Why no sea resources, EVER!?

I don't know about you, maybe it's just the maps that I choose (usually Fractal or Continents) but it seems that literally 9/10 times I get a coastal start, there are absolutely NO sea resources (or, at best, just one fish) within working distance of my capital.

Is this a thing that other people notice? Am I just unlucky?

Unlucky.

I get peeved with coastal spots have got no fishes either. You may want to try out the Communitas mapscript if you haven't already. I have been having better luck getting coastal spots with that mapscript I think, seems like it anyhow..it also makes nice maps in general

Actually you are much better off if your starting primary luxaries are land ones than sea ones.
I'd also argue that your better off if the bonus resources near your starting settler are land ones compared to sea ones.

There should be other cities out there that could have a good coastal start. If your city didn't have such a good start, why not try another city with a good coastal start since that is what you want, it seems, and then capture it. Or, you could also get a cs ally. Cs allies can also give you the luxurious sea resources that you want when your capital didn't have as many luxury resources.

A better question is why sea resources are so crappy before you get the lighthouse. 2 food from fish? yipeeee.........

Yes, I've noticed this too. In fact I've started 2 different threads on it. If I specifically start a game with a naval civ then I want 3+ sea resources in my capital, but that's only happened like two times every year I've played. Usually it's empty ocean.

joncnunn said:

Actually you are much better off if your starting primary luxaries are land ones than sea ones.
I'd also argue that your better off if the bonus resources near your starting settler are land ones compared to sea ones.

Click to expand...

I disagree. Simply because fish improved with a lighthouse are so good. So having 1-2 sea luxes that turn into food/production power tiles in addition to 1-2 fish makes for a great return on a small investment. I mean if you are starting with 0 fish, then obviously sea luxes are pointless. But if you have fish then you theoretically want as many luxes in the water as you can get. Hence the frustration of almost never getting bundled sea resources in capitals.

Hemul said:

A better question is why sea resources are so crappy before you get the lighthouse. 2 food from fish? yipeeee.........

Click to expand...

Well, because they are running on the same logic as all other bonus resources, +1 to base tile yield, just with a worse base tile yield.

GhostSalsa said:

I disagree. Simply because fish improved with a lighthouse are so good. So having 1-2 sea luxes that turn into food/production power tiles in addition to 1-2 fish makes for a great return on a small investment. I mean if you are starting with 0 fish, then obviously sea luxes are pointless. But if you have fish then you theoretically want as many luxes in the water as you can get. Hence the frustration of almost never getting bundled sea resources in capitals.

Click to expand...

It's only the capital for which I prefer land resources to sea ones.
Sailing is very much off the path to Philosophy.

For your second city; fish is better than most bonus resources.
A sea luxury for your second city is also okay.

However, I find starts where a sea luxury was your primary luxury to be extremely slow starts.
(Workboats consumed after only use; and fishing boats are much higher risk from barbs pillaging than improvements on land tiles)

try other mapscripts. There are a bunch of good ones. And, there are some advanced setup mods that allow you to have a lot of control over mapscript settings such as distribution of resources. Sounds like you're really looking for the "legendary start" resource setting.

Hmm.. I noticed a tendency of not having a decent sea start when playing seafaring civ, yes. And then I find AI Carthage who has 3 crab and 2-3 fish in their capital.

But then again I don't remember ever getting much out of a game where I did land a good sea start.

I have a somewhat contrary opinion in that if I am going to have a couple coastal expos, I like my capital to be coastal too, so that I can send workboats from there to the expos. But I agree that coastal starts are slow...

joncnunn said:

fishing boats are much higher risk from barbs pillaging than improvements on land tiles

Click to expand...

Did this change with BNW? I have never seen barbarians pillage a work boat.

beetle said:

I have a somewhat contrary opinion in that if I am going to have a couple coastal expos, I like my capital to be coastal too, so that I can send workboats from there to the expos. But I agree that coastal starts are slow...

Did this change with BNW? I have never seen barbarians pillage a work boat.

Click to expand...

Fishing boat improvement: Yes; a wounded naval barb unit is highly likely to pillage the improvement to regenerate some health.

Work boat civilian unit: I've never seen anybody lose that ; but even with embassies I don't really pay attention to what's going on near my rivals capitals.

joncnunn said:

Fishing boat improvement: Yes; a wounded naval barb unit is highly likely to pillage the improvement to regenerate some health.

Click to expand...

Just park a worker on it, and if wounded too far, you can even rotate a couple of them in and out long enough for one of your ships to get there. I've even had barb ships suicide against seaborne workers. I think workers are like crack to them... they can't resist attacking.

Depends, but yes, I have found a tendency to get unlucky sea starts. You are more likely to get a sea resource-rich area if you play small/Large Archipelago I've found but general continental starts often have sucky sea resource numbers.

I once started a game, found myself in an okay coastal capital start but not great but founded anyway. Moved over farther up the continent and found a freaking beautiful spot just 7 squares over with literally 5-6 fish, 2-3 wines, 2 other unique luxuries, and lots of river tiles. wtf? Start me there you stupid mapscript! Still made a sweet second city though, just slower start.