Resource and luxury distribution

[connor]

Every game I have played I have expanded as rapidly as possible to cover more territory in order have access to more resources and luxuries. I have noticed a couple of things and am curious if it is just bad luck, or the AI distributes resources to its advantage.

In my current game I have the largest land area, and never even fired a shot. Yet in this game as in all the others, strategic resources are hard to find in my lands, and if they are there, they are at the absolute fringes of my control and are very sparse. When I look at AI controlled lands, they seem to often have an abundance, even when land under there control is only a quarter of what I have. The Romans and Russians each have oil, coal, etc, and many resources in large numbers when they only have a little space. Is this normal or part of the AI advantage? I have not messed with the rules in the editor other than to allow coal to last longer.

Also, luxuries tend to be piled in groups. I have all the dyes in my land in a very small space. All the ivory is in another area outside my control. Curious. The AI also seems to be really weird in trading luxuries. Last night one civ had a fur available and I offered gems, spices, and dyes, and chivalry for one fur and the civ would not trade. I was offering a screaming deal and no takers. Any ideas?

Thanks for any thoughts or comments.

 

[Lt. 'Killer' M.]

noticed that as well. usually i take out a civ early on (leaders!!!!) and when coal and salpeter and so on are available they often are where that civ would have been....

as for the trade: they don`t trust you...

on the other hand you can sometimes (if you "feel" they`ll declare war or if they have MPP with a guy you`ll attack next turn offer ridiculous amounts of money and lux for somthing you want - they`ll take it. Just can`t say "no" to 5000 gold..... now the war cuts trade.....

tried that out by reloading when they attacked and trading - they still attacked even though i had to pay 5000 gold / turn for 20 turns to both - these idiots threw away 20000 gold in the ancient era!!!!!

 

[Jimcat]

Sometimes it can be an interesting challenge to go out and take resources. I have been playing a game (Regent level, large world map, 10 civs) where my German civilization started on an isolated continent that was fertile and of good size, but had NO luxuries whatsoever. Fortunately I found some Horses and a little bit of Iron, but the only Saltpeter and Coal I got were in territory that I conquered from the Romans.

Fortunately, being Scientific, I cranked up my research and became a tech broker, trading technology and maps for luxuries and gold. At one point, I had all eight luxury goods and was getting so much income from the rest of the world that I could crank up the tech and luxury spending -- perpetual "We Love the Chancellor" days until Babylon and Zululand got jealous. They were the #1 and #2 scoring civs respectively (I'm #3).

Once my Babylonian/Zulu war started, I rapidly learned the importance of sea power. My enemies would have wiped me out if I hadn't kept cranking out a high-powered navy and sinking their invasion fleets. Now, after several centuries of warfare, I've negotiated a separate peace with the Zulus (although #4 India is now at war with me) and most of the rest of the world got tired of Babylon's bullying, so now it's Babylon versus a coalition of lesser powers.

Just this morning I made a great leap forward in technology (thanks to the Theory of Evolution and a Great Leader) and have just discovered Replaceable Parts. Plenty of rubber available in Germany, so it's time for my Infantry to go teach Hammurabi a lesson in humility!

By the way, for those who haven't noticed it yet, Infantry have the same attack value as Cavalry. Don't waste their potential by using them solely for defense!

 

[BillChin]

My suggestion is to play out every game start. Often times my worst starting positions in terms of enemies and land available, yields an abundance of resources. I think this is a kind of balancing when the computer picks starting locations for each civ. In a way it is cheating, but in a way it is not.

For tips on dealing with cramped starting positions and hostile neighbors, check the strategies section where I've posted a lot about the benefits of a dense build. (Build cities very close together, especially the first two settlers.) With my method, I can usually survive the worst imaginable starts on Emperor difficulty, standard size map, random map, random civ, default barbs. Starts such as a peninsula in a jungle, or two hostile expansionists wanting to wipe me off the earth from day one.

 

[Ironikinit]

Here's an experiment you might try. Go into the editor and create a random map. You can see all the resources and how they're distributed. Save the map and play it as a scenario. You will start at a site randomly chosen out of several possible start points. Restart. You may get the same site, but most likely you'll get a different one. In other words, the AI players have the same chance of getting a good starting point as you do, believe it or not. That's just my opinion, I could be wrong, but it's what experience suggests.

 

[that_guy]

Generating maps in the editor is useful. When I first got the game and was having the same WTH? moments that a lot of people had, I did it quite a bit. Didn't even play the maps, but just scanned the resource and luxury distribution.

It is random. Though it sometimes doesn't seem that way. I still get suspicious that the AI knows where "hidden" resources are. It's frustrating when it establishes one of those useless desert cities in the middle of your territory, and you find he's sitting on the only Saltpeter on this side of the continent. Happened to me again last night, in fact.

Of course, this city culture flipped to me about 5 turns after I finished my gunpowder research. Good Resources, Baaaad Location

 

[enelrad]

What drives me crazy is when I build those uselss tundra,desert and Jungle cities on the off chance that I will get something for it in some centruty yet to come and I get nothing. arrrrrgh!

 

[Dark Sheer]

In order to have a more balanced luxury resources you can go to the editor and change the appearance ratio from 0 to 100. At 0 it is random while at 100 it means 1 per Civ.

As to the strategic resources, make sure you settle on any of the small tundra island that appear if you are playing on continents. So far for all the games I played at regent or monarch, those islands are always full of resources. In one game 4 coal appeared on the tundra island (which I got 2 of them and the 2 cities that have the other 2 subsequenly flipped to me ). In another game, the little hill and tundra island give 1 iron, 1 coal, 1 oil, 1 aluminum, 1 uranium plus 1 stone (my own added resources)! Talk about resource rich island!

Since that 2 incident I alway actively hunt for those remote island (there seems to be always at least 1 of them and always have some resources).