This is one reason why I'd prefer to have Variable Quantities in a single Deposit, which saves 'space' on the map. Since you might not be able to tell the size of the Deposit until later in the game, that also keeps you from getting complacent and possibly forces a hunt for 'bigger deposits' later in the game, keeping the Resource Game dynamic instead of static.
That would interesting indeed. The dynamics of it, I mean. As an example, on reveal, all deposits are small, and as tech improves, some become bigger, etc. And with stuff like oil, perhaps more instances appear entirely. It would also help with making things like iron being used late game; you'd need industrial scale deposits to actually support a modern war or infrastructure effort. So better mining tech could easily gate the distinction between supporting some units vs units and buildings.
Beyond just applying the material cost to more units, i dream of having some kind of special IZ buildings that can consume a strategic resource to give benefit. So you could have a Steelworks consume Iron (and power!) to provide a powerful production bonus of some kind. A Fertilizer plant to consume niter and boost all the farms nearby. Lots you could play with. I do like people's suggestions of projects to produce a quantity of a resource, too. In theory - in practice it would be hard to balance.
And then on the flip side taking a leaf from CivBE and Civ5 and adding city center buildings that would improve the local strategics (and maybe some others.) A Forge to boost iron and some other mining deposits, a Refinery to make your oil wells and platforms very strong... etc. Just little things.
I feel left out having never played Civ V...
I realize that just because most people played it, not everyone has... Although civ5 is fundamentally the groundwork of civ6, much more than 4->5. Religion, trade, hexes, strategic resources... A lot of things carried over. And for the most part you could swap those systems between the two and they would fit pretty well. So for this thread you didn't miss much. It's really more about if there's enough resource available on the map.
Partly, I feel like it’s a lot of little things that aren’t right - eg planes using aluminium as maintenance not just one off cost. Maybe Civ V’s model would be better.
I liked that civ5 had a uniform resource maintenance system. But it had some shortcomings - it was basically just a limited on how many you could have at once. GS adding material+fuel system is nice too. Really, controlling the
rate at which players can push out stuff like swords and knights is more important in many ways than the absolute number.
However, if you were to use both material and fuel on the same unit, then you end up with a logistics curve / s-curve where the closer you get to your cap, the harder it is to get together enough resources to build the next one. So it's hard to fully exhaust your income in war if you're rebuilding, but if you're been wiped out rebuilding can happen fast. I enjoy the math of that.
We do need a limit of planes for how crazy strong they are right now. For context, in civ5, the almighty stealth bomber hit 33% harder than rocket artillery, both cost 1 aluminum maintenance. Right now, jet bombers are
e (2.71) times stronger than rocket artillery, and both cost 1 resource in maintenance. (due to the combat formula, a 25 str difference is a factor of the number
e.) In fairness, rocket artillery armies narrow the gap back to like 35%, but still.
But bombers right now in GS are so strong they can devastate armies of land units even with their -17 penalty. Can you tell I've been having fun in the late game recently?