Building A City On A Resource - Noob Question

[Daily Barrage]

I can't get this point clear in my head:

When you build a city on a tile with a resource like horses or copper do you have the same access to the resource that you would if it was on an adjacent tile with the correct improvement? i.e. does the city automatically build the resource improvement without you instructing a worker to do it?

Thanks

 

[Matty R]

Welcome to the forums.

I looked into this yesterday, on Civ4. If you build a city on a resource of any kind, that resource ceases to exist. It just disappears.

 

[JujuLautre]

that is clearly not true. Not longer than 2 hours ago, I razed a city placed on horses...

When you found a city on top of a ressource, you gain the benefit of that resource as soon as you have the tech necessary to get access to that ressource. But you lose the benefit in hammer/food/commerce of creating the correct improvement on it.

 

[MrCynical]

I looked into this yesterday, on Civ4. If you build a city on a resource of any kind, that resource ceases to exist. It just disappears.

Not true. Building a city on a resource grants access to the resource as soon as you have the appropriate tech to build the normal improvement. However you do lose the high food/commerce/production of the normal improvement. You may under some circumstances get an extra food hammer or commerce from the city square, but not always. Only if the unimproved resource causes the tile to generate more than 2 food, 1 hammer, 1 commerce.

 

[Antilogic]

Not true. Building a city on a resource grants access to the resource as soon as you have the appropriate tech to build the normal improvement. However you do lose the high food/commerce/production of the normal improvement. You may under some circumstances get an extra food hammer or commerce from the city square, but not always. Only if the unimproved resource causes the tile to generate more than 2 food, 1 hammer, 1 commerce.

This is correct. The only time you will receive extra benefits is if that tile already "naturally" produces 2 food, 1 hammer, or 1 commerce, and your bonus provides one extra over that. For example, a grassland tile produces 2 food naturally, so building a city on a grassland/food resource tile will provide 3 food.

Strategically, I try to avoid this as much as possible because you don't get the huge bonuses for the "proper" improvement on the tile. However, say, if the resource I'm building on is coastal and its the only way I can get a seafood resource in my fat cross, then I'll think twice about doing this. It's a hard choice to make...in the end, I'll end up calculating how much extra food/production/commerce I'll get if I build on the resource as opposed to building off it, and sometimes I build on them to maximize productivity (or avoid a slew of desert tiles).

 

[Sloe_Eyed_Sloth]

Building a city on top of a resource is a strategy to protect access to that resource. It can't be pillaged, which makes it worth considering for horses or iron or oil and similar high value resources.

I don't do it, but the AI frequently does.

 

[Matty R]

I built a city on Iron yesterday, and the Iron disappeared. I still had the 5 Iron resources that I had before I created the city.

 

[HUSch]

I built a city on Iron yesterday, and the Iron disappeared. I still had the 5 Iron resources that I had before I created the city.

That must be a bug, no ressource disappeared. Have you a save for it.
I found often a city on Iron or later on oil, to get the res.

 

[Defiant47]

I built a city on Iron yesterday, and the Iron disappeared. I still had the 5 Iron resources that I had before I created the city.

Toggle resource bubbles. It's a button in the bottom-right corner as a magnifying glass with a question mark inside it. When you turn it on, you will see the iron bubble overtop of your city. What probably happened is that you can barely see the iron because of the city.

 

[Matty R]

Toggle resource bubbles. It's a button in the bottom-right corner as a magnifying glass with a question mark inside it. When you turn it on, you will see the iron bubble overtop of your city. What probably happened is that you can barely see the iron because of the city.

I had the resource toggle on when I settled the city. It disappeared when the city was up. I must have unknowingly altered something in an XML.

 

[Defiant47]

I had the resource toggle on when I settled the city. It disappeared when the city was up. I must have unknowingly altered something in an XML.

Was it in a constant state of disappearance? Did you try looking again after setting the build orders/after a turn/after a restart of the game?

Maybe you did alter something if you're playing around with it, I wouldn't know.

 

[Barry Bonds]

I noticed the same thing. What happened with me was that I couldn't find any oil, so I went and built a city on top of one, but now I'm not receiving the benefits of oil.... maybe if I build a mine, too, _then_ I'll get it?

 

[Defiant47]

I noticed the same thing. What happened with me was that I couldn't find any oil, so I went and built a city on top of one, but now I'm not receiving the benefits of oil.... maybe if I build a mine, too, _then_ I'll get it?

Being able to see oil doesn't mean that you can harness it, and it has been mentioned earlier in the thread that if you can harness the resource and your city is built on top of it, you automatically get it.

Checklist:

1) Make sure that you actually built it on oil and didn't dream doing it
2) Do you have Combustion? It is the necessary technology to build the improvement that harnesses oil.
3) Is this city connected to your other cities? If it is not, then only it will get the benefits of oil, if 1) and 2) are correct.

Also, there are two fundamentally wrong things with the very last part of your post:

1. Oil requires the "oil well" improvement, not the mine. In fact, I don't think I've ever seen oil pop-up on hilly terrain, so I don't think you'd ever be able to build a mine on top of it.
2. How can you build a mine on it if you said you put your city directly on top of it?

What probably happened is that you have Scientific Method, but you don't have Combustion yet.

 

[Matty R]

Was it in a constant state of disappearance? Did you try looking again after setting the build orders/after a turn/after a restart of the game?

Maybe you did alter something if you're playing around with it, I wouldn't know.

It was permanently gone. I was just curious to see what a city tile would produce if it was on a resource, so I used World Builder to put a Settler on the tile. Then I came out of World Builder and created the city. Thats where the resource image and the bubble disappeared. I hovered my cursor over the city tile to see if Iron was actually there, but it wasn't. No biggy though. I wouldn't settle on a resource anyway.

 

[Defiant47]

It was permanently gone. I was just curious to see what a city tile would produce if it was on a resource, so I used World Builder to put a Settler on the tile. Then I came out of World Builder and created the city. Thats where the resource image and the bubble disappeared. I hovered my cursor over the city tile to see if Iron was actually there, but it wasn't. No biggy though. I wouldn't settle on a resource anyway.

Then I know what the matter is. The resource did not, in fact, dissappear. If you play the game out and research iron working, you'll suddenly notice iron appear under your city .

The problem was that you had not actually researched Iron Working and could not see any iron. However, worldbuilder shows the location of all resources.

The resource, in essence, dissappeared before you could even build a city there, it's just that you didn't notice until after you ordered your settler.

 

[Matty R]

Then I know what the matter is. The resource did not, in fact, dissappear. If you play the game out and research iron working, you'll suddenly notice iron appear under your city .

The problem was that you had not actually researched Iron Working and could not see any iron. However, worldbuilder shows the location of all resources.

The resource, in essence, dissappeared before you could even build a city there, it's just that you didn't notice until after you ordered your settler.

I already had 5 Iron resources hooked up to the network.

Don't worry about it mate. Its no problem.

 

[Daily Barrage]

Thanks for the replies guys, that's cleared that one up for me.

I'd also be grateful if someone can tell me if this is correct:

Say you have two rice resources, each of the tiles gets gets Base Bonus of +1 Food & Improved Bonus of +1 Food. However, you only get the Additional Effects of +1 Health (with Farm) once, whether you have one rice resource or five rice resources.

This leads on to my main question:

When you have more than one of the same resource does it hurt you to trade the 'extra' ones away (beyond whatever advantages an opponent may gain from the resource)?

 

[JujuLautre]

in vanilla and warlords, it does not hurt to trade the surplus. In BTS it can, because corporations have better effects with multiple instances of the same ressource.

 

[Daily Barrage]

in vanilla and warlords, it does not hurt to trade the surplus. In BTS it can, because corporations have better effects with multiple instances of the same ressource.

Thanks for the info, man.

 

[macrobot]

This is correct. The only time you will receive extra benefits is if that tile already "naturally" produces 2 food, 1 hammer, or 1 commerce, and your bonus provides one extra over that. For example, a grassland tile produces 2 food naturally, so building a city on a grassland/food resource tile will provide 3 food.

This is not correct. All cities produce 2 food, 1 hammer and 1 gold. The ONLY exception is a city founded on a plains hill which provides 2 hammers. I can count on one hand the number of times I have founded a city on a resource becuase working the resource is WAY more important than having it a few turns earlier. However, for some unknown reason the AI loves to settle right on resources. I would recommend not settling on resources.