distribution of all the resources

[Siptah]

After playing a few games I am wondering about the distribution of the bonus/strategic/luxury resources. I seem to encounter the same and their distribution seems to be the same, too, in every game. I know it is supposed to be random and I also know that a start bias might change the perspective (I've seen many maps as a whole though). But I can see a clear trend (in my games). Did you ever see a map with all luxuries? And is the trend similar for you?

Bonus ressources
very common and all over the place: fish, crabs, wheat, rice, stone
very common: cattle, bananas, deer
slightly less common: sheep
less common: copper (there are many games in which I don't own a single tile with it)

Strategic resources
common (I usually have at least 1 copy and see lots on the map): horses, oil
slightly less common (I have 1 copy in most games and see many more on the map): iron, aluminum, coal
less common (I often have none and sometimes I have trouble finding one): uranium, niter

note: in the case of uranium aluminum that might also be wrong since they may be hidden under districts or cities in the later game when they appear.

Luxury resources
very common: coffee, furs, salt, tea, wine
common: cocoa, dyes, jade, marble, mercury, truffles
less common: citrus, cotton, diamonds, gypsum, ivory, incense, spices, tobacco
rare (only seen once): pearls, silk, sugar
never seen: whales

 

[mnf]

I'd say it's just randomness. I've seen silk and sugar regularly, at least in the common category, and wine, whales, truffles were rare for me. Spices, cotton, tobacco were all common. Copper is everywhere for me, too. Niter is also readily available (just not necessarily in my empire).

 

[10KEyeCandy]

From what I see
The distribution of Bonus and Luxury resources still seems pretty similar to Civ5. Didn't notice anything worth noting.
They are mainly dictated by terrain and tile features generated by map script, with each landmass having its exclusive sets of Luxury resources.

But Strategic resources feels much more randomized than Civ5.
In one game on a duel/continent map with 2 landmass, everything else is default.
The entire landmass I'm on has only 2 Horse. I started to notice that when I could't find any Iron.
I was so surprised I started cheating through tech to find out how many SR there are on my landmass.
And it's 2 Horse and 1 Oil. Coast tiles around the landmass included.
Then I checked the other landmass and it has at least 1 copy of everything.
There are also plenty of less extreme examples like where my small landmass has every kinds of SR and others are missing some.

 

[Soryn Arkayn]

My experience with resources distribution has been mixed. In my first playthrough on Prince as Rome, I had plenty of Horses, Iron, Oil, Aluminum, and Uranium near the cities I founded. The one I was short on was Niter. I had to buy tiles to reach a Niter 3 hexes from a city and later conquered cities for more Niter. (BTW, it was a 2 Continents map and the civs and city-states were oddly placed; there were 6 civs on my continent and only 2 city-states; and 2 civs and all the other city-states on the second continent.)

In my recent playthrough on King as Egypt on a Pangaea map, I had NO Horses, Iron, Coal or Oil within 3 hexes of any of my original cities, or most of the cities I conquered. I was fortunate that Egypt could produce Chariot Archers without Horses (?!?) otherwise I would've been in trouble when Spain attacked me early on. But since they upgraded to Crossbowman and I had difficulty trading for Horses (or Iron) because I was condemned as a warmonger, I only had a couple of precious horse units until I finally secured Horses and cranked out Cavalry. I lucked out with Niter this game and produced plenty of Musketmen for my mid-game conquests. But I was into the 1900s when I realized I didn't have any Coal or Oil. Three AI civs did, but wouldn't trade with me, and I couldn't see which of their cities had the resources because I couldn't get open borders. I had to wait until I unlocked Offshore Platforms to acquire Oil from a German coastal city I conquered and I sent a Settler escorted by a Frigate halfway around the world to secure a second Oil resource. I lucked out on Aluminum and Uranium though, which I exploited in the late game. After Russia attacked me without provocation I captured several of their cities and acquired all the strategic resources I had lacked.

I've found the distribution of strategic resources to be poor in Civ6. It seems like certain regions will have an abundance of certain strategic resources and completely lack others. That's why I struggled in the early game as Egypt because I didn't have Horses or Iron, but when unlocked Niter I used it to crank out Musketmen and combined with Bombards I conquered a lot of territory in the mid-game. I acquired Oil so late that by the time I produced Tanks I could upgrade them to Modern Armor.

I understand why luxuries and bonus resources aren't equally distributed because civs can establish a monopoly on a particular luxury and use it to trade for another's civ's unique luxury. I was familiar with that from Civ5 and it's understandable. But I don't like how Civ6 unevenly distributes strategic resources because it's really unfair.

 

[mnf]

Actually I quite like how in Civ6 you are not guaranteed those strategic resources. You have to find alternatives when they're missing, and it messes up your plans. My current Continents game I had to settle on a one-tile island in the middle of the ocean for an offshore oil. It did have 4 sea bonus resources but just that city center, no land anywhere. It's not about fairness in this game, it's about defeating your opponents in all sorts of different circumstances, even when the odds are against you.

 

[Becephalus]

In my only game where I got all through the tech tree I was suprised to see that my very large Civ ended up with 1 oil, 2 horse, 4 niter, 1 alum, and 1 uranium. Seemed a little sparse. Maybe not though. It is good to have some scarcity.

 

[Siptah]

so it's really just by chance that I saw trends. Really random, without any rules, can create a weird feeling, as it seems. Of 8 games I played with a random leader, I got 3 times Gilgamesh and I haven't seen a single Kongo player in the 6 games I finished...

 

[bladex]

oil is as rare as hens teeth

 

[dturtle1]

so it's really just by chance that I saw trends. Really random, without any rules, can create a weird feeling, as it seems. Of 8 games I played with a random leader, I got 3 times Gilgamesh and I haven't seen a single Kongo player in the 6 games I finished...

Probably mate , Even if you spreadsheet ed the Hex cell locations for every map you have played so far, it woulds still be a too small of a Sample Size to indicate a persistent Trend. My Current game has location with 4 Iron deposits adjacent to each other , highly doubt that happens often. Your Trends dont really reflect my Trendsl. I have seen a few whales, heaps of silk but not much Salt or Cocoa. Although the bonus resources are pretty similar...Damn Stone everywhere, think i rerolled 4 games straight with a stone start . Luxes seem to be the most random though and Bonus resources seem pretty uniform really, considering, except maybe Copper. Iron and Niter seem uniform in number but can be clumpy. I haven't actually found Oil/Ally/Uranium yet because i havent actually gotten that far .....

Damn Compulsive Re rolling