I'd really like to see more terraforming magic.  It would be desirable to get rid of forests simply because they spawn monsters and inflict a terrible speed penalty, let alone the fact you can't build on them.

I haven't checked to see if the burning sands desert conversion spell will convert them or not. Mana is generally too precious to use in this fashion, anyways.

Conceptually, it's frustrating to have your SOV be able to raise mountains out of the sea, or cleave them in two to walk through them, or scorch large swaths of landscape with great gouts of flame, but they are stymied by some trees out of an inability to engage in a little gardening.

My sovereign doesn't give a crap about trees.  I'm in the process of conquering the world so I can devote all available people and resources to a knock-down, drag-out war on nature.

It makes less sense to be a demigod with the power to manipulate the land, but can't touch forests. It should be an option to cultivate or destroy. Besides, agriculturally cleared land is what rebuilds civs, not pristine forests. Of course a rebuilding civ would cut trees as needed.

Even Morgus trembles before Al Gore.

Bust out the spell that turns a square into desert (I forget what it's called, barren land perhaps?)  It sucks mana, but clears the trees faster than any logging crew.

Yeah, I was thinking that, but mana is generally too precious to waste on landscaping.  Maybe once they tweak the regen rates.

Not in favor of giving the task to pioneers though, a la Civ engineers, unless it's  completely automated. The game definitely doesn't need more individual unit micro. Especially when working in a forest where a gang of spiders is likely to spawn on top of him every few turns.

I'd like to be able to click on the forrest tile & have the 2 options; Logging Mill a +1/2 Mats building (would be nice if it was locked as wild so can never be part of a city) or Clear Forest which would take some Guildar and take say 10 turns, once its done you'd get some mats & a clear tile.

As well as giving the pioneers pack a clear terrain ability that can remove forest & city ruins.

Also Cities not being able to be built on roads needs to go.

 You can easily mod a new spell that clears trees. 

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="iso-8859-1"?>

<Spells>

    <DataChecksum NoParse="1">

        <Ignore>DisplayName,Description,IconFG,IconBG,IconColor,SoundFX,ParticleEffect,EffectScale</Ignore>

        <Translate>DisplayName,Description</Translate>

    </DataChecksum>

    <SpellDef InternalName="ClearForest">

        <DisplayName>Clear Forest</DisplayName>

        <Description>Clears aways pesky forest</Description>

        <Image>BG_ReviveLand.png</Image>

        <IconFG>Spellseed1.png</IconFG>

        <IconBG>Spellseed1_BG.png</IconBG>

        <IconColor>245,245,245</IconColor>

        <SoundFX>Cast_ReviveLand</SoundFX>

        <ManaCost>5.0</ManaCost>

        <Range>3</Range>

        <Cooldown>0</Cooldown>

        <SpellLevel>5</SpellLevel>

        <SpellType>Strategic</SpellType>

        <SpellClass>Terraform</SpellClass>

        <SpellTargetType>NeutralGround</SpellTargetType>

        <ValidTerrainCategory>Forest</ValidTerrainCategory>

        <SpellDefEffect>

            <EffectName>Revive_Land</EffectName>

            <LocalPosition>0,0,0</LocalPosition>

            <EffectScale>0.25</EffectScale>

            <EffectDelay>0.0</EffectDelay>

            <SnapToTerrain>1</SnapToTerrain>

       </SpellDefEffect>

       <GameModifier InternalName="PlaceTerrain">

            <ModType>Map</ModType>

            <Attribute>PlaceTerrain</Attribute>

            <TerrainType>Land</TerrainType>

            <Value>0</Value>

        </GameModifier>

     </SpellDef>

    <Spellbook InternalName="EarthSpellbook">

        <SpellbookNode InternalName="Node12">  

            <NodeID>12</NodeID>

            <SpellDef>ClearForest</SpellDef>  

             <StartingResearch>1</StartingResearch>

        </SpellbookNode>

     </Spellbook>

</Spells>

Clear forest was one of the first spells I made testing the mod waters. 

Elemental: War of the Druids?