Onionsoilder
Reaver
- Joined
- Mar 19, 2007
- Messages
- 3,173
One of the things I have always found interesting in Civilization is how petty most resources are. Strategic resources such as Iron or Oil always have immense value and players rush to connect these resources, sometimes even waging war over them, but others are either common or petty enough nobody really bothers with them unless they have the time and spare resources to develop them. Even then, nobody ever goes to war for them.
In the history books you read about civilizations going to war over gold, silver and spices. Countries protected their secrets of silk, dye and other luxuries better then they protected their military tactics. The new world was settled and colonized to gain the vast amounts of resources that could be harvested, both new exotic ones like chocolate and valuable ones from the old world like sugar.
Civilization IV has hardly any of this. You can find some gold lying around your borders and think "Oh, that's nice." The commerce boost is nice in the mid-game, but villages and towns can be just as good if not better, and can be built anywhere. The same goes for pretty much any nonstrategic resource. Some players may push to obtain at least 1 for the happiness or health, but outside of corporations see no difference from owning 1 or 10.
I'm not exactly sure how this could be changed, but I have some ideas. For one, owning multiple resources needs to provide some benefit, though not as great as owning several different ones. Resources should effect trade routes between cities and civilizations, and obtaining a brand new resource on another continent should provide a much larger commerce bonus then simply +1 happiness and a few commerce on the tile.
In the history books you read about civilizations going to war over gold, silver and spices. Countries protected their secrets of silk, dye and other luxuries better then they protected their military tactics. The new world was settled and colonized to gain the vast amounts of resources that could be harvested, both new exotic ones like chocolate and valuable ones from the old world like sugar.
Civilization IV has hardly any of this. You can find some gold lying around your borders and think "Oh, that's nice." The commerce boost is nice in the mid-game, but villages and towns can be just as good if not better, and can be built anywhere. The same goes for pretty much any nonstrategic resource. Some players may push to obtain at least 1 for the happiness or health, but outside of corporations see no difference from owning 1 or 10.
I'm not exactly sure how this could be changed, but I have some ideas. For one, owning multiple resources needs to provide some benefit, though not as great as owning several different ones. Resources should effect trade routes between cities and civilizations, and obtaining a brand new resource on another continent should provide a much larger commerce bonus then simply +1 happiness and a few commerce on the tile.