Space Elevator Problem

[Fosse]

In my last two games I got around to the space race, and once I had the tech to build the Space Elevator I set about doing so.

I found that some cities (in both cases my top hammer producer) could not build it. I would go down the list of highest producers until I found one that could.

The Civlopaedia lists no requirements other than the tech for the elevator, but both times some cities that could not build it would have everything I can imagine that would impact it: power, labs, factories...

So... what the heck? Has anybody else seen this, and does anybody know why it's happening to me?

[Manuel]

I believe a requirement for a city to produce the Space Elevator is that it must be located near the equator.

[Bill3000]

The Space Elevator must be built within +/- 30 degrees of latitude from the equator. Check the XML file if you want to confirm it .

[Arrian]

Is that documented anywhere outside of the XML file? Thanks for posting this, Fosse, 'cause I thought I was just losing my mind...

-Arrian

[Dis]

you may still be losing your mind, you know . Wasting hours of your precious time on earth playing a silly computer game. speaking of... I should get back to my game of civ4.

[rjwoer]

What is the basis of this restriction? I mean, considering the escape velocity on earth is the same regardless of latitude (11.7 km/s I believe). Or consider the tilt of the earth, which oscillates the latitude (not literally, but from the perspective of a single point in space) in relation to the season and the Earth's position in its orbit.

I understand this latitude restriction may serve as a valuable check on the Space Race victory, but what is its basis in reality? Just curious if anyone has an idea.

BTW, I too didn't realize there was this restriction. At the very least this is another example of the lacking in the 'pedia this time (I get frustrated every time I attempt to use it).

[Dis]

Originally posted by rjwoer
What is the basis of this restriction? I mean, considering the escape velocity on earth is the same regardless of latitude (11.7 km/s I believe). Or consider the tilt of the earth, which oscillates the latitude (not literally, but from the perspective of a single point in space) in relation to the season and the Earth's position in its orbit.

I understand this latitude restriction may serve as a valuable check on the Space Race victory, but what is its basis in reality? Just curious if anyone has an idea.

BTW, I too didn't realize there was this restriction. At the very least this is another example of the lacking in the 'pedia this time (I get frustrated every time I attempt to use it).

I really couldn't find a good answer on this one. I know it's good to launch rockets from there as the earth is rotating fastest at the equator. But I don't think that applies to the space elevator. I found this:

NASA decided the location of the base of the tower should be right where Clarke suggested: along the equator. This location was the natural choice to make sure the space station at the top would remain directly above the base. Also, the region along the equator is almost never subject to big storms or lightning, a major consideration for the space elevator.

but this pages says they can exist off the equator. But he says he hasn't done the serious number crunching. I don't think it's feasible to have that much strenght at the anchor point.

http://www.mit.edu/people/gassend/spaceelevator/non-equatorial/

[rjwoer]

Thanks, Dis. At least that is something to make sense of this.

[Fosse]

Hm. A perfect example of sacrificing gameplay for the sake of realism. Any civ that doesn't start near enough the equator on larger maps isn't overly likely to have a good, high production city that will build it.

This obviously should have at least been in the Civlopaeda for the wonder.

Thanks for the information, folks.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Bill3000
The Space Elevator must be built within +/- 30 degrees of latitude from the equator. Check the XML file if you want to confirm it .

That seems rather silly, given that you probably couldn't build a space elevator even a degree from the equator. Either make it absolute or kill the requirement in the first place...

EDIT: It has to be on the equator because essentially the whole thing is in geostationary orbit. You've got the elevator cable all the way down to the ground pulling the structure down, and a counterweight beyond the altitude for geostationary orbit pulling the structure away from the earth, and a material of extreme tensile strength holding it all together with the center of mass in geostationary orbit.

[Adagio]

One thing that annoys me about the Space Elevator is that it's too late on the tech tree, at the time I get I have already finished half the ship, and wasting a city to make the space elevator doesn't seem logical, since I would rather have it finish the parts instead (consideren that I don't need many more parts, there's little to gain)

[Blake]

I'm sorely tempted to mod this out, since i play all-land maps like Great Plains a lot, and also OCC's, and it just sucks in an OCC not being able to build (buy) the elevator at all.

[GeoModder]

Originally posted by Adagio
One thing that annoys me about the Space Elevator is that it's too late on the tech tree, at the time I get I have already finished half the ship, and wasting a city to make the space elevator doesn't seem logical, since I would rather have it finish the parts instead (consideren that I don't need many more parts, there's little to gain)

Actually, it's a production timesaver. Just don't start any spaceship production untill the elevator is finished, but instead or build laboratories/factories/power plants which speed up another 25% each or, if you have those already, more units. I did this once and was amazed how quickly I catched up with the AI on ship construction.

[Cort Haus]

Maybe if the ladder is too close to the pole it gets iced-up and you have to scrape the frost off every morning ...

[GeoModder]

The cable is exposed to icing anyway. It's pretty cold 5 clicks up in the sky and onwards.