Resources should be quantized

[Gary Childress]

This is what I would like to see with respect to resources. Basically I would like to see a resource model similar to Hearts of Iron II. I think resources as they stood in Civ IV were trivialized EVEN MORE SO than they were in Civ III. There was no reason to fight over them because they were so plentiful. Let's face it. Resources are something Civs have always fought over.

Each hex which has a resource in it should have a quantitative value. So for instance a hex with oil could have a value of 10. Another hex with oil might have a value of 15. If your civ owns both hexes then it collects 25 oil per turn. Let's say a mechanized unit might use 1 oil per turn to move its maximum distance. Let's say a factory in a city uses 1 oil per turn also to produce X number of shields (X being a constant number for all factories).

If you as a Civ only use 20 oil points per turn to run your civilization, then you would be stockpiling oil at a rate of 5 oil per turn. This would add to your oil reserve. HOWEVER, If you as a Civ start using 26 oil per turn when you only have 25 income, then you will start depleting your reserves. In order to reduce your oil consumption you would need to reduce the number of mechanized units and turn off factories. (Yes there would be a toggle for turning factories in a city on or off).

Basically I don't like the fact in earlier Civ installments that owning one square with oil produced all the oil your civ needed. This is incredibly UNREALISTIC.

A second feature of resources could be that they would have total values. For instance your oil hex producing 10 oil per turn may have a total value of 1,000. This means that you can extract 10 oil per turn for 100 turns before the resource exhausts itself and disappears.

 

[Camikaze]

It could be a bit difficult to quantise them, although I do think they should be quantified.

In fact, I made a possible formula for resource depletion:

Time for some mathematics!

Resource depletion:
Every tile with a resource is assigned a value (v) of that resource, which is depleted by a certain amount (n) each turn it is used. 0≤v≤100. The cumulative number of turns it has been used will be t. This amount would be some function of t, multiplied by the number of population points connected to the resource (p), divided by the number of tiles that are producing that resource (m). So, n = pc/m, where c is some constant. 0≤pc/m≤0.008v, so that the resource would at least last 125 turns of use. So, the amount depleted would be ptc/m, whereby t≥125. Now, let y = the amount of resource left. So, y=v, when t=0. Then, after t turns, y=v-(ptc/m).

This would ensure that resource depletion takes into account the number of people using the resource, and the number of turns it is being used for. pc/m would be variable for the duration of the game, with the number of cities using the resource, and the number of resource tiles being worked, changing over time.

This could extend to all resources under the Civ 4 system.

However, I'm not sure how the Civ 5 system is going to work; it appears that whilst resources will not actually be assigned a numerical amount, they will deplete depending on your use of them. I guess we'll have to wait and see.

 

[nikosison]

This is what I would like to see with respect to resources. Basically I would like to see a resource model similar to Hearts of Iron II. I think resources as they stood in Civ IV were trivialized EVEN MORE SO than they were in Civ III. There was no reason to fight over them because they were so plentiful. Let's face it. Resources are something Civs have always fought over.

Each hex which has a resource in it should have a quantitative value. So for instance a hex with oil could have a value of 10. Another hex with oil might have a value of 15. If your civ owns both hexes then it collects 25 oil per turn. Let's say a mechanized unit might use 1 oil per turn to move its maximum distance. Let's say a factory in a city uses 1 oil per turn also to produce X number of shields (X being a constant number for all factories).

If you as a Civ only use 20 oil points per turn to run your civilization, then you would be stockpiling oil at a rate of 5 oil per turn. This would add to your oil reserve. HOWEVER, If you as a Civ start using 26 oil per turn when you only have 25 income, then you will start depleting your reserves. In order to reduce your oil consumption you would need to reduce the number of mechanized units and turn off factories. (Yes there would be a toggle for turning factories in a city on or off).

Basically I don't like the fact in earlier Civ installments that owning one square with oil produced all the oil your civ needed. This is incredibly UNREALISTIC.

A second feature of resources could be that they would have total values. For instance your oil hex producing 10 oil per turn may have a total value of 1,000. This means that you can extract 10 oil per turn for 100 turns before the resource exhausts itself and disappears.

While the concept is good, I'm thinking your proposed implementation is just way too complex and drastically increases micromanagement in the already micro-heavy late gate (when oil becomes important and people start to have enough production capacity to mass produce resource heavy units). From what I've read of civ V, it would seem that the amount of your resources instead set a cap on the maximum number of units reliant on on that resource (e.g. one horse resource allows one cavalry unit). I personally think that provides a better balance of gameplay and reality. Civs will still fight over resources but made to do so in a way that doesn't massively increase micro.

 

[Khan Quest]

Congratulations!

You are officially the ONE-HUNDREDTH person so suggest this idea!

 

[CivMyWay]

Just to add to the mix--- living resources like horses should breed. e.g. Once you have 20 horses (through capture or trade) you can then build a stud farm (or whatever name, spending the horses to do so) which is a specialised type of farm (tile improvement). The farm could hold between 20 and 500 horses.

Instead of producing food, it produces +10% horses (or 2 per turn initially), up to the maximum number. Obviously building calvary etc "spends" the horses. Pillage the tile improvement gives back 75% of horses to the pillager.

When the maximum is reached the agricultural advisor could alert you via a neat little and unobtrusive dialog that your stocks are full, build more or sell some.

Gary, I had never thought about factories using the oil too... I like it!