Strategic resource rarity : hardwood and provisions base material

[Barthoze]

By playing a few games on the develop branch, I could not help but notice that two strategic resources are less common or even rare.

These resources are hardwood first, needed for advanced boat building, and the base ingredients for provisions , i.e rice, barley, and cassava
The rarity issue looks like it is compounded by the current state of the map generator, who may or may not give all approrpaite terrains to ensure productions of these goods.

The rarity of ingredients for provisions doesn't match what happens IRL

• Barley is especially egregious on that regard, as it is suited for cultivation on even the poorest soils. It also used to be a common crop on previous iterations of the mod when it was only used for beer.
• Rice is a staple for hot and humid climates, and has a large cultivation area

Such a distance between IRL and the simulation may explained and justified by gameplay and game design imperatives. Unfortunately I don't get to them on my own.

• Is the relative rarity of the provisions crop an accident, or is it wanted/needed that way?
• Are the original forests meant to be cut down and then replanted as dense forest to get more hardwood?

 

[raystuttgart]

Are we talking about the MapScript or the Maps ?

MapScript :
It has simply not yet been properly adapted.
It is not working well for the current version.

Maps :
Well, they were all adapted carefully for the current version.
They should work much better. So I suggest to play those right now.

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The main issue with the MapScript:
It does not nicely balance / distribute the base Terrains over the complete Map.
Then everything else considering balancing is also messed up.

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The problems with the MapScript have already been discussed a dozen times already.
None of the balancing problems with the MapScript are wanted ... why should they?

We just lacked somebody who was motivated to invest the time and effort to improve it.
So if somebody would like to improve it, such support would be highly welcomed.

 

[Barthoze]

Ray, thanks for your answer that got one point 100% clear : the map script FairWeatherTweakEx is broken for WTP

I looked at the "Amerayca Gigantic" map, after your advice: does it correspond roughly to the right balance of tiles you'd expect on an enjoyable map ?

Second question,more about game design : what was the reasoning for limiting rice and barley to so few types of terrain?

 

[raystuttgart]

Second question,more about game design : what was the reasoning for limiting rice and barley to so few types of terrain?

Because every Terrain should have its own Yields, otherwise having different Terrains would have been pointless.
Also I did not want every Terrain to give too many Yields, but only 2 additionally to Food so it felt special and unique.

My idea was that the player would be forced to play wide and settle into many different regions to get all Yields.
This is from my point of view much more interesting than having everything readily available in just a few Cities.

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I give you another example:
In theory you could bread Chicken or Goats on almost any type of Terrain except maybe Ice or Desert.
But would you like to have Chicken and Goats everywhere on the Map, would it make gameplay better?
As a modder you often have to decide between realism and gameplay and usually I chose gameplay then.

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Like always:
Modding is personal taste.

 

[raystuttgart]

I hope this is now taken care off by the recent work / improvements on the MapScript.
At least on Gigantic Maps there really seemed to be no problem to produce Hardwood or Provisions.