Why Must Resources Deplete???

[AznWarlord]

I don't get it. Here I am, the Iroquois. I'm trying a diplomatic approach instead of the old warmongering me, I've only declared war once by military alliance on the already crushed Americans to get me some Incan luxuries. I thought everything was great, and when I was nearing the end of the Ancient Age, my Iron depleted. I had to pay the powerful Incans next door every 5 turns so they DON'T murder my spearmen with their knights. (I have no horses either). Now when we get Steam Power, not only do I have to trade for Coal, but I need to trade for some Iron as well, just so I can rail my whole civ together . . . in twenty turns. By the time I finished, there was one turn left and I had about 20 workers on the job. I couldn't wait to get Nationalism to overpower the threat of the Inca. I finally did, and it cost me 2000 gold to upgrade my spears. Which I easily got by setting my Science Slider to 0%. Now I'm in the mid Industrial Age around 1800AD (perfect timing, the first time I hit the Idustiral Age so early) and I have the only supply of Rubber!!! Upgrading all my men to Infantry was easy and now I'm the wonder of the world (that is, assuming it doesn't deplete as well). Thanks to Smith's Trading, I'm richer than ever. I might actually see the United Nations for the first time.

But anyway the question is, why do resources deplete? I work so hard for that Iron and it just goes away.

 

[D0NIMATRIX]

Well in real life resources will get used up, as was the case in the Russian oil fields 50 years ago-all the oil got pumped out and that region fell into disrepair. I guess Civ3 strives to copy that, but if it can do that, then it should do it well. Only iron seems to deplete, and only iron and coal seem to appear.

 

[AznWarlord]

Iron seems to deplete all the time for me, it goes away and in the next turn, appears in the same spot. This time it just went away permanently. Which sucks, with Iron being the most vital resource until rubber.

 

[gmaharriet]

Only iron seems to deplete, and only iron and coal seem to appear.

Saltpeter will also deplete and (I think) uranium. Any resource which depletes will reappear somewhere...you just can't count on it being in your own territory.

 

[D0NIMATRIX]

Saltpeter will also deplete and (I think) uranium. Any resource which depletes will reappear somewhere...you just can't count on it being in your own territory.

Are you sure? I have never for the life of me seen saltpeter deplete, but I've never had uranium, so I don't know. I always win before uranium.

 

[Aabraxan]

I'm pretty sure I've had saltpeter deplete and I'm also pretty sure I've had it appear in my territory when it depleted somewhere else.

 

[gmaharriet]

Are you sure? I have never for the life of me seen saltpeter deplete,

Yes, I'm sure, and I have had it deplete. Sometimes it reappears in my territory...sometimes in the very same spot...and all you see is the in-game notice that it has depleted, then the notice that "we have discovered a new source".

but I've never had uranium, so I don't know. I always win before uranium.

I often enjoy space ship victories, and you need uranium to build one. I enjoy many different types of victory conditions...some play faster than others.

 

[D0NIMATRIX]

Yes, I'm sure, and I have had it deplete. Sometimes it reappears in my territory...sometimes in the very same spot...and all you see is the in-game notice that it has depleted, then the notice that "we have discovered a new source".

Civ3 can be so random.

 

[pol1]

AFAIR : rubber and horses do not deplete (well not the best word about horses ) and all others reappear in some random place the same turn (also i think that terrain must be appropriate, so coal won't appear on cleared jungle/marshes).

You can find values in the editor.
[so disappearance chance for iron is small, but You have it for loong time]

 

[Red Horse]

rubber and horses do not deplete (well not the best word about horses ) and all others reappear in some random place the same turn ...

This has been my experience also. However, reappearance may not happen within your sight, likewise I have gotten messages that say "a new source of ... has been found" even when I have lost none.

 

[MAS]

This has been my experience also. However, reappearance may not happen within your sight, likewise I have gotten messages that say "a new source of ... has been found" even when I have lost none.

Jump for joy, that means one of your opponents lost one

 

[Red Horse]

Jump for joy, that means one of your opponents lost one

Indeed! And that in turn could cause a DoW from the civ that lost it.

 

[D0NIMATRIX]

What's a DoW?

 

[Aabraxan]

Declaration of War

 

[D0NIMATRIX]

"D'oh!' -Homer Simpson

 

[AutomatedTeller]

Horses do not deplete.

I hear what you mean about iron... but why worry about iron if you are the iroquois? Use it to get horses then build MW. No reason to pay tribute if you have MW - they are reasonably effective against knights and cost less then 1/2 of knights.

 

[D0NIMATRIX]

Yeah, but that 1 point of attack is actually substantially better than many people think. I would take knights over MWs anyday.

 

[Lord_Megahertz]

Horses do not deplete.

I hear what you mean about iron... but why worry about iron if you are the iroquois? Use it to get horses then build MW. No reason to pay tribute if you have MW - they are reasonably effective against knights and cost less then 1/2 of knights.

Sure, MW are better than swordsman, but what about pikeman? They're better at defending than MWs and require iron. And, like DOMINATRIX said, knights are also pretty handy.

 

[Quintillus]

I fired up Civ3ConquestsEdit and looked up exactly what the statistics are on all this resource disappearance stuff and found out the following:

The ratio of each resource disappearing:

Horses and Rubber: 0
Uranium: 100
Oil: 200
Coal and Aluninum: 400
Iron and Saltpeter: 800

The ratio of each resource appearing:

Uranium: 100
Coal, Aluninum, Saltpeter, Rubber, Oil: 120
Horses and Iron: 160

These values are taken from the Civ3Conquests Editor. The Help file explains that the chance of a resource disappearing each turn is 1/Disappearance Ratio, or 0 if the Disappearance Ratio is zero. So Uranium is actually the most likely resource to disappear. The Help file also states that resources that disappear always reappear somewhere else on the map.

The Appearance Ratio help says, "Determines how many instances of the selected resource appear per player in the game. In an eight-player game, a value of 160 would mean 2 of each resource per player." I'm assuming that 160 does not mean 16 resources, however, due to map size differences. For a Huge map, I would assume 160 means 32 resources (2 for each of the default 16 players), and on a Tiny map it means 8 resources. This won't always be the case, though - the Help file does mention that resource numbers are contingent on there being sufficient terrain of a sort that the resource can be placed on.

So AppearanceRatio = 10 * 8 (default # of players on Standard map) * resources per player. If the AppearanceRatio is zero, as with luxuries, the the resource number is random. What this means is Uranium is the least common resource, and Horses and Iron the most common. Of course, as AznWarlord knows all too well, that doesn't carry any guarantee of every player having that resource.

 

[Lord_Megahertz]

Weird.I never would have guessed that iron is one of the resources least likely to dissapear.