Indeed you can't buy and you can't sell it. You will have some bonuses if you are the first to discover those resources. Europeans IA can also discover some new resources, that's why we will get some bonuses
Good implementation. Also I would add a minor but interesting point here:
When you said "we will get some bonuses" I suppose that these bonuses are set manually by you (or Dazio) somewhere in the files.
These bonuses will be the same in every game, in other words: every time we are the first to discover "cotton" for ex. we will get the same bonuses.
Considering that, there is a point I think can be improved:
After a few games you will already know what will be the bonus assigned to "x" resource. That will influence you to try to get some specific resources first. That is against the essence of the idea: it's the new World and all the resources should appear as something "new" to the player.
We loose that enchanting feeling if we can predict the bonus after a few games.
Also I think that as a general statement the aim of the mod should be maintain (or in this case: add & improve) that random point of the game; the possibility to see many different scenarios (not only in resources but diplomacy, events, secondary missions & objectives, ...) even when you play the same way you did in previous games.
After all the idea:
Create some arbitrary divisions for the resources which will be used to assign some of the basic or general bonuses:
- Raw materials
- Finished goods
- Tools and weapons
Then some sub-categories featuring different types of materials to which would be assigned more specific bonuses:
- Raw materials
- Dry goods (textile)
- Food and beverage
- Construction and production material
- Luxury goods
- Finished goods
- Textile manufacturing
- Food and beverage
- Luxury goods
- Tools and military production
And finally every resource in its place:
- Raw materials
- Dry goods (textile)
- Food, beverage % others
- Construction and production material
- Luxury goods
- Finished goods
- Textile manufacturing
- Food and beverage
- Luxury goods
- Tools and military production
- Tools
- Weapons
- Guns
- Swords
- Ammunition
- Cannons
- Horses
Note that "Horses" is the only which is in different categories, it can be used as a production or military resource and it's not a standard raw material (there are requisites to obtain it).
After the categories the main point: dynamic bonuses.
Create a bunch of bonuses per categories. You can create some standard bonuses but whose value would be randomly set according to some variables in a specific range.
Some examples:
- Raw materials
- +200 free gold.
- +"x"% tools production.
- 100 free units of tools.
- 50 free units of tools.
- 1 free colonist.
- 1 free colonist with "z" proffesion.
- "x" free units of "y" resource.
- ...
- Dry goods (textile)
- +"x"% gold in commerce
- +"x"% tools production
- 100 free units of cotton.
- "x" free units of "y" resource.
- ...
- Food and beverage
- Construction and production material
- Luxury goods
That in every category and subcategory. Note that there are some generic bonuses for the big categories and then other for the sub-categories.
As you can see there are 2 types of bonuses: those which have been preset to give an specific bonus and those which use a "x,y,z" variable.
You can add a bunch of the first type and then the same with the second. The second would variate according to situation of the game.
For ex. the "x" assigned to percentages in the examples could be calculated in a range between (3-7) according to the score of the player, the turn, total commerce, or any other variable.
The idea is to create a great list of bonuses assigned to categories and sub-categories, some of them would be constant and others would be calculated depending on some variables.
Then some more specific bonuses per resource; again having in mind the previous considerations.
Finally, the bonuses we get when we discover a resource would be obtained from the list pursuant to which category and sub-category the resource belongs as well as the resource itself.
For ex. 3 bonuses could be given per resource. One from the main category, other from the sub-category and the last from the specific resource.
Given that it's obvious that one per class is more than the bunch of possibilities which would be available in the list, the bonus is chosen randomly out of them.
That would solve the problem and totally variate the results from one game to another.
The bonus we would get is [first] obtained according to the situation, [second] obtained randomly from up to 3 categories (main, sub-category & specific resource) and [third] the percentage of the bonus, the resource, unit, ... given would be set randomly or according to some variables. No possibility to see the same.
Note that this is not only improving the concept and the entire game-play but it could be expanded in other aspects in the future: imagine for ex. that you could merge some of the ideas related with the cartography concept as well as the secondary missions I suggested to make it even more interesting.
For ex. when discovering a resource the king could ask you to obtain "5000 units" of that resource as an economic aim. Then you would not only obtain the advantages of the resource but new aims or ways to try to win. When completing the objective some type of award could be given.
Also not only bonuses should be given (here and in all the aspects) but some disadvantages, or not considered as disadvantages but as social changes, long-term economic change, etc.
We should not always consider all these aims or new things discovered as something that only give us goodies but as events which change our colony. (for ex. in the economic aim suggested, it could give a +20% finished goods production but -20% military production.)
PD: Adding a few more resources would be great too. Also nt sure if it's possible but instead of always put all the resources on the map, some of them [the new resources] could appear randomly in a game or not.
I remember a mod that added a lot of resources; if you want to add them, let me know and I will try to search the pag.