Unchop?

[sowings]

While reading over these threads to try to improve my game, I notice that there is a lot of mention of chopping trees to improve production. The fact that I tend not to do so (looking forward to railroads and lumbermills) might be why I continue to play at lower difficulties. (And I always wondered why I never saw trees in AI territories that I conquered!)

So now my question is this: For the initial city, when you're chopping out workers and/or settlers, do you ever leave those newly denuded lands unimproved, to potentially regrow forest? Or does it all become farms and cottages?

Also, does anyone know the conditions under which a forest will regrow? Are adjacent tiles a factor? Clearly, it wouldn't regrow in an improved tile, but will a road alone prevent tree growth?

[wodan11]

Roads ****** growth but don't prevent it.

There's no point in improving more tiles than you have city pop, so I'd improve only that many tiles. Others can and should be left alone and adjacent to forest if possible, for regrowth. Those other forest can even be outside the city radius if you've got a few oddball tiles that are squeezed in between a mountain range or something.

[couerdelion]

Yes. I like to leave forests every three tiles to encourage them to grow back later.

That said, if it is the choice between Oracle and keeping a forest, I'll take the Oracle

[TriMiro]

Chop, but plan ahead. In every city I make a decision on how much forest to keep and how much to chop. Then I decide when to chop (usually when I for a wonder).

[rah]

I remember somewhere that it requires 3 contiguous forests squares to generate a new forest, So i'll leave a few unimproved squares around those clumps.
And try to break up similar jungle combinations to impede jungle creep.

[wodan11]

Originally posted by rah
I remember somewhere that it requires 3 contiguous forests squares to generate a new forest, So i'll leave a few unimproved squares around those clumps.
And try to break up similar jungle combinations to impede jungle creep.

Really? Learn something new every day. Thanks Rah

[Jaybe]

Originally posted by rah
I remember somewhere that it requires 3 contiguous forests squares to generate a new forest, So i'll leave a few unimproved squares around those clumps.
And try to break up similar jungle combinations to impede jungle creep.

Definitively untrue. A single forest tile is all it takes, so Wodan: unlearn that immediately!.

Particularly with Forest Preserves (I've been so many hours involved with my current late-game that I am not 100% certain re pre-Preserves).

[Supr49er]

With the new Global Warming dynamics in the late game, I keep way more forests than before. Jungles are cleared however.

[sowings]

Originally posted by Supr49er
With the new Global Warming dynamics in the late game, I keep way more forests than before. Jungles are cleared however.

Was it that had the little glowing orb to indicate the rise of global warming, as it transitioned from a dull red to orange to yellow to white?

I really could use something like that. I tend not to get power by coal EVAR, builds as many of the buildings as I can in my large cities, and yet there are still grasslands becoming desert across my lands. I realize that part of it has to do with the effects of other civilizations, too, but it would be nice to know when you're near the tipping point.

[Jaybe]

In the areas between cities (outside the BFCs), I leave the jungles unless there is a vacant grassland tile adjacent in any of the NSEW (aka 8264) directions. If there is a potentially competing woods tile, I'll DEFINITELY chop the jungle.

[rah]

Originally posted by Jaybe

Definitively untrue. A single forest tile is all it takes, so Wodan: unlearn that immediately!.

Particularly with Forest Preserves (I've been so many hours involved with my current late-game that I am not 100% certain re pre-Preserves).

Wow, just one. Thanks for the clarification.
Does having more forest increase the odds or is it just that every forest gets a chance to spread because almost everytime I see it happening its by a group? (but since I was expecting to see that result, I probably blanked out times when it wasn't the case. )

[johnmcd]

I think each tile has a chance of spreading each year. So a tile bordered by lots of trees has a much better chance than one bordered by just the one.

I think the chance is of spread is based on years, not turns. So in the early game spread is much more likely than in the late game, one turn equally many years early on.

[Blaupanzer]

Forest will regrow at the end of a chain of forests or in a clump of forest tiles etc. It will not grow unless the tile is adjacent to a forest tile, and is undeveloped. Also john is right about regrowth being much more common in the earlier eras where each turn represents multiple years.

It is news to me that forest or jungle will regrow on a tile with a road.

What are the new Global Warming dynamics referred to above? Although my games often end in late twentieth century, I've not been aware of any global warming unless nukes have been used. If that is not the current model, a)I'd like to know what's up, and b) we definitely need the little sun marker that sowings suggested.

By the way, welcome to Apolyton, sowings. You sound like you may be a veteran of the Civ-franchise of games.

[Jaybe]

To clarify, I have read recently (here or CFC), that forests/jungle definitely only spread to a cardinal direction, not on a diagonal. I have not found any contrary evidence.

When opportunity knocks, I will preserve forest in a checkerboard fashion and clear the others (chop forest, potentially pillage improvements) to provide greatest chance of forest spread for future harvesting (or global warming abatement).

Disclaimer (the larger print edition): I have slightly increased forest growth (by 4), because I have increased forest disappearance (from 0 to 4). I have previously mentioned my disdain for excessive predictability ... the inconvenience of losing an occasional lumbermill or forest preserve (dangit, I lost one to my national park city!!) should not be avoided. Pulling one's hair out in in-game frustration is a good thing!
I have also zeroed out the forest-growth inhibition to routes (ROUTE_FEATURE_GROWTH_MODIFIER changed from -50 to 0 in GlobalDefines.xml).

[Blaupanzer]

Jaybe, I had a forest grow on the diagonal at the end of a chain of woods in my capitol BFC last night. It came just in time for me to chop out Hanging Gardens. This was the second time that tile had regrown forest on that same SE angle from the next forest tile. Nothing "cardinal" about that direction. I have not modded anything other than the patches through the 3.17 update. (I tend to chop the inner woods around my capitol fairly quickly to improve the line of fire around the city. That is why I noticed this tile's regrowth as it put woods right next to my capitol while the world was still in the truly heavy raging barbarians period.)