The main problem with terrain not visually updating is it can make warfare confusing and cumbersome. Terrain is important in determining the fog of war, attrition, army speed, unit type advantages, frontage, etc of a location. Switching map modes to get accurate info on the vegetation of the region every time you want to move a unit can become quite annoying.Yeah and my interpretation was that was the thing they can't code to change. But I think it's fine if it's like 'I have turned this barren desert into fertile farmlands! ... still looks like a desert though' since I imagine the view from space won't change.
What'd be weirder is if you could level a mountain and turn it into a swamp. Since there's the 3d element to things. But I think even in fantasy mods that'll likely not to be a problem that comes up.
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