Questions about City States

[Itrade]

Is the distribution of the types of city states random with each new game, or is there a standard ratio between Faith, Mercantile, Culture, and Maritime for each setting?

Also, what determines the tech of city states? More than a few times I've found myself in the modern age with no domestic sources of coal, aluminium, or oil, but plenty in the territories of my CS allies, but no option to improve their resources.

 

[TandooriChicken]

You can pay the city-state to improve the resource.

EDIT: Sorry, didn't answer the question you were asking. Do you mean the "Pay City-State to improve resource" option is grayed out? The question about how C-s's tech is a good one... I think each one basically plays as OCC. too bad no option to gift tech.

 

[notadummy]

a CS can only be as advanced as the tech leader

 

[Itrade]

I was the tech leader, though, and it took ages for them to catch up to the point where I could make use of their coal, uranium, and oil. By the time they were finally allowing me to use them I had already conquered or citadel'd territory containing the resources I needed, so it was just pointless surplus.

 

[dexters]

I was the tech leader, though, and it took ages for them to catch up to the point where I could make use of their coal, uranium, and oil. By the time they were finally allowing me to use them I had already conquered or citadel'd territory containing the resources I needed, so it was just pointless surplus.

Sometimes they are just slow to improve. I got tired of waiting and paid 200 gold for Rio to improve their oil for me.

Resources on already mined plot not registering will be the only time where they're not at the appropriate tech to gift it to you yet.

 

[Itrade]

It wasn't about waiting for them to improve the resource, it's that they lacked the technology to do so. I tried giving them money, but the option was blacked out, which I guess meant they weren't able to see the resource to improve.

 

[Resonance]

In Vanilla, City states got access to any tech that two or more civs had unlocked. Probably it is they same in GnK.