Mass Transit

[Aquilon]

Just playing a game and I just learned Mass Production and opened the Mass Transit improvement. In previous games I've always built it because of how annoying pollution is, but it just occurred to me that in-city pollution doesn't really have an effect until it creates a pollution square. If I had some enginieers running around cleaning it all up I could save myself the 4 upkeep per city. Obviously those engineers could be used for something a bit more... useful, but once I've shipped off my engineers to the next island I typically leave a few behind for pollution control anyways since at that point in the game I don't have any buildings for it anyways. Any thoughts?

 

[Ace]

That will work if you don't have too many cities. But as your empire gets bigger, the pollution will become a constant "pain in the a$$". Eventually, you will get at least one hex of pollution every turn.

Starlifter has a very good thread on pollution, but I don't have a link to it. If you can find it, everything you ever wanted to know about the subject is covered.

 

[Ali Ardavan]

Ace is right. The probability of getting actual pollution goes up as you advance in technology and it eventually gets to a point (after so many future techs) when it becomes a certainty. Mass transits are definitely worth it. At that point in the game you should be getting so much money from trade that its cost should not be an issue.