Civ3 encourages the destruction of the rainforests

[Gangerolf]

Jungles are one of the most useless terrain types in civ. Are there really any good reasons not to cut them down to make a mine or irrigation?

Civ3 underestimates the value of jungles and rainforests IMO.

maybe firaxis got a nice little reward from the cattle lobby, who knows

What do you think of these ideas:

- jungle tiles should yield at least one trade
- there should be some kind of environmental consequense of chopping down too much jungle.

[Worthingtons]

There should certainly a trade bonus for having jungles. Some of the best cures for medicine are found in jungles. the research benefits are good, and many exoctic fruits are found there.

[Gangerolf]

also, clearing jungles should make your people unhappy. eg one happy citizen made unhappy in the city closest to the jungle. perhaps only in the modern era.

[HolyWarrior]

If I had my way, I would take out global warming and communism, so there.

[Cyclotron]

Why not make jungles fight global warming?

[Worthingtons]

'If I had my way, I would take out global warming and communism, so there'

Aye!! down with the commie's!

[Dis]

yes! jungles should fight global warming!!!

[Datajack Franit]

Rubber to disappear forever if chopping down too many jungle tiles!

[Hurricane]

Datajack Franit, good idea. All resources should only appear in tiles which actually have the correct terrain type, and disappear as soon as that terrain is chopped off. Thus, rubber would disappear unless it is in jungle, game should disappear if the forest is cut down, and so on.

[Gangerolf]

yeah. rubber comes from trees, it wouldn't make sense to find it in grasslands.

[Gangerolf]

Some of the best cures for medicine are found in jungles

exactly. still I get "your people are dying from disease in the jungle" messages. firaxis hates jungles methinks

[The Mad Monk]

Rubber from cleared jungle = plantations.

At least, that's how I look at it.

[Alex]

What do you want? A civ that hardly reaches its productivity potential while being ecologically sensitive, or a civ that rules the world with its powerful economy at the expense of some enviromental destruction? That is an interesting question.

If the game could provide some benefits for being ecologically sensitive, then I would happily try to preserve some forests or jungles (plus, these terrain types are good for defense). You could say that less production = less polution, therefore less global warming. But the effects of pollution and global warming are manageable within the game, or, when those effects start to harm your country, you're already close to winning the game.

No, I will chop down all jungles that I find, thank you very much.

[latka]

Rubber plantations and jungles are two separate things. One is cultivated and the other is naturally growing and untamed. The destroying of jungles in the game does emulate modern times well.

Today, we do not get a big bang from jungles other than tearing them down, thus the reason they are disappearring. Capitalism rules the world after all, even in communist countries (just the currency is different in a matter of speaking).

Disease is a major problem in jungles and I think Firaxis did a good job of including this into the game. I just wished disease played a bigger part in the game. After all, the European Crusades were a major cause of the "Black Death" rolling across Europe. As the forces returned home, they brought rats, which in turn brought the plague. Europe was desimated. I can't remember the exactlyloss, but either 1/3 or 2/3's of the population was wiped out.

Natural disasters are also missing, such as floods. When the Yellow River in China flooded 1897, the river completely changed its route to the sea by thousands of miles. Pompii was completely destroyed by a volcano. These events would cause millions to perish.

The disappearance of the jungle does make many unhappy in ones civilization as well as in other civilizations. The destruction of forrests and jungles should add to a civilizations global unhappiness factor. Thus, adding fuel to the fire between civilizations, creating instability. Possibly creating revolts in cities near the destruction.

Obviously, there are things I feel are missing, but I am still thrilled with the game.

[Datajack Franit]

I thought about allowing troops to BURN forests and jungles to cause vasts fires throughout the continent and destroy all the crops