually seen it being completely averted.

It's a shame they label which coastal tiles will get flooded, as it means I studiously avoid building anything important there thanks to my ancient people's psychic powers. I think they should make global warming slower to progress, but more serious at the final stages, with highly damaging storms occurring much more frequently. And don't tell us which tiles will flood!

I like that they tell you which tiles will flood but I think it should only be revealed late in the game, perhaps with the tech that unlocks the flood barriers. That would be a more realistic reflection of how it actually works: we've learnt that it's a problem, and how to mitigate it, just as the problem develops.

 

[Lord Lakely]

Yeah, I ignore Global Warming. Beeline computers, build cheap flood barriers everywhere before sea levels rise, done. You can now build Coal Power Plants everywhere for basically no downsides. Easy.

Another excellent game mechanic, courtesy of Firaxis Inc.

 

[Tech Osen]

Just got the Toward Carbon Neutrality achievement. But that's just running the project 10 times, it didn’t save the world. So I settled a new one to devistate!

 

[Tech Osen]

I'm pretty sure CO2 emissions are caused by resource consumption rather than the existence of power plants. Every clean source of power in range will reduce the emissions from the plant.
Railroads are the only thing I'm unsure about, but they don't use up coal every turn. If they contribute at all, their impact would be miniscule

They contribute on construction. If you build a lot of them it adds up.

 

[Hans Castorp]

I've been wondering about railroad contributions as well. There have been a couple of games where I have very few units, little coal/oil power generation, but a lot of railways, and that has produced a lot of CO2. I lack time/ patience/ inclination to try systematically testing such things, but it would be interesting if anyone did figure out the precise levels of output for all these CO2 sources.

I'm a bit curious about the flood-barrier issue, though, as I haven't found that to be a particular problem, save with late-settled cities on low-lying islands. I've always managed to have these well in hand by the time sea levels start to rise.

 

[Tech Osen]

It's a shame they label which coastal tiles will get flooded, as it means I studiously avoid building anything important there thanks to my ancient people's psychic powers.

The core problem is of course that you can never make it comparable to RL because in game you know it's coming from turn 1. With that in mind they could have chosen for maybe a bit more gradial but much harsher consequences. As it is it's only a handful of coast tiles that are at risk. Desertification should be a thing. Just tie it to the slider if there too many people who would rather do without. There needs to be a reason to avoid the process and just having to build barriers isn't enough.

 

[NorthernPalmyra]

not yet I do tend to favour getting renewable energy sources over fossil fuels (note: does not apply to weaponry of atomic era)

 

[NukeAJS]

I feel like the effects of climate change should be more drastic. At the same time, the amount of CO2 needed to go to the next level should be increased.