same problem keeps repeating itself.... not enough minerals for all factions!!!

[abc2]

hi.
every time i play civilization III the game gets ruined by the same problem. Im really tired of this cause this could be a very good game if this didnt happen all the time. The problem is that there is never not enough minerals for all factions. the oil is a problem in every game. when you dont have any oil you cant simply go out and take it, because all you have without oil is infantry... and they have modern armor .... this time i even play with only 5 factions. but still... there are only 4 oil fields on the map - and i just discovered refining!!
so now im stuck after 6 hrs of playing (again)... does this annoying thing happen to anyone else or am i all alone in the world?

please ... what can be done to help this. is there some kind og trainer or cheat program to fix this?

(btw. it is totally unrealistic that one faction is kept down at the 19th century level while all the others build spaceships. Everyone should be able to buy ressources they dont have acces to(expensively?), nomatter how many ressource icons present on the map. )

 

[Lennon]

You can increase the amount of each resource in the editor. Just beef up the numbers and you should start seeing more resources.

 

[abc2]

hi what editor do you mean (sorry im new to the board)

 

[Arathorn]

abc2,

Welcome to Civfanatics!

The editor Lennon mentions is the editor that ships with Civ. Somewhere in that byzantine program is the ability to change the frequency of resources. Someone more familiar with it than I could give you better details. It's probably fairly easy to find, if you just open the editor. If you're running Windows95 or later, just click start, find the Civ3 folder from there and the editor should be available.

I will point out, though, that some of us like having fewer resources than nations, occasionally, as it adds strategic options/responsibilities and encourages creative thinking. Don't have oil? Go get some -- before the AI civs get to modern armor. Artillery stacks, infantry, and maybe cavalry will suffice quite nicely make a push on a nearby oil source. Alternatively, encourage wars between two civs, each of whom has oil. If one side takes enough land to get a second oil source, you can now buy one!

You are certainly free to do whatever you think will make your game the most fun, but I encourage you to at least consider leaving the levels as they are and finding creative/challenging ways to deal with the situation where you lack a specific resource. If you have every resource every time, well, they don't have much point, do they?

Good luck!
Arathorn

 

[Aurora_IceFire]

The CivEditor is what you need to use to increase your resources, im not exactly sure how but im sure someone knows.. but i usually end up with not enough resources too, i fight for them as soon as i advance far enough into the modern age, or i trade for them, most times i dont have coal, so i cant build railroads

 

[Doc Tsiolkovski]

The number of each resource is related to the number of Civs, so playing with fewer opponents won't help you.

While I concur with Arathorn about prefering the (incidentially, btw) rarer resources, I admittedly abandoned games because of that. Like when you need Iron for your UU early (Persia, Rome, Celts), and none is anywhere near.
Or, one of the most games in the last time: When I found out that absolutely all Coal on the world happened to be in the Jungles of the runaway Civ. To add insult to injury, they simply didn't connect more than one. Not a single Coal somewhere outside that area; never seen that, no Coal in any Hill/Mountain tile (in a young world).

 

[Arathorn]

Hey, Doc. Aren't you an editor expert? Can you give some more specific advice on changing the resource appearance ratio, if he wants?

Also, a suggestion for the runaway civ only connecting one scenario...sign a RoP and send in your workers to connect that resource FOR him and then buy it! It maybe helps him a bit and ain't always cheap, but it's definitely legitimate AND it gets you the resource you so desperately need.

Arathorn

 

[abc2]

Arathorn i agree to your point of view... the lack of ressources is a strategic aspect, and it makes the game more challenging. but in some cases it is more annoying than it is challenging ... and in this particular game it is more than an annoyance. So i was wondering if any of you could give me a guide to how i can add an extra oil field, that will appear in the game i am currently playing - so that i wont have to start over again

 

[Arathorn]

I have absolutely NO experience with editing save games to try to change things mid-game. While it could possibly be done, I don't even know where or who to point you to look for such things. Sorry.

Arathorn

 

[Sparrow3]

1. C3C editor
2. Scenario -- Custom rules
3. Rules -- Edit Rules
4. Natural resources -- Strategic & luxuru Resources

Try increasing the appearance ratio. I haven't tried this; but I think it will help.

Edit: There are some saved games editors in the Custom & creation forum. One of them may do whar you want.

 

[Doc Tsiolkovski]

@Arathorn: Since I like the current way, I never figured out how much the values need to be changed... IIRC +25% is the way to reach ptw levels.


(And yes, I could possible have helped Bismarck connecting his surplus Coal, but I could have offered him only Luxes - and he was already easily eliminating the runner-up AIs in Democracy . Was not really an interesting game, just a DG all random one where I ended with Carthage on Pangea, and no resources except for Ivory. Would have won by UN for sure, but nothing else was feasable, with Bismarck having most Wonders as well.)

Editing a save-game in that way...I wonder if anybody on Earth could do that!

 

[Kanonpetter]

Fighting over resources is in my opinion one of the most exciting aspects of Civilization III. I am always nervous about getting resources, and of course if I don't get one i desperately need, I am depressed, but if we always got everything the game wouldn't be so nerve-wrecking, and that's a huge part of Civilization III's appeal for me.

Also, a game can be fun even if it's not being won, and surviving with a "3rd world" civ can be a fun challenge.

 

[Masquerouge]

Strategic resource scarcity is indeed the one thing that can make me quit a game... My first game of C3C, I had to fight other civs to get Iron, Salpeter, Coal, and Rubber. Of course by the time Oil and the rest came along, my empire was so big due to my warmongering that it ended in my territory...
But the most providential aspect of this scarcity is that it forced me to change my gameplay. In Civ3 I could be a pure builder and never worry about resources because they WOULD pop in my borders. In C3C, I finally discovered what all those funny and expensive units with stats over 0 meant

 

[WackenOpenAir]

I think its a good part of the game.

I am just found out there are only sources of salpeter for 7 civs in my game. I do not have on of those sources.
I love it, i will have to conquer one, and i am looking forward to see where on the world will be oil and aluminium.

 

[toh6wy]

Just settle/conquer as much as you can early in the game, when only iron and horses are a factor. (If you don't have at least one of these two resources anywhere in your territory, and you can't trade for them, then I would suggest restarting) At that time, you'll be about level with your opponents in tech, and there's a better chance that you'll have every resource you need in the future.
I did this in my last game and ended up with four oils (and at least three of every other resource).

 

[M37]

hi.
every time i play civilization III the game gets ruined by the same problem. Im really tired of this cause this could be a very good game if this didnt happen all the time. The problem is that there is never not enough minerals for all factions. the oil is a problem in every game. when you dont have any oil you cant simply go out and take it, because all you have without oil is infantry... and they have modern armor .... this time i even play with only 5 factions. but still... there are only 4 oil fields on the map - and i just discovered refining!!.

All I can say is thier are other ways to get resouces uness your a parish you should be able to trade for them. thogh be glad the moutains you have most likely have uranium.

One probelam I found is that when I first started playing is that even a peace loving nation needs room in the early game If your playing with 5 civalizations all I can suggest is to wipe one out ASAP and take all thier land. Chances are you should have some coal since thier will now be 4 sources of coal and 4 nations.
I've done this and secured entire land masses.

 

[Naval Power]

I've recently started teaching my Dad to play this, his first game he did all and well and got a domination victory as Rome (he was on a rather large donut shaped Island).

The second game he got stuck on this little desert island. I helped him as much as I could and tried to MM the cities to get the Great Lighthouse. But oh wait guess who got it (Inca ) 3 turns before us. So around comes Iron Working and the Wheel but guess what no Iron or Horses. Iron is not as big of a problem as the horses because we are Greece (no pikemen needed). A little bit later we find a supercontinent that the Maya have totally colonized (4 to 5 times the size of his). They wouldnt give us jack squat! Then we meet the other two on another big supercontinent and they wouln't trade either (I swear we did nothing to ruin rep). We slowly chug into the Industrial ages and have no coal! Gee what a suprise. Later in the modern times aluminum becomes a problem alond with rubber! We do have oil but we dont have the prodcution capabilities to create any large invasion force so he quit out of frustration.

 

[xiaoafei]

This is where fun comes from.
A large and strong nation may stop advancing due to lacking of some resource. This is a good thing for balance, especially in the later stage of a game.
All we need to do is rushing to get those resource revealing techs and 'secure' 'our' resources. In fact, in my present game, I'm planing to attack a Iroquoian city which has rubber in it's range. That is the only rubber on that big continent! So if I succeed, the strongest unit my tanks would face on that continent would be cavalry.

 

[King PJ]

I also enjoy fighting for resources. It's a nice challenge to create an army in inferior units and attack a civ with superior units. This is where strategy comes into play. When the odds are against me is when I have the most fun. I will admit though that not having ANY resources in your territory is a pain and I have given up in games before.

 

[TedJackson]

I found this one the hardest things to come to terms with in the move from PTW to Conquests. The only advice I can offer is to persevere with the status quo. After all, you're human, they're AI


Ted