Lack of Resouces...

[Melboz99]

Hey all. I've been playing a builder game on a huge map. I'm really beginning to wonder about Firaxis.


Do you guys know what the third most abundant element in the earth's crust is? It's aluminum. Yes, right next to oxygen and silicon is alumimum. Thus, is the most abundant metal on the earth.

Why then, on a huge map, is there only two tiles with aluminum? This is really starting to tick me off! I own half a continent on a world with only 60% water, and only 2 contintents. More precisely, I cover 32% of the surface of the earth. And you know what? I have no aluminum on my half of the continent!


Sometimes this game just doesn't make any sense. I had to go send 4 marines in a transport up a 7 turn trip to make an amphib assault on a town to get some. In doing so, I caused a world war that has so far lasted over 20 turns. I had to build an air force and navy to protect my port cities from the enemy's naval fleets.

In short, getting aluminum was a real hassle that cost me a lot of gold and production. All because Firaxis made the 3rd most abundant element in the earth's crust a very rare resource.

Well, enough ranting,
Dan O.

[Melboz99]

I just looked it up in some of my materials science material.

Aluminum comprises 82,300mg per kg of the earths crust, thus, the earth is 8.23% aluminum.

Makes you wonder when you can only find two tiles on an entire huge map!

[Melboz99]

Oh yeah, to compare, iron is only 53,300mg per kg of the earth's crust.

Thus, the earth is 5.63% Iron.

I have 2 squares of iron in my own territory. I believe there are 4 or 6 on the map.

[alexman]

Forget realism. It's a game. Resources are not available to everyone because it makes the game more interesting.

Also, you must know that the number of resources is proportional to the number of players in the game. Unless you didn't find all the instances of aluminum, it sounds like you are playing a huge map with about 2 opponents. The game was designed to be played with 16 civilizations on huge maps, which would result in about 19 instances of aluminum in CivIII/PTW, and 14 instances in C3C.

Edit: if you have 4-6 instances of iron, then you surely have 3-4 instances of aluminum (aluminum has 75% the appearance ratio of iron). Look harder!

[Antrine]

Yes forget realism, resources are not available to everyone because it causes more wars! Opps! I guess that is realism.

However, I agree Vanilla is mostly a tasteless treat.

[Melboz99]

Isn't it funny though how in real life, iron, aluminum, etc are easlily come by, but it's the stuff like Chromium and Cobalt that are rare.

There are some alloys that we make with iron and other metals that are very expensive because of the rarity of the alloyed metals.

In fact, I think that Cobalt is one of the most expensive metals in this country that is used in alloys.

I have 3 opponents right now. So, somewhere there is a third aluminum I guess. I'll have to look.

In reality, the only reason we use so much steel in this county is because of the cost of aluminum. Aluminum is not hard to mine, but it hard to refine. Aluminum must be refined by a process of electrolysis. The refineries often take up close to half an average power plant's output.

I still think there should be more aluminum than iron in Civ.

Anyway, I guess I'll have to play with more civs in the future to increase the amount of resources on the map. Of course, I'll have to be sure to grab the land first!

[Antrine]

Good call Melboz99!!

However, I am prejudiced to one thing.

'Mod like hell, it is the next best thing to intelligence'

Happy Gaming!

[Aqualung71]

Re: Lack of Resouces...

Originally posted by Melboz99
Hey all. I've been playing a builder game....

I had to go send 4 marines in a transport up a 7 turn trip to make an amphib assault on a town to get some. In doing so, I caused a world war that has so far lasted over 20 turns. I had to build an air force and navy to protect my port cities from the enemy's naval fleets.

Yeh, it's tough when the game forces you to take into account other civ's possible reactions to your desire to grab required resources.

While resource scarcity is certainly a hotly debated issue, it does make you realise that strategic choices are fairly well interwoven.

[bongo]

Originally posted by alexman
...The game was designed to be played with 16 civilizations on huge maps....

So when I play at standard maps I put the AI at a disatvantage because it is designed to work at another map size?

Or are you saying that on a huge map, you're *supposed* to have 16 civs?

[vmxa1]

Yup, remember the game could only handle 16 civ when it came out.

[alexman]

Originally posted by bongo

So when I play at standard maps I put the AI at a disatvantage because it is designed to work at another map size?

No, I was just saying that huge maps are balanced for 16 civilizations. Standard maps are designed for 8 civilizations.

That's not to say that you shouldn't play with as many opponents you like, of course. You just have to be prepared to deal with issues like the one in this thread if you do.

[Melboz99]

Well, it seems that all is not lost.

I found one of the VERY few Uraniums in my own territory. I also have one rubber, and two oil. So, basically, with a few *small* wars I was able to obtain all the neccessary resources.

I completed the game via space race in the year of my birth, 1980.

Thanks for the replies guys,
I'll be sure to play with more civs next time,
Dan O.

[bongo]

alexman , do you happen to know if the game was designed with a certain map size in mind? (I like to think that size is 'standard', cause of the name )

[alexman]

I think you're right. Standard size, continents seems to be the map type where most elements of the game are balanced (civ traits, AI behavior, warmongering versus building, etc).

[Switch]

Originally posted by alexman
I think you're right. Standard size, continents seems to be the map type where most elements of the game are balanced (civ traits, AI behavior, warmongering versus building, etc).

In other words, the default settings when starting a new game.

I wonder if there is any combination of civs that would give the most balanced game, ie taking into account civ traits, culture group, UU, etc...