how to get rid of buildings

[bigben2011]

In Civ3 you could "sell back" something you had built(i.e. aqueduct, granary) in exchange for gold.
Is there a similar option in 4? Can I simply destroy a building.
The reason I ask is that I built coal plants to power some cities and later built the Three Gorges Damn Wonder. I'd like to now eliminate the increased pollution from the coal burners.

 

[Defiant47]

It is impossible to get rid of buildings in Civ4. The only time they are destroyed is when a city is captured - then all culture-producing buildings (except World Wonders) are destroyed, and the other buildings have a chance to be destroyed (except World Wonders).

As for Coal Plants, the priority sequence is as such:
1) Hydro Dam (which Three Gorges Dam counts as)
2) Nuclear Power Plant
3) Coal Plant

If you have a better building built, then that one is used and the old one is automatically not used (including bad effects from it).

For example, if your city builds a Coal Plant, then you will have power and increased sickness from coal. If your city builds a Nuclear Power Plant, then you stop having increased sickness from coal, since your city won't use the Coal Plant anymore, and instead you'll have a small chance of a nuclear meltdown. If your city then builds a Hydro Dam (or gets power from Three Gorges Dam), then you will receive none of the disadvantages of Coal Plant and Nuclear Power Plant.

This means that if you build a Nuclear Power Plant, there's no reason to build a Coal Plant, since it won't get used anyways.

In your specific case, you don't need to get rid of the Coal Plant anyways. The Three Gorges Dam wonder provides power for the city, so the city no longer uses the Coal Plant, and no longer receives 2 sickness from resources (coal) associated with the Coal Plant.

 

[karadoc]

Defiant47 is correct. There is no easy way to get rid of your coal power plants; but if the city is powered by the three gorge dam then it will not get the coal pollution anyway.

However, here's something that's worth knowing: power always gives +2 unhealthiness. Therefore, although you no longer have the +2 unhealthiness from the coal, you still have +2 unhealthiness from the power itself. (The coal plant on its own gives +4 unhealthiness; 2 from the coal, and 2 from the power itself.)

 

[lymond]

Defiant is correct, but I fail to see the importance of Nuclear Plants in that listing. I've never built one in my years of playing CIV and never will. They come late and have chances of meltdowns.

BigBen - One thing to think about is opportunity cost (which can be a factor of game speed). Coal Plants come quite a bit earlier than Hydro Plants and much earlier than Nuclear Plants, which are a non-entity for me anyway. Also, think about the strategy and what VC you are going for. If going for an early as possible Domination or Conquest - relatively speaking - Coal Plants may be more value and certainly 3GD is likely not something worth building. #GD is a very expensive wonder - one of the most expensive - and unless you have a GE to spare the hammers may not be worth the investments. On the other hand, if this is a wonder you are beelining and have a strong production city on a river and a GE it may be worth bypassing Coal Plants altogether - on that continent only - and hold out for 3GD. 3GD will power every city regardless of whether on river or not - again, same continent only. Or just hold out for Hydro Plants in river cities if health is a major city and don't build 3GD. Regardless, don't build each replacement power plant. Decide which one you want or what is best for your game and stick with it. Otherwise it is a waste of hammers. (oh...and, of course, access to coal would be a factor as well).

Generally, I think Coal Plants are actually the top of the heap simply as you get them sooner. I'd rather get them up in my key production cities asap and deal with the health by other means. You don't have to build them everywhere though.

 

[reddishrecue]

These folks are right, it actually is impossible to "sell back" a building in civ 4. However, theres an opportunity that you could get out of just getting spies and destroy their buildings with a spy like a granary or a library which can be done with spies. Someoen could do this to you, but even then the AI doesn't use the destroy building. Random events can also destroy your buildings like volcanoes or a careless cigar smoker that fired up the theater.

 

[strijder20]

Someoen could do this to you, but even then the AI doesn't use the destroy building. QUOTE]

I once had a building destroyed by a spy.
But it doesn't happen a lot indeed.

 

[Skallagrimson]

Coal plants are a huge reason why I don't like to chop certain BFC trees if I can help it. They absolutely nuke health and every bit of health advantage is crucial in the middle game. I'm also fairly religious about settling on fresh water--there has to be a gigantic reason for me to justify not doing so. And those early game "tests" for temporary -2 unhappies, takes a nanosecond to think about it, yes please! And I try to whop Hanging Gardens. To me it's all about the middle game, when you've got artillery and can field a sophisticated combined arms attack, and pump out units at a fast enough rate. It also takes me that long to get into a military tech lead.

 

[Dhoomstriker]

I'm with lymond: build one type of Power Plant in each City and that's it.

Let's look at some Hammer costs which also show favouritism towards Coal Plants beyond the "they come earlier in the tech tree" argument:
Coal Plant = 150 H
Nuclear Plant = 250 H
Hydro Plant = 200 H

Let's say that you have already built a Coal Plant and want to remove the -2 Unhealthiness by building another building. Well, instead of building one of the other 2 types of Power Plants, but a Heath-providing building, as they're all cheaper:
Aqueduct = +2 Health for 100 H
Hospital = +3 Health for 200 H (same cost as a Hydro Plant but you get 3 Health back instead of 2 Health back and you also get more Healing for your units in that City)
Grocer = 150 H for up to 4 Health AND +25% Gold
Supermarket = 150 H for up to 4 Health AND + 1 Food
Public Transit = 150 H for 1 Health (but 2 Health if you have Oil connected)
Harbour = 80 H for up to 3 Health and +50% Trade Route income for each Trade Route in the City

Really, you want to build one of the Health-providing buildings instead of building a second type of Power Plant. Even the most expensive Health-providing building out of my above list--the Hospital--costs an idencial amount of Hammers as does a Hydro Plant, but relative to building a Hydro Plant for the purpose of replacing a Coal Plant, you can get +1 free Health by building the Hospital instead.

And, if you find that you don't have the relevant tech for the Health buildings, instead of building a ton of 200 H Hydro Plants, turn those 200 H into 200 Gold by building the Wealth build item and then spend that money on increasing your Science Slider so that you CAN unlock a Health-providing building. You can even spend those Hammers on Gold so that you can increase your Science Slider while researching the Genetics tech that much faster, which gives +3 Health in every single City without having to build any buildings anywhere.