[GS] The Climate Change is Irrelevant in My Game

[Trav'ling Canuck]

Units being the primary source of CO2 emissions also creates a problem for those of us hoping to see the AI field larger, more modern military forces at higher difficulty levels.

If all AI civs build a large enough military to properly defend themselves and offer a threat to the player, it sounds like anything you do on the economic front will be close to irrelevant to the eventual global warming.

 

[Onin]

Honestly I think the entire system could use a little tweaking but I really like the element it adds to the game. It doesn't completely change the game by any stretch but it adds something for me to consider. It definitely seems like something that will get more problematic as you go up in difficulty levels as it takes longer to get to the techs you need to avoid the problems.

My favorite part of the new system is definitely flooding and volcanoes. They can be annoying but the rewards and the ability to build a dam really makes it interesting.

 

[Bechhold]

Not in my second game. Playing as Sweden and there was no CO2 until the 1960's when I started to upgrade to modern units. Just don't built Coal Plants, or Oil, or even Nuclear (no meltdowns) and you're fine. Hydro power and renewable's suffices so far.

 

[lordhaw]

My game has very high CO2 levels, up to level 7 on the scale and I'm the biggest contributor. And I'm not sure why. It says coal is the biggest and then oil but I have no more coal plants (upgraded to oil and then nuclear). I have a hydro electric dam and most cities have solar or wind power. I lost a seaside resort, a commercial district and an industrial district to flooding...completely wiped out because I couldn't get the flood barriers built in time. I got rid of my ironclads. I understand oil being high due to my mechanized army (or I assume they contribute) but still don't know where my coal usage is coming from. But the global warming was a problem in this game. The flooding came quicker than I expected it to.

Nuclear plants are annoying due to the continual maintenance. You've got to remember to do them.

 

[Tech Osen]

Chopping woods and rainforest seem to be the biggest contributor to climate change. My first game I chopped everything and climate change got to max level very, very fast. In my second game I chopped almost nothing and the game finished with just level 3 climate change.

Trees absorb CO2 so that makes sense.

 

[VCrakeV]

Trees absorb CO2 so that makes sense.

So, if chopping less slows climate change, does planting forests help?

 

[steveg700]

Anyone building railroads?

If so, are they really beneficial?

Also if so, do they continue to use coal for the entire game?

 

[TheMeInTeam]

The game year is irrelevant. What era is. The game usually progresses to fast, especially on higher difficulty levels.

You can't make a coherent case that year is irrelevant. It requires simultaneously ignoring and implicating reality to make such a case. That's not how things work.

We'll see if anything egregious comes of it. I expect it to be more relevant than Civ 4 when all is said and done, but largely ignored based on current state.

 

[Ed Ruffin]

Anyone building railroads?

If so, are they really beneficial?

Also if so, do they continue to use coal for the entire game?

Railroads create 1 CO2 per tile but only when you build them. (On marathon speed anyway.) Unlike units they don't continue producing CO2. The speed improvement makes them worth it, IMHO.

So, if chopping less slows climate change, does planting forests help?

That's what I want to know. I'm doing nothing but planting trees and it's not changing the Deforestation Level.

 

[Dux1]

Having played a few games in GS now, I think the core of the climate system is pretty good, but the numbers are off. IMO, it should be tweaked in three ways:

1. The CO2 effect on global temperature should be at least twice as gradual. Currently it seems that once climate change starts, it runs away far too quickly for any player to have a meaningful impact reducing it. On standard speed I'm typically encountering no more than 10-15 turns between phases, which is way too fast.
2. The effect that climate change has on natural disaster frequency should be substantially increased. This effect currently maxes out at around a 5% increase, which is too insignificant to really matter, particularly late in the game.
3. Finally, there needs to be a better way to influence polluting civs via the World Congress. There are climate-related resolutions that randomly come up sometimes, and there is a climate-based global competition, but all of these tend to come up too late. I think slowing the climate change progression would help with this, but I would also like to see a climate-based emergency that can be called through a special session to target a primary polluter through economic sanctions or resource restrictions.

 

[kb27787]

They really need to make this more severe especially since it comes too late in the game to have any real effect.

Make it such that at level1 all coastal non cliff tiles get flooded and all tiles 1 tile inland (except those blocked by cliffs become coastal) then the next phase the cliffs are gone and the ocean eats up one tile further. Can keep going until we get a picture of Noah's flood and the whole world is covered with seasteads except the mountains.

 

[OmegaDestroyer]

I am currently playing as Dido and beelined to break walls. Got them all built with very little CO2 in the atmosphere. Then I went HARD into building coal plants. I have caused the CO2 to spike and smile looking over all the flooded AI territory.

 

[Greasy Dave]

Honestly I think the entire system could use a little tweaking but I really like the element it adds to the game. It doesn't completely change the game by any stretch but it adds something for me to consider. It definitely seems like something that will get more problematic as you go up in difficulty levels as it takes longer to get to the techs you need to avoid the problems.

My favorite part of the new system is definitely flooding and volcanoes. They can be annoying but the rewards and the ability to build a dam really makes it interesting.

I am afraid its less relevant at higher difficulties. I havent tried at deity yet but at immortal i can completely ignore it. I complete an sv before it even manifests. When it does manifest it takes out a couple of coastal hexes. Nothing that would hinder me at all.

The idea of putting it in the game is great. The implementation is very bad. It is toothless. A player can ignore it and not be slowed down. A player who chooses to try to prevent it actually gains nothing and possibly even slows himself or herself down. In a way it is as buggered as the real world because even if a country reduces its own emmissions the emmissions from the us china and eu will still effect them.

I am not sure what they can ro to improve it. Possibly making a more significant diplo and game effect against hhe highest polluters. But this would require serious rebalancing and rethinking the mecganisn

 

[Pietato]

Having played a few games in GS now, I think the core of the climate system is pretty good, but the numbers are off. IMO, it should be tweaked in three ways:

1. The CO2 effect on global temperature should be at least twice as gradual. Currently it seems that once climate change starts, it runs away far too quickly for any player to have a meaningful impact reducing it. On standard speed I'm typically encountering no more than 10-15 turns between phases, which is way too fast.
2. The effect that climate change has on natural disaster frequency should be substantially increased. This effect currently maxes out at around a 5% increase, which is too insignificant to really matter, particularly late in the game.
3. Finally, there needs to be a better way to influence polluting civs via the World Congress. There are climate-related resolutions that randomly come up sometimes, and there is a climate-based global competition, but all of these tend to come up too late. I think slowing the climate change progression would help with this, but I would also like to see a climate-based emergency that can be called through a special session to target a primary polluter through economic sanctions or resource restrictions.

This.

Also, units need to produce less CO2, and trees need to remove it.

 

[GymCee]

I haven't enjoyed this mechanic at all. I played on after winning to see what I could do about it and completely negated my own contributions but I couldn't negate the AI's contributions so Climate Change continued and given how much effort I'd put in this was annoying. We got to stage 3 before I went balistic on countering it but I was the only player with power stations and despite all my generation being nuclear or solar my contribution went up due to my units. This was a real buzz kill on trying to build my stabdard armed forces. No way could you build a half deent modern army/navy wihtout climate change. Also once I had solar and wind power there is no opportunity to decommision your nukes or upgrade them further to something without the radiation risk so you spend far too much effort recommissioning the buggers to avoid meltdowns.
I planted trees everywhere I could but in a global scale didn't make any difference, I don't know if this is due to replants not being included in the stats or if the lack of available land for my builders was the issue.

Also loved seasteads finally allows you to get some use from ocean and coast heavy cities.with some decent improvements bonuses.

This climate change function seems a bit clumsy and the most meaningful approach is to ignore it as the things you can control vs the things you need and the relative impacts just seems off. Also my contribution as a rate per turn would be really helpful with a breakdown of usage so I can target improvements and if units ends up being the main driver an ability to decarbonise my units would be bloody appreciated, that and reduce their impact.


PS this may be my first post but I have ben a long time lurker and played every iteration and update since the very first edition on my venerable Amiga 500.

 

[Trav'ling Canuck]

PS this may be my first post but I have ben a long time lurker and played every iteration and update since the very first edition on my venerable Amiga 500.

Welcome aboard, @GymCee.