do resources seem more scarce since the updates?

[sethjohnson]

Since the frontier pack updates having been coming out i've always been struggling for later era resources - oil shortages are always holding up my progress and aluminium and uranium seen rarer too.

Have they made these resources rarer?

Related to this, is there any way round this problem? I built a lovely triple national park and there's uranium (my only source) in the middle of it. Any way to get it out?

 

[Linklite]

Have they made these resources rarer?

I don't know. They seem too rare for me. I noticed it, but I got the XPs about the time when NFP came out, so it could just be that I noticed it because it became relevant. Before two aluminium mines were enough to support as many aircraft as I could maintain with gold, after I literally took over the entire globe bar one city, and could just about run a fully loaded aircraft carrier. If they're going to do accountable resources, they need to either have more resources available or make your mines upgradeable. You can get +2 with a card I think, but that's not enough to support a map wide armada. Naval Civs get hammered toward the end.

Related to this, is there any way round this problem? I built a lovely triple national park and there's uranium (my only source) in the middle of it. Any way to get it out?

I believe the only solution is to gift your city, let it rebel, then raze it, or variations thereupon. The NP will exist so long as the city exists, and can't be removed except by removing myths city.

Looks like you have to go to war or do without.

 

[suedenim]

It definitely looks like the number of oil, aluminum, and uranium spots in particular are severely curtailed from what they used to be. It's particularly bad for the AI, which has a hard time putting up anything like a credible fight, because they simply don't have the resources to build a modern army or navy.

 

[Myomoto]

In my current game, I had no coal in any of my 15 cities. Fortunately my neighbor Korea had a city with 2 sources of coal in its borders, so that was easy to "liberate". I had no oil either, but a 2 tile island off the coast had 6 sources of oil in range in the water

 

[sethjohnson]

lack of oil is killing me, i avoid coal power as it's too polluting so have to wait until renewables to properly power up my cities. Plus it hampers my military massively all the time

It's always offshore in the middle of nowhere!

 

[tedhebert]

I've felt it's been low for a long while now...

What I HAVE noticed is that I find the Ai is more willing to trade strategics at 1 for 1 for equal value (ex: aluminum for oil, niter for Coal...etc) than it was before, so for me, since I always play huge and so have 12 civs in game, that means almost always finding a trade partner; It's rare to be left out of BOTH strategics at the same time in a period

 

[cain3456]

I play Island Plates. Oil is usually plentiful; aluminum & uranium, not so much. Many times they seem to appear in a city-state border.

 

[Stringer1313]

Based solely one game it even seemed that iron is rare and in fact, I wish it were rarer.

Not to be off topic but I think that some military units in the older eras should also require resource maintenance like the later units do. It prevents spamming of powerful units, which I like. The amount of resources I have stockpiled is ridiculous - it is always full to brimming and I don't even pay attention to it. And the AI is still making stupid offers of asking for 10 of some resource. I've never had to conquer someone just for a resource.

 

[Sostratus]

Are the spawn rates of resources exposed to us? If so, a simple check between versions would confirm or reject this.

the problem with a thread like this is the statistics suggest even with no change, a lot of people will experience several games after the patch with rarer strategics in their empire, and they will self report that here. Hard to tell either way!

 

[Linklite]

the problem with a thread like this is the statistics suggest even with no change, a lot of people will experience several games after the patch with rarer strategics in their empire, and they will self report that here. Hard to tell either way!

And the ones who haven't seen a difference are likely to just shake their heads and move on without commenting. Your point is why I made a point of mentioning my potential bias.
I'd be interested to see actual numbers.

 

[sethjohnson]

Are the spawn rates of resources exposed to us? If so, a simple check between versions would confirm or reject this.

the problem with a thread like this is the statistics suggest even with no change, a lot of people will experience several games after the patch with rarer strategics in their empire, and they will self report that here. Hard to tell either way!

yeah theres no stats that I’ve seen so I can only go by my experience - oil, aluminium and uranium resources were never a problem I had before the first frontier pack update came out. Then all my games since then I’ve had oil shortages hurting my power supply and military. And I haven’t had much aluminium or uranium either so it stopped me building a modern navy or many WMDs

I’d like civ to have some ‘mining colony’ mechanic so you can use unclaimed resources. I avoid sticking a city in the middle of some tundra on an island that happens to have a load of oil, although the AI seems to like doing that

 

[8housesofelixir]

I’d like civ to have some ‘mining colony’ mechanic so you can use unclaimed resources. I avoid sticking a city in the middle of some tundra on an island that happens to have a load of oil, although the AI seems to like doing that

I am all in for city specialization. Besides adding more layer to the game, the resource generating rules also tend to put strategic resource in tundra, desert, and oceans - because according to the code, they are among the last to be generated on map, so there are only few "blank" places for them.

As for the AI, I assume they are just be coded as love to spam settlers everywhere.

 

[hhhhhh]

I’d like civ to have some ‘mining colony’ mechanic so you can use unclaimed resources. I avoid sticking a city in the middle of some tundra on an island that happens to have a load of oil, although the AI seems to like doing that

If there's a global market for resources, mining colony will be interest. Or maybe one can build colony settlers which can settle a territory, with low loyalty pressure, but cannot build districts.

 

[Arithmion]

Are the spawn rates of resources exposed to us? If so, a simple check between versions would confirm or reject this.

the problem with a thread like this is the statistics suggest even with no change, a lot of people will experience several games after the patch with rarer strategics in their empire, and they will self report that here. Hard to tell either way!

I absolutely agree. It's really tough to tell when true experience ends and confirmation bias begins. For example, I KNOW that they have made the barbarian spawn rate more aggressive at some point in the last six months. Couldn't tell you when, or give you an exact number.
That said, I feel like oil is maybe a tad rarer. It always felt before that even if other resources were rare, pretty much everyone would have oil. I'm not a warmonger by any means, and I would frequently find myself with two or three sources easily. Now not as much. But I wouldn't bet money on any change in rarity. I just haven't played enough games to determine the answer.

 

[Karmah]

a solution for global peace, make resources scarce

 

[Cagarustus]

One idea is to have a ‘Prospector’ civilian unit which unlocks in the Industrial Era. You can build only 1 or 2 throughout the era or something like that.

When you use a prospector you get to choose a resource of your choice, and consuming one charge spawns a mining resource on the tile.

 

[Mahi]

I've noticed oil has become quite scarce, even before the latest patch. I play on Continents and Islands and I guess the map has something to do with where stragetic resources pops up. I like strategic resources are scarce since it forces you to take some initiatives to get them. It's too bad it can be a handicap for the AI though.

 

[HiRezAudio]

Aluminium should be a lot more available than it is - given it consists of a large percentage of the crust of the planet.
Oil is also much more common than it seems here, although in all honesty I always seem to stumble across enough of it.
Uranium is rare in reality, and this I feel is about right in appearance regularity.

 

[Pietato]

It has been like this for a while now. I always send out a massive settler wave to claim the late game resources, or go full murica and kill everyone for them.

a solution for global peace, make resources scarce

You mean a solution to global peace, right?

 

[Karmah]

It has been like this for a while now. I always send out a massive settler wave to claim the late game resources, or go full murica and kill everyone for them.


You mean a solution to global peace, right?

works both ways , depending if you take a realistic angle or civ's