i hate mining grasslands!!!!

[Bella Hella]

it just looks so.... AI. for some reason i just can't stand to mine a lovely grassland, or plains for that matter. i just can't do it. i have to forest them instead, and have an inefficient empire. who's with me???

seriously, does anyone else feel this way, or is it just me? i admit, i'll mine them in the beginning, but later on in the game, i always forest or irrigate over them. to me, mines are strictly for hills and mountains. everything looks so much better that way. in my mind it makes no sense to stick a mine in the middle of a nice grassy meadow.

anyone have any ideas for me? should i just bite the bullet and build the mines to increase my shield production? or is it possible to have good shield production with forest ONLY?

[Solver]

Eh, just think of them as some sort of suburbs. Surely, in Civ 2 I mostly went irrigating most land, with Mines in hills, but here, since you don't even often get the chance to make an irrigation early on, mining is the way to go.

[Bella Hella]

oh definitely. even though i hate it, i realize it's necessary to mine the grasslands in the early game. i just can't stand to leave them there later on!

[Solver]

If you don't leave them there later, you will result with less production capacity. To hell with this... do what you need to have the game better. However, never spoil your joy, either.

[Insigna]

Yes I can't Stand Mines in grasslands too. I thought i was the only one. Mines just makes your empire look so dirty.

[Slax]

Someone should turn the mine icon into a little village.

[Cyclotron]

Originally posted by Insigna
Mines just makes your empire look so dirty.

Pollution just makes my empire look so dirty.

[Jawa Jocky]

This was one of the hardest adjustments for me to make coming from CivII. I still don't like it, however it is necessary. I just automate workers and let them do the dirty work for me (I've washed my hands of it).

I'm so lazy about workers now I just automate them all right from the start. Actually I don't automate the 1st one, and I control a few for road making. Can I do a better job than the AI? Sure. Would I rather cut hours off my game time? Hell yes!

[Bella Hella]

*whew* ok, i'm not crazy. cool. i've tried a couple of solutions for the ugly mine-in-a-grassland thing that looked kinda cool:

- do a straight railroad track and put mines along it
- make the grassland mines next to hill or mountain mines to make it look like you have a little mining district that overflowed from the mountains
- arrange them around your city and try to make them look like little houses (the "suburbs" idea - lol)

but none of those really cut it. oh well.

i think i'm pretty anal about my terrain enhancements. i don't like putting farms next to mines, either (won't the food taste bad?). i like a city surrounded by farms, then maybe some forests and then the hills/mountains. although it would be ok to have the farms on the outskirts, too.

i always try to plant forests next to the mountains so it "grows" into the mountain (if you know what i'm talking about). and i build fortresses in random locations outside city limits if it just looks like there should be a fortress there. and don't even get me started on railroads! ugh, every time i see an AI's empire that has every square covered with railroads it makes me sick to my stomach.

oh man, i totally can't automate the workers. no WAY. i used to do it in SMAC, but i can't with civ3. everything must be built according to my specifications. if i gain a city through culture or conquest, i immediately rip up everything the AI did and start over.

any anal land improving stuff you guys do, or AI stuff that bothers you?

[Grrr]

You are about as perfectionistic about terrain enhancement as me .

[Random Passerby]

I've lived in the rural Midwest all my life, and yes, plains do get mined. There's a cement plant in my hometown (population far less than a size 1 city) that does extensive quarrying around the area, side by side with all the cornfields.

From a gameplay aspect... it's not just the early game, it's all the time. Irrigation in my eyes is merely a way you can pick up surplus food production to make up for poorer food tiles; if a city has exclusively grassland in its radius, it's going to be able to get to huge sizes anyways, but the only way it'll ever get useful production is if the majority of those spaces are mined.

[dunk]

I like the little mine icons.

[MosesPresley]

I just think of the grassland mines as local industry. As some kind of factory. I mean, the game's concepts and the execution of them are so abstract anyway.

[Jethro83]

Mines do look horrible on grasslands/plains.

So what do you do about it? Simple... Replace the graphics with something more pleasant.

But then again, it would make mined hills and mountains look odd (a village icon up in a mountain?).

[Frugal_Gourmet]

Dude,

I am totally with you on this. I will -- if possible -- try to win the game without ever mining a plain or grassland. Forests are much more aesthetically pleasing.

But you know what would really help this game? Maybe one or two other possible improvements. Pretty soon, all the terrain looks exactly the same.... dull.