Boris Gudenuf
Deity
Human Beings and their groups/societies have been modifying the landscape for thousands of years - it's almost the definition of 'human'. Sometimes the modification of the landscape is severe enough to also modify the climate - other times the climate modifies for entirely Un-Human reasons: volcanic eruptions, wind pattern shifts, a lake collapsing on the far side of the planet (that last is my latest discovery from random reading: in about 6200 BCE a huge lake composed of melting glacier water from the receding ice age in Canada, Lake Ojibway, suddenly had part of its containment collapse, releasing hundreds of cubic miles of ice-cold fresh water into the Atlantic Ocean. The resulting changes to Ocean temperature and currents caused most of Europe to become wetter and colder, and that in turn 'pulled' warmer and drier air north from Africa, which in turn caused a sudden and centuries' long drop in rainfall throughout the middle east. Several budding agriculture-based cities or habitation centers were suddenly abandoned (Catal Huyuk probably the best known) for a while, until the climate returned to 'normal'.
Other examples include the Year Without Summer from the Tambora volcanic explosion, which affected Europe and North America on the far side of the world from where the eruption/explosion took place, and, my favorite, the numbers of ancient or medieval ports that are now either under water or separated from the water due to subsidence or silting up of harbors: see Caesaria in Palestine or Scarborough in England.
My archeology professor once showed the class a slide of a goat standing on its hind legs, eating the bark off of a lone tree in Syria, and pointed out that the introduction of domestic goats to wide swaths of the Middle East was one of the reasons why wide swaths of the Middle East have nothing resembling a natural forest any more - that, and burning wood for fuel, for charcoal, using it for building materials, clearing it away to plant olives or grapes or grain...
To get to the point, Civ VI already shows a lot of Human Caused Landscape Modification: just look at a saved map from Turn 1 versus the same map from Turn 300 in any game. Collapse of Civilization from Disaster at the End of Game or Late Game is not really a Game Condition, it is a possibly-inevitable result of playing the game, and probably cannot be modeled in any way to both be 'realistic' (whatever that turns out to be) or in any way satisfying for the gamer.
But, the micro and macro consequences of Human and 'Natural' Activity to landscape and climate can be modeled During the Game, ranging from Coal-Fired Air Pollution in Industrial Era cities to Deforestation caused by domestic animals and people finding Too Many Uses for the natural products around them. We can ferret out those and the actual, historical consequences of them, and the human adaptations to them, without getting into Science Fiction Like forecasts of the results of the Climate Modifications now going on.
Within that framework, designers (and Modders) just have to remember that some historical events have to be 'toned down' to make a game out of it: a Plague that removes 1/3 of your Population in all of your cities, as happened in Europe from the 'Black' Plague in the 14th century, may be realistic but it's really lousy game design! On the other hand, a city on a river mouth that has the river mouth extend a tile due to silting up, and so loses its Harbor: that is realistic and can be Reacted To in game terms: if the technology is available, dredge the harbor, or move your seagoing trade routes to another harbor 'up the coast'.
Population change among cities should be normal, especially after transportation technology makes it relatively easy for people to move.
We should be able in game to recreate the 'Boom' of San Francisco's population when Gold was discovered in 1849, just as the Sack of Rome and resulting population loss is already modeled in the game, every time a city changes hands through direct military action.
Other examples include the Year Without Summer from the Tambora volcanic explosion, which affected Europe and North America on the far side of the world from where the eruption/explosion took place, and, my favorite, the numbers of ancient or medieval ports that are now either under water or separated from the water due to subsidence or silting up of harbors: see Caesaria in Palestine or Scarborough in England.
My archeology professor once showed the class a slide of a goat standing on its hind legs, eating the bark off of a lone tree in Syria, and pointed out that the introduction of domestic goats to wide swaths of the Middle East was one of the reasons why wide swaths of the Middle East have nothing resembling a natural forest any more - that, and burning wood for fuel, for charcoal, using it for building materials, clearing it away to plant olives or grapes or grain...
To get to the point, Civ VI already shows a lot of Human Caused Landscape Modification: just look at a saved map from Turn 1 versus the same map from Turn 300 in any game. Collapse of Civilization from Disaster at the End of Game or Late Game is not really a Game Condition, it is a possibly-inevitable result of playing the game, and probably cannot be modeled in any way to both be 'realistic' (whatever that turns out to be) or in any way satisfying for the gamer.
But, the micro and macro consequences of Human and 'Natural' Activity to landscape and climate can be modeled During the Game, ranging from Coal-Fired Air Pollution in Industrial Era cities to Deforestation caused by domestic animals and people finding Too Many Uses for the natural products around them. We can ferret out those and the actual, historical consequences of them, and the human adaptations to them, without getting into Science Fiction Like forecasts of the results of the Climate Modifications now going on.
Within that framework, designers (and Modders) just have to remember that some historical events have to be 'toned down' to make a game out of it: a Plague that removes 1/3 of your Population in all of your cities, as happened in Europe from the 'Black' Plague in the 14th century, may be realistic but it's really lousy game design! On the other hand, a city on a river mouth that has the river mouth extend a tile due to silting up, and so loses its Harbor: that is realistic and can be Reacted To in game terms: if the technology is available, dredge the harbor, or move your seagoing trade routes to another harbor 'up the coast'.
Population change among cities should be normal, especially after transportation technology makes it relatively easy for people to move.
We should be able in game to recreate the 'Boom' of San Francisco's population when Gold was discovered in 1849, just as the Sack of Rome and resulting population loss is already modeled in the game, every time a city changes hands through direct military action.
