Alpha Centauri 2

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri & Alien Crossfire => The Theory of Everything => Topic started by: Yitzi on April 16, 2013, 03:52:13 am

Title: Global warming occurrence formula
Post by: Yitzi on April 16, 2013, 03:52:13 am

Once again, access to the code, and working with it for patch/modding purposes, has enabled me to find one of the undescribed formulas; this time, it's for when a fungal pop will trigger global warming (water rising).  So here it is (I'm pretty sure it's correct):

1. Find the current water level (0 is what it starts as; it's increased by global warming and the "Melt the Polar Ice Caps" council action, and lowered by launching a solar shade, but it only counts the "Global sea levels are rising dramatically!" and "Global sea levels are falling dramatically!" messages that come with actual changes, not the "the sea will rise/fall X amount over the next Y years" messages.  Each message increases/decreases it by 1.)  Multiply this by 3.
2. Divide this by the "Sea level rises" value from ALPHAX worldbuilding.
3. Add 6.
4. Count the number of worm-producing fungal pops (by any faction) since the last time a "the water has begun rising" message appeared.  If this is at least as much as the result from step 3, the water will begin to rise.

Title: Re: Global warming occurrence formula
Post by: I-T on April 18, 2013, 05:08:57 pm

Would it be possible to patch it or put in an option so it doesn't rise say more than 600m or so?

Forever rising seas would only make sense if the Planet mind were assholish and kept rising the seafloor via induced volcanism or something..

Title: Re: Global warming occurrence formula
Post by: Yitzi on April 18, 2013, 05:21:12 pm

Quote from: I-T on April 18, 2013, 05:08:57 pm

Would it be possible to patch it or put in an option so it doesn't rise say more than 600m or so?

Forever rising seas would only make sense if the Planet mind were assholish and kept rising the seafloor via induced volcanism or something..

600m is pretty ridiculously low; it's less than a single "raise/lower terrain" command's worth.  But it would not be too difficult to add a feature that limits how high it can go; keep it in mind for when I start taking requests.

Title: Re: Global warming occurrence formula
Post by: Buster's Uncle on April 18, 2013, 05:25:51 pm

There's a wish list thread sticiked in Bug/Patch, not that it obligates the coders...

Title: Re: Global warming occurrence formula
Post by: Lord Avalon on April 18, 2013, 09:50:03 pm

Quote from: Yitzi on April 18, 2013, 05:21:12 pm

600m is pretty ridiculously low

LOL.  And some silly earthlings are worried about seas rising a few lousy meters. 

Title: Re: Global warming occurrence formula
Post by: Yitzi on April 18, 2013, 10:12:24 pm

Quote from: Lord Avalon on April 18, 2013, 09:50:03 pm

Quote from: Yitzi on April 18, 2013, 05:21:12 pm

600m is pretty ridiculously low

LOL.  And some silly earthlings are worried about seas rising a few lousy meters.

Well, once you add in more complicated climate and weather effects and beachfront property, a few meters becomes a lot more significant.  But SMAX doesn't have that.

Even 600m is quite significant in terms of being worried about it; it's just ridiculously low for an absolute cap on what can happen (at least from a game perspective)

Title: Re: Global warming occurrence formula
Post by: I-T on April 19, 2013, 10:11:15 am

Worst that could happen on Earth would be seas rising by ~73 m. Not sure if that's with thermal expansion counted in.

Quote

600m is pretty ridiculously low; it's less than a single "raise/lower terrain" command's worth.

It's too high by default, seems to me.

Title: Re: Global warming occurrence formula
Post by: Yitzi on April 19, 2013, 02:39:28 pm

Quote from: I-T on April 19, 2013, 10:11:15 am

Worst that could happen on Earth would be seas rising by ~73 m. Not sure if that's with thermal expansion counted in.

Quote

600m is pretty ridiculously low; it's less than a single "raise/lower terrain" command's worth.

It's too high by default, seems to me.

It means that after two rises, it wouldn't rise any more.  Now, that might be more than is realistic, but it's less than makes for good gameplay.

To have something that's both realistic and gameplay-significant, you would really need to have either more than one elevation per square, or differences between squares being a lot less than 1000m.

Title: Re: Global warming occurrence formula
Post by: arcozelo on May 30, 2014, 07:55:11 am

Quote from: Yitzi on April 16, 2013, 03:52:13 am

4. Count the number of worm-producing fungal pops (by any faction) since the last time a "the water has begun rising" message appeared.  If this is at least as much as the result from step 3, the water will begin to rise.

I've just tried cranking one base up to as high eco-damage as i could and covering all squares around it with units so as to not allow the spawning of worms with pops. Still had global warming (exploit failed), so "worm-producing fungal pops" must mean any pop after the first worm producing one, even when there are no worms.

Using your 2.5j patch.

Title: Re: Global warming occurrence formula
Post by: Yitzi on May 30, 2014, 04:17:47 pm

Quote from: arcozelo on May 30, 2014, 07:55:11 am

Quote from: Yitzi on April 16, 2013, 03:52:13 am

4. Count the number of worm-producing fungal pops (by any faction) since the last time a "the water has begun rising" message appeared.  If this is at least as much as the result from step 3, the water will begin to rise.

I've just tried cranking one base up to as high eco-damage as i could and covering all squares around it with units so as to not allow the spawning of worms with pops. Still had global warming (exploit failed), so "worm-producing fungal pops" must mean any pop after the first worm producing one, even when there are no worms.

Using your 2.5j patch.

Maybe I should clarify: If a pop does not spawn worms because there's nowhere for them to go, or even (I think) because the Voice of Planet has been built, it still counts.  But if a pop doesn't spawn worms because the first few pops don't spawn worms, then it doesn't.