Polar Regions

[Justy]

Does anyone know if the Polar regions of Civ IV will be accessible? I missed that when they switched from 2 to 3. There's a good amount of gameplay possibilities in those regions. I liked builing those little bottom or top of the world villages. Polar science stations would be a nice idea. They could either be worked into a city with an arctic tile or created like a colony. Then there is also the possibility of using the poles for airflight or shipping to cut down travel time which has never been allowed but should be.

 

[Naokaukodem]

Then there is also the possibility of using the poles for airflight or shipping to cut down travel time which has never been allowed but should be.

I don't think it will be possible. Polar regions will be a line that can't be crossed.

But will we be able to build anything on it, i don't know.

 

[Pablicosta]

I dont see why we shouldnt be able to build on the Polar regions, but if you do I think you should suffer a pop/culture limit or handicap, and possibly a science boost in that city(s). I think ships should also suffer a movement handicap when moving arround the Polar regions, to indicate Iceberg risks. Maybe you could occasionaly get a message saying "Supply ship for NorthPoleCity has struck and iceberg/gone missing, the people of the city are suffering a fod shortage"-you now suffer from less/no productivity, science etc.

 

[The Last Conformist]

Polar towns in CivII were pretty messed up. I hope they won't return.

 

[Pablicosta]

Maybe Fireaxis will have learnt from their mistakes by now and do it right?

 

[Urederra]

As far I could see on the E3 video about Civ IV, the polar caps didn't seem to be accessible. In the global 3D view I could see big chucks of ice, more or less triangular in shape and they are over there to get the feeling of a spherical map, but completely inaccesible. Just ornamental, to complete the global sphere, if you know what I mean.

But I might be wrong.

 

[Own]

On this subject, in civ3 do the polar ice caps do anything? In the editor you can check them on or off, but you can also check "allow y wrapping" on or off, so it doesn't not allow y wrapping. What does it do?

 

[Pablicosta]

Urederra, its a shame if you're right there, I'd love to be able to play up on the Ice Caps...Could bring a new dimension to Global Wamring post Nuke too.

 

[The Last Conformist]

On this subject, in civ3 do the polar ice caps do anything? In the editor you can check them on or off, but you can also check "allow y wrapping" on or off, so it doesn't not allow y wrapping. What does it do?

It prevents there from being land and cities on the top and bottom rows. If you've ever played a custom map without polar caps and land reaching the horizontal edges, you know why that is a good thing.

 

[RandomInsanity]

it was cool to be able to rail road them and get units across the globe quickly

 

[kitsquad]

hehe what terrible advantages it could unleash! imagine building bases up there so you can have your bombers stationed there near a piece of land! It's better to just make them inaccessible.

 

[Avayaman]

oil in the polar caps?

 

[Ivan the Kulak]

I would like to see at least small colonies and military bases for the polar caps. Furs are one luxury you could find there, also oil would be a distinct possibility. You should be able to build military bases too. Food should have to be shipped in (actually, everything would have to be shipped in), so whatever you had there would not be of a significant size.

 

[dc82]

i mean as a whole, 'cept for a few instances, throughout history, no one really went thru the polar areas - until recently it was too cold, too difficult to go thru. only in the past century has its importance really come up, since it's easier sending a missile btw the us/ussr north thru the north pole as opposed to thru the east/west. plus newer technology has allowed military and scientists to more "practically" explore or somewut settle in these regions. but as of yet there still hasn't been any major cities up or down there. 'cept for santa's workshop village.

 

[Ivan the Kulak]

Err... the Eskimos and various Siberian natives were in the polar regions for a very long time. There were also fur trading outposts in these areas for centuries. It should be possible to build colonies there in the early industrial age, but nothing big, like oil/mining towns 'til you get to the modern age.

 

[dc82]

were they in the north/south polar caps though? (honestly asking) i mean i knew they were close to it, off and around siberia, alaska, n.canada, etc... but i dunno if they ever ventured to teh areas civ wud define as the polar ice caps.

 

[The Last Conformist]

Antarctica was, of course, completely uninhabited until modern times.

People have long lived at very high northen latitudes, but never on the actual pack ice surrounding the pole (moving blocks of floating ice doesn't lend themselves to settlements), nor would hunting parties etc normally venture far out onto the pack ice.

I can't see how the ability to colonize the high-latitude tundra areas in CivIII doesn't constitute a decent simulation of the possibilities of polar colonization.

 

[Invisible Rhino]

Antarctica should be inhabitable....the Artic should melt completely if there is too much global warming.

I loved arctic cities in civ2

 

[Ivan the Kulak]

It wouldn't make sense to live on an actual ice pack, however, there can implicitly be land under both caps in civ, it is a different world after all.

Antarctica never got colonized because of the way in which human colonization spread throughout the world. The southern regions are somewhat isolated from the rest of the world, and most ancient immigration took place in the Northern Hemisphere. However, Antarctica has plenty of wildlife, and could no doubt support some kind of primitive population there. If it had been more accessible there would be a greater diversity of natural wildlife there as well.

 

[The Last Conformist]

Antarctica had as much wildlife as any other high latitude place. It mostly got killed off by the glaciations of the last dozen-odd million years.