Forgotten Resources

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Bradlius

Warlord
Joined
Aug 9, 2006
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I saw a thread a while ago, but I can't seem to find it when I search. Anyway, the thrust of the thread was, what historical resources do you find obviously missing from Civ IV. I'd propose these few as a starter:

Rubber (a production resource for the jungle)
Tea (a jungle-food resource to replace the ridiculous banana)
Tobacco (a luxury resource, that reduces health!)
Salt (one possible reason to settle in deserts and coastal plains)
 
I think during beta that had these as well as other resources. Either they found that it became too tedious for the game for the strategic ones or that it was too easy to maintain happiness with additional luxury ones.
 
Yeah, I know you don't want to have too many. The game has to balance. I just think there were some obvious omissions. And I have to wonder at bananas. I just don't see bananas as having a big impact in history. When I see them in the game I just have to laugh.
 
I think that the decision on Rubber was that by the time it was widely used, it was petroleum-based, thus the Oil resource instead. The others, i think are for the reasons of balancing health/happiness. I do think tea is better than bananas though.

no disrespect to :banana:
 
Bradlius said:
I saw a thread a while ago, but I can't seem to find it when I search. Anyway, the thrust of the thread was, what historical resources do you find obviously missing from Civ IV. I'd propose these few as a starter:

Rubber (a production resource for the jungle)
Tea (a jungle-food resource to replace the ridiculous banana)
Tobacco (a luxury resource, that reduces health!)
Salt (one possible reason to settle in deserts and coastal plains)
Click to expand...

I think that if tea is added, it should be luxury reasource instead of food resource.
 
Yeah, I know you don't want to have too many. The game has to balance. I just think there were some obvious omissions. And I have to wonder at bananas. I just don't see bananas as having a big impact in history. When I see them in the game I just have to laugh.
Click to expand...

SWEET! first post and its to talk about bananas!!!!

Bananas are actually a primary source of carbohydrates throughout many third world countries and in africa. Look up the cavendish (most popular type of banana) and banana blight. Popular science did an article on it, some interesting stuff...

not to say i dont agree with your points, but in the end it doesnt matter if you call them "spices" or "salt"
 
ender0051 said:
SWEET! first post and its to talk about bananas!!!!
Click to expand...

hehe howdy ender, welcome to CFC!

the banana resource is fine IMO but needs a peanut butter one to go with it. what is life without PB&B sandwiches?

hmmm there's a thought. luxuries/health bonuses that don't get doubled by a certain building, but instead have a synergistic effect ... if you have both, you get a total of +3 instead of +2 or whatever. just thinking for the future, we have enough luxuries in civ4 now i think (except when the map doesn't cooperate with me).
 
Bradlius said:
Tobacco (a luxury resource, that reduces health!)
Click to expand...

Now THAT would be an interesting enhancement to Civ4! Resources with -1 health / +1 happiness or vice versa. But Firaxis would also need to fix the automated worker options, so that you could ask them to automatically put railroads over roads without hooking up unused resources.

KMadCandy said:
the banana resource is fine IMO but needs a peanut butter one to go with it. what is life without PB&B sandwiches?
Click to expand...

NOOO! That would ruin my chances of ever winning at Emperor! I'd spend all my time trying to secure all the Peanut Butter in the world. BTW, it should give +10 happiness :rockon:.
 
thanks for the welcome! ive been lurking for ... well since the game came out in the first place. Just figured id actually start posting
 
Tea doesn't have the same raw nutrition that bananas do. (Like ender0051 said.) I guess it's got health benefits, but the tile should improve in commerce rather than food. It could be either luxury or health resource.

Spices and salt, though, should be distinguished IMO. Salt can have a production boost but that'd be difficult to justify with spices.

And as for resources, I get bored. Of course there's a "too many" threshold, but we don't play all possible Civs in every game, why can't we cycle through some luxury/health resources? Match up some sets that can be substituted for each other and roll the dice. It wouldn't make much sense with strategic resources, but would still be cool.

I love the cost/benefit resource idea, too. Tobacco is +1happy/-1health, broccoli is +1health/-1happy (personally I love broccoli, but think of the children), and some analogues to spice things up a bit in my alternative-resources dream-world.

On a slightly related note, rather than starting a new thread, has anyone else ever seen a great plains map with no uranium? Is this normal?
 
LucyDuke said:
On a slightly related note, rather than starting a new thread, has anyone else ever seen a great plains map with no uranium? Is this normal?
Click to expand...

all of the uranium, and all of the aluminum, are always on the far far west side of that map. more up north than down south in my experience. did you check there?
 
KMadCandy said:
all of the uranium, and all of the aluminum, are always on the far far west side of that map. more up north than down south in my experience. did you check there?
Click to expand...

I haven't been there yet, and Shaka won't show me his map (all the northwest, Washington to the south doesn't have any). I generated a couple new maps and checked in WorldBuilder (didn't want to spoil my own game), and couldn't find any in a couple of them. If it's possible that there's none there, I need to re-think how I might pull off a victory other than Space Race.
 
Banana can be viewed as a catchall term representing all tropical fruits. You may replace it with coconuts, passion fruit, pineapple, etc. I think this is OK.

Tea is certainly a historically significant resource and should be in the game. I just don't think it should be a jungle resource. As far as I know, at least most Chinese tea species grow on hill with sufficient moisture. There is in fact a very rare and expensive Chinese tea that used to have trained monkeys climbing up high to collect. I think it should be made a hill resource.

Salt is actually one of the most important resources in ancient history. In reality it should give one healthiness and one happiness. Although I have no idea how to implement this, and by which tech this resource should be revealed in the map.
 
Salt could be a strategic resource for Caravels. Use salt to preserve meat so you can go travel through the oceans! Later on you can preserve fruit in lead based cans to fend off scurvy but give the crew lead poisoning. Yeah baby.
 
re: uranium on great plains map

LucyDuke said:
I haven't been there yet, and Shaka won't show me his map (all the northwest, Washington to the south doesn't have any). I generated a couple new maps and checked in WorldBuilder (didn't want to spoil my own game), and couldn't find any in a couple of them. If it's possible that there's none there, I need to re-think how I might pull off a victory other than Space Race.
Click to expand...

dang! i've never not seen in any that northwestern corner, but then again i think i've only played that map on large and huge. if you're on a smaller one results may vary. really obvious 'duh' reminder but you know me and my style, i know you won't take offense ... be sure to hit ctrl-r on the worldbuilder checks to make sure they're easier to see. i'm playing a GP map now, large size, and the farthest east uranium is literally only 10 squares from the western edge of the map, it doesn't appear any further in.
 
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