Am I really that unlucky with strategic resources...?

[Xink]

I could be wrong here, having only recently got the game, but unless you get Iron pretty quick and then Saltpetre you are stuffed. Maybe I was expecting the game to be something that it was never meant to be and that is to not need to be so militaristic to conclude the game as a victor.

I also tend to think (neck out on the block here) that the AI cheats. I save the game very often and decided to go right back to an earlier game and thought right I know where the saltpetre is I will make a run and claim that for a city - a little Island with nothing there, no stategic importance either. So what do I find but the French almost managed me to it (they got a little corner).

So why did they bother as there are other little Islands with lots of food etc near it. This is just a small Island of desert only. They hadn't researched gunpowder either.

Same goes for an area of land that the Koreans manage to get - way out on a limb BUT coal turns out to be there in the future..!!!

They beat me every time to that.

Morgan

 

[Masquerouge]

Well I managed to do without salpeter... I had Iron, though. And Ivory, thus the Statue of Zeus. But yes, without Iron AND salpeter, I think you're fried. For a warmongering play at least. In that case, my suggestion would be to run straightforward to guerilla and tanks (cross your fingers for rubber and oil), and forget Metallurgy and military tradition which is a pity because I love cavs.
As to the AI cheating... I don't know. The only thing I'm sure is that the AI has a tendency to settle in every inch of free terrain no matter what.

 

[dragon.jade]

It's a fairly documented fact that, in vanilla civ and PTW, all of the AI know from the start where the future ressources WILL be. Check in the forums, and you'll see.

Whether this "cheat" is still present in C3C, that I don't know...

Just some 2 centimes...

 

[Masquerouge]

Yes, I've read that the AI will target every location where there is a strategic resource, even if that resource has not yet been discovered... Oh well, it appears you can take advantage of this by becoming suspicious of apparently weird settlements for AI cities.

 

[SemperFi2382]

I decided to test that theory. Oddly, the AI Does go for the resources. I followed a few settlers to see them in odd places. Which as it turns out, were sites of undiscovered resources. Essentially, the AI cheats, but then again it works to your advantage. Make those "weird" areas a priority to take from the AI.

On another note, some of the AI start locations tend to have better resources too.

 

[Crazy Jerome]

Well, given that the default is that resources are now a bit more scarce, I haven't seen anything that would contradict what one would expect. However, I played six C3C games into the industrial age before I had a coal on my continent or any nearby island. Most of those games where standard or large, with normal number of civs. I don't mind scarce resources. But if is one large continent and two smaller ones, I don't much care for six coals all on one small continent.

 

[Ivan the Kulak]

I for one wish the AI did not know where the resources were until they discover the tech for them, or at least until you know the tech for them (they could know something valuable was there via rumors and spies). Then you could at least have a chance to race them to it, earlier in the game, anyway.

 

[Xink]

Ivan that can be a problem that annoys me. But I also tend to think that if you took all these advantages that the AI enjoys that could be seen as 'cheating' then it would offer a very poor game.

 

[Ivan the Kulak]

It wouldn't bother me so much if there were enough resources to trade for. But, in C3C, they are now so scarce, if you cannot get them yourself, it is unlikely anyone else will have enough to trade. Being able to trade for stuff depends on your rep, relations with other civs, diplomatic skills, etc. This makes the game interesting. Not being able to get ahold of it period is arbitrary idiocy and totally unrealistic. If I want to build, say, RR in the industrial age (NOT a combat issue), why should I end up not being able to get ahold of iron and coal, even though I know everyone in the world, they have the tech for RR, and they are willing to trade (either polite or gracious)? This can wreck a game for the peaceful player.

 

[Goober]

I have heard that C3C has a third less resources on average the PTW. I have also noticed the lack of resources. I have a game going with friends where I have more land area then they do, but I do not have NO strategic (besides 2 useless resources). I have NO Rubber, NO Iron, NO Oil (and lots of tundra), NO Coal, and NO Saltpeter. Ironically I have a fair amount of Luxury Resources, but they don't really count. I am about to be slaughtered by Friends who are undoubtably going to get Modern Armor and kill my Guerillas (They only half-way decent thing I am able to build) In conclusion,yes I have noticed a reduction in resouirces in C3C

 

[Lumin]

lol realgoober i remember that game hehehe. vancouver2010 and i got all the SR's LOL

 

[Goober]

"lol realgoober i remember that game hehehe. vancouver2010 and i got all the SR's LOL"

That was (and is) a distinctly terrible game, but knowing my luck, I was lucky to get the 2 bloody herses that I did manage to get.

 

[Xink]

Yeah it can be frustrating. On one very huge land mass the only two resources of rubber both belonged to the Clets and were within a few tiles of each other in the very middle of their land. I couldn't make tanks, as they must need to be made out of rubber and bounce, but at least I could make planes, which don't bounce that well and so not need rubber.

Still the best thing about this game is that you can do so much with the editor.

 

[Emmett1234]

What Age are you guys playing on??? If you play on 3 Billion years old, there will be more hills and mountains, but more resources too. I have been playing lately on Regent level (working my way up) and using Regicide for a quick kill of a civ. I was on a continent with the Arabs and the Inca and the Inca and I killed the Arabs early on. When we got to the Industrial Age, I discovered I did not have rubber.....but the Incas did.

I ended up doing a ROP rape. I KNOW it is an "exploit", but there have been historical examples of ROP rapes...i.e. WWII with the Munich peace pact that Hiter signed and then broke. So I did not lose any sleep over it.

Anyways I killed the Inca and took their rubber and all other resources and luxuries, and I have a ton of Iron, Oil, and Luxuries. Rubber is in scarcity through the world though.

I have just discovered Fission and learned that my two main enemies left, Japan and Babylon have all the Uranium. PERFECT! I just killed the Egyptians (had a coastal capital, dumb asses). I am now moving to Japan to take over the Uranium.

Yes it seems that C3C does have less resources, but make sure you guys have the age on 3 Billion years and then reform your judgements.

 

[Grotius]

As someone said, I suppose one can tweak the scarcity of resources with the editor. But I would prefer an option in the game setup screen for different levels of resources.

 

[Commander Bello]

Just a hint for the "peaceful" players:

Modify the huge maps in the editor to be of 250*250 tiles (or even more). Then the AI will very often have to build colonies to get there ressources.
And you can easily destroy the roads in noone's territory, so they don't have the ressource and you don't have war....