yea the pollution system is really bad, in my game at high pollution it jst said suddenly "the game ends in 1 turn due to too much pollution" and when u hover over the pollution marker it doenst state anywhere that this will happen and reducing pollution is a non factor as the AI doesnt seem to care about it

Tnecniw wrote:

I just finished my second game, where I got to the end where polution was a factor...
And honestly? not that big of a deal in my game :P

I honestly have had like 8000 pollution max, and didn't even notice it.... I didn't even know pollution did anything as I never felt the effects in 4 of my games..

UnfairDurian wrote:

I got to the contemporary age and most of my cities just collapsed. My biggest industrial city literally got to 0 population (-4 population due to low stability repeatedly hit me). Other cities, except the capital, all had 0 stability with several hundred points of stability malus due to pollution. I don't really understand why pollution applies any malus at all. The only effect should be on global warming potentially making the planet uninhabitable and maybe causing some natural disasters or something, not lowering your stability and production. The thing with pollution is that you screw the planet for your own benefit. 

Imagine if everyone became woke and realized we're destroying our world, and wanted it to stop happening? You'd see a whole lot of riots in the streets, and factories, smoke stacks, and other polluting industries get ransacked, pillaged, and destroyed.

It makes sense to me.

I killed the planet at about 38k pollution on default settings.

The pollution system is awful, they were TOLD not to add it without testing and they were like "nah bro its a cool system you will see, no testing required... just like we totally have end game resources spawn, no need to test late game" I have very low pollution in my biggest polluting cities and the game still ended early because the 2nd most powerful civ polluted too much, I gave them a warning to stop but the game ended right as I got enough war support to fight and even then, they were a big civ to take out. This game is so woke and left leaning its out of control. I can roll my eyes and move on when my WW2 rifleMEN have female voices but this over exaggeration of pollution ruins the game, that I can't overlook. It should take 3X the pollution levels to get to each point it currently does. Also, it's 2021 and we are still here... the vast majority of people in 1st and even 2nd world nations are healthy, pollution is not as big a deal as this game and Civ would have you believe. The game just coming to an abrupt end is just lazy and stupid, even if we exploded 100 nukes over the world right now, the world wouldn't end, people would live on. 

I killed the planet with a bunch of airports. Welp i guess getting all the environmentalist technologies and building all of them in all cities was all for nothing

sorry nobel prize winner who discovered FUSION POWER. What is easily one of the crowning achievements of the sciences means literally nothing in the grand scheme of things. 

I've died to pollution on my 2nd run due to my lack of knowledge. I saw IGNs review and they said they put their pollution on max and nothing happened. Obviously, they haven't played the game enough.

Not a single dev in sight......

I have not had problems with pollution but I think it warps the game a bit. For example, if you compare the Mughal EQ with the German EQ the Mughal is much better becuase they roughly net the same industry and the Mughal one doesn't pollute. What i normally do to avoid dealing with pollution is getting the French in industrial to speed-run the tech tree and finish the game before any AI empires even have the chance to pollute (because if left to their own the AI will pollute, and pollute, and pollute; even if they are not winning and ending the game is not beneficial for them). I think that, while this strategy works for me and gets me wins, it is very boring to play, as it limits what you can do as well as your culture choice. I would suggest implementing some CCUS (Carbon Capture Usage and Storage) or DAC (Direct Air Capture) technologies late in the contemporary era tech tree to be able to sequester CO2 and REDUCE, not just increase at a slower pace, the pollution level in the world. Even if these technologies are not comemrcially viable at the moment, they might be in a decade or two, and the tech tree already contains developments like nuclear fusion which are little more than science fiction at the moment.

Pollution is NOT well implemented as it currently stands. Here are my experiences and perspective.

Pollution in the real world has been a constant problem, but has shifted over time as to the issue. For example, all sorts of diseases happened in London until sewers were built, to avoid human waste getting into the water table as people were using wells. This happened in the mid-19th century. Another interesting example, horses were a major pollution problem and cars were originally seen as a solution to the problem of horse waste everywhere in cities. So, pollution does happen much earlier than some think of it just being a problem of the last few years or something for humanity.

But, Humankind does not represent this well. The system is very basic. Fortunately, due to another not fully implemented system of the late game tech tree, you can avoid some factors. It is possible to push down the tech tree for Nuclear, Fusion, and Renewable technologies, build them in cities, and then go back to pick up the industry buildings. BUT watch for the research and food buildings, as they don't get offset by clean energy. It is also safe to learn about, and harvest, oil and coal. And also safe to build any units. But yes, train stations, aerodromes and airports will still be a problem.

My feeling is that we are looking at a placeholder / balancing system that has been included as something needs to be in for pollution, but there needs to be a much better and well rounded one put in.

Tramapolean wrote:

My feeling is that we are looking at a placeholder / balancing system that has been included as something needs to be in for pollution, but there needs to be a much better and well rounded one put in.

It is a mechanic slapped over the game in the very last moment - rumor say that it was added already AFTER end of beta-test. Kinda speaks a lot about quality of implementation and how well it was thought...

I played the game all the way through to max technology tree and never even noticed pollution at all. Must have accidentally bypassed it? I didn't build any train stations or airports until way way late game, though.

Logist wrote:
rumor say that it was added already AFTER end of beta-test

Is it really a rumour? We were long after Poe OpenDev and pollution just randomly appeared in the notes about related game balance changes right before release, I remember thinking 'uh-oh' to myself back then.