Pollution and airbases

[sethos]

I posted this topic in another forum, but it seems very important to me. I was astonished to hear that the following fact was unknown at apolyton's:
Airbase fields prevent from pollution. Exception: the city is nuked.
It's known in German fora (for example, Civilization Webring Forum).

I use CIV2, version 2.42.

 

[duke o' york]

Oh man!
That just makes airbases even more powerful than they already are! Presumably the construction of an airbase on polluted land will not remove pollution already there but this is good news and I'd never heard of it before!

 

[starlifter]

Airbase fields prevent from pollution. Exception: the city is nuked.

Are you sure the folks at Apolyton didn't know? They seem pretty sharp.

Airfields and ocean will prevent the formation of a pollution skull (due to RP & PP) that would have formed on an unairfielded land terrain tile. The city's square will not be polluted, either. This means if a city has only water and airfields in its city radius, it will produce no skulls, despite how high the pollution icons must be (yellow trianges).

In addition to the nuke, the terrain can be edited to allow a skull. Another thing, on the same subject... the nukes will not destroy adjacent airfields.... airfields survive.

Further, partial airfielding will reduce the "odds" of a skull, due to the "cancellation" of a skull that was destined for the airfield tile.

 

[Sodak]

Originally posted by starlifter
Are you sure the folks at Apolyton didn't know? They seem pretty sharp.

At the Apolyton CivLab, a city with airbased terrain was nuked - skulls showed up just as they normally do. I don't think anybody was testing the standard pollution from population and shield production, tho. Maybe it would take too many turns to test...

 

[Marlos]

Originally posted by starlifter
This means if a city has only water and airfields in its city radius, it will produce no skulls, despite how high the pollution icons must be (yellow triangles).

Do you mean that the chances of pollution (skulls) appearing near a city are solely a function of the number of yellow triangles shown in the city window? Is the probability of pollution calculated for the civ as a whole?

Say, for example, I have a "dot city", one that is on a single tile of land with no other land in the 20-square radius. Does that mean that I NEVER have to build mass transit or recycling center improvements?

Alternatively, if I wanted no pollution to appear in a land-based city, I could build airbases in every land square? Of course, this would make if awfully difficult to get an airplane out of the city!

 

[Sodak]

Originally posted by Marlos
... Of course, this would make if awfully difficult to get an airplane out of the city!

But very easy to pick off incoming missiles.

"Sarge, cruise missile coming in!"
"Okay, private. What would you like on your pizza?"
"Sarge, a cruise missile is heading our way!"
"Yeah, yeah. We'll send some riflemen out to shoot it up."

 

[Dark Ascendant]

Originally posted by Sodak


"Sarge, cruise missile coming in!"
"Okay, private. What would you like on your pizza?"
"Sarge, a cruise missile is heading our way!"
"Yeah, yeah. We'll send some riflemen out to shoot it up."

LOL!

 

[starlifter]

Say, for example, I have a "dot city", one that is on a single tile of land with no other land in the 20-square radius. Does that mean that I NEVER have to build mass transit or recycling center improvements?

Absolutely. You do not need any pollution control in a spinner (spinner = city surrounded by 20 ocean tiles in it's city radius).... you will never get a skull .

Alternatively, if I wanted no pollution to appear in a land-based city, I could build airbases in every land square? Of course, this would make if awfully difficult to get an airplane out of the city.

Correct on both counts. For the Human, that is (AI does not play by the same rules for pollution and air units ).

Do you mean that the chances of pollution (skulls) appearing near a city are solely a function of the number of yellow triangles shown in the city window? Is the probability of pollution calculated for the civ as a whole?

Yes to Q1 (well, there are other factors too, but it is proportional, oddswise), and no to Q2. The civ as a whole has no effect on the chance of a skull occurring as a result of PP or RP (Population Pollution icons or Resource pollution icons.... the yellow triangles) in a city status window.



Here is more Pollution info.

 

[Dark Ascendant]

I visited that link, Starlifter. Very interesting, This answers all my questions about pollution.

 

[duke o' york]

Originally posted by Sodak

At the Apolyton CivLab, a city with airbased terrain was nuked - skulls showed up just as they normally do. I don't think anybody was testing the standard pollution from population and shield production, tho. Maybe it would take too many turns to test...

Not necessarily. You would only need to take a pre-saved game (HoF one would be good, continuing play after the SS arrival) with some airbases, finish air-basing (is that a verb? ) all the rest of the terrain and sell off the improvements that reduce pollution. With a factory but no mass transit or solar plants (having the Hoover Dam will obviously affect this slightly) then you'll accumulate a few triangles. Just leave it to go with all the cities on Capitalisation and then see if any pollution appears around that city.

 

[starlifter]

FWIW, I've tested the pollution stuff quite a bit 3 years ago, and some last year too. I used varying combinations of water and airfields. The percentages of pollution worked out pretty well, based on "unprotected" land.

I also did reference tests over many turns with the full FT researched, and with FT00x (see my Poll thread for why), and every turn the skull will appear on solid land with no water, skulls, airfields, as predicted. Leaving 2 open squares results in pollution about 1 in 10 turns, for instance. You have to mop up the skulls each turn, to keep the odds the same, which is slightly tedious. But you can run a full set of tests in an hour if you do them simultaneously .

 

[Sodak]

Last night I went back to the Apolyton thread. Shade had continued his tests and verified that airbases prevent pollution from non-nuke sources.

It makes sense, as someone point out - When editing a scenario, you can toggle between options, but can't have both on the terrain.

 

[sethos]

@Sodak
Ramses II. is my nick at Apolyton's.
(Ramses II or, like the English say, Ramesses, is the son of Sethos, XIX Dynasty.
In all other fora I'M sethos.

 

[KingWilly]

After reading all this, it appears that airfields could be one of the most important aspects of the game. I never really use a lot of airfields, but now I'll give them another thought.

 

[Ren]

Originally posted by Marlos
Of course, this would make if awfully difficult to get an airplane out of the city!

Next time you play, have a look at the square radius of a city. You will notice that you only need to leave 1 square un-airbased (assuming there is no overlap from other cities).

 

[starlifter]

It makes sense, as someone point out - When editing a scenario, you can toggle between options, but can't have both on the terrain.

If I understand your reference is to pollution and airbases, then that is not correct. You can use the option "Change terrain at cursor" to create both a skull and an airfield on any land tile that is not occupied by a city... this method is a cheat mode function, btw.

 

[Sodak]

Originally posted by sethos
@Sodak
Ramses II. is my nick at Apolyton's.

I figured it was you.