Should terraforming been brought back?

[Silvagem]

Two types of terraforming

I would like to see just these two terraforming options come true:
They are missing in the game.

1. Hills to Plains
a) Only available after Replaceable Parts
b) 30 turns to complete (1 worker)
c) Cost 40 gold

2. Plains to Grasslands
a) Only available after Replaceable Parts
b) 15 turns to complete (1 worker)
d) Cost 20 gold

Mountains should be as they are. I don’t think the Alps or Himalayas will ever be grasslands.

It’s not that difficult to implement this, and with only these two options, I think it would be realistic.

[Captain]

Land improvements should be allowed, but not terraforming in the sense of knocking mountains flat.

Gameplay reasons:

Much like the idea of strategic resources, the different land we start out with and are able to expand to really adds to the game's strategy. If I could just change my existing land to whatever I wanted, that would be too easy.

If a Civ wants better land, it should go claim it. There is a clear IRL connection here, but I am aiming for gameplay reason.
If it has to fight or explore or send a settler halfway around the world, so be it. I am a builder myself, but you should be forced into warfare sometimes. The key is to balance the guns and butter so you can concentrate on what you want without neglecting the other. That's the challenge.


IRL reasons:

Depending on map size we choose, the tiles represent varying amounts of terrain.
While we have built huge engineering works that we as a species can be proud of, I am not sure these count as terraforming. We have definitely deforested a lot, but that is already well-represented.
Btw, I don't care how much explosive you throw at a mountain. Not even with nukes. You won't level it. Maybe a small hill. But drop a thousand nukes on scotland and you won't get plains. You'll get a nuclear wasteland, just as hilly as before and maybe even more so with the added craters. Don't forget that nature is more powerful than we think. A hurricane possesses more energy than a thousand H-bombs. An earthquake releases energy on a scale above almost anything else we can imagine. Volcanic destructive power is beyond our current abilities. Though we can trigger them, we can't really control it.

I think that for the scale the tiles represents, we should limit our "terraforming" to deforestation, irrigation, mining, canal-building, bridge-building, fortress-building, swamp-draining (oh, wait, they removed that land type! even though that's one of the most extensive terraforming activities humans have ever undertaken.)

(I also think farmland should be back in the game, I liked that even if the AI couldn't handle it.)

[ahenobarb]

My horse says "Neigh!"

The only thing that can change a mountain to hills and hills to plains is Time. People certainly don't do it. How much TNT would it take to do it anyway, even with all the bombing in the Mts of Afghanistan nothing like this is about to happen. And if you go with some concepts from the 1950's to use nuclear explosives to dig canals and tunnels and try to reduce a moutain to a valley (rubble more likely) you couldn't grow anything there you would want to eat anyway.

Workers have too many tasks to do already IMO. Control a few for the big tasks, Shift-A for the rest.

[godinex]

I love the terraforming... but only in the later, later game. What do you think of plantations? Is a very good idea.

[Skanky Burns]

The problem with allowing terraforming is that you are then expected to do that terraforming, if you want any chance to compete with the AI.

Civ 1 never had terraforming.

[Tuberski]

The only terraforming I could see being worthwhile is the irrigation of desert. Have a chance similar to say the resources disappearing, for it to change to plains, but ONLY if irrigated AND connected tograsslands or plains. This seems a little logical to me.

[Jethro83]

Personally, I like to see some terraforming, but not to the extent it got to in Alpha Centauri. It seems a bit stupid to be able to raise new earth out of the ocean or flood it over with the ocean. In Alpha Centauri, the possibilities were near-limitless, you could alter the terrain until you drowned out other factions (except the Pirates).

In Civ II, the terraforming options were good ones, and realistic. Of course, the exceptions are knocking down mountains into hills, making tundra into desert (for that one would need to completely alter the climate of the area, at least to reduce rainfall). So most options there belong.

These are the terraforming options that I believe should be implemented:

- Desert to Plains
- Plains to Grassland
- Drill to Aquifier (creates a river, like in Alpha Centauri. Good if you want to artificially turn nearby desert into floodplain or make a possible city site much better without the need for an aqueduct. But it should come in later in the game and can only be done if close to a lake, coast or other river)

And you should be able to build some sort of bridge/tunnel that goes across coastal regions and joins two islands (simply load a worker into a transport, send it to a coast square next to a roaded or railroaded land square, activate the worker and hit 'r'), No it can't be done. I'm only suggesting a possible option. Again, it should come late in the game (the discovery of Steel should allow it).

[I Am Jeff]

There is a way to "terraform" mountains,hills, and deserts, into either grassland or plains(you can't chose grassland or plains). You go into the editor and load of the civ3mod.bic . Goto terrain and pick a terrain such as Mountain. On the left side it says "worker job" In that pull-down menu pick forest. Now in game you can plant forests onto mountains. Since forests can not be on mountains the mountains disappear into a forest planted on grassland or plains. Then remove the trees and presto, you got grassland/plains. Just do similar things for hills or deserts.

NOTE: once u get rid of a mountain/hill/desert, it is gone forever. Also from what ive seen the computers do, they like planting forests on hills and mountains, thus removing them and good sources of production. I recomend you only allow the planting of forests on those areas specified when u need to do it that turn, then save and turn it off.

Someone also mentioned about wanting to irrigate desert, which u can do. Goto the Terrain menu and under terreform bonues, put in a value higher then 0 into irrigation(food). This will alow you to irrigate deserts. You can then do the same to tundra. You can also make other terrain minable. Like forests.

[Whoha]

the save file format, or atleast the portions of it regarding terrain have been posted here at apolyton, if you must, just edit the save file.