Animals and Metals

And once you can transport ore farther, only one source of smelting is even absolutely necessary to get ingots which give you access to building the Smiths in any city in your trade network and therefore to generate Wares which is the end need for units and buildings that require the metal usually.
You said Smiths as in plural, multiple Smiths. There can be only 1 Smith for that ore in the empire now.

So what happens when you have 2 sources of the same ore? The 2nd source is useless now? Can't build a smelter in that city even though it has the resource cause another city already built it's smelter. Hmmm.....wasted resources...…"not bad design really"......really?
 
You said Smiths as in plural, multiple Smiths. There can be only 1 Smith for that ore in the empire now.
That would be a bug in design then. Is this because the Smiths now have a vicinity access requirement for Ingots? They are not supposed to. It's supposed to be a normal prerequisite, not vicinity.

It MIGHT have been changed to try to help the AI not build one everywhere because like factories, they come with unhealth that the AI doesn't consider when it sees the added benefits only.

EDIT: However there's also good reason why it shouldn't be vicinity prerequisite for ingots. If it is, it means you cannot trade for ingots to get Smiths, and Ingots were historically made for ease of trade to local production sources everywhere they could be distributed.

EDIT 2: Based on history and the generic nature of the term 'wares', I would almost prefer Ware requirements to be vicinity based rather than the ingots. Particularly up to the industrial era at least, and then those would be further transmitted to more specific products in local buildings, then those products could be traded and sent about. But that end of design is not necessary right yet imo. What IS necessary is getting Smiths to take ingots as a normal prereq rather than vicinity.

EDIT 3:
So what happens when you have 2 sources of the same ore? The 2nd source is useless now? Can't build a smelter in that city even though it has the resource cause another city already built it's smelter. Hmmm.....wasted resources...…"not bad design really"......really?
When you have 2 sources you can build a smelter wherever those sources exist. If you have 2 sources in the same city then you obviously can't build 2 smelters but you can also build 2 smelters if you overlap vicinity of 2 different cities on one source. Only the National Smelter is limited to one per nation. The minor ones can be built in any city that has vicinity access to ore.

You can construct the one National Smelter you get in a city that doesn't have vicinity access at all. DH is trying to insist that it be required to only build that where vicinity access doesn't exist. Again, I don't agree with this and feel it should somehow just give faster construction to units and buildings that require the metal it's smelting as well as giving Ingots to everywhere.
 
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The smith buildings requires forge or a foundry, and ingots.
If you have at least 1x Ingots then you should be able to build the smith anywhere where you have a forge or a foundry.

The forge and foundry requires a population of 6 or more in the city to be built.
 
The smith buildings requires forge or a foundry, and ingots.
If you have at least 1x Ingots then you should be able to build the smith anywhere where you have a forge or a foundry.

The forge and foundry requires a population of 6 or more in the city to be built.
I have forges, I have ingots. I can only build 1 Smith. I have 4 cities size 6 or larger. After I built the Smith in my Capital I can not build it in any of the other 3 cities that haave the required pop.

I also have a 2nd source of the same ore, Copper, that I will see in the near future (when that city reaches size 6) If it can also build a smelter, after it has the preq Copper mine building and forge of course. Currently at size 3 it can not.

I also find that limiting the Forge to a size 6 city or bigger is not good game play, nor realistic. Bad design choice imhpo.
 
I also find that limiting the Forge to a size 6 city or bigger is not good game play, nor realistic. Bad design choice imhpo.
I think that is hydro design...

Strange that you can only build 1 smith, I saw no reason for it to be so in the building XML, I'll take a closer look later.
 
I also find that limiting the Forge to a size 6 city or bigger is not good game play, nor realistic. Bad design choice imhpo.
I agree that it's not real world realistic as a forge was usually one of the first things to be established. I kinda like how you really look forward to size 6 so you can kick into hyperdrive with production though. It is, as Toffer mentioned, a Hydro design factor that I feel we've kept as is in his honor but it has been challenged before. The Lighthouse was another one that brought the same comments.

Strange that you can only build 1 smith, I saw no reason for it to be so in the building XML, I'll take a closer look later.
Remember that building limits are in the UnitClassInfos rather than the UnitInfos. However, you'd think they'd be showing as National Wonders if it was actually limited.
 
This has on more than one occasion forced me as a player to beeline for one of the techs that enables the National Refineries. (Road Building or Seamanship IIRC but Raxxo might be able to correct me on the exact techs.)
Road Building is correct, but other one is named Ship Building.
 
I think that is hydro design...

Strange that you can only build 1 smith, I saw no reason for it to be so in the building XML, I'll take a closer look later.
I took a couple more turns and I can now build another Smith in my size 8 city. My Size 10 city is still building it's 1st Forge. So I jumped the gun on the Smith. My Apologies.

Now I will have to get that size 3 city up to 6 to see If I can utilize the Copper it has for another Smelter. So I can have 2 copper ingots vs the 1 I have now.

Same for my Gold and Platinum cities. Although it used to be that Platinum was not visible till Iron Working. Not sure what is going on there. Since I have yet to even reach Bronze Working.

I have yet to see any National Smelter Buildings.
 
Not sure what is going on there. Since I have yet to even reach Bronze Working.

I have yet to see any National Smelter Buildings.
I changed map resource Reveals and Enables in some cases, so resource is Revealed - usable by vicinity (raw vicinity if cant build improvement yet) before or on same tech column its Enabled - usable anywhere in empire.
Reveal tech after Enable tech is useless - I could as well move Reveal tech to Enable tech.
 
Reveal tech after Enable tech is useless - I could as well move Reveal tech to Enable tech.
I am not so sure about that. You can found a city in a good location for a future resource, and when the resource is enabled the city is big enough to extract the resource efficiently.
 
I am not so sure about that. You can found a city in a good location for a future resource, and when the resource is enabled the city is big enough to extract the resource efficiently.
Reveal tech makes resource visible on map.
That's why it should be on or before Enable tech.
 
Ah... yeah. Oops.

Do you have Road Building or Ship Building yet? They are early Classical Techs I believe.
Still in Ancient Era, am working towards Bronze Working and then Writing.
Reveal tech makes resource visible on map.
That's why it should be on or before Enable tech.

What does Toffer have to say about this?

Now that Iron is revealed to me before I even have Bronze Working it will change where, when, and how I settle my new cities. Did you consider this?

And I suspect it will do the same for the AI. Unless the AI is All Seeing and already knows where all the good stuff is.

Imhpo having a strategic resource like Iron revealed too soon and almost 1/2 an Era early really changes things.
 
Now that Iron is revealed to me before I even have Bronze Working it will change where, when, and how I settle my new cities. Did you consider this?
Yes, exactly. We wanted (as a team decision some year or so ago or more - I remember speaking with DH about it) to be able to plan ahead a little even if we can't use them right away.

And I suspect it will do the same for the AI. Unless the AI is All Seeing and already knows where all the good stuff is.
I don't know for sure but I've always suspected that it just gets a count of how many resources are there within the city radius of a spot whether they see those or not. However, I did look and apparently the code stated that they should only be counting those they can see.
 
Yes, exactly. We wanted (as a team decision some year or so ago or more - I remember speaking with DH about it) to be able to plan ahead a little even if we can't use them right away.
So you want a "rush" for resources to occur for all that can see them. Making Conflict come sooner.

But it also will cause/make the leaders in tech that much more powerful while the less fortunate will be more disadvantaged. At least that is how I see it right now.
 
So you want a "rush" for resources to occur for all that can see them. Making Conflict come sooner.
Well, potentially conflict, sure. It gives you time, as a player, to prepare yourself to have or not have the resource, prepare to obtain it in some manner, conflict being one potential option, improving relations to prepare for trade being another, and yet another still may be coming with a prospector unit option (though perhaps not that early on). Sometimes I just feel I have to rely on hope that a mine will open one up if I don't have a mineral of great need.

It can help you with where you place your cities, minimizing the impact of the vicinity prerequisites being such a powerful factor. Can't say how many times I've ended up with metals in my third rung and will thus take a later age before I can get to them when if I had just known they were there I would've adjusted the placement in that knowledge.

It also helps you to determine your personal best path through the tech tree. No need to rush Iron Working if you know you won't have Iron when you get there.

As for how it exacerbates any problem with tech leaders I'm not sure that it would be any more so than it would be if they were revealed at the same time as tradeable. Either way, it's a benefit mostly to the tech leader whenever it is they start being able to plan around knowledge of where those resources exist. I won't deny that, just that I'm not sure how it would make it MORE imbalanced for the tech leader, as it already was anyhow.
 
Can't say how many times I've ended up with metals in my third rung and will thus take a later age before I can get to them when if I had just known they were there I would've adjusted the placement in that knowledge.
When this happens if I can place a new city so that that resource becomes "vicinity" as soon as the 8 main tiles or even the fat X will cover it I do that. I don't wait for later techs to open up the 3rd ring. And really neither should the AI imho. A tile or 2 overlap between 2 cities is not bad at all. In fact in some cases both cities can share the resource. Have done this so many times over the years to be uncountable.
 
A tile or 2 overlap between 2 cities is not bad at all.
I humbly strategically disagree, at least where the first cities are concerned, nothing is more important than ensuring as little overlap as possible so as to ensure the greatest possible ultimate long run output. I say this knowing there are tremendous valid arguments against that too and that packing cities in is also a valid approach. I've come to accept it is purely a player choice. But I really would prefer the game not try to tempt one into crowding their cities together with the promise of fulfilling immediate short term needs that you could've planned your way around with a little more foresight. Thus I strongly prefer being able to have a little forewarning of where the important strategic resources are going to be.
 
Theoretically the balance change from having the knowledge depends on how long there is between a resource is revealed to it is usable. The tech leader will have the biggest advantage of he knows it a bit before he needs it, so he can both decide whether to beeline for it and make sure he is ready to exploit it when it becomes usable ( since this allows more tight timing attacks), while it is still so short a difference that he will not be opposed in acquiring the resource.
On the other hand it is best for the others if it is revealed so early that they too can content with the tech leader over those resources and get access to then themselves/deny the tech leader access to those resources.
 
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