borehole polution

[kolpo]

a) Is it only building them ore also having them that creates polution (If I only harvest energy with crawlers not minerals) ?

b) Is it the city the former is from or the city the borehole is near that get's the polution ?

I just ask those question because if they are true can I maybe create 1 polution city(with high moral combat units) who does nothing else then creating formers to build boreholes. The other cities will harvest there energy with crawlers(but how I must protect those crawlers is still a problem for me).

[Fitz]

Borehole pollution applies to the city that it's in the base radii of, and to the city collecting minerals from it.

Boreholes cause eco-damage regardless of whether they are being worked in the base they are in the radii of (within two squares). This eco-damage can be reduced with a tree farm and eliminated with a hybrid forest in that base. This damage is actually relatively minor (usually equivilent to the damage of 1 or 2 minerals).

Minerals cause eco-damage in the base collecting them, provided that base is exceeding a threshold limit of minerals collected. Usually that is the base that has the borehole withing it's work radius, but it's possible to crawl the minerals to any base off of a borehole.

You can reduce/eliminate eco-damage in several ways:

1) Allow a pop (fungal growth) to occur.
2) Build a Tree-Farm, Hybrid Forest, Centauri Preserve or Temple of Planet in any base. This works best if you build it in the high-eco-damage base, but has an affect no matter which base it is in.
3) Reduce the minerals a base collects by rearranging your workers/crawlers.

If you can't build those facilities, and you don't want fungal explosions, go for #3.

Certain projects and another facility also have affects on reducing eco-damage (Phoiltus Mutagen, Singularity Inductor, Nanoreplicator) but the last two also increase minerals in bases, which could feasilby result in a net increase in eco-damage.

To summarize, if you create a base or two with the boreholes and crawl the energy, the base with the boreholes will have some eco-damage, but not the ones getting the energy. But if you are going to do that, you might as well place the boreholes outside of the work radii of any base, then none will get added eco-damage.

[Lefty Scaevola]

...and do not build a borehole in a river hex, the river flow into it and cause a "rise in temperature" prsumably with eco damage.

[Blake]

I think borehole+river causes "steam" and a big increase of rainfall in the area. (usually boreholes dry out the area).

[bobyk464]

Yup yup yup, I've seen both effects - gotten the message about temperature increase and also seen the increased rainfall - but never paid close enough attention as to which circumstances led to which. Any comprehensive summary about these two effects appearing either independently or in association? And how much impact does the temperature increase have? I typically run zero eco-damage in my bases, so I don't know if my borehole temp increases contribute anything to rising ocean levels when caused by other factions.

And Ned, Fitz, Blake - ecxellent observations in the eco-damage formula text.

[Fitz]

I believe someone once said in this forum that the borehole seems to have the increased raininess affect near the equator and the increased aridness near the poles. Never tested that myself though.