Civ-based Bonus Resources (Mod in Planning)

[jaldaen]

Hello All,

Originally, I was hoping to use starting bias to do this mod, but if I understand it correctly there is no way to guarantee a certain resource appears by a certain civ's starting point. So I've been thinking of a work around and this is what I've got:

I'm thinking of making a mod that automatically gives each Civilization a unique bonus resource(s), either strategic or luxury depending upon what fits historically. Anyways, I'm trying to decide how best to do this. I could do this in a few different ways:

1) make it an additional civ trait (if that's possible)
2) grant the resource through a unique building (or maybe even the capital)
3) Or something else that's easier and that I haven't thought of yet.

Any other ideas on how to do this or what's the most preferable method?

Also what resource(s) would you associate with each civ?

Thanks,
Joseph

PS: Just to clarify, I mean "unique" bonus resource as in from those already in the game, not additional resources beyond those already present. For example:

Arabia would start with Oil (though they wouldn't get a benefit until they actually could use the oil in game)
Rome would start with Iron (since their UU require it)
Etc.

 

[QES]

Hello All,

Originally, I was hoping to use starting bias to do this mod, but if I understand it correctly there is no way to guarantee a certain resource appears by a certain civ's starting point. So I've been thinking of a work around and this is what I've got:

I'm thinking of making a mod that automatically gives each Civilization a unique bonus resource(s), either strategic or luxury depending upon what fits historically. Anyways, I'm trying to decide how best to do this. I could do this in a few different ways:

1) make it an additional civ trait (if that's possible)
2) grant the resource through a unique building (or maybe even the capital)
3) Or something else that's easier and that I haven't thought of yet.

Any other ideas on how to do this or what's the most preferable method?

Also what resource(s) would you associate with each civ?

Thanks,
Joseph

As Kael's FFH II mod did it back in the day: Give each civilization a Unique palace building that replaces the normal palace building. These Unique palaces would automatically provide the special resources.

 

[Pouakai]

You could have Paper be gained via the Chinese Paper Maker...

 

[jaldaen]

As Kael's FFH II mod did it back in the day: Give each civilization a Unique palace building that replaces the normal palace building. These Unique palaces would automatically provide the special resources.

Thanks for the suggestion, that's sort of the direction I was going in, but I wanted to see if there was an easier way. I'll have to ask Kael if he has some suggestions for the XML coding.

 

[jaldaen]

You could have Paper be gained via the Chinese Paper Maker...

You know what... I hadn't thought of adding "unique" bonus resources (I meant it more of an additional resource that's already in the game. For example, Arabia would start with oil, though it wouldn't help immediately, it'd be a bonus for later in the game)... but it could be fun for another mod to add in a truly unique resources.

Thanks for the idea (though it might be best as a stand-alone mod).

 

[Kyoss]

You could have Paper be gained via the Chinese Paper Maker...

The idea is nice, but currently there's no way to make a building give a resource (i think).

 

[Chibiabos]

Most of the bugs are fixed now. MP's still a bit rough around the edges, but overall I'd say if it were released as it is now versus its disastrous 1.0, it should get at least 150% of the review scores it did at 1.0.

The crashes and bugs were horrible, but they've managed to chain their programmers to their computers and crank out quite a few patches since launch.

 

[jaldaen]

Hello All,

I did most of the work on the buildings (replacing the palace with unique palaces for each civ)... However, I don't think their is a current command that I could use to have the resources I want attached to the palace. For example, I want to give America 1 Fur to start with and Rome 4 Iron, but I need a way to do that. Any ideas?

Yield-based commands won't work b/c it only refers to food, production, gold, and science. And I haven't seen any resource-related commands I could use. Anyone have any ideas on how to give resources through buildings?

Thanks,
Joseph

PS: If I can't make the palaces give free resources, then I might give the palaces a different bonus... perhaps a GP point based on each civ.
PPS: Any other ideas about starting bonuses for civs?

 

[RandomPete]

There's a Building_ResourceYieldModifiers table:

	<Table name="Building_ResourceYieldModifiers">
		<Column name="BuildingType" type="text" reference="Buildings(Type)"/>
		<Column name="ResourceType" type="text" reference="Resources(Type)"/>
		<Column name="YieldType" type="text" reference="Yields(Type)"/>
		<Column name="Yield" type="integer"/>
	</Table>

However it's not actually used anywhere in the game's default buildings. Has anyone tested if it works? I also wanted some buidlings that could produce resources.

EDIT: Ah. I guess that table (as well as Building_ResourceYieldChanges) will only affect resource production on an existing tile with the resource.

But, I'm wondering about Building_ResourceQuantityRequirements. Has anyone tried a negative number to see if it might add resources instead of taking them away?

EDIT II: Doesn't seem to be any other way, I hope that works! However I have an idea. Each Civ can be given a unique Unit. This unit would have a special command which could create the specified resource on the current map tile (in LUA). Could give each Civ just 1 of these units to begin with and not allow production of any more. From what I've been finding in the files it could work...

 

[jaldaen]

RandomPete,

Interesting idea about the unique unit... I've never coded LUA before, but that actually sounds like it'd be another approach to this problem. The main reason I created this idea was because some civs depend on certain resources (like Rome and Iron!) and so I was trying to give them access to those key resources or resources they have historically been known for.

Best Wishes,
Joseph

 

[SamBC]

But, I'm wondering about Building_ResourceQuantityRequirements. Has anyone tried a negative number to see if it might add resources instead of taking them away?

Hmm, I'm gonna have to try that... my to-do list is growing...

 

[RandomPete]

Interesting idea about the unique unit... I've never coded LUA before, but that actually sounds like it'd be another approach to this problem. The main reason I created this idea was because some civs depend on certain resources (like Rome and Iron!) and so I was trying to give them access to those key resources or resources they have historically been known for.

I just felt as a general idea it would be nice to have additional ways to create resources. Your example is certainly one good reason for this!

At the moment, to get a particular resource, the only options are;

1. Found a city near a resource and link it
2. Trade with a city or city state that has access to a resource
3. Capture a city that has it (or use Culture Bomb to take over tiles)

Obviously option 1 is only possible if those map tiles are still available. By the time Uranium appears there's a good chance that most Uranium tiles will already be taken.

Option 2 I've struggled with, seems pretty hard to negociate trades for useful stuff, maybe I just haven't played enough to figure out the system.

Option 3 is fine if you're at war with everyone!

But for a game with such varied options for routes to victory, it would be nice if there were additional ways to produce resources.

My wish to do this arose from the first game I played. I had taken over a good 2/3rds of the world and was going for Science victory. Once Uranium was available I started building loads of reactors; because it was my first game I hadn't quite twigged that buildings use resources permanently - it hadn't really been a problem until that point as resources has always been plentiful.

Suddenly I'd used up all 12 Uranium or however much that I had in my empire and I was completely unable to build any actual nucleur units because it was all tied up in buildings. To be honest I really think there should be some way to remove buildings, hopefully someone will be able to mod this, it seems very inflexible - it'd be nice to be able to set up certain buildings to temporarily boost production or whatever and then decommision some to free up resources when they're no longer needed.

So I went looking for more Uranium and there was only one other tile on the whole map. Unfortunately it belonged to one of the few civs I hadn't already obliterated, needless to say there was an easy solution! But I was still basically limited to a single GDR despite my vast empire and outrageous nuclear tech!

Hence I thought it would be nice if some advanced tech allowed you to boost Uranium production in some way...

I just did some quick research on Wikipedia on Uranium mining/production and I found some pretty interesting data:

From http://forums.civfanatics.com/newreply.php?do=newreply&p=9742151:

"Uranium is a naturally occurring element that can be found in low levels within all rock, soil, and water."

"Uranium's average concentration in the Earth's crust is (depending on the reference) 2 to 4 parts per million,[9][13] or about 40 times as abundant as silver."

40 times more than silver? I know the game's not supposed to be realistic but what?...

This in particular:

"An additional 4.6 billion tonnes of uranium are estimated to be in sea water (Japanese scientists in the 1980s showed that extraction of uranium from sea water using ion exchangers was technically feasible)."

So I'm thinking of a couple of future tech buildings or units that could create additional uranium resources either in water or on mineral tiles.

 

[Kyoss]

But, I'm wondering about Building_ResourceQuantityRequirements. Has anyone tried a negative number to see if it might add resources instead of taking them away?

Nice idea RandomPete. I tried yesterday and it didnt work for me. I tried with a custom resource. Will try tonight with a default one. Its quite easy... ;D Made a building with a cost of 10 and thats my sandbox... i add and remove stuff to that building to see if it works ingame.