OK. I've been brainstorming and just need an outlet for some ideas for what 2K should include in CivV.
I definitely think resources should play a bigger role in the game than they currently do.
For resources, perhaps take a slightly Hearts of Iron/Age of Empires approach. JUST AN IDEA I'M FLOATING OUT....
For instance, different oil patches on the map would yield different resource values.
Example:
One oil field has a duration of 10,000 at a standard rate of 1 unit per turn. That means the oil field, when connected to the empire will produce 1 unit of oil per turn for 10,000 turns. Use workers to build oil improvements on the spot to increase the per turn rate to 5 but this would do nothing for the overall duration number. Therefore without oil improvements the oil field would last 10,000 turns, however, the oil would trickle out and the rate of production per turn would be low. Improving the oil field would cause the oil field to deplete faster in 2000 turns, however, production rate would be increased substantially as well.
[EDIT: I forgot to mention, different oil fields would be different sizes. For instance some oil fields may have a duration of 10,000 turns, others 5,000, others 500 and so on (again these are just demonstration numbers not necessarily what they ought to be in game).]
Now have each oil point worth say, 10 shields of production or something. So if I own just this one undeveloped oil field, say I get 10 shields in production per turn with which to build OIL DEPENDENT units (obviously this is just an example, real game numbers would be different).
Now, for example, I can build a vehicle factory in a city which would allow me to produce certain vehicle units. I right click on a city, choose build and choose to build one of the units which I can now build with my vehicle factory. This gets placed into a
centralized build queue. The vehicle itself will be produced at the city I choose to produce it in, however, my turn alotment of oil will be placed in the centralized queue along with all my build projects.
Since production will depend upon the rate and duration of oil coming into the central queue, I will have to be able to prioritize production. Some projects would be placed in high priority, some lower. A high priority project will recieve available oil points (or iron points or whatever resource a particular project requires) before a low priority project. So if I place too many projects in the build queue, some will not be started until there is enough oil to alot to it, or until it moves up in the central build queue priority list.
Also, forests, being a particular terrain type, would also be a resource in themselves. A forest may have a duration of 10,000 at a starting rate of 1 unit of wood per day. Build timber improvements on the forest tile and the yield rate would double or triple or whatever and go into the central production queue faster. Forests, unlike certain other resources will renew themselves at a specific rate. So let's say a forest has a starting yield rate of 1 unit per turn AND a replenishment rate of 1 unit per 2 turns. The faster the forest is depleted the less it will be able to replenish itself. Develop a forest too quick and it dissappears. Then you'll have to send a worker over to plant a new one, or else while you are drawing production points from the forest, a worker can simultaneously work on the tile to increase the replenishment rate to, say, +1 per turn per worker. As long as the worker is working that tile the replenishment rate will be increased. Take the worker off the tile or stop him from "Planting Forest" and the replenishment rate goes back to normal.
Same thing for food producing tiles as with forest tiles.
INCREASING PRODUCTION RATE: The rate at which oil (or any resource) comes into the central build queue is dependent upon the per turn yield of all your oil tiles. So let's say you get 100 oil points total, per turn in the queue. The rate at which the oil points are used up in the queue depends upon:
1) How many cities are producing oil dependent projects AND
2) How many of these cities have a production facility to hasten production in them.
So...100 oil points come into the queue for 10 cities producing oil dependent projects. Each city uses up 1 oil point per turn thus contributing 1 oil point to its project, (depending again on the project's priority in the queue and the amount of oil coming into the queue each turn, i.e. if not enough oil is coming in then some cities with low priority projects will not contribute oil to their project).
Now, build a "Production Facility" in 2 of these cities and each of THOSE cities adds 2 of every resource needed, coming in per turn to its project instead of 1. However, this will not increase the flow of oil into the queue, nor will it increase to life span of an oil field. It will simply increase the production power of the city its in, decreasing the time it takes to build its oil dependent project.
Thus you need to strike a balance between depleting your oil fields, increasing the rate oil goes into your production queue, increasing the rate at which oil is used in the queue by certain cities, etc.
You can also decrease these number if you wish.
1) Decrease the rate at which oil flows out of an oil field by removing the oil field improvements. This will decrease oil going into the queue but also your oil field will last longer if you forsee a greater need for it in the future with new units.
2) Sell off factories in cities so that they only draw 1 oil instead of 2 or whatever.
Just some ideas
[EDIT: The basic gist of all this is that it should not be the case that all a Civ has to do is locate a single source of oil to nearly forever produce all the oil units it wants. A more realistic approach would be to have oil fields (for a particular resource example) have somewhat predictable life spans. Also any Civ which controls most of the oil should be in better shape than a civ that does not. For Trade purposes a Civ may also export a certain amount of the oil produced each turn in exchange for, say, iron or for gold, technology, and/or military units (A whole post on its own: see below).]
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) but if don't...so it's the time.
