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I was thinking about ED and how to do it better than SMAC and how to fit it into SMACX. I'm actually going to use the term pollution for the general nasty stuff which heavy industry spews out, and ecodamage for when it actually bothers planet, although the terms are rather interchangeable...
A major change:
Pollution/Ecodamage is per-tile rather than per city.
Pollution Sources:
Every improvement generates some pollution, both on the tile and on adjacent tiles (these being separate in the XML).
Bases generate pollution according to their production and population, this pollution spews out into the neighboring land.
Pollution Sinks:
Features like forest and fungus absorb pollution.
Bare land also absorbs a small amount of pollution.
Water absorbs pollution.
Pollution Spread:
Pollution would spread out, for example a borehole or large base would generate immense amounts of pollution which would spread over a large area, it would take many turns for the pollution to go away even if the source is destroyed. Basically it spreads out and is absorbed into the sinks, or it builds up and slowly rots the land.
Ecodamage:
As a minor event, when pollution flows into fungus, especially beyond the fungus's ability to absorb it, planet gets VERY mad. The fungus will start generating very hostile mindworms. The pollution would eventually kill the fungus if it becomes intense enough.
As a major event, every player would have a "Ecodamage bar", it fills up as pollution is generated, once it is nearly full there is a chance each turn that a major "pop" event will happen, this pop would happen in a very polluted area (or even multiple areas, with later pops). Each successive major pop would require more ecodamage than the last, but it would be bigger. The interface would give some indication of when and where the pop would happen, although it wouldn't be completely predictable. A major pop would blanket multiple tiles with fungus and spawn a bunch of worms, with the polluted fungus generating yet more worms each turn, until the mess is cleaned up or dies back off. The idea of making it a major event, is to reduce the "whack a mole" factor, while increasing the threat presented by Planet.
Two Approaches to Combat ED:
Scourge the land (you know you want to). Eliminating all fungus would prevent minor pops, but would also pretty much inevitably lead to major pops and the climate change would be generally undesirable. Eliminating the fungus would ramp up pollution since it removes a pollution sink. Of course as a bonus you get the Planet Pearls from killing off the angry worms, but it wouldn't quite be a reliable, unlimited income, since a major pop might well require the mobilization of most of your army.
Likely killing off more fungus would weaken planet (it would take longer to prepare a major pop), as in if everyone on planet makes a concerted effort to eliminate the fungus, Planet would eventually die (you know you want to), of course a cult-style rogue faction could preserve heaps of fungus
.
The major downside of completely killing planet with massive pollution is that the terrain would rot
Walk with Planet: Planting forests would cause more pollution to be sucked up, old forests would absorb a lot more pollution, making it very much an investment thing.
Tree Farms would increase the pollution sucked up by forests. C.Preserves would increase the pollution sucked up by fungus (they could be a terrain improvement maybe which also prevents fungus from dying).
Increasing the Planet Rating would generally reduce pollution generation across the board, I would go with Planet Rating decreasing pollution by an absolute amount - ie each level of planet might reduce improvement ED by 4. A farm, with 10 ED, is neutralized at Planet 3. A borehole, with 125 ED, barely cares about even maximum planet. In other words, green doesn't make heavy industry clean. However a stand of 8 mature forests would handle the pollution from a single borehole, so a green player could sustain a low density of heavy industry.
What do you think?
A major change:
Pollution/Ecodamage is per-tile rather than per city.
Pollution Sources:
Every improvement generates some pollution, both on the tile and on adjacent tiles (these being separate in the XML).
Bases generate pollution according to their production and population, this pollution spews out into the neighboring land.
Pollution Sinks:
Features like forest and fungus absorb pollution.
Bare land also absorbs a small amount of pollution.
Water absorbs pollution.
Pollution Spread:
Pollution would spread out, for example a borehole or large base would generate immense amounts of pollution which would spread over a large area, it would take many turns for the pollution to go away even if the source is destroyed. Basically it spreads out and is absorbed into the sinks, or it builds up and slowly rots the land.
Ecodamage:
As a minor event, when pollution flows into fungus, especially beyond the fungus's ability to absorb it, planet gets VERY mad. The fungus will start generating very hostile mindworms. The pollution would eventually kill the fungus if it becomes intense enough.
As a major event, every player would have a "Ecodamage bar", it fills up as pollution is generated, once it is nearly full there is a chance each turn that a major "pop" event will happen, this pop would happen in a very polluted area (or even multiple areas, with later pops). Each successive major pop would require more ecodamage than the last, but it would be bigger. The interface would give some indication of when and where the pop would happen, although it wouldn't be completely predictable. A major pop would blanket multiple tiles with fungus and spawn a bunch of worms, with the polluted fungus generating yet more worms each turn, until the mess is cleaned up or dies back off. The idea of making it a major event, is to reduce the "whack a mole" factor, while increasing the threat presented by Planet.
Two Approaches to Combat ED:
Scourge the land (you know you want to). Eliminating all fungus would prevent minor pops, but would also pretty much inevitably lead to major pops and the climate change would be generally undesirable. Eliminating the fungus would ramp up pollution since it removes a pollution sink. Of course as a bonus you get the Planet Pearls from killing off the angry worms, but it wouldn't quite be a reliable, unlimited income, since a major pop might well require the mobilization of most of your army.
Likely killing off more fungus would weaken planet (it would take longer to prepare a major pop), as in if everyone on planet makes a concerted effort to eliminate the fungus, Planet would eventually die (you know you want to), of course a cult-style rogue faction could preserve heaps of fungus
.The major downside of completely killing planet with massive pollution is that the terrain would rot
Walk with Planet: Planting forests would cause more pollution to be sucked up, old forests would absorb a lot more pollution, making it very much an investment thing.
Tree Farms would increase the pollution sucked up by forests. C.Preserves would increase the pollution sucked up by fungus (they could be a terrain improvement maybe which also prevents fungus from dying).
Increasing the Planet Rating would generally reduce pollution generation across the board, I would go with Planet Rating decreasing pollution by an absolute amount - ie each level of planet might reduce improvement ED by 4. A farm, with 10 ED, is neutralized at Planet 3. A borehole, with 125 ED, barely cares about even maximum planet. In other words, green doesn't make heavy industry clean. However a stand of 8 mature forests would handle the pollution from a single borehole, so a green player could sustain a low density of heavy industry.
What do you think?
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