How to save the jungle?

[Der PH]

I don’t like that all the jungle is chopped down so early in the game. In order to preserve some or even most of the jungle until the modern age, I plan to rise the time needed to clear jungle by a factor of at least 10, maybe much more. Another method would be to change the tech needed to clear jungle from iron working to something much later, but this seems a little too radical.
Has anybody tried something similar? If yes, please tell me about your experiences.

 

[AdelineJ]

You removed BUILD_REMOVE_JUNGLE (in CIV4UnitInfos.xml) with worker and than, you create an unit who can remove the jungle and who appear with a tech more future ?

 

[Dancing Hoskuld]

In Rise of Mankind, RoM:A New Dawn and Caveman2Cosmos we added a worthwhile improvement that could be built on the jungle, a Jungle Camp.

 

[isenchine]

I removed the negative yield on food (plenty of food in the jungle, no?).

I added a hammer yield although this is not really justified. It just gives you one more reason not to remove the jungle.

I also put the iGrowth tag to 40 instead of 16. Jungle grows back faster.

I added a cost to remove the jungle (3 gold). I've increased the iTime to 600.

That's it!

 

[vincentz]

I changed the jungle cut to steam power
gave it +1 food, but -1 commerce
made plantations, camps and mines (last with an increased build time) buildable on jungles

I dont think x10 cut will work. It will stall the AI, who doesnt really care about long build times.

The +1 food actually makes me reluctant to cut it down even though it still have negative health.

 

[ls612]

You could remove the Jungle modifiers on surrounding cities. That, while slightly unrealistic, would give less incentive to cut them down.

 

[Der PH]

You removed BUILD_REMOVE_JUNGLE (in CIV4UnitInfos.xml) with worker and than, you create an unit who can remove the jungle and who appear with a tech more future ?

Much easier. Just change the PrereqTech in CIV4BuildInfos.xml for BUILD_REMOVE_JUNGLE from Iron Working to Replaceable Parts or something like that.

 

[Der PH]

I also put the iGrowth tag to 40 instead of 16. Jungle grows back faster.
That's it!

Will work only on tiles not yet filled with other improvements, but is a good idea. I think, I will do that.

 

[Der PH]

I dont think x10 cut will work. It will stall the AI, who doesnt really care about long build times.

That's what I feared. Thanks for the warning.

Thank you all for the replies. There are some good ideas that I will give a try.

 

[Der PH]

OK.
It's not as easy as I thought.

Current achievements:
I managed to remove the negative food yield and to make camps buildable on every jungle tile, even without elephants, and providing +1 food.
So far so good.

Now the problems:
What I want to do next is to restrict resourceless camps to tiles with fresh water. I tried this by activating <bFreshWaterMakesValid>, as it is for farms, but still the camp can be built on every jungle tile. What am I doing wrong?

Second problem: Building mines without the need to chop the jungle.
I added

<FeatureMakesValids>
<FeatureMakesValid>
<FeatureType>FEATURE_JUNGLE</FeatureType>
<bMakesValid>1</bMakesValid>
</FeatureMakesValid>
</FeatureMakesValids>

as I did for camps, but for mines it does not work and I don't understand why.

Any ideas?

 

[Dancing Hoskuld]

The "remove or not" tag is in the buildinfos file in the unit folder.

 

[isenchine]

It might be that the tag <bFreshWaterMakesValid> does not work like that. It is set to 1 for Workshops and for Cottages and I've never seen that they needed fresh water to be built.

But look at the Farm, it has two tags: <bRequiresIrrigation> and <bCarriesIrrigation> set to 1. Try with those.

And as DH said, look at the BuildInfos file in the Units folder and try to remove the tag <FeatureStruct> Jungle for the camp improvement.

 

[platyping]

bFreshWaterMakesValid makes it possible to build Workshops and Cottages in terrains that are not suitable.

Cottages by right are only allowed to be built in Grass/Plains.

Freshwater makes it possible to be built in deserts and tundra

Having both bFreshWaterMakesValid and Jungles simply means:
By right, only buildable in Jungles.
However, tiles with FreshWater also make it possible.

 

[Der PH]

Now everything seems to work as it should.

Thank you all for your help.

In order to avoid bonus resources that can't be exploited until the jungle can be chopped (-> replaceable parts) I banned rice from jungle and now I try to make pigs available with camps additional to pastures. Or is it impossible to have two improvements which provide the same resource?

 

[isenchine]

Or is it impossible to have two improvements which provide the same resource?

!? Never tried! You will tell us!

 

[vincentz]

nope, its possible. and thanks for the idea

edit : uhm, isenchine ninjaed me. BY ALMOST 1 HOUR??!?!?

I'm getting old and slow.

 

[Der PH]

As vincentz already told it is possible.
The only drawback is that the resource becomes available for trade only, when you got animal husbandry, probably due to the <TechCityTrade> tag in CIV4BonusInfos.xml, but this is not a real problem.

Thus everything seems ready for my new jungle experience.

I just started a huge map marathon game with the new rules and when I'm going to finish it in a few weeks I will tell you, how it worked.

Once again thank you all.