No to deserts!

[Styrman]

I was wondering, if there is any way to limit those utterly useless tiles being created when starting a new came and loading a new map? Even choosing a cold map type does not help anything. It is also ridiculous to have a tundra and a desert next to each other. :/

I though I could change the CIV4ClimateInfo file but I fail to understand the contents there. I though I could change the following line: <iDesertPercentChange>#</iDesertPercentChange> but the numerical value for a cold map type is 10, while a temperate map has a value of 0?
Am I looking at the right place?

 

[Hentooth]

I totally agree with you! I seem to always start with a massive desert round me and Im sick to death of it.

I enjoyed creating or altering maps in Civ 3 with no desert and I too would love to know how to do it with Civ 4!

 

[McBierle]

in cold it has -10 not 10.
I just tried an put in -99, no desert at all; but also very few plains.
And as there is no direct tag to plains, i think those are linked somehow to desert....

of course you could also change desert, so ot has one hammer, and you can build mines or something on it

 

[Styrman]

Sorry, it was my fault. The value is -10 indeed.
Well, I suppose that I could combine these two by having fewer desert tiles and giving them some value.

 

[Nero Would]

As far as I know, if you eliminate desert you will also have to do without floodplains (which only form on desert plots). You could, of course compensate by changing floodplains so they can form on other types of land, or by increasing the food yield of some other type of land.

 

[Venger]

The inability to do ANYTHING on deserts is somewhat goofy - sure, you have the idal dunes of the Sahara, but then you have irrigated Cotton fields in the Mojave desert... orange groves in Phoenix.

Go figure...

Venger

 

[Master Kodama]

Realistically, there should be two different types of desert, representing the difference between the types of regions which Venger has pointed out. I've thought this should be the case for some time, since playing on Earth maps in Civ3 -- cities in the middle of the Sahara don't make sense, so you shouldn't be able to build cities or irrigate on "Sand Dunes" type desert, but with only one type of desert this also eliminates the ability to irrigate in more arable land at the edges of the Sahara and in the American Southwest, etc. Heck, I'm currenly living in Southern California, and there's tons of desert here (actually, we have like 8 distinct climate types spread across the state), but a lot of it (not including Death Valley ) has been converted to grazing land for cattle.

 

[Dom Pedro II]

Well, you could always add a Saharan sand dune desert terrain to be added in along with a slightly more useful one