No terrain restrictions on buildings?

[Ancient One]

For example, in the description for Flax Field it says it's restricted to plains, but I'm getting the option to build it in a forest region. Is this a bug? Maybe this also explains all the scorched desert regions that end up with 20+ population later in the game. I really hope this gets fixed.

[vakarr]

Nothing wrong with a scorched desert region that has a high population - that describes Egypt, though perhaps you should have to put in the level three irrigation system to get it

[Ancient One]

No that doesn't describe Egypt. None of the regions with desert or scorched desert terrain in the game had ever had high populations in real life, and the amount of irrigation required to make that happen was never feasible, even in modern times.

Anyway I'd like someone to comment why some building descriptions list terrain type as a limit but it isn't actually applied.

[PDiFolco]

No that doesn't describe Egypt. None of the regions with desert or scorched desert terrain in the game had ever had high populations in real life, and the amount of irrigation required to make that happen was never feasible, even in modern times.

Anyway I'd like someone to comment why some building descriptions list terrain type as a limit but it isn't actually applied.

Yes I also wonder a bit on how desert or mountain ranges can have such a high pop...

[WG]

There are terrain restrictions. For example, in arid regions, you can't build orchards, vineyards, farms, flax fields, or clear water. Hunter lodges, sawmills, and hunting grounds have to be in forests. Large farms require open terrain. Quarries require rough terrain. Fisheries have to be built on the coast. And so on.

[guanotwozero]

Nothing wrong with a scorched desert region that has a high population - that describes Egypt, though perhaps you should have to put in the level three irrigation system to get it

Have a look at Egypt with Google Earth - you'll see that the inhabited areas are almost all along the Nile valley & delta, where the river irrigates rich farmland. Away from the valley, the dry desert has very little sign of habitation - just occasional mines and oases, like Fayum (known in antiquity as Moeris).

In FoGE, try selecting the population map overlay, and you'll see Ptolemy's Egypt only has heavily populated zones along the river and Moeris, much like today.

It was many millennia before Ptolemy (or even the Old Kingdom) that the climate allowed savanna and lakes in what is now the desert, such as at Nabta Playa: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nabta_Playa