What do volcano do ?

[Halancar]

Okay, the volcano event turns a peak (impassable, worthless terrain) into a volcano (impassable, worthless terrain). It displays a cool animation when it fires, and an ugly volcano afterwards.

But does it do anything ? Is it just purely cosmetic ? I mean, there are so many interesting (if not very pleasant) things a volcano could do, but I've never seen anything come out of it.

 

[MagisterCultuum]

Technically, Volcanoes are Features which exist on top of Peaks. The volcano event places the feature, but does not remove the Peak. (Edit: actually, I'm thinking it does remove the Peak, but since they are handled in the game engine it doesn't do it the conventional way)


From the xml, it appears that Volcanoes add +1 visibility and require 2 movement instead of 1 like peaks do. Of course, this only matters to units that can move impassible.


It doesn't appear that volcanoes actually do anything, but it purely cosmetic. (Edit: ok, there is also a random event that makes volcanoes destroy nearby improvements, but that's about it.)



Of course, it wouldn't be too hard to some more interesting functions. For starters, it is very easy to make it require Fire Resistance to move there (even with units that can move impassible) or to make it change health. I also just noticed that BtS added the ability to make the feature itself deal damage to all units on it. (Too bad this isn't in typed damaged; I may look into changing that. I'm also going to try to include several of feature, terrain, or improvement tags in all 3 file schema, but that is probably above my skills. I'm too busy to try this month.) You could also change the single volcano to several different versions and make one upgrade to another, perhaps cyclically. (Too bad you can't set the feature upgrade rate separately. It would just be the same rate as Forests turning into Ancient Forests, so I couldn't make the dormant phase last longer.) Thus, a dormant volcano could provide extra food and commerce (very fertile volcanic soil), while a more active one (in addition to possibly triggering devastating events) could cause enough unhealthiness to drop any (non-fallow trait leader's) city down to size 1.


I'm going to come up with some interesting volcano effects for my modmod. I'm also adding a Earth/Fire cross-sphere spell that lets players create their own volcanoes wherever they want. (Don't expect the caster to survive the eruption.)

 

[Vitek]

Do Volcanos spawn on hell terrain? In had it twice in my last game as Sheim in my territory but the peak haven't changed.

 

[Kael]

Volcanoes occasionlly explode and damage surrounding tiles. Outside of that they are just like peaks.

 

[Nicopol]

Volcanoes occasionlly explode and damage surrounding tiles. Outside of that they are just like peaks.

how about an event (with a few turns delay) that gives you +1 food in all surrounding tiles after an explosion? (<- Volcanic ash)
(the downside is that the volcano can erupt another time and destroy the surrounding improvements again)

 

[DrStalker]

how about an event (with a few turns delay) that gives you +1 food in all surrounding tiles after an explosion? (<- Volcanic ash)
(the downside is that the volcano can erupt another time and destroy the surrounding improvements again)

It could add a "volcanic ash" feature, which behaves like a flood plains; it overlies terrain and gives a food bonus.

Or maybe something could be designed out that lets you gain fire mana from rituals in the volcano, but occasionally angry fire elemntals spawn... that would be a bit too much like Pyre of the Seraphic though.

 

[Sureshot]

maybe they should cause fires in adjacent forest tiles

maybe burnt forests should add +1 too to reflect the fertile soil (maybe +1 too), thatd make volcanoes and fires more interesting

 

[eerr]

maybe volcanoes should occasionally melt nearby tiles?

 

[rocklikeafool]

I think Volcanoes and the events attached to em are fine as is. Why? Cuz if you made any more events or added things to current events, it'd cause too much micro. As it is, there is a chance a Volcanoe can erupt (via event) and destroy a buildings or cause you to lose population. And that's annoyin nough. So, I think they're fine.
But if someone else wants to make a modmod that add more events to volcanoes, go head.

 

[GePap]

Maybe at Armageddon all the Volcanoes could erupt catastrophically. Otherwise, I agree with rocklikeafool.

 

[rocklikeafool]

Hmm...that is an idea.

 

[xxHammerxx]

Yes, maybe at armageddon Volcanoes erupt spewing lava in a 2 square radius. This would be represented by having a zero yield terrain like pollution or something in tiles involved. And maybe have that explosion reduce any cities in blast radius to pop 1. The question would be how a player can remove the lava. Whether a spell, or worker action, or if it is permanent. Or even to have temporary terrain like used in the "end of winter" option. (and then maybe switch to another temp "volcanic ash" to give +1 food)

Also on the topic of Armageddon and AC, on my last game each hell crack only spawned once, and after that they stayed dormant. is that a bug?