Another pollution question.

[Curley123]

I normally don't drop a lot of units from space next to enemy cities but in my last game I used it a lot to see how it worked.
It worked very will but all of a sudden pollution started showing up in a big way. Some times I would get 20+ spots of pollution. Not only that but usually it appears near the city that is causing the pollution but this time it was all over the entire planet.

I stopped using my Space Ladder and the problem seemed to stop too. It was hard to tell because there were so many pollution tiles and it takes quite a while to clean them up.

Anyone notice this before? Is this "as intended"?

It's a great way to get your units out there in a hurry but, OMG, what a deterent.
I could not find anything written down anywhere about this except that the Space Ladder is SUPPOSED to be non-polluting.
Maybe pollution is caaused by re-entry or something.

Lol, my score is usually 180+ but this time it was 21.

BTW, is there some way to set a "way point"?
I would like to see some way to automatically have all new war units to to a new spot where I can form them up and procede from there.

Thanks.

[PatRussell]

If I understand things correctly, the Star Ladder only works in the city that it was built in. So, any movement to or from space in that city would cause no pollution but any other locations would still contribute significantly to the pollution levels. Again, this is my understanding of how things work, I could be wrong.

No idea on the waypoint. I usually give the command to move to a certain spot & the units will continue to move until it is reached or something is blocking them.

[Curley123]

I can't see how re-entry of units would cause pollution but evidently it does.

I went to a saved game where I had TONS of pollution and played it again without using the Starladder to launch units for quick transport. No extra pollution.
Lame game mechanic to keep you from doing that I guess.

A way point is a automatic way of forwarding new units to another place. For example. all new units produced at city X GOTO city Y (ar as far as they can).

[J Bytheway]

Originally posted by Curley123
A way point is a automatic way of forwarding new units to another place. For example. all new units produced at city X GOTO city Y (ar as far as they can).

And there is no way of using such things in CTP.

[alanlyons]

OK. My first post. Pollution can be pain, but I think you can turn it to your advantage. I have found it only becomes a problem if you have at least 2 AI using communism in a big military way. Infact the game seems to be programmed for some AIs to determinedly ruin the planet as quickly as possible. When you take over their cities in polluting games, you always find Oil refinery, Robotic plant, Airport etc. No Nuclear plant, no fusion plant, no nothing.

If you find yourself in a game like this, there is no way you can stop it (unless you are so powerful you are the defacto winner anyway), so don't bother spending production on your own cities trying to make them cleaner. You yourself are unlikely to be the problem. Instead get Sea Engineer as quickly as possible and then start churning those babies out. If you can get 10-15 sea cities early, you are almost certain to win the game. It is even worth selling improvements in your most exposed coastal towns immediately prior to them sinking into the sea.

Also re: Nukes. I have yet to determine if the pollution unhappiness from Nukes effects only the originating civ or all civs. I think it is all. In which case I have found that you need to get a happiness wonder like Contraception (that will reduce your worries re: pollution, whilst unhappy AI has to crank down his production to avoid revolt). Then use subs in conjunction with aircraft carriers. I find that usually opponent has war-walkers (I play deity, giant map) by the time you have enough production/tech to do this, but just: load up two subs with 2 nukes each. Load up aircraft carrier with fighters/interceptors, send flotilla into opponents territory. Send interceptor next to city. It will get shot down, but will deplete cities active defenc for that round. Then send in Nuke. If opponent has SDI, you can apply a similar tactic to stacks that are located adjacent to opponent cities (which wipes out defence in city as well). You can kill 15 units and bollock up his two main cities with this strategy, no probs. Ideally, also take a couple of troop ships so that you can then occupy the cities next turn.

[J Bytheway]

Not sure about nukes, but I know space launching pollution causes unhappiness.