Logical Resource Requirements 1.0

[Takfloyd]

Logical Resource Requirements

This is a small mod that revamps the strategic resource costs of units to be better balanced and make more sense. No more using aluminium as fuel for your planes or fielding cavalry without horses! No more resources going obsolete after being used for just two units! In addition to improving realism, game balance is also a focus, with some resources becoming more abundant on the map to compensate for their importance.

• Every horse-based cavalry unit now consumes horses. For units that previously did not require horses, this comes in the form of a per-turn maintenance cost in addition to their base game resource requirements, which means you can still field chariots without access to horses, but at a greatly reduced combat efficiency(Picture this being due to using ox chariots as replacements).
• Many heavy units later in the game require iron to build, for example bombard cannons, ironclads and aircraft carriers. They still require fuel as upkeep, separately from their upfront build cost in iron.
• Any units that consumed aluminium as fuel in the base game now instead cost an upfront amount of aluminium to construct, and are usually fueled by oil instead.
• The increased importance of oil is compensated by slightly increased abundance of the resource on the map, and an extra oil per turn from each source. This also applies to horses.
• Infantry and artillery however no longer require oil, since this was somewhat anachronistic. Infantry has no strategic resource requirement, while artillery now consumes coal for upkeep, as these machines were usually transported via railway in the early modern era where they are unlocked.
• Niter and Uranium are also used for a couple more units than before.
• Resource costs per unit are lower overall, usually being 15 instead of 20, as many feel the base game costs are prohibitively high. The addition of maintenance costs to more units than before should add another layer of strategy to the earlier eras of the game, as you'll want to field more courser units in peacetime and only scramble the knights when conflict arises.

How to install

Simply download and extract the .zip inside your Mods folder under Documents/My Games/Civ VI or the equivalent location on your system. Enjoy, and please comment on any bugs or things that seem imbalanced to you or could be improved. Note that it's impossible to have a unit require more than one resource as an upfront cost - otherwise I would have done things somewhat differently.

 

[Macca!]

thanks, I really like your changes!

 

[Tovarish]

I immediately liked the idea as soon as I saw your mod.

I wonder if it would be possible for you to go even further and expand this same view beyond just strategic resources for military units. I mean more logical unit costs in gold (no longer aircraft carriers cost almost the same as infantry, DUH) and more logical building costs in later eras. For example player shall throw a ton of money for science and funding could/should be first and foremost that boosts tech advancements. In modern era gone are the days that mountains (adjacency bonus) meant something, what is important are the labs you build and the money you fund your scientists. The same for culture - you organize festivals, build sports&education buildings for youth, etc.

What I am trying to say is that there is plenty of room to expand the idea of more logical costs for everything. Have you considered anything like expanding your mod?

 

[Takfloyd]

I immediately liked the idea as soon as I saw your mod.

I wonder if it would be possible for you to go even further and expand this same view beyond just strategic resources for military units. I mean more logical unit costs in gold (no longer aircraft carriers cost almost the same as infantry, DUH) and more logical building costs in later eras. For example player shall throw a ton of money for science and funding could/should be first and foremost that boosts tech advancements. In modern era gone are the days that mountains (adjacency bonus) meant something, what is important are the labs you build and the money you fund your scientists. The same for culture - you organize festivals, build sports&education buildings for youth, etc.

What I am trying to say is that there is plenty of room to expand the idea of more logical costs for everything. Have you considered anything like expanding your mod?

Not really, the aim of this mod isn't to change the game design, but only to adjust the strategic resource requirements to what I feel they should have been from the start. Changing anything other than resources is beyond the scope of this mod. Feel free to make your own bigger mod by expanding on mine though.

 

[Tovarish]

Not really, the aim of this mod isn't to change the game design, but only to adjust the strategic resource requirements to what I feel they should have been from the start. Changing anything other than resources is beyond the scope of this mod. Feel free to make your own bigger mod by expanding on mine though.

Would do it, but I have no clue how

 

[Takfloyd]

Would do it, but I have no clue how

Just do it the same way I did it, by opening mod files in notepad and seeing how they work, and then compare them to the main game files in your Program Files/Steam/SteamApps/common/Civ VI folder to find out which keywords to use for each thing you want to change. It's very intuitive, much more than you probably think, because it's all designed for easy modding. Just make a copy of my mod folder and name it something else, then you can start editing from there. For example, if you want to make Knights cost 300 gold, all you have to do is add <Cost>300</Cost> to the part of the file where I change stuff about Knights.

 

[Tunnah]

If aluminium can't be the fuel for planes then horses can't be the fuel for knights

I'm down with everything else, your changes make perfect sense. Except the horse one. The horse is used when making the unit, that makes sense, but for it to then keep using horses doesn't make any sense at all. I'm also wary of adding any sort of "fuel" early game, as AI already struggles in building any sort of army to put up a decent fight as it is

 

[Takfloyd]

If aluminium can't be the fuel for planes then horses can't be the fuel for knights

I'm down with everything else, your changes make perfect sense. Except the horse one. The horse is used when making the unit, that makes sense, but for it to then keep using horses doesn't make any sense at all. I'm also wary of adding any sort of "fuel" early game, as AI already struggles in building any sort of army to put up a decent fight as it is

It actually does make sense - cavalry needs a constant supply of fresh horses to function, while you don't need to keep supplying new aluminium to a plane.

Needing horses as upkeep is really just a workaround though - I would have made it a lump sum of horses+iron/niter if I could, but the game only lets each unit require one lump sum resource and one upkeep resource. This was the best way to solve the issue of horseless knights within that limitation.

I agree about the potential AI problems though - I did increase the amount of horses gained from a deposit to 3, but maybe I should increase it further or make horses more common on the map. I won't do that unless testing shows that there's not enough horses going around though - Heavy cavalry being somewhat rare and something you only amass in wartime is a part of my mod that I like.

 

[Tunnah]

It actually does make sense - cavalry needs a constant supply of fresh horses to function, while you don't need to keep supplying new aluminium to a plane.

Needing horses as upkeep is really just a workaround though - I would have made it a lump sum of horses+iron/niter if I could, but the game only lets each unit require one lump sum resource and one upkeep resource. This was the best way to solve the issue of horseless knights within that limitation.

I agree about the potential AI problems though - I did increase the amount of horses gained from a deposit to 3, but maybe I should increase it further or make horses more common on the map. I won't do that unless testing shows that there's not enough horses going around though - Heavy cavalry being somewhat rare and something you only amass in wartime is a part of my mod that I like.

Oh don't get me wrong I agree with you, an upkeep is a great mechanic, and feels weird not using it. It'd be good if there was some sort of strategic food resource, that could be used as the fuel for early game units.

It's an absolute pain balancing it with the AI being so downright useless at going after resources. I removed all fuel costs until cavalry, so the AI could build a decent army, and not worry about resource drain, and they can't even manage that. Every few turns they're begging for resources, and their armies are tiny. I'm having to purposely slow myself down just to stop me steamrolling, and I've put some heavy fuel costs for late game (end game units use 2 oil each, except carrier, sub, and death robot which all use uranium).

And ya I really hope they patch in the ability to add multiple fuels, that would go a long way towards balancing it out.

I agree with upping the horse amount, simply so the AI has more of a chance. It's not until niter than I've ever "struggled" to keep up with resources, so it wouldn't be helping the human player too much.

 

[Tovarish]

I play on epic speed only so I do not know about other speeds, but do base costs increase/decrease along the game speed? If not, slower speeds make units resource-wise that much cheaper.

 

[Takfloyd]

I play on epic speed only so I do not know about other speeds, but do base costs increase/decrease along the game speed? If not, slower speeds make units resource-wise that much cheaper.

I believe costs don't change, which is part of why Online speed is so broken - you barely have the chance to build any resource-dependent units. My mod is balanced for Quick or Standard, which I assume is what the base game is balanced for as well.

 

[Tovarish]

We're talking MILITARY here. So it would make perfect sense if gathering resources for units were not extremely easy. On the contrary - it adds a strategic aspect to the game if you have to adjust to situation dictated by resources.
I do not mean to criticize, in fact your mod was the first of its kind as far as I know. But your resource costs seem cheap even for the standard speed. Keep in mind that those are STRATEGIC resources which means they should/could make difference to the game for advantaged players in other aspects.

 

[Takfloyd]

We're talking MILITARY here. So it would make perfect sense if gathering resources for units were not extremely easy. On the contrary - it adds a strategic aspect to the game if you have to adjust to situation dictated by resources.
I do not mean to criticize, in fact your mod was the first of its kind as far as I know. But your resource costs seem cheap even for the standard speed. Keep in mind that those are STRATEGIC resources which means they should/could make difference to the game for advantaged players in other aspects.

Dude, paying 1 horse per turn for each heavy cavalry is not cheap any way you cut it. My costs are much higher than in the base game.

 

[Mesrot]

Hallo, a nice mod and I will test it soon in a MP game. I have two question:



1. Can units have more than one material resource requirements for building, like a Frigate "20 Niter and 20 Iron"? I have read that only one material and fuel resource is possible.

But the rail way for example need "1 iron and 1 coal" to be build, so that means two material resources. Or is this only possible for buildings/ improvements?





2 Do you plan to expand your mod? I was thinking of introducing "Timber" as a strat. resource. Produced by a limber mill which is needed for all the wooden ships until the

modern ships (Ironclad, battleship, submarine) arrive?

 

[Tovarish]

Hallo, a nice mod and I will test it soon in a MP game. I have two question:



1. Can units have more than one material resource requirements for building, like a Frigate "20 Niter and 20 Iron"? I have read that only one material and fuel resource is possible.

But the rail way for example need "1 iron and 1 coal" to be build, so that means two material resources. Or is this only possible for buildings/ improvements?





2 Do you plan to expand your mod? I was thinking of introducing "Timber" as a strat. resource. Produced by a limber mill which is needed for all the wooden ships until the

modern ships (Ironclad, battleship, submarine) arrive?

1. No and 2. no.

 

[Alqamar Alaswad]

This sounds great and quite logical. Is it in the Steam Workshop? It looks like I can't find it there...