If you lose access to a resource, do your units stop working?

[Provost Harrison]

Say for example you had access to Iron, Oil and Rubber (or whatever you need) to build some tanks, and you have a few divisions of these. What happens if, in war, you lose access to one of these resources (eg, if someone attacks and seizes your oil). Would your tanks stop working because lack of access to any of these would make it impossible to refuel or repair your units? I think this could be an interesting possibility for inclusion into the game...

[Ralf]

I believe that lost oil-recources (for example) only hamper the production of new oil-demanding units. Already built units are probably not affected. But I dont know - maybe...

[Provost Harrison]

Well I thought it just seemed logical. If a country has lots of tanks, but no oil, the tanks simply do not move. Perhaps if you run out of the necessary resources, you cannot repair units (once damage is caused to a unit, it does not heal)...

[Fiera]

I reckon that the new special resources system is (though better than Civ2's) pretty imperfect. This can be one of its major flaws.

Let's see how they sort this one out...

[Gramphos]

It applies for units that require fuel, but not for earlier units that just requires weapons. I don't know if this feature is in, but I've hoped for that. (I also hoped for, with some inventions, be able to replace oil (for fuel) with ethanol (made in ethanol factories out of food)).

[shum00]

Perhaps in the case of tanks, a lack of oil could mean a loss of an amount of movement points (depending on the total amount, which I'm not sure of), and a lack of iron and rubber could mean slower repair times. I'm not for complete loss of movement or no repair at all, because this could complicate the game too much. For more ancient units the iron/rubber rule could apply, but not the oil of course.

[joseph1944]

Originally posted by shum00
Perhaps in the case of tanks, a lack of oil could mean a loss of an amount of movement points (depending on the total amount, which I'm not sure of), and a lack of iron and rubber could mean slower repair times. I'm not for complete loss of movement or no repair at all, because this could complicate the game too much.

Unless they (Firaxis) say something otherwise, the resource are for building only nothing else.
If you remember a while back someone said no, repeat no supply lines will be needed.
In Civ 2 if your unit is damage the unit slow down, I would suppect the same in this game.

[isaac brock]

Thats stupid. I don't think that that will be a major flaw. If i have to be fueling all my units towards the end of the the game, THAT would be a major flaw. You had to have all those resources to build a friggin unit, but you couldn't wage war on, say, the persians because you needed their oil to maintain the units that you needed to wage war on the persians. it's a catch-22, and it blows hamster ass.

btw, if you take a city over by means of culture, does it piss off that civ? would they demand it gets returned? And can you offer to purchase another civ's city, like in SMAC?

[Lung]

Whoa! My shield is vanishing before my eyes!!

Curses! Someone must have captured our iron mines!

[Odin]

Originally posted by isaac brock
Thats stupid. I don't think that that will be a major flaw. If i have to be fueling all my units towards the end of the the game, THAT would be a major flaw. You had to have all those resources to build a friggin unit, but you couldn't wage war on, say, the persians because you needed their oil to maintain the units that you needed to wage war on the persians. it's a catch-22, and it blows hamster ass.

btw, if you take a city over by means of culture, does it piss off that civ? would they demand it gets returned? And can you offer to purchase another civ's city, like in SMAC?

It's a Catch-22 but it's realistic because in life the US doesn't declare war with Iraq is because the Arabs would stop sending us oil.

I bet taking over a city by culture will piss them off, but not as much as war would.

[Urban Ranger]

The system can get sophisticated, without the player needing to do anything. It does make sense to hamper units requiring fuel if you have no access to oil.

At long last Provost comes up with a good idea

[isaac brock]

For the last time: Provost never had a good idea, he has no good ideas, and he never will have a good idea! Units should not be hampered because of oil shortages. And if you want good reason why, it's because the tanks are powered by urine. Besides, If i'm sending money to support them, then they can use it to buy some gas at the local Petro-Canada

[gremalkin]

I think it would make a lot of sense if you cannot build or repair units if you do not have the relevant resource. Repair is meant to be refitting isn't it? And would therefore need access to the resource in much the same way as production.. Would make for some very interesting gameplay..

On a side note and perhaps this should be a different thread.. If you say have 2 horse resources and one is for producing your cavalry and the other you have traded to an opponent (under some sort of agreement), what happens when one of those resources is captured? Do you lose prod capability or does the trade agreement stop? If the trade agreement stops I imagine the person you were trading with might be a tad annoyed.. If you stop being able to produce the cav units, some hasty renegotiation would be necessary... nice...

Any opinions?

[isaac brock]

i think requiring the resource to repair it would be a feature that not only is unnecessary, but also not fun. I don't see why anyone would enjoy having a tank that ended up being disposable because you lost your iron.

The point of civ is to be a fun game, not a freakishly realistic game that no one wants to play. I'm glad that you have an idea, but it doesn't add anything but frustration to the game. Nuff said.

[Provost Harrison]

Originally posted by isaac brock
For the last time: Provost never had a good idea, he has no good ideas, and he never will have a good idea

Would you like to sort this one out outside? *rolls up sleeves*

That one is going in my sig

Now anyway, I really don't think this issue would detract from the game and could bring another strategic dimension to the game.