What are the chances of saltpeter appearing when you discover gunpowder?

Saltpeter will always appear when you discover gunpowder. Whether it will be inside your territory depends on the number of civs vs. the mapsize.

And what sort of territory you have. Even though desert squares are not the best for growing, a lot of good resources appear on it.

As a general question, does anyone know, using the default settings, whether there are standard numbers of strategic resources per map size, and if so what they are? There are, of course, fewer in CSC than earlier versions.

And what sort of territory you have. Even though desert squares are not the best for growing, a lot of good resources appear on it.
Indeed, it's always worth settling desert areas asap, to claim the resources that appear later in the game! Same with Tundra, oil oil oil!!!

And what sort of territory you have. Even though desert squares are not the best for growing, a lot of good resources appear on it.

What you talkin about bad? :wow:

Agricultural civs rock on desert, its AWESOME! :thumbsup:

If you use CivAssist (see link in my signature), the "Miscellaneous" tab has a resource finder - will locate any resource for which you have hte pre-requisite tech on any explored tile on the map.

What you talkin about bad? :wow:

Agricultural civs rock on desert, its AWESOME! :thumbsup:

Haha. Well, okay, its still not "the best" for growth is it? :)

No, I guess you're right.

I once had a game (standard size) where across the entire map there were only 3 saltpeter(unless I missed some), but almost nobody(including me) had any saltpeter that game.

AFAIK, there is a minimum amount of each stratigic resource on the map (not sure whether difficulty level changes it) . On regent i think there are 8 horses, 8 iron, 7 saltpeter, 7 coal, 6 rubber, 6 oil, 6 aluminium, 6 uranium

It might have been a smaller map, i cant remember. Also one large civ could have been hording it all. I hate it when alot of one resource will appear close together in one civs territory.

AFAIK, there is a minimum amount of each stratigic resource on the map (not sure whether difficulty level changes it) . On regent i think there are 8 horses, 8 iron, 7 saltpeter, 7 coal, 6 rubber, 6 oil, 6 aluminium, 6 uranium

I forgot to mention that the data is for standard map size with 7 AIs.

It's usually better to settle near plains because they contain the same resources, or settle on the edge of a desert and then expand culturally