civ7 idea: changing strategic resource requirement for units

[SupremacyKing2]

This idea has probably been debated before but what do you all think of getting ready of the resource requirement for units completely and instead granting special bonuses for having a strategic resource?

For example, all civs could build swordsmen without strategic iron but mining strategic iron would grant you free maintenance for 5 swordsmen units (per iron mined) and grant each swordsmen a +20% combat bonus. The idea is that the strategic iron represents an abundance of the resource thereby making it easier for you to maintain an army of sworsdmen and the pure iron would make your swords of stronger quality (hence the combat bonus).

The in-game rationale would be that strategic resources on a hex represent an abundance of that resource thereby granting civs extra advantages but that the civs would still have small quantities of the resources enough to build small numbers of the units.

The gameplay rationale would be that the strategic resource requirement coupled with the random location of the resource makes the game unbalanced in a lot of cases. So for example, in a competitive game, if you happen not to be near any iron, you are kinda screwed since you won't be able to build any swordsmen at all and have to go most of the early game with a crappy melee unit while your neighbor who was blessed with iron can steamroll you with swordsmen. This is especially difficult for the AI and probably a big reason why players see the AI still running around with woefully obsolete units in the modern era. Getting rid of the requirement would create more balance and fairness, allowing all civs to build all units while still granting a nice reward for players who do have the resource.

I also think that luxuries and bonus resources should grant more interesting bonuses instead of just extra food or extra gold. For example marble could give you a production bonus towards classical era wonders. These types of bonuses always tend to make the game more interesting than just getting +1 of something.

 

[dunkleosteus]

Personally, I think strategic resources are a very important part of the game. Oil has been one of the most sought-after resources in recent decades. I think that resources should be in HIGHER demand than they currently are.

However, I also think that with the real world in mind, Civ falls short. In Civ, resources such as iron and coal are much rarer than they are in real life. One of the advantages of using iron was that iron is a very, very common element. I think that slapping a mine on a hill should give access to a small amount of strategic resources that you've unlocked, possibly dependent on the terrain type. I believe aluminum spawns more commonly on desert tiles, so perhaps each desert mine would give like +0.2 aluminum with the relevant tech. That could be worked on. I am strongly in favour of keeping and/or increasing the reliance on strategic resources but giving players more ways to get resources but with reduced efficiency/yield.

 

[SupremacyKing2]

Personally, I think strategic resources are a very important part of the game. Oil has been one of the most sought-after resources in recent decades. I think that resources should be in HIGHER demand than they currently are.

However, I also think that with the real world in mind, Civ falls short. In Civ, resources such as iron and coal are much rarer than they are in real life. One of the advantages of using iron was that iron is a very, very common element. I think that slapping a mine on a hill should give access to a small amount of strategic resources that you've unlocked, possibly dependent on the terrain type. I believe aluminum spawns more commonly on desert tiles, so perhaps each desert mine would give like +0.2 aluminum with the relevant tech. That could be worked on. I am strongly in favour of keeping and/or increasing the reliance on strategic resources but giving players more ways to get resources but with reduced efficiency/yield.

Thanks for the reply. I definitely agree that strategic resources should be very important. I like your idea of mines providing a small amount of a resource. I just think that the game is a bit weird right now with how rare certain resources are but also with how unit upgrades work. Perhaps, the game also needs more units to fill the gaps in the tech tree. It's just weird that a civ can miss out on swordsmen all the way until musketmen just because it had no hex with iron on it. Maybe the game could include a weak swordsmen unit that does not require iron and a stronger swordsmen unit that does require iron for example?

 

[dunkleosteus]

Thanks for the reply. I definitely agree that strategic resources should be very important. I like your idea of mines providing a small amount of a resource. I just think that the game is a bit weird right now with how rare certain resources are but also with how unit upgrades work. Perhaps, the game also needs more units to fill the gaps in the tech tree. It's just weird that a civ can miss out on swordsmen all the way until musketmen just because it had no hex with iron on it. Maybe the game could include a weak swordsmen unit that does not require iron and a stronger swordsmen unit that does require iron for example?

Like the difference between heavy and light infantry?

 

[SupremacyKing2]

Like the difference between heavy and light infantry?

Yep, that's the idea. light infantry could be cheap to build and not require any resources but have weaker combat strength. Heavy infantry would be more expensive to build and require resources but have stronger combat strength.

 

[killmeplease]

historically, most of iron was obtained from magnetite sands and limonite ores found in bogs (bog iron)
bog iron was exploited up to 19th century even in developed countries such as US.
but 'mined' iron was better as there were less impurities in it, allowing for better quality implements and weapons.
e.g. vikings used bog iron for stuff like nails and cauldrons (just every viking colony was found in vicinity of some bog) but their swords were made of imported mined iron.
technically, bog iron could be refined by multiple fold-forging, but it was very labor intensive.
so the production bonus towards swordsmen for having an iron resource (but not a hard prereq) makes perfect sense.
maybe it should be applied to all ancient-medieval units, not just swordsmen.
i'd like it in the form of a special building, consuming iron (like the factory consumes 1 coal in civ5), say iron forge, providing +50% production bonus when making ancient-medieval units
in the same way, a copper resource may allow to build a bronze foundry, providing +50% production for the ancient-classical units (not stackable w iron forge).
for the industrial era it could be blast furnace, consuming coal and requiring an iron forge in the city.
but production of cannons can still be helped by the bronze foundry as they were cast of bronze preferably, until the late 19 century