Ideas and concepts for new resources (and a reworked lumber mill)

[Queen Theophania]

Hey y'all, I have no idea if anyone else has problems with the variety of resources in Civ VI but I wish they were a bit more varied and represented a bit more of the world, so here I've compiled a few resources I'd like to see in the next entry in the series (and may or may not add through mods if I'm good enough at it) along with specifying their yields.

Bonus Resources :

• Llamas: I genuinely have no idea why they're not here, just add them already Firaxis. (+1 Production. improved by pastures, appears in hills)
• Potatoes: Second verse same as the first. (+1 Food, improved by farms, appears in hills)
• Opuntia: A species of cactus from which the prickly pear and nopales come from, incredibly important food source in Northern Mexico and also present all the way from the US to the Andes mountains, I just think they'd be neat. (+1 Food, improved by farms, appears in deserts)
• Bison: Why did they take them out in Civ VI, they were cool. (+1 Food / Production, improved by camps, appears in plains)
  
• Seals: Inspired by Sukritact's oceans, essentially the exact same deal as there. (+1 Production, improved by fishing boats, appears in coasts)
• Soy: big important East Asian crop, also very significant worldwide now. (+2 Gold, improved by farms, appears in grasslands)
• Tin: Copper being the only bonus resource improved by mines feels weird, tin would be nice to round everything up a bit more (+2 Gold, improved by mines, appears anywhere)

Lumber Mill Rework :

I don't really have any problem with the way lumber mills are designed in Civ VI, but the fact they're unlocked so late and yield +2 production by default makes them ill suited to improve resources, this is why I'm proposing the lumber mill being reworked as the Lumber Yard, being essentially the same resource except this time being unlocked much earlier (preferably at a new tech like carpentry) and only giving +1 production when they're unlocked, this way they'd fall much more in line with other improvements that improve resources while still maintaining their core design.

Luxury Resources :

• Ebony: Expensive and coveted wood, probably best example of a luxury coming from a tree. (+3 gold, improved by lumber yard, appears in plains forests)
• Sandalwood: Another luxury wood. (+1 faith, improved by lumber yard, spawns in grassland forests)
• Maple Syrup: Yummy tree juice. (+2 food, improved by lumber yard, appears in tundra forests)
• Gold: I understand why this isn't a resource since it might be confusing with how the money in the game is called gold but it'd be nice to have. (+3 gold, improved by mines, appears anywhere)
• Agave: Important food source in the north American desert and where tequila comes from (+2 food, improved by plantation, appears in deserts)
• Coca: Funny leaf, I also get why this wouldn't be included but I think it'd still be nice if it was. (+1 faith, improved by plantations, appears in rainforests)
• Papyrus: I just want papyrus in the game it'd be cool. (+1 science, improved by plantations, appears in desert floodplains)
• Obsidian: Another resource that just makes sense. (+1 science, improved by quarries, appears in any terrain within 2 tiles of a volcano)
• Carmine: A widely cultivated dye in ancient Mesoamerica, it might be weird to have both it and "dyes" but it fits the exact definition of a luxury resource so I put it here. (+3 gold, improved by camps, appears in deserts)
• Feathers: Brightly colored feathers from tropical birds have been consistently coveted for a very long time, with there being evidence of pre columbian trade of them between the Amazon and the Atacama desert as an example. (+1 culture, improved by camps, appears in rainforests)
• Abalone: Not particularly sure about this one but it was both a very important food source for several people groups around the world and one of the main sources of the valuable material mother of pearl so I think it's a good choice. (+2 food, improved by fishing boats, appears in coast)
• Caviar: yummy eggs. (+3 gold, improved by fishing boats, appears in lakes)

Strategic Resource

• Rubber: I think it'd be pretty cool if rubber was included as an extra strategic resource for early wheeled vehicles, it might make domination a bit more annoying though. (+3 Production, improved by lumber yard, appears in rainforests, becomes visible with Chemistry?)

What do you all think about these resources? are there any more you would like to add that I didn't include here?

 

[Eddie Verdde]

These are the resources I'd like to play with in the next civ game:

Food resources:
Wheat
Rice
Corn
Soybean
Manioc (aka cassava)
Potatoes
Bananas
Citrus
Cattle
Sheep
Deer
Fish
Shellfish
Whales

Luxury Resources:
Olive oil
Wines
Salt
Sugar
Spices
Cocoa
Coffee
Tea
Tobacco
Incense
Linen
Cotton
Silk
Furs
Dyes
Gold
Silver
Gems
Pearls
Amber


Strategic resources:
Horses
Camel
Elephant (also luxury resource because of ivory)
Copper
Iron
Niter
Coal
Rubber
Oil
Aluminum
Uranium


Other resources:
Hemp
Palm oil
Peat
Clay
Stone

 

[Zegangani]

Most of the Resources you have suggested already exist with mods, though It would be nice if Civ7 would introduce more Resources than Civ6 at release, especially if Civ7 would come with Biomes.

 

[Alexander's Hetaroi]

Bamboo?
Not sure if it would be a resource or just a feature (type of forest). As long as it also has pandas on the tile.

Llamas: I genuinely have no idea why they're not here, just add them already Firaxis. (+1 Production. improved by pastures, appears in hills)

They should have had llamas on one of the Inca's unique improvements.

 

[Queen Theophania]

Bamboo?
Not sure if it would be a resource or just a feature (type of forest). As long as it also has pandas on the tile.

I'd like to see bamboo too, though maybe it's a bit too specific to be included as a feature and also not exactly fitting as a resource.

 

[BuchiTaton]

Some ideas of resources that could be linked to City States and "Barbarian Clans".

- CLOVES, from Ternate.
- KOLA, from Kumasi.
- VANILLA, from Tajín.
- YAKS, from Lhasa.
- LLAMAS, from Tiwanaku.

 

[Zaarin]

I'd like to see bamboo too, though maybe it's a bit too specific to be included as a feature and also not exactly fitting as a resource.

Bamboo has so many uses that I think it would be pretty well justified as a resource.

 

[Alexander's Hetaroi]

Bamboo has so many uses that I think it would be pretty well justified as a resource.

Yeah I was thinking something along the lines of this, though it might be too much?
+1 Production (for construction/weapon usage)
+1 Food (culinary uses)
+1 Culture (at Mysticism because of it's association with Eastern philosophies/religions)
+1 Science (at Conservation because of the pandas )
Regarding all of this I think it would be interesting if it was a resource that didn't need an improvement to be built on.

 

[Zaarin]

Yeah I was thinking something along the lines of this, though it might be too much?
+1 Production (for construction/weapon usage)
+1 Food (culinary uses)
+1 Culture (at Mysticism because of it's association with Eastern philosophies/religions)
+1 Science (at Conservation because of the pandas )
Regarding all of this I think it would be interesting if it was a resource that didn't need an improvement to be built on.

That probably is a bit much, but I wouldn't mind seeing +1 Production, +1 Food, and +1 of either Culture or Science on account of its long history of use in writing implements (both as pens and as bamboo slats for writing on) and on account of its status as one of the Four Respectable Persons in Chinese tradition (alongside orchids, chrysanthemums, and winter plums).

 

[Alexander's Hetaroi]

That probably is a bit much, but I wouldn't mind seeing +1 Production, +1 Food, and +1 of either Culture or Science on account of its long history of use in writing implements (both as pens and as bamboo slats for writing on) and on account of its status as one of the Four Respectable Persons in Chinese tradition (alongside orchids, chrysanthemums, and winter plums).

I thought it might be too much.
I do think that maybe it could yield culture if the tile was improved (by building a lumbermill?) and if left unimproved it would eventually yield science (at Conservation).

 

[BuchiTaton]

- MYRRH, from Sanna.
- LAPIS, from Balkh.

Yerba Mate related to Tupi-Guarani people, Reindeer for Siberian peoples and Water Buffalo from SAE peoples.

 

[Zaarin]

- MYRRH, from Sanna.

Since Firaxis has shown itself content with balkanizing city-states out of established civs, we could also have mastic from Chios, the thought of which is now making me hungry for booza.

 

[Lonecat Nekophrodite]

About lumbermill.
Actually forest tapping improvements should actually be logging camp. Lumber mills aren't really built INSIDE forests, an LM may be built NEXT to it but not far from any settlements with significant inhabitants. (even just a simple village). In an era before steam engine, lumbermills were usually built by creeks or rivers with steady streams so to turn the waterwheel (s) which for thousands of years the BEST industrial prime movers before the first economically advantage steam engines came into use.

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

About lumbermill.
Actually forest tapping improvements should actually be logging camp. Lumber mills aren't really built INSIDE forests, an LM may be built NEXT to it but not far from any settlements with significant inhabitants. (even just a simple village). In an era before steam engine, lumbermills were usually built by creeks or rivers with steady streams so to turn the waterwheel (s) which for thousands of years the BEST industrial prime movers before the first economically advantage steam engines came into use.

Cutting trees down, almost by definition, has to happen in a forest. Making fallen trees useful by sawing, splitting, or otherwise modifying them is labor-intensive and so is best done closer to a populated center.

And mechanizing that labor happened by the Classical Era: around 250 CE rhe Romans were using waterwheel-powered sawmills - they were among the earliest 'machinery' anywhere using a crank and connecting rods in gear trains to turn the rotary motion of the waterwheel into back-and-forth motion of a large saw (the Rotary Saw that cartoon villains are always strapping the maiden or hero down in front of was invented much, much later).
What is even more amazing is that the same mechanism was also used to saw Marble into thin veneers for interior decoration - and the slices of stone were only 4 millimeters thick, which is comparable to modern powered quarry machinery!

It's another example of the Production advantage of a river - to the point where many late Medieval European towns had 'power canals' built around and even through them to provide more sites for waterwheels, which were powering not only sawmills and grain mills, but also mixing and processing malt for beer, processing felt/cloth fibers in the 'fulling' process, powering forges and smelters for iron and bronze-working, sharpening tools, and by the 13th century powering paper mills. The Medieval Industrial Revolution was powered largely by watermills on rivers both natural and artificial, and waterpower jump-started the 'real' Industrial Revolution at the beginning of the 19th century - the first textile mills in both the USA (Lowell, Massachussettes and Russia (Naro-Fominsk) were powered by water, not steam.

 

[BuchiTaton]

Dont people say that many improvements are supposed to represent villages anyway?

The real problem is that on CIV6 the improvement for woods/jungle is locked behind Medieval and Renaissance techs, something absurd. It is logical to see the use of machinery as something that improve lumber production but that not mean you can not do it manually before. Also jungle wood is only usefull when europeans decided to go full Mercantilist!!!

Forest improvement (village) should be a thing since the first era.

 

[Lord Lakely]

I like the ideas stated here. I've been thinking about this recently when refining the Resource System for my Civ 7 vision.

I looked at it a bit differently however, and just looked at the function various bonus and luxury resources have. Are they a staple crop? A form of fiber used for clothing? Livestock? A metal? A type of stone? Etc.

So i started off by dividing the resources based on their practical applications in societies (Jewellery, Clothing, Pigments, Spices, Fibers, Ores, Gems, Seafood, Livestock, Beverages, etc) and went from there. Then I divided them according to rarity (Common, Rare, Exceptional) and category (Bonus, Luxury and Strategic)

Bonus resources to me should be resources that improve the living standard of those who have access to them by keeping them healthy or feeding them.
Luxury resources to me should be resources that make people happy or increase their status.
Strategic resources to me should be resources that provide the civ with massive strategic advantages over opponents who don't have it available.

Common resources are resources that can be found all over the world, sometimes in different shapes and forms, but always dependable in some way.
Rare resources are resources that are restricted to certain continents and/or are of great value.
Exceptional resources have unique designations and applications (such as Diamonds being used to make industrial drills and jewellery) and are extremely valuable as a result.

My list (sorted according to rarity and function)

Common Bonus: Cattle, Cider, Clay, Cotton, Fish, Flax, Granite, Hemp, Hides, Lead, Limestone, Maize, Pigs, Potato, Reeds, Rice, Tar, Wheat & Wool.
Common Luxury: Birds, Copper, Crystals, Gypsum, Flowers, Furs, Shells, Salt & Wine
Common Strategic: Coal, Horses & Iron


Rare Bonus: Banana, Bamboo, Barley, Buffalo, Cactus, Camels, Citrus, Cobalt, Cork, Crabs, Honey, Llama, Mustard, Olives, Soy, Squash, Squid, Tea, & Tin
Rare Luxury: Amber, Cedarwood, Cocoa, Coffee, Coral, Gems, Gold, Incense, Indigo, Ivory, Jade, Marble, Mercury, Pepper, Rose, Silk, Silver, Sugar, Tobacco, & Whales.
Rare Strategic: Aluminium, Nitre, Petroleum & Rubber


Exceptional Bonus: Almonds, Balsam, Cinnabar, Eucalyptus, Ginger, Maple, Obsidian, Pomegranate, Salmon, Silica, Tigerbalm, Tuna & Tungsten.
Exceptional Luxury: Caviar, Cinnamon, Cloves, Diamonds, Lapis Lazuli, Mahogany, Nutmeg, Pearls, Platinum, Saffron, Snails, Truffles, Turquoise, Turtles & Vanilla
Exceptional Strategic: Uranium
Every time a Rare or Common resource is coded onto a tile, there's a 5% chance it'll spawn a second, related, ultra-rare resource that provides a significantly bigger benefit than even rare resources. For example, Cinnabar will only spawn on tiles with Mercury or tiles with a Dye resource (such as Cobalt). Snails will only spawn on tiles with Seashells, Wine or Coral, etc. Exceptional resources are NOT guaranteed to spawn in every game and some games (especially on small maps) might have have none at all.

Cosmetics:
Several recources, specifically the animal resources, can take different shapes based on their terrain. Furs will look like a foxes in grassland forest, and like seals on tundra, and so on. Hides will look like deer, reindeer, antilopes and gazelles. Cattle will always have the shape of a bovine animal but whether you see a yak, a water buffalo or a watusi cow is entirely terrain dependant. Cider will also take the shape of various fruit trees (or bushes) depending on the terrain.

Resource Depletion:
Furthermore, all resources connected via a Mine, Quarry, Sawmill, Fishing Boat, Drill Platform or Hunting Camp will deplete over time, although this can be slowed down, and eventually fully negated by researching the right techs. Agricultural resources, ie: those connected via Farms, Pastures and Plantations don't deplete themselves, but instead deplete the soil - they decrease soil fertility and will eventually need to be irrigated with fresh water to remain sustainable. (Irrigation Canals and Watermills exist as tile infrastructure to facilitate this)

Industrial applications.
Finally, Industrial buildings, which in my vision are called Manufactories, will be able to process related resources, increasing their commercial value in the city, and improving their tiles if they are sourced locally (ie: are improved within the city's territory). An example of this would be building a Bakery, which provides +1 Food to any Wheat, Rice, and Maize worked by the city. Since Manufactories also provide jobs to the city's population, they will also always increase production irrespecitve of what resources they interact with. Manufactories start as Workshops, which can be upgraded into Guilds, and later into Factories, increasing their effects. (example: Weaver => Cloth Hall => Texile Mill) All manufactories pollute the environment, however and increase the speed at which local resources/soil fertilities are depleted.

The idea would be to add small production chains in a Future Expansion, allowing players to create their own luxuries over time (such as Sushi, Lace, Brocade, Bronzeware, Porcelain, Spiced Wine, etc), but for that most basic resource would have to be coded into the basegame as resources - which is why the list is this long.

Re: Lumber Mills: They could be slightly reworked - how about giving them an aura effect? They produce more hammers based on how many forests or jungles are adjacent ,but also slowly consume the woodlands until none are left. There are other tile improvements (specifically Camps and Quarries) that could make use of this mechanic as well, tearing up the environement for short-term benefits.

Dont people say that many improvements are supposed to represent villages anyway?

The way I see it, a city's "Population" are basically goverment officials that collect yields from the tiles owned by the city - So yes, Farms and Mines et all could represent these villages you are collecting your "taxes" from, but i think villages could also be a separate tile improvement - planned towns are a thing irl, after all.

The real problem is that on CIV6 the improvement for woods/jungle is locked behind Medieval and Renaissance techs, something absurd. It is logical to see the use of machinery as something that improve lumber production but that not mean you can not do it manually before. Also jungle wood is only usefull when europeans decided to go full Mercantilist!!! .

100% support this. Rainforest is basically the same as forest, except tropical, so i think it's utter madness that Lumber Mills cannot be built on them until late renaissance. Sucks for you if you start next to a jungle and aren't Brazil I guess.

Speaking of which, given how early mankind started constructing buildings with wood, Sawmills should unlock in the Ancient era - at the same level of technology you'd discover Masonry, in fact.

 

[Zaarin]

Rainforest is basically the same as forest, except tropical

There are also temperate rainforests, for example in the American Pacific Northwest and on the Caspian shores of Iran.

 

[Boris Gudenuf]

There are also temperate rainforests, for example in the American Pacific Northwest and on the Caspian shores of Iran.

The temperate Rainforest (at least here in fhe Pacific Northwest) does share a characteristic of the Tropical Rainforest in that it is the source of exceptionally large and useful Timber: Teak or Mahogany in the tropics, or the Western Red Cedar in the PNW which provided the raw material for some of the largest dug-out canoes ever made - the sea-going Head Canoes of the Haida tribe, which reached 50 - 60 feet long and could carry 10 tons or more of cargo.

 

[Zaarin]

The temperate Rainforest (at least here in fhe Pacific Northwest) does share a characteristic of the Tropical Rainforest in that it is the source of exceptionally large and useful Timber: Teak or Mahogany in the tropics, or the Western Red Cedar in the PNW which provided the raw material for some of the largest dug-out canoes ever made - the sea-going Head Canoes of the Haida tribe, which reached 50 - 60 feet long and could carry 10 tons or more of cargo.

And, further north, the yellow-cedar (Callitropsis nootkatensis), as well, though the redcedar was always the more desirable of the two. The Caspian Hyrcanian mixed forest also produced valuable timber, albeit of a more mundane sort, in oak, beech, hornbeam, and box.

 

[BuchiTaton]

I like the ideas stated here. I've been thinking about this recently when refining the Resource System for my Civ 7 vision.

I looked at it a bit differently however, and just looked at the function various bonus and luxury resources have. Are they a staple crop? A form of fiber used for clothing? Livestock? A metal? A type of stone? Etc.

So i started off by dividing the resources based on their practical applications in societies (Jewellery, Clothing, Pigments, Spices, Fibers, Ores, Gems, Seafood, Livestock, Beverages, etc) and went from there. Then I divided them according to rarity (Common, Rare, Exceptional) and category (Bonus, Luxury and Strategic)

Bonus resources to me should be resources that improve the living standard of those who have access to them by keeping them healthy or feeding them.
Luxury resources to me should be resources that make people happy or increase their status.
Strategic resources to me should be resources that provide the civ with massive strategic advantages over opponents who don't have it available.

Common resources are resources that can be found all over the world, sometimes in different shapes and forms, but always dependable in some way.
Rare resources are resources that are restricted to certain continents and/or are of great value.
Exceptional resources have unique designations and applications (such as Diamonds being used to make industrial drills and jewellery) and are extremely valuable as a result.

My list (sorted according to rarity and function)

Common Bonus: Cattle, Cider, Clay, Cotton, Fish, Flax, Granite, Hemp, Hides, Lead, Limestone, Maize, Pigs, Potato, Reeds, Rice, Tar, Wheat & Wool.
Common Luxury: Birds, Copper, Crystals, Gypsum, Flowers, Furs, Shells, Salt & Wine
Common Strategic: Coal, Horses & Iron


Rare Bonus: Banana, Bamboo, Barley, Buffalo, Cactus, Camels, Citrus, Cobalt, Cork, Crabs, Honey, Llama, Mustard, Olives, Soy, Squash, Squid, Tea, & Tin
Rare Luxury: Amber, Cedarwood, Cocoa, Coffee, Coral, Gems, Gold, Incense, Indigo, Ivory, Jade, Marble, Mercury, Pepper, Rose, Silk, Silver, Sugar, Tobacco, & Whales.
Rare Strategic: Aluminium, Nitre, Petroleum & Rubber


Exceptional Bonus: Almonds, Balsam, Cinnabar, Eucalyptus, Ginger, Maple, Obsidian, Pomegranate, Salmon, Silica, Tigerbalm, Tuna & Tungsten.
Exceptional Luxury: Caviar, Cinnamon, Cloves, Diamonds, Lapis Lazuli, Mahogany, Nutmeg, Pearls, Platinum, Saffron, Snails, Truffles, Turquoise, Turtles & Vanilla
Exceptional Strategic: Uranium
Every time a Rare or Common resource is coded onto a tile, there's a 5% chance it'll spawn a second, related, ultra-rare resource that provides a significantly bigger benefit than even rare resources. For example, Cinnabar will only spawn on tiles with Mercury or tiles with a Dye resource (such as Cobalt). Snails will only spawn on tiles with Seashells, Wine or Coral, etc. Exceptional resources are NOT guaranteed to spawn in every game and some games (especially on small maps) might have have none at all.

Cosmetics:
Several recources, specifically the animal resources, can take different shapes based on their terrain. Furs will look like a foxes in grassland forest, and like seals on tundra, and so on. Hides will look like deer, reindeer, antilopes and gazelles. Cattle will always have the shape of a bovine animal but whether you see a yak, a water buffalo or a watusi cow is entirely terrain dependant. Cider will also take the shape of various fruit trees (or bushes) depending on the terrain.

Resource Depletion:
Furthermore, all resources connected via a Mine, Quarry, Sawmill, Fishing Boat, Drill Platform or Hunting Camp will deplete over time, although this can be slowed down, and eventually fully negated by researching the right techs. Agricultural resources, ie: those connected via Farms, Pastures and Plantations don't deplete themselves, but instead deplete the soil - they decrease soil fertility and will eventually need to be irrigated with fresh water to remain sustainable. (Irrigation Canals and Watermills exist as tile infrastructure to facilitate this)

Industrial applications.
Finally, Industrial buildings, which in my vision are called Manufactories, will be able to process related resources, increasing their commercial value in the city, and improving their tiles if they are sourced locally (ie: are improved within the city's territory). An example of this would be building a Bakery, which provides +1 Food to any Wheat, Rice, and Maize worked by the city. Since Manufactories also provide jobs to the city's population, they will also always increase production irrespecitve of what resources they interact with. Manufactories start as Workshops, which can be upgraded into Guilds, and later into Factories, increasing their effects. (example: Weaver => Cloth Hall => Texile Mill) All manufactories pollute the environment, however and increase the speed at which local resources/soil fertilities are depleted.

The idea would be to add small production chains in a Future Expansion, allowing players to create their own luxuries over time (such as Sushi, Lace, Brocade, Bronzeware, Porcelain, Spiced Wine, etc), but for that most basic resource would have to be coded into the basegame as resources - which is why the list is this long.

Re: Lumber Mills: They could be slightly reworked - how about giving them an aura effect? They produce more hammers based on how many forests or jungles are adjacent ,but also slowly consume the woodlands until none are left. There are other tile improvements (specifically Camps and Quarries) that could make use of this mechanic as well, tearing up the environement for short-term benefits.

I like these ideas and list of resources but would prefer to simplify, clarify and justify some points.

> Domesticated Varieties related to Climate-Terrain and their relation to Health
Have different kinds of crops and cattle that appear in different environments is justified if each one have bonus for specific climate/terrain. Examples Rice in humid or Sorghum in arid, Llamas in mountains and Reindeer in cold.
Health is one of the most obviously ignored elements on CIV, introduce new varieties of food in a city must help to improve population health, on the other hand domestic animals could be a source of new diseases.

> Tradition vs Efficiency
I would prefer to keep the districts that have Workshops separated from the ones with Factories.
- Neighborhood, early game district that include Well/Fountain (+pop), Sewer (+health) and also a Workshop that produce a specific kind of luxury like Ceramic, Textile, Jewelry, Cosmetic, etc. Each kind have huge bonus from suitable resources on the same city like Silk, Wool, Cotton and Fur for Textile.
On late game the yields of Neighborhoods are surpassed by the Industrial Sector but the former still has the advanteges of produce way less pollution and have bonus to culture when next to Touristic Resort.
- Industrial Zone, being a separated late game help to represent the massive urbanization but also allow to have a Factory of different kinds like Electronic, Automotive, Pharmaceutical, etc. Even also the ones that produce synthetic version of natural resources like Sulfur, Niter, Rubber, etc.

> Cultural related resources
Many of the resources you have as Rare and Exceptional are good material to be linked to specific City States and Barbarians to add flavor to them, like Cloves for Ternate and Bison for Lakota.