The game is very unbalancing !!!

[Jodien]

What a disappointment (again) I felt when I turned 1455 AD with Steam Engine and figured out that I will eventually lose the game due to lack of strategic resources.
Every time I play Civ, the strategic resources are nowhere near to me!!!
Lately, I was playing Russia and my country was pretty ahead of the tech competition.
It happened yet again! Only a horse appeared on my territory when i discovered Riding, so I could produce horsemen. I had no luxury resources, too; although I had a fair share of the land area under my control. I couldnt import anything, no way, other civs won't trade their excess recources to me for any price!!!
I discovered Iron Working, no iron!! Others have in abundance.
I discovered Gunpowder, no saltpeter!! Others have in abundance.
I discovered Steam Engine, no coal!! no railroads, no coal plants, no factories!!! no hope of any victory!!!

What a great game Civ3 is????

 

[Tassadar]

Against many a.i do you play? more a.i mean more ressource overall.

I know because i played some game against only 1 a.i and strategic resource were rare( about 2-3 iron, 2 coal, 2 oil and so on).

You can modify ressource appearance into editor, read editor help to know how.

Edit: i forgot to say, in early stage of expension, grab some desert or tundra for oil, and grab some jungle for coal later on. If you dont have iron in begining it s not so bad, even salpeter is not a must. You need coal and iron in industrial age and of course oil. Sometime you will find new source of iron, coal, oil, as they disapear from a.i. teritory.

 

[cracker]

Jodien,

You did not provide enough information to really help you beyond listening to your dissatisfaction.

As a minimum, you need to post the difficulty level, map size and traits, and number of opponents to help get a picture of whet your porblem might be. You also need to post the patch version number that you are playing.

Depending on these conditions, the game you are playing will be significantly different.

Tassadar may be right in this case about the number of opponents, many novice players make the mistake of reducing the number of opponents and thinking that will make their game go easier. In fact it has the opposite effect because it slows down trading, reduces build density on the map, and reduces the availability of resources. A map with 9 opponents will have twice as many resources available as the same map with 4 opponents. Its just the way the game works.

When someone tells you to modify the game in the editor to "fix" things that may not match your early understanding of the game or how they might like the game, try to hold off on doing any of these things until you master playing the game up to at least the Regent level. For the most part, these quick mod suggestions will end up being crutches that will prevent you from learning to play the game well and in the end this will take away some of the opportunities you might have to enjoy the deeper aspects of the game.

You might also try to do a liitle better search of strategy and tips listings as those posts are usually given a bit more thought than the quick one time answers you might get to "help me" posts.

 

[sealman]

Jodien: I feel your pain. I often suffer from the lack of luxaries myself, and mostly saltpeter. I have found that when the AI won't trade with me, war is coming. Strike fast, grab what you need and sue for peace.

 

[Daaraa]

I try staying ahead of the pack and grabbing resources before the AI knows they are there. I do agree that without Iron life is a LOT more difficult but even horses can make up for it if you use them right. However, no Strat-Resources is rough. I've only had it once and I captured horses with warriors and archers. Then had to go after Iron with horsemen and archers.

 

[Chieftess]

I know some of the early patches had problems with resources. (BTW, in 1.07, oil is in the plains - it's not anymore..)

Also, use a graphics mod, that will help you to find a resource that's 'hidden' (like coal, which blends into the mountains). In one of my first games, there were 2 coal resources, but I couldn't find them, since they blended in so well! I explored BOTH CONTINENTS looking for it. I installed the patch, and where was it? 20 tiles away from my capital!!!!


Game settings also affect it. I've played tiny maps, and almost always, there's no luxs. I've seen warm, wet, 5 bill. maps with no oil (lack of deserts and tundra).

 

[The Templar]

Jodien, guess you'll have to do what happened in real life, go out an colonize and oppress those foriegners who have resources. You know, take their cities and starve them out so you can have that coal and rubber. Don't worry though, later you can switch to communism and denouce imperialist agression!

 

[Richard III]

As always, I find these complaints bizarre. In my experience, the resources are TOO evenly spread out, so virtually everybody has what they need without trading. So my complaint is actually the opposite of yours...

 

[Cunobelin Of Hippo]

Originally posted by Richard III
As always, I find these complaints bizarre. In my experience, the resources are TOO evenly spread out, so virtually everybody has what they need without trading. So my complaint is actually the opposite of yours...

Ditto. I started up a game last night and it was the first time in ages that I've had no access to iron after the initial expansion rush.

Jodien - if they won't trade it with you, take it from them

 

[sealman]

Originally posted by Cunobelin Of Hippo


...
Jodien - if they won't trade it with you, take it from them

Right on. After all, if we were all meant to live in peace, Sid would not have put in (insert your least favorite civ to play against)

 

[Kemal]

If you don't want to be dependent on having the right resources near your starting location maybe you should try and play with the Indians. then, if there are no good resources nearby you can use their war elephants(which require no resource at all to build) to take the resource you want from your opponents.

 

[Lt. 'Killer' M.]

Jodien, are you using the latest patch? Version 1.29? fo to the FAQ (link in my sig), there's a lot of info there and a link to the patches. Latest patch includes all previous ones.

 

[KaNick]

I dont know what you guys are talking about, i never have problems with resources or luxeries. For example, in the game i am playing right now i already have 11 luxeries.... oh wait they are all wines ahhhh. Oh well at least my people get the best luxury, who want incense any way. And gems dont even do any thing except look pretty.

 

[Jodien]

Everybody out there, thank you very much for your attention. I've been playing Civ games for over a decade and I think Civ3 is the best one I played so far.

I dont have the latest patch, this has to be a problem, I guess.
My game is:
Huge world, two big continents, 5billion aged world, 12 AI civs, Regent level. Temperate and normal weather conditions.
I mastered chieftain and warlord levels, in fact they were pretty boring to play as I was winning handsomely by 18th century. In those games resources were rare, but other civs were willing to trade theirs, at least.

My real dilemma is that I cant start a war to grab resources using horsemen against musketeers. I dont even have swordsmen for I never had any iron to date either by trade or else.

Thank god, I discovered nationalism and Im able to produce riflemen who dont need any saltpeter. But my army is so weak that I cant hope to win against France (for coal), the leading country in army power. They have mpp with England who has saltpeter as abundant as water!!!

Anyway I opened a new game taking Babylon. I started an early war against Greece to grab some land area. I won quite a number of elite units plus an army unit. I took their 5 cities and I got Athens under siege. Wish me luck...

 

[TheNiceOne]

Jodien, you don't have to go to war with your horsemen. At least one of the AI civs should be willing to trade you salpeter for the right amount of money. Then start producing cavalry, and upgrade your horsemen to cavalry. Remember that you can finish any cavalry production after the trade ends as long as you started the production in time,

When you have enough cavalry, pick the target where it will be easiest to secure necessary resources, go to war and take them.