Quantifying Climate Settings

[NightOnEarth]

When I start a game, what exactly do the different climate settings mean - temperate, tropical, dry, rocky, cold? In general, I suspect tropical-more jungle, dry-more desert, cold-more ice, rocky-more mountains(?), but are these settings quantifiable?

Sea level should be generally understandable, but are there figures for this as well? I have the impression that when the sea level is high I have endless time to expand my empire, while when the sea level is low the enemy is practically at the door.

Moderator Action: Topic seemed worthy of a new thread. Cheers ...lymond

 

[6K Man]

I'm not sure what they mean exactly, but in general:
Temperate = default Civ4 climate
Tropical = more jungle, less tundra/ice
Dry = more desert and plains, less jungle
Rocky = more hills/mountains
Cold = inverse of tropical

I think dry also means less rivers/lakes, but I could be wrong.
"Wet" + Tropical = lots of jungles. I used to think playing as India and rushing IW would be an advantage here, but no... it's still annoying.

 

[Fizz'l]

Sea level should be generally understandable, but are there figures for this as well? I have the impression that when the sea level is high I have endless time to expand my empire, while when the sea level is low the enemy is practically at the door.

I'm not sure about figures, but your impression seems to be the opposite of what I would expect: which is high sea level would result in less space for expansion.

 

[f1rpo]

@NightOnEarth: The game normally aims at 78% sea and also hits that mark pretty accurately. Low sea level decreases the ratio by 8 points, i.e. yields 70% sea (close to the real Earth ratio of ca. 71%); High sea level increases the sea ratio by 6 points. This default behavior mainly applies to Fractal; many of the other scripts have their own base ratio (e.g. 75% for Continents) and may also apply the sea level change differently (e.g. Pangaea adjust only by +/- 5 points) – but, I guess, to a similar effect in terms of crowdedness. Big_and_Small ignores the sea level setting.

As for climate, perhaps the relevant XML file is informative enough: https://github.com/.../CIV4ClimateInfo.xml

 

[Samson]

As for climate, perhaps the relevant XML file is informative enough: https://github.com/.../CIV4ClimateInfo.xml

Interesting. Do you know what direction the latitude changes are? As in does a negative value mean more or less of the terrain?

 

[NightOnEarth]

I'm not sure about figures, but your impression seems to be the opposite of what I would expect: which is high sea level would result in less space for expansion.

Yes, you are right. Stupid me! I got it mixed up.

 

[NightOnEarth]

[... great stuff about sea level]
As for climate, perhaps the relevant XML file is informative enough: https://github.com/.../CIV4ClimateInfo.xml

Thank you very much, f1rpo, this is really great information.

 

[f1rpo]

All the climate settings get applied by this file: CvMapGeneratorUtil.py
fSnowLatitude is 0.7 by default, which means that land Ice will normally appear above an absolute latitude of 0.7*90°=63°. This boundary between Tundra and Ice is subject to some random noise. A positive fSnowLatitudeChange from the climate moves the boundary closer to the poles, meaning less land Ice. Same for Tundra – normally at 0.6*90°=54°, a positive adjustment means less Tundra. fGrassLatitudeChange is unused, so let's not worry I guess. Desert "top" and "bottom" latitudes normally restrict deserts to a band between 18° and 45°. Increasing the top and decreasing the bottom (Arid climate) means more desert.

The terrain features are more complicated. I assume that Firaxis got it right and that the lower fIceLatitude value for Cold climate results in more sea Ice, and the lower iJungleLatitude for Tropical in more Jungle.

 

[PPQ_Purple]

I'm not sure about figures, but your impression seems to be the opposite of what I would expect: which is high sea level would result in less space for expansion.

Less space but more time as on most maps CIVs will be split up on multiple continents. And with less land to work with you are both more likely to end up being the only one on yours and to have more chokepoints to defend if you aren't. And of course more ocean as opposed to sea mean you have a lot more time before anyone can cross the seas to get to you. So overall whilst there is less space to go around you have a lot more time to develop it before you are forced into a conflict.