Underpowered/confusing resources

[Thor7]

Do you ever see a resource and groan? Sometimes you want that silk or sugar resource badly for happiness for your empire, but the resource itself sucks as a tile and you end up with a crappy little city to collect it. Resources I feel are on the weak side as far as tile yields:

Wine - Farm generates more food, towns more commerce. It's not terrible, but I wouldn't ever build more than one winery except to trade wine around.

Sugar - Same as wine, but even less commerce. This one I just don't get, why is sugar such a crappy improved resource? I actually mod my civ xml so it gets an extra food. My citizens are on a sugar high!

Silk - I think the commerce is underwhelming compared to dye and incense. I thought silk trade was huge in the middle ages. Maybe dye trade was bigger, I don't know, I just feel silk could use an extra commerce or something. I end up building cottages on a lot of my silk.

Uranium - Eh, you can mine it so you can put a mine on a plain which is pretty nice, but lack on innate bonus kind of perplexes me. I think it's the only resource that doesn't add to the tile yield unless improved.

Banana - Nice resource but gets blow away by post biology wheat/corn farms. Minor gripe I guess.

Rice - Good resource but why is rice worse eating than wheat and corn?

Fur - Pretty crappy tile yields. Mostly because they only exist on tundra. A fur on a forested grassland would be dandy but no. I mod in an extra food on them on my games just to make those snowbound wasteland cities a little more respectable.

I guess these are just personal gripes, but does anyone else mod their resources as I have? I think it makes for a better game with a little more food to go around.

 

[KeloGBites]

Whale- I think I've hooked this up maybe..twice?

Incense- Bleh, a high commerce desert tile is just..ridiculous

Wine- Especially when it decides to appear on a plains hill, this is probably the single most useless tile for this resource to be on. I mean seriously, who wouldn't mine that?
In general all the calendar resources I find to be pretty good (except Incense)...
-Sugar adds some food, happy, and commerce, I find comparing it to towns pretty silly. Towns take a very long time to become well..towns. While here a few turns and you already have a pretty good tile.
-Dye is pretty nice, prefer if it didn't always appear in Jungles though.
-Banana is awesome, again comparing it to farms that are that good a few hundred turns later is strange.
4+ furs in the BFC can be pretty nice to have, but 1 or so is pretty underwhelming. Now if there were Floodplain furs...

 

[UWHabs]

Problem with sugar is that post-bio, it's better to have a farm on the sugar tile than a plantation.

 

[KeloGBites]

At that point of the game I'm usually converting near everything into Workshops/Watermills powered by State Property for massive production to make that last few conquests for Domination/Conquest.

But yeah, I can see the point of post-bio farming, yet still. Bio is pretty close to Medicine which would unlock Sid's, after Sid's I usually have so much food I really don't know what to do with it all, can't see the point of adding even more food to that with excessive farming (Obviously using Sid's isn't in my usual Production powerhouse plans, but in those I already have done the math for how much food I need to run the maximum production I need from that city, and usually this doesn't require more then 1-2 farms aside from the 2+ food resources I have around almost all my cities).

 

[obsolete]

Incense- Bleh, a high commerce desert tile is just..ridiculous

I have to agree, it`s for people who don`t know how to use specialists. Both take away 2 food, but one does far more than the other.

 

[Udey1]

above is correct. I cant even remember when I have ever worked an incense vice running a scientist.

 

[Thor7]

Forgot to mention incense because it looks juicy, but you're right, it has the problems of furs, has a bad base tile. Not sure why incense can't be allowed on plains/grass as well.

 

[JTMacc99]

Uranium - Eh, you can mine it so you can put a mine on a plain which is pretty nice, but lack on innate bonus kind of perplexes me. I think it's the only resource that doesn't add to the tile yield unless improved.

Well, that kiind of makes sense, doesn't it? It's not like you can just pick up uranium off the ground and do something with it.

Actually, I've never really thought about it like you do. Sugar is a funky resource because it's not the best food resource improved, and the commerce is not spectacular either, but it adds a happy face and a health with a grocer. It's really more of a happy resource than a food resource. Since you normally get them in bunches, the fact is, you will need to live with a bunch of sugar plantations over farms/cottages because you can then turn around and trade off the excess sugar for gold, incense, wine, or deer.

I also think it's fair that dye is a better resource than silk. Silk garments would be much less interesting without dye.

 

[Wlauzon]

Quite often Post-Bio, I will convert any extra of those resources to a "standard" plot. Unless you are trading a lot, I don't see where more than one corn or sugar or whatever does much.

 

[TheLazyHase]

I don't see where more than one corn or sugar or whatever does much.

If you have Sid sushi and neighbor, it could easily be otherwise.

 

[KeloGBites]

Corn? Corn is in it's whole league. Improved Irrigated grassland corn post-bio is simply ridiculous, hence it's reasonable to have multiple corn resources.

 

[champ82]

Wine - Farm generates more food, towns more commerce. It's not terrible, but I wouldn't ever build more than one winery except to trade wine around.

I agree, as a workable tile wine is pretty meh.

Now…I do consider game balance when I think something in game mechanics could/should be changed in the name of realism BUT…making wineries available at monarchy is one of the biggest things in Civ. Not only because historically it makes no sense, but also because it’s strange to have a tech offer a civic and a resource. Would it really change the game soooooo much if wineries were available at agriculture? It would be more logical and it would make this resource more attractive while maintaining it’s unique nature.

Sugar - Same as wine, but even less commerce. This one I just don't get, why is sugar such a crappy improved resource? I actually mod my civ xml so it gets an extra food. My citizens are on a sugar high!

This is a serious infringement on game balance. Sugar offers less food but they tend to be clumped together. If corn was clumped like sugar, and I’m getting the impression you make sugar like corn in the code, it would be CRAZY.

Silk - I think the commerce is underwhelming compared to dye and incense. I thought silk trade was huge in the middle ages. Maybe dye trade was bigger, I don't know, I just feel silk could use an extra commerce or something. I end up building cottages on a lot of my silk.

Imagine real world historical civs as making off the sale of silk to other nations if you prefer. Silk bringing +1 and + 2 with a market, which surely were more common than they are in the game, and it’s kind of a big deal that people are very willing to pay for.

Uranium - Eh, you can mine it so you can put a mine on a plain which is pretty nice, but lack on innate bonus kind of perplexes me. I think it's the only resource that doesn't add to the tile yield unless improved.

Uh…again I'll offer an 'imaginary' defense to this game mechanic. if a tile is unimproved imagine this means the experts haven’t gotten there yet. Iron might provide a bonus because some amateurs figured out how to get some iron before the mine was built. Amateurs can not figure out how to process uranium.

Banana - Nice resource but gets blow away by post biology wheat/corn farms. Minor gripe I guess.

5 is never bad. The extra is no joke. It is rarer than the grains, so it has more trading value. Don’t complain about banana.

Rice - Good resource but why is rice worse eating than wheat and corn?

I have heard convincing arguments/studies that say corn is of higher nutritional value than rice. Also, rice helps for Sushi .

Fur - Pretty crappy tile yields. Mostly because they only exist on tundra. A fur on a forested grassland would be dandy but no. I mod in an extra food on them on my games just to make those snowbound wasteland cities a little more respectable.

See silk. Also, chicks like it. +1 and it unlocks the potential for a population boom random event when men bring fur coats back to their women.

I guess these are just personal gripes, but does anyone else mod their resources as I have? I think it makes for a better game with a little more food to go around.

I understand your gripes, except banana and uranium, but I disagree. I like that not all the resources are equal. It adds flavor and .

Example - I had a future HE city have mad spices around it. The city was doing fine food wise without the spices, this city didn’t need them. As a ruler I had to decide if I would build plantations for trading or not. It was a good question to give an immortal ruler.

400th post!

 

[hexem3117]

Normally with the less productive calendar resources I'll put up a plantation on one of them and then cottage the rest since they have bonus innate commerce for the square. This can lead to some bangin towns later on. Banana is one of the best food tiles, period. It rules. Don't get the gripes about that one. Also, although sugar may only give one food, it shouldn't give more. It's not nutritious and is only used to sweeten other things, like bread in Great Britain in the 19th century. In fact, I wouldn't be so bummed if it gave -1 health because it leads to cheap energy that can make you unhealthy if over-consumed.

A lot of people hate on wine, but on a plains tile they can be pretty good. 2 food, 2 shields and 2 commerce IIRC is a pretty balanced and useful tile. I don't disagree about them on plains hills, though; that's pretty annoying but historically accurate since wine is best grown in hilly areas.

 

[Windsor]

While there certainly are times I don't really feel working a resource is a high priority, I don't see it as a problem or balance issue with the game. All resources don't have to be of equal value and they provide a bonus in different ways and at different stages in the game.

Incense can be better to work than a specialist, it can provide LOTS of happiness and you can usually sell it for a decent amount of gpt.

And furs? Come on. Those are worth working, especially for financial civs! They get unlocked by hunting. A city picking up a crab and some furs will pay for itself and further expansion early on. At the same time they provide hapiness early and since furs is a rare resource, it has good trade value. A resource that makes tundra worth settling and working isn't bad

 

[MadmanAtW]

Incense can be better to work than a specialist, it can provide LOTS of happiness and you can usually sell it for a decent amount of gpt.

You can trade it and get happiness from it without working it. It's good to actually bother putting the improvement down (or a fort) so you get the benefit, but it's not worth actually working the tile.

 

[MadmanAtW]

(That said, I suppose sometimes it can be. What is it, a 5 tile? If you are running 100% science and it's a newish city that is never ever going to catch up and produce a great person, and you aren't in Rep, working the incense provides more science than running a specialist, right?)

 

[KeloGBites]

If it's a newish city I rather it be working a 3(+)f, +4h, +1f/+3h, +2-3f/+2c tile then +5c.

 

[Windsor]

Incense is 6 so you'll get 7 if your financial. In other words, it can beat representation powered specialists and completely wreck a non-rep specialist.

Specialists who doesn't give you a GP in a reasonably amount of time sucks bigtime.

 

[cabert]

I often settle cities on those low output tiles.
You get the "non improved" bonus yield and don't need to work it.
Settling on sugar or on riverside silk or wine is good.
settling on incense doesn't give you anything, but you will never work the tile anyway.
settling on uranium is often unaware. You discover the uranium so late, you often have our cities settled by then.

 

[BigTime]

Am I missing something? What's so bad about incense and banana? Banana is a 5 food tile + 1 health! Pre-bio its a fantastic food resource. Incense is a 6 commerce tile! Do I even need to explain. I understand it's usually on a desert, but what about plains incense? Add in the plains bonuses and that to me is a pretty solid tile.