Thoughts on Resources

[boojumhunter]

Greetings all,
With some idle time on my hands, I thought I'd share an idea that is unfortunately totally outside the capability of any mod.

I think strategic resources add a great deal to the game... but could be 'better'... or at least made more important to the game.

At the moment you can build Tanks when you have access to both OIL and RUBBER. Fair enough as far as it goes. Lose one of them and you can no longer produce new tanks... but what if...

What if when you lose access to either of these two resources then a count down begins. Say five turns in length... indicated by a count down clock on the screen for each lost resource... at the end of which ALL your tanks lose all mobility and defensive capability. They just sit there... easy prey for any attacker until you regain access to the strategic resouce... tick tock...

Resource management would then become a truly crucial component of the game. You'd NEVER build a road to a second OIL supply... but would fortify and quarter both military units and workers in case you lose, by accident or by attack on your primary supply.

A new great/small wonder could be "Warehouse & Inventory Management" that would increase the countdown counter by some percentage. (Strategic reserve)

A sneak attack on an enemies resource would be a prelude to any intellligent battle plan.

Such a sneak attack would FORCE you into a war if that's the only place you could find a resource...

You could use this to precipitate a war BETWEEN two CIVs... Take out CIV A's oil... unfortunately the closest source of oil is within the boundaries of CIV B... You happen to be on the other side of the world.

Losing a resource would become a crisis and immediately become a top priority.

This 'component' Could apply to all strategic resources... Even swords wear out and need replacement. Nuclear power plants would run down until a new source of radioactives are found.

It would solve the problem of a superior CIV knowing that it can't lose half way through a game.... ANY CIV that loses OIL at the right (wrong?) moment can be brought to it's knees.

Just a thought?
Comments?
Not that we could implement this...

[Willem]

Originally posted by boojumhunter

Not that we could implement this...

If you already know this, what's the point in bringing it up? And I think it's a bit early to be discussing Civ IV. Maybe in a couple of years...?

[DRoseDARs]

Why bring it up? Why not? "In a couple of years," isn't that far away. Considering the way hard-drives, processors, graphics cards, and Internet speeds have all increased dramatically in recent years, a few years from now they'll still be doin' it. We have every right, even the responcibility as Civers, to consider what we what included in the next incarnation of the Civilization Dynasty. Granted, whoever produces the next in the series will, bottomline, only be interested in making money, but they can't do that if the game doesn't take advantage of the computer technology of the day to a reasonable degree (meaning making it work for a wide variety of computer system typically found at the time of release). If people find that a game doesn't utilize the potential of their system (crappy graphics, choppy animation et al resulting in poor previews/reviews), many might opt to spend their money on something that does.

[Willem]

Judgng by the long waits between turns during the Industrial eras and beyond, it seems to me that the game is ahead of what today's processors can actually handle already.

As for discussing Civ IV, this version has been out for about a year. Sid himself mentioned that new versions come out very five or six years or so. If you consider that it takes at least two years to plan out and produce the next incarnation, that means there's still at least another two years to go before Firaxis starts looking for new ideas.

Sorry, but just my slant on the issue. At this point, I don't see the sense in discussing major overhauls to the game. We're best off just working with what we have now. Or at least what we will have after PtW comes out this fall.

[Inverse Icarus]

this was brought up Pre-Release, and Firaxis ignored it.

if you have no oil, your tanks can't move right? they're useless.

i think i like it this way though. it would be stupid if units started dying / "stopped dead" when i ran out of oil.

plus the AI would suck a lot more

[boojumhunter]

Originally posted by Willem


If you already know this, what's the point in bringing it up? And I think it's a bit early to be discussing Civ IV. Maybe in a couple of years...?

Here's a reason... because I wanted to.

Frankly I didn't think I needed a better reason to discuss a CIV related idea.

Or is there a board of approval that I have to petition to in order to post an idea?

[Willem]

Originally posted by boojumhunter


Here's a reason... because I wanted to.

Frankly I didn't think I needed a better reason to discuss a CIV related idea.

Well that's your perogative, but it seems to me that it's just a waste of energy at this point. The game's pretty much finished, Firaxis is not going to be making any drastic channges now. We'll have to wait until they start shopping for Civ IV ideas.

[boojumhunter]

Originally posted by Willem


Well that's your perogative,

As I suspected from the start.

but it seems to me that it's just a waste of energy at this point. The game's pretty much finished, Firaxis is not going to be making any drastic channges now. We'll have to wait until they start shopping for Civ IV ideas.

Then here's a suggestion. Ignore things you think are a waste of time.

For myself? I'm obviously interested in constructive input anyone else might have on the idea.