No, nothing. In Elemental, there has been a world-shattering Cataclysm and the entire world is more or less dead.

I settled near a forest, because I thought it looked beautifull. So basically I started a new game once I saw it would cost me what 25 Gildar to clear all that. So that is like 500 Gildar to clear land. No fun at all if not really getting anything but loosing money.

Something to keep in mind. Doing something that does not add fun is not good. Clearing trees just to have cleared land, just doesn't seem much fun if not getting anything else in return. It's easier to start over again than starting near forests.

Maybe it should provide a prestige bonus for being beautiful for Kingdoms and a Material production bonus for Empires. 

Actually, in some early versions of the game, you had to build lumber camps on top of forest tiles to get materials.

I still wonder why that got changed, since it would make the map more interesting.

Interesting, didn´t know that.

@Wintersong: it wouldn´t have to be forests, hills or even mountains could provide some materials with a mine that could be built.
Or you could get away from the necessity to construct buildings alltogether and just give material and food based on the value that would be given by the terrain tiles within the cities radius. This way each type of terrain would need to have a value for food and material productiveness, but that´s something I would want to have anyway.

Why is that?

While this makes sense in a lore related way, it makes for a very boring map. And imo, gameplay always trumps narrative.

LOL, you have got to be kidding.

I wonder if the mountains I create are actually filled with air, I will have to attempt popping one of them.

Mmmm... A world made of marshmallows, ooo, and if that brownish water is chocolate sryup that would be sweet. Are the houses made of graham crackers perchance?

There are many ways of thinking about this issue. From a lore perspective, I was just trying to satisfy the audience. This is what I tell myself as I play to increase the immersion factor.

From a gameplay perspective, nodes create strategic points worth fighting over. If every tile added a small amount, city spam would be more viable and there would just be too much stuff to harvest, leaving us with too much material, or no way of cutting off the enemy's supply.

From a logical perspective, there would be no limit to what could be harvested from the land, until everything ran out. This is what is really happening to our world and doesn't really seem like a good aspect of a fantasy game.

Nodes work. Nodes are well balanced and simple, while not simplistic. Certainly it has been done other ways and we are all entitled to our opinions, but why try denying that the world is barren, when from what I understand that is the point of most of the map, creating a feeling of emptiness that the user then fills.

My idea that the changes are merely cosmetic fits very well into the actual function of the game, except that with the new version you can cut down forests, which I am deeply annoyed by, because you can't build on the land after it is cleared. 

As to the idea of life vs. death influence: there were supposed to be life spells and death spells in one of the original conceptualizations of the game. Kingdom territory was supposed to emit life, while Empire sucked it from the land. As of now we get bonus and penalties to drive this home. I agree, not very driven. The simple fact that so much has been cut out and so much has been added or drastically changed has made certain holes in expressing some of the core concepts. 

There are obviously some areas that need explanation and as a purveyor of fiction I would like to offer my own lore up as a solution to many holes in the fabric of Elemental. 

I thought the eternally barren thing wasn't half bad. 

Somewhere else, I'm pretty sure I posted something about the project's Single Biggest Mistake being a failure to put content as at least first among equals with engine development when it came to resource allocation and scheduling. Good engines last through several projects, at least. Good titles rise and fall on the strength of their content, even if that content is something as simple as the 'universe' for a game like Worms.

I haven't loved a 'twitch' game since the late '70s when most of us still had to get to and stand up in an arcade to do all that furious fondling of input devices. But back when Worms was young, a deck-loving friend of mine persuaded me to give it a try, and I had some fun. Was it because I loved the visuals? Only secondarily. The real fun for me was the idea of worms with crazy weapons. Content.

Elemental pre-mid-beta was similar for me. The ideas were very engaging, enough that I had fun just thinking about what the first beta build might be like. But somehow as the builds passed, the engine rolled over many of those ideas. Now, instead of knowing details about life & death magic and how restoring/whatever-ing lands works, essence is gone from the game and the terrain differences are a set of art assets mixed with a designed-by-committee set of bland combat modifiers.

And we're left with forests whose only apparent functionality anchor is that they are part of the GUI. I still want to know why there is no set of faction traits that mean you need to found cities on different terrains. The ideas came up very early on the boards. They didn't require that the game include elves or dwarves or lizardmen. Sure, there was a visuals burden for the 3D layer, but it still seems plausible to me that a large-enough audience would have accepted some art kludges in 3D in exchange for being able to have factions linked to the terrain types so that one faction's useless/obstructive forest was another faction's home.

Hopefully they will include mod tools allowing us to check what terrain types are within a city's boundaries, and apply bonuses based on that. Ability for custom buildings tied to terrain type, and city-level-up choices tied to terrain type would be a bounty for mod ideas even if SD doesn't want to use it themselves.

Agreed. I'm one of the "sometimes silent majority" that doesn't typically make or play with a mod. I prefer to play a game the way the developers intended it. I'm all for extensive modding support for those who will use it, but not something that interests me.

My 2 cents - the base game should always be enhanced ahead of modding support. That way provides the most benefit to the greatest number of players. Most of whom will never post on this forum.

Forests as a source of spawned monsters are quite useful. A good source of monsters is very handy to level your heroes (to get charisma to increase prestige). Especially good for stay-at-home heroes.

Raise Land will get rid of your forest without pay gold (can kill a 3x3 zone of them). This is also useful for accelerating exploration if you have the mana to spare. Its one of the reasons Raise Land is high on my learning list.