Popping a metal from a hill

[Johnpecan]

If you're working a mined hill, do you need to have roads connecting that hill to your civilization? I know you have to be working the tile, but I never figured out if you need the roads or not. This normally torments me very early in the game where I'm torn between roading to my mined hills and other various worker improvements.

Anyone know for sure?

 

[oyzar]

You need the road to hook up the resource(so you can use it if you need it for units or the like), but putting a road there doesn't do anything to the production in your city or the like and nothing to the chances of popping a resource...

 

[Johnpecan]

So you're saying you have popped a metal from a mined hill that did NOT have a road connecting it? Just want to be clear, because I've never seen it happen.

 

[oyzar]

yes.......

 

[eewallace]

I've had it happen several times. It also appears you can pop resources from mines that wouldn't have appeared there naturally. Once I saw the AI get a gem mine popped from a mine in a far north tundra region!

 

[Plinko16]

Popping a resource on a mine is a function of some tiny % chance every turn a mine is worked, so having a road connected should not be a factor.

 

[JackOfClubs]

I've had it happen several times.

Me too. Having a road does not appear to improve the chance of popping a resource, either, but someone would have to check the source code to be sure.

I usually road all mines, however, just because it makes those hills easier to defend. Also, if a resource does pop, I want it right away.

This is also a good argument for mining all hills when opportunity allows, even ones you don't plan on working. Coal, Uranium and Aluminum will be invisible until the relevant tech is researched and it can be useful to have the resource alread mined when it comes on line. Not a top priority, obviously, but I find there is usally a window in the late Medieval or Renaissance period when my workers don't have enough useful improvements to make. I usually set them to mining hills and building roads to make the transition to the Industrial era quicker.

 

[CCRunner]

I've popped iron the first turn I worked a mine, two turns after IW.... as Rome! I didn't even need to send out a settler to find the iron. Fun Game.

 

[slobberinbear]

I have noticed more "resource pops" playing Epic than Normal speed, but maybe that's an anomaly. If the chance for the pop is calculated each turn, then longer games give you more pops.

 

[NintendoTogepi]

I love metal popping, in a recent OCC as Bismarck I popped the following:

Iron
Copper
Iron

!

I also had aluminum in the BFC which wasn't popped.

 

[Perugia]

I always road non-resource mines in cities with limited food resources and in most other cases. Then when I learn replaceable parts I can send in a worker team to improve them from +2H mines to +1F +1H +1C windmills. Later when I have built my strategic railroads and railroaded all my resource mines (and also post biology when I dont need the windmill food bonus) I will revert selected windmills back to railroaded +3H mines especially in production cities. These roads save a lot of worker turns as well as making it easier to move combat units around the hills.

 

[tycoonist]

i dont remember the last time i popped a metal...

 

[Bleys]

i dont remember the last time i popped a metal...

I almost always miss those announcements, and just happen to notice it later when I am going through my cities. Like "hey, where did that gold come from?" kind of thing, heh.

 

[semirami]

It's just luck. In my current game I just popped 3 metals in 5 turns very early in the game, arround 1000 BC. Gems, silver and iron. The mines werent connected. Very nice surprise, because I am isolated with only one happy resource and it's calendar one.

 

[Clam Spammer]

I road the hills not for the possibility of a resource pop, but to save time on building railroads later. I still can't get used to that noise it makes when you discover a resource - it scares me half to death sometimes, especially when I'm tired...

 

[SnowlyWhite]

it's .1% or .5%/turn; don't remember exactly...

ergo, since marathon is x3 turns, you have or x3 chances to discover something.

and it's independant from the hill being roaded or not; obviously, if you want to enjoy the resource you'll have to road the hill when it pops...

 

[TheMeInTeam]

I almost always miss those announcements, and just happen to notice it later when I am going through my cities. Like "hey, where did that gold come from?" kind of thing, heh.

It makes a pretty distinctive sound, and for some reason I'm really sensitive to game sound-effects, and mimic them much better than I can do voice impersonations.

In one of my recent games I popped iron in a hill in my capitol, which already had iron in a flat grassland tile. I didn't know that was possible. I didn't think it was impossible either, it just never occurred to me I guess. Seeing double iron in a BFC looks kind of silly, but I'll take it.

 

[Joshua368]

While I usually only do it after my workers have nothing more to do, I road my hills for quicker access for railroads later.

 

[Bostock]

Th-Th-Th-threadjack!!

I've been thinking lately of focusing my road net more on hills (and resources) and less on diamond-grid "prettiness," and even experimenting with it a bit.

The other nice thing about roading hills is that the main unit moving around inside your empire most of the time is the lowly worker, which, with its two moves, is hit harder by unroaded hills and forests than most combat units are (since most of them are 1-move). Forests you can chop, hills you can't.

My thinking is, see what grid I get after counting roads for non-riverside resources, hills, and city-squares, then fill in from there. My experiments so far are rather inconclusive, but it's definitely not hands-down less efficient than the theoretically-ideal pretty diamonds everywhere, and it may be more so.

 

[Sero Sed Serio]

You can pop metal anywhere you can place a mine, and it can be any resource that requires a mine to harvest it. I have popped uranium, coal, and gems on grassland before.

Same as many of the other people here, if my workers are in a lull usually I'll drop mines.

RE: Threadjack

I usually let the worker connect cities (place road here to here and let it automate), but often times I will supplement those roads with others that follow frequently traveled paths. Like if I'm suddenly at war, I will put roads to the front line, but most people probably do that?