Resources

[migthegreek]

1. Do certain resources have more chance of turning up on a map in larger quantities? e.g. I have almost never started near some gems. I find them to be really rare - like stone.

2. Do certain resources have more chance of turning up in clusters? Seems to be dye a lot...

3. Do these things differ from map to map? I have been playing Pangea a lot... should I switch to something else?

[Religionfanatic]

I seem to see cows grouped ALOT. Last game it was the beavers. I've seen dye as well. I would agree on gems seemingly rare.

[Religionfanatic]

thought it might be worth mentioning that the cow groupings were always in Great Plains Large (which kinda makes since I guess)

[Andorim]

It seems that the larger the map is, the better the distribution of resources.

Some resources seem to clump together more than others. I once saw a clump of 5 beavers in an arctic area where there was no way that a city could have ever grown large enough to work them all -- seems sort of silly.

[Zanmato]

It seems that Silk, Dye and Gems tend to appear in groups more often than the others. But they do make excellent financial/science city sites. I have seen a few grouping of deer also but these usually appear in poor tiles. The rest seem fairly well distributed on most maps, I usually play on Large maps.

[spinalcracker]

I have seen lots of wine tiles clustered together a few times. In one of my first games, my capital had 4 inside its 'fat cross', and another just outside it. But as Mig said, I have never started near gems and rarely near stone.

[Judge Dee]

I find that I frequently start near some kind of food resource, will often have a calendar resource a few tiles away, but I have terrible luck in starting near:
- iron
- copper
- stone
- marble
- silver
- gems

Anyone else find that there are resources that they pretty much never get near their start location?

[Octopus Rex]

Yeah me too, stone seems to be a stickler for me and iron too. Both really important and I have to fight for them every time. Nice. (No-one ever trades them either).

At first I thought it was rubbish but now I think I enjoy the way you don't know where it all is until you research it. It means that you can't plan it all right at the beginning. A bit of lady fortune never hurt a game...but then again too much takes all the fun away.

[Octopus Rex]

I think mainly the really important strategic stuff, iron, stone, horses, oil, coal, and the food resources, stuff like that, tends to turn up on its own and not in clusters, but the luxuries can come in big bunch especially beavers, dyes, gold (but I've never seen silver clustered yet).

[migthegreek]

No, I've never seen silver clustered, and certainly never started near it.

I always start near at least one food resource.

Fur is always clustered but normally in unworkable places, but that's ok - you just get as close as you can and extend your borders to go and get them.

Silver is very rare but still not as rare as gems for me. Never seen silver clustered either.

I have never had a problem with copper. Sometimes iron, but it's not too bad. I've missed out on aluminium a few times.

[Khalid]

I have had silver only once in my empire and it was in a bad place in the tundra. It is the rarest resource for me. I had more gold and gems than silver.

I dont have problems with copper or iron, food resources and calendar resources.

[nealhunt]

Tiles have a chance of a resources based on their traits, i.e. jungle tiles have lower chances of metal resources, high latitude tiles a better chance of fur, etc.. Based on that, it would seem logical that since similar tiles tend to appear together, similar resources would tend to be grouped just based on the Law of Averages.

[ownedbyakorat]

I find that jungles tend to have the densest resource clusters. Besides fur, you'll often find clusters of dye, silk, sugar, spice, and ivory.

Fur only appears in or next to tundra (might be on plains or ice, but always next to tundra).

Silver seems to appear at first only on tundra hills, though it can randomly appear just like any other mined resource.

With regards to war materiel, I have really really bad luck with copper, which almost never appears in my capital. I also have really bad luck finding horses when I play Hatty or Cyrus. I seem to do OK with iron, though... it's like my consolation prize for getting screwed on BW and AH.

Stone and marble... I usually have one, and only one, not too far away, but if it's not in my capital it might as well not appear until the middle ages.

[Andrei_V]

If you want clustered Gold/Silver (usually with enough food to work it early), try Great Plains. Once in a while your starting location will be in the Western (mountain) part of the map, rich on Gold/Silver/Gems. There is a chance you'll find all three of them within the fat cross of your capital.

Clustered Gems are not at all unusual. I got a few times 3 or 4 of them. It was on Archipelago map.

[Ultimo]

I've played a few fractal maps lately and have found an abundance of resources in groups. The second town I founded, was in the center of a jungle but had 3 gems in its fat cross, two sugar, and rice! Granted I had to clear ungodly amounts of jungle to get to it all (in fact one jungle regrew about 4 turns after I cleared it), but it was one of the best gem sites I had ever seen. There are also a number of locations with lots (groups of 2-3) of dye, sugar, silk, wine, incense, and spices. I almost never see these sorts of results when playing continents, pangea, islands, or highland.
I usually play on Warlord level, so if resource allocation has anything to do with difficulty level it could relate to that.

[Jazzster]

Especially comparing with Civ III, I seldom have any troubles with important resources like iron (or copper) in Civ IV. It has happened, and when it happens it's more of an unusual challenge than a continous frustration, as it was in (vanilla) Civ III.

Perhaps it's just luck?

Anyhows, the distribution of resources is fine with me in Civ IV. I can't really recall a silver resource, though, but it's difficult to get upset about that (not meaning that the OP is upset).

[pigswill]

Plantation resources tend to cluster in my limited experience. Can't recall a map that didn't have everything somewhere. Military resources does seem to be luck, no discernable pattern; same with stone and marble its just they're not so common (usually two of each on standard map).

[ArmoredCavalry]

On the clustering note, anyone notice how all types of resources generally cluster? Last game I zoomed out all the way and found all the reasources were piled up in different major clusters (standerd pangea).

[migthegreek]

Originally Posted by pigswill

Can't recall a map that didn't have everything somewhere... ...same with stone and marble its just they're not so common (usually two of each on standard map).

I think this may depend on what climate you choose. I normally always play tropical and huge pangea type landmass - sometimes there is no marble, stone or aluminium anywhere.

I don't think military resources can cluster (e.g. copper), can they? Must be in the map script to stop that happening.

[Hans Lemurson]

Luxury resources tend to clump, which provides for good spots for wealthy cities, and promotes their trade. Luxuries can be allowed to clump, since their particular presence or absence won't break the game. The only provide commerce, so you just get a "wealthy" city nearby and not a "phenominally productive" one. I have also noticed that natural-silver seems only to occur on tundra-hills, gold on desert/plains hills, and gems in

Strategic resources are almost always spread apart somewhat evenly. This is becuase you generally only need 1 of any given type, and their presence or absence has major effects on the outcome of the game.

Food resources are also spread apart, 'cause having like 5 of them together at once would create a heinously prolific city. These do tend to clump more than strategic resources, but that's probably due more to continental distrubutions (like corn only on 1 continent) and just a higher volume than strategics.