Questions Regarding Volcanos

[Vuldacon]

Found in the Script Text:
#VLC_ACTIVE
Volcano is now active!

#VLC_ERUPTS
Volcano has erupted!

#VLC_KILLS_UNIT
Our units were burned to a crisp by a lava flow!

#VLC_KILLS_CITY
$CITY0 is torched by the volcanic eruption!

1. Does anyone Know if Volcanos Totally Destroy Cities and IF so how many Tiles away can a Volcano "Kill" a city? ... or in other words, can Volcanos be placed without the Danger of them "Killing" a City?

2. Has anyone ever seen the File Called "VolcanosWithLava.pcx" in the Terrain Folder?
I have several files from different games and I have never seen that file in Original Game Terrain files.

3. Because 100 is the Lowest setting for Volcanos in the Editor and that number represents Years in which a Volcano will Erupt at least once... Will Volcanos Erupt in a Scenario that has 30 Years in the Game with a setting of 100?

4. I assume there is no way to control when or exactly how often a Volcano will Erupt... anyone know anything about this?

 

[tom2050]

Found in the Script Text:
1. Does anyone Know if Volcanos Totally Destroy Cities and IF so how many Tiles away can a Volcano "Kill" a city? ... or in other words, can Volcanos be placed without the Danger of them "Killing" a City?

2. Has anyone ever seen the File Called "VolcanosWithLava.pcx" in the Terrain Folder?
I have several files from different games and I have never seen that file in Original Game Terrain files.

1. The volcano destroys the city leaving ruins within the 8 tiles immediately surrounding the volcano. I believe everything in those tiles is completely destroyed (no survivors).

2. That file does not exist in Civ III Complete / Conquests. Not sure where it came from. What does the pcx file show, a general volcano eruption? Could be someone just renamed the eruption.flc while making a new file ???

3 and 4. Not sure

Tom

 

[El Justo]

so it's definitely the immediate 8 tiles around the city and not the whole radius? ie 20 total tiles via the cross of the city radius?

 

[Vuldacon]

How I understand it is IF a City falls within the 8 Tiles of the Volcano... it can be Destroyed. So If cities are kept at least 3 tiles away from a Volcano, they should be ok.

 

[tom2050]

As far as I can remember, I think it covers the area shown below in the pic, the surrounding tiles (8 tiles). It's been forever since I've actually seen a volcano erupt but I'm pretty sure everything in this area is utterly destroyed, nothing left... The reason to never place a city next to a volcano. Now that I think about it, I believe the eruption only has a chance to land on the surrounding 8 tiles, , I don't think eruptions Always cover all 8, but they can. Perhaps someone else can clear that part up as well. I have vague memories of cities surviving eruptions because the lava flow didn't hit the specific tile that my city was on (directly next to the volcano), but landed in other squares.

So a city would be safe it is in the places of the coast in the above picture.

Tom

 

[KingArthur]

What the Help says about #3 is this: Each volcano on the map will erupt at least once within the indicated eruption period (shown in years).

I think the important word here is within. So in your example 30 is within 100 so there is a chance of eruption. It seems to me that it's entirely probability based i.e. there's 1 eruption on average every 'X' number of years: 'X' being the number you set in the editor. I would further expect this to be applied to every volcano so for each game year each volcano will have a 1 in 'X' chance of erupting. Of course this is just my interpretation of the help text and I have no evidence to substantiate anything.

 

[El Justo]

forgive me tom but i'm not following you...i see where the 8 square radius is in effect. but i don't understand the "coast" aspect. does it mean that the lava won't "land" on water tiles? iow, if water is part of that 8 square radius then the remaining land-only tiles are the ones left w/in the "lava flow zone"?

 

[tom2050]

forgive me tom but i'm not following you...i see where the 8 square radius is in effect. but i don't understand the "coast" aspect. does it mean that the lava won't "land" on water tiles? iow, if water is part of that 8 square radius then the remaining land-only tiles are the ones left w/in the "lava flow zone"?

Sorry, I meant that if the coast was land tiles, and a city was on one of those tiles, then it is safe. If a volcano is next to water though, I don't think lava goes on the coast, so ships would be safe (I think... ).

Tom

 

[Virote_Considon]

Yeah, it doesn't go on the coast.

 

[Vuldacon]

Just to have a Clear understanding... would a City be OK if placed two tiles away from a Volcano or should that be Three?

 

[tom2050]

Yes, a city is ok if 2 tiles away. So as long as there is 1 tile in between the volcano and your city. The AI doesn't care about this though, they will place cities right next to volcanoes. In fact, if a volcano is able to have cities built on them, the AI will plop one right there

Tom

 

[Optional]

I would just like to back up what Tom2050 is saying; if there is at least a tile inbetween your city and the volcano, you're completely safe.

Also people have claimed that a volcano's lava always spoils the same tiles, so if you would clean them up and the volcano would erupt again, it would be the same tiles affected again. I can't be sure about this, though, I'm just saying I've seen this being claimed.
What I'm certain about is that a volcano can erupt, spoil tiles, than erupt again and spoil even more tiles.
For the chance of eruption the same mechanism is at work as with disease: there's a chance per number of years, which means that in the default game the chance decreases significantly as the game goes on.
You'd like to leave volcano alone in the early game, but then in the later game you can bother less about it. Of course, that's in the default game with the default time progression. Modding the time table would affect a volcano's behaviour.

EDIT:
A bit more info: To affect the behaviour of a volcano, in the editor go to scenario properties > disasters.
The only thing you seem to be able to adjust is the Max Eruption Period. This is set to 5000, which would mean that each volcano will erupt at least once in that period of 5000 years. So if you would have a scenario spanning only 30 years, your volcanos will behave very quietly..
You should turn this number of 5000 signifacantly down to see more activity. Perhaps to 40 or so, to have about the same effect as in the default game. Ah well, yeah; 100 is indeed the lowest setting. I assume you will then have only 30% chance of any volcano erupting in a scenario spanning 30 years.
I've never fooled around with this, but it looks easy to use.

 

[Blue Monkey]

In fact, if a volcano is able to have cities built on them, the AI will plop one right there

Also helpful for preplacing cities in those Pompeii/Krakatoa/Atlantis/Lincoln Island scenarios.

 

[Pounder]

When Volcanos go off there is between 1 and 8 tiles damaged.

With the volcano in the pic above, only one tile was affected.

The city and the units in the adjacent tile (directly above the volcano) were not affected and the pollution that is on the volcano itself was there before the volcano went off (pollution within city radius).

 

[Vuldacon]

OK... This verifies what I suspected and Good to know that a one tile distance is all that is needed to prevent a City from being destroyed. I also appreciate knowing that Pollution also affects the Volcano Tiles.
As for the 100 - 5000 setting concerning a Scenario that takes place in fewer years... I am not sure that the Game uses a percentage of the Years in the Scenario as compared to 100 but it seems that an Eruption would take place at least once. Will have to Test this.