[.295] Suggestion[Ability to use Forest areas not under production for City Expansion needs]

some times the forests are insanely large while theres not much trees else where on the map.

I second (third?) your suggestion, and follow it up with a suggestion that you edit your subject line so it summarizes your suggestion

Or how about being able to use the "demolish building" button in the Build function to raze forest (or anything else on a tile, for that matter) back into "basic" land, as well (rename button "raze tile", or something like that)?

"I second (third?) your suggestion, and follow it up with a suggestion that you edit your subject line so it summarizes your suggestion "

Me too.

Perhaps a variety of magical solutions could be implemented.  Currently, Earth elemental magic can lower and then raise the land to make it clear. 

+Perhaps Fire could initiate a "controlled burn"?

+Perhaps Wind could breathe life into them, making one square into one Ent monster?

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Magic could be used, but, if and when real Magic usage needs of Mana becomes more essential for truly critical needs, expending it for clearing Forests might become a low priority and thus negate that possiblilty.

How about as the Mill collect the Lumber, the area around the Mill proper slowly become devoid and usable? As an aside, if you build a mill on a small tract then it would run out of Trees to harvest, forcing you to seek a new location, or have all your lumber Caravaned in.

I live in a real 'urban forest.' The idea of magically burning or manually clear-cutting forests seems to defeat the point of the OP?

One big reason I like the idea is that it should drive some art that could help make cities more visually distinctive, kind of Rivendell vs. Minas Tirith. And maybe 'mixed' cities with a forested quarter, a hilly quarter, a riverfont quarter, etc.

Remember the dev-journal request for ideas on road building......maybe the road-builder units some have suggested could be general-purpose engineers, and could also clear forests (?)

Another idea: it would be interesting if certain things like mansions could ONLY be built on forests.  Right now I think it's lumber mills ONLY, which currently isn't great because you never need more than one but your city might be surrounded in forest.

Additionally, not much is currently being done with magic, so some practical ideas wouldn't hurt.

No fundamental objections to forest-razing as an option from me; I just had an alternative interpreation of what it means to "use" forest tiles. They currently seem to be uninhabitable except by folks producing wood as a resource. Two of the three prominent cities in Lord of the Rings are forest cities, so I thought it would be nice if Elemental had both art & functionality to make forest cities possible in the game.

Re the primitive state of the magic system, I guess I also assumed that the much-discussed Populous style big spells would make levelling forests magically possible, at least by the late game. Using magic or muscle to clear small parts of forest could also be a good hook for quests and/or interaction with independent powers.

I see what you mean.  Perhpas there could be a racial trait to allow building on forests and hunting for food.  The cities would be better protected because it takes longer to travel on forest tiles and not everyone bothers to explore vast acres of forest.

Is building your city in the middle of a forest really a good idea? As an evil player, I hope I have the ability to burn down said forest destroying your city without losing a man- or at least causing signifigant damage, allowing my troops to roll in once the fire dies down and roll over it without much trouble.....

EDIT: And based on the screenshot even better- your up against some mountains - If I start the fires in just two directions you'd be completly trapped.

Being able to clear some forest would indeed be a very important addition.

Woot double post forum lag.

You don't need a forest to burn down a city, and a healthy forest might well be harder to burn down than a town with mostly wooden buildings. If it's a rainforest, you'd probably need to soften it up with some kind of drought/dehydration spell before you could get any serious fire going at all.