Are all resources visible from the beginning?

[Sub]

This really has NOTHING to do with the topic, but looking at that picture, you can see that every unit has a flag. How come the small what looks like fishing boats don't have a flag then?

 

[andrewlt]

I didn't like the concept of strategic resources in Civ3 due to 2 major reasons.

1. A lot of times, resources take too long link to and the earlier ones are obsolete already by the time you can get to them. I think the greater dispersal of resources in Civ4 will help in this regard, especially on the earlier strategic resources.

2. The trading system with the AI is really bad. The AI is really out to get you, especially in the higher difficulties. They ask for a retardedly absurd amount of concessions to give you a strategic resource or anything, actually. There's really one and only one option, especially in higher difficulties, and that's to invade the AI with the resource.

I don't think resources should be available at the start but they should be available a see a few techs earlier before you can use them. For most techs anyway, people knew their potential before they were actually harnessed. That and the AI needs to start trading reasonably. It doesn't think of win-win situations and is only out to screw around with the player.

 

[Slax]

This really has NOTHING to do with the topic, but looking at that picture, you can see that every unit has a flag. How come the small what looks like fishing boats don't have a flag then?

Those are "Work Boats" for working water tiles. You can see a city producing one to the left in the screenshot. Do you just assign them to a tile?

 

[labguy23]

I think it's pretty obvious that you need to discover the resource before you can determine a use for it. It would be kinda funny to think about blacksmiths calling out for iron for a new generation of weapons before they've even discovered iron ore or tank commanders bemoaning the fact they could conquer the world, if only they could find some sort of fuel source to power them.

Which makes me think there should be some way to discover resources well in advance of actually discovering the tech for them, but not have them be present the entire time.

 

[Supa]

It's true, you need to discover the ressource-type before you could figure out something useful to do with..

But gameplay-wise, it's a horrible idea. Come on, if you see some strange glowing green rocks during your Ancient Age, you aren't gonna come all roleplay and say "Oh, what a strange ressource. I can't figure out what to do with it so I'd rather place my city in other place". No, you'll go secure that to make sure yours rivals don't get it later.

 

[Aks K]

The "Physics" technology in the game is what we refer to as "Physical Mechanics" today. I don't think you should be able to identify uranium once you discover the principles behind, say, pendulums..

When I look at the techs of civ4 I dont entirely agree with this, but your statement is true for civ3.
In civ3 chemistry lead to physics which lead to theory of gravety and magnetism.
In civ4 physics leads directly to fission!

The sciences of electricity, magnetism and radio are split up, but thermodynamics seems to be incorporated in physics. Meaning that physics in civ4 covers classical mechanics and thermodynamics.

The later part of modern physics is fission, BUT you can get to this without electricity, magnetism and radio! You can actually get to fission from astronomy! I just realised this when I glanced at the techtree.

If I was firaxis I would move fission after radio then I can agree with you.

Actually discovering an element like uranium or aluminum is more about chemistry than it is physics, anyway.

Arghhh... this is going to be a long night, ! What is physics and what is chemistry???

physics branch of science traditionally defined as the study of matter, energy and the relation between them.

chemistry branch of science concerned with the properties, composition, and structure of substances and the changes they undergo when they combine or react under specified conditions.

It depends therefore on your point of view and of the application. I dont want to go any deeper so I assume you understand (else I will elaborate).

Being able to see it on the map encompasses both knowing of the thing's existence and also knowing its significance. The discovery is less about the former and much more about the latter. You don't discover that there's a whole lot of shiny stuff over there; you discover that it's Iron and you can do useful things with it. Since the player knows the tech tree, it's not like the game can reveal Iron to you earlier without giving you an advantage. You could model the ignorance within the game, I guess. They could break it into two phases, though I don't know what benefit there would be.

A way that might work would be to always have visible certain unknown deposits of various types, like "metals" or "wild animals" or "black stuff." When you discover Bronze Working, some of those are revealed to be Tin and Copper, which you can then use to make Bronze. When you discover Iron Working, some of the others are discovered to be Iron. Over time, you discover what the other deposits are. Most of them turn out to be resources the game doesn't specifically use, which are useless in the game, (like cadmium or rhenium), so it's not like it's worth claiming them all in advance.

This does sound reasonable.
But maybe not from the beginning. Say when you discover mining copper appear on the map and when you discover bronze working iron appear. This was the idea behind physics reveales uranium. I would simply like the resource to appear ca. 1 tech before i can use it.

I don't think resources should be available at the start but they should be available a see a few techs earlier before you can use them. For most techs anyway, people knew their potential before they were actually harnessed. That and the AI needs to start trading reasonably. It doesn't think of win-win situations and is only out to screw around with the player.

YES! This is the idea of my earlier post. So I agree to that, andrewlt.

Aks K