Am I just getting shafted or does the map generator LOVE desert?

[padillah]

I started a new game and got quite a bit of desert in the middel of my continent. I tried to play through but there were entire "fat cross" size chuncks of desert where it would be rediculous to settle a city but leave huge holes in my culture border.

Finally I could stand it no more (it was going to take 20 turns for my settler to reach a useful spot to build a city) and I quit the game. I started a new one. Get a few rounds in and I start noticing that every couple of tiles is a desert. leaving at least three (sometimes more) in each city I build.

Well, now I'm irritated and open the worldbuilder to see what's going on. Sure enough, for almost half the map there's sprinklings of desert all over.

I try again, and again, and again... I tried Temperate, I tried Tropical... I got 7 out of 10 maps where there were probably 30% desert either strewn across the entire map or 25% CHUNKS of desert in one great big blob.

What gives with this thing and desert?

Tom P.
And I was winning the first game so that's not why I quit. (well, ostensibly anyway. I don't know how many more than Toku and Issabel there were.)

[petermarkab]

It irritates me that i can't improve desert, but then I'm used to the false realism of previous civs as I'm sure everyone else here is.

[Diadem]

Yeah, the map generator sure loves deserts. And the areas that have no deserts are all jungle.

I'm getting used to it though. You'll have to accept that cities won't always be perfect. Once you do that, you can usually still get a fair number of good cities.

[Urban Ranger]

I found out two things:

1. There will be a good number of desert tiles - don't forget, they are good for oil.

2. You can build a city on a desert tile. No matter where you build a city they all do the same thing, unless there is a special resource on the tile too, in which case you can start using it right away.

[Saldrin]

I noticed the love for deserts also with the WB.

I did find what I think is the desert percent "chance" in CvMapGeneratorUtil.Py. You can find it near the bottom defined under Class TerrainGenerator with a percent of 35%. But python is greek to me, so for all I know I could be well off yet again.

I haven't tried changing it yet...But 35% is pretty high if ya ask me. That is screaming for a lower number, maybe a 10-15%....

[Urban Ranger]

35% sounds about right. Don't forget we've get some massive deserts on earth.

[DaShi]

Some of us don't play on Earth. Some prefer to play on Zorgozon, where there is very little desert.

[baboon]

Funny, I was getting annoyed with endless patches of rainforest.

The desert is not always bad, if there is just one river in it I'm happy with it

[Bhruic]

I always play on Tropical to cut down on the amount of Forests. Of course, that increases the amount of jungle, but at least I can (eventually) chop that down and have useable land.

Bh

[Tattila the Hun]

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
I found out two things:

1. There will be a good number of desert tiles - don't forget, they are good for oil.

2. You can build a city on a desert tile. No matter where you build a city they all do the same thing, unless there is a special resource on the tile too, in which case you can start using it right away.

A question about 2... Say I'm in an early game. I can see cows on a tile, perfect for city. So I settle the tile. I have not yet researched Animal Husbandry...

Do I get the +health bonus? As cities work as a pasture/farm/etc, I don't need to build such improvement to use the resource. In other words, does the tech "Animal Husbandry" simply unlock the worker ability to build pastures?

[Diadem]

@Urban Ranger ->

Are you certain about that? In my experience building a city on a resource means not getting the resource... Maybe I missed something when I checked it. What about building it on a resource you can't see yet?

Also a city on a plainshill will yield one more shield. So they don't always yield the same. I think they always yield 2 food though, 'cause a city on a foodplain still gives only two.

[oxmonsta]

[SIZE=1] Are you certain about that? In my experience building a city on a resource means not getting the resource... Maybe I missed something when I checked it. What about building it on a resource you can't see yet?

You get the resource, but only once you have the tech to get it normally (eg for cows, horses etc Animal Husbandry for pastures; for dye, bananas etc Calendar for plantations; etc).

[padillah]

Originally posted by Diadem
@Urban Ranger ->

Are you certain about that? In my experience building a city on a resource means not getting the resource... Maybe I missed something when I checked it. What about building it on a resource you can't see yet?

I am sure. I have noted a couple of times discovering Iron Working and the next message I get is "Congradulations! Medina has connected to a source of Iron. This allows you..."

The Iron was right underneath Medina, as it turns out.

I can also assume, from this particular example that if you can't see the resource, it can't see you... no, wait. Different argument...

If you can't see the resource then you don't get access to it until you can.

Tom P.
BTW, I'll give you three guesses which city is my "troop builder".

[Urban Ranger]

Originally posted by oxmonsta
You get the resource, but only once you have the tech to get it normally (eg for cows, horses etc Animal Husbandry for pastures; for dye, bananas etc Calendar for plantations; etc).

I don't think you need those to use resources right on your city tiles. For resources you can't see until after specific advances, you can get nice surprises.

For some resources you can even modify the tile without damaging it. For example, you can cut down a jungle without affecting a resource.