can you change terrain to find resources?

[Mr. T]

I am currently playing a game in which there are only 2 coal squares on the entire map (no joke). So I started thinking of ways to get coal. It occured to me that it may be possible to terraform land into coal possible squares. My rationale was that I think maps may have predetermined resource locations, thus if you have a coal square that no longer has a fitting terrain, maybe changing the terrain back will make the coal appear!
in summary,

has anyone seen a resource appear/dissappear after terraforming?

does anyone have thoughts on whether resource squares are predetermined when the map is made and only become visible after techs are dicovered?

[Sevorak]

No, you can't. Resources stay regardless of the terrain changes.

In the late game you will often see a lot of rubber and dyes on grassland, or uranium on plains. They are not naturally occurring, they're just there because the forest or jungle they were in was cut down.

But in Civ3 there are precisely two forms of terraforming.

1) Plant Forest
2) Nuclear Weapon

You can add 3) Pollution if you really feel like uncontrolled terraforming. In every case, it's not going to change a thing except where new resources might appear in the future.

It is well known that resource squares are predetermined with the map. When a resource exhausts, a new one appears somewhere in the world on proper terrain.

-Sev

[Bubba_B]

Sev,

If I remember right you can change (in the editor) the ratio of occurrence and on what terrain type the resource will appear. This will allow more resources on a map.

Just a thought.

[JohnE]

Originally posted by Sevorak

It is well known that resource squares are predetermined with the map. When a resource exhausts, a new one appears somewhere in the world on proper terrain.

Is this really true? So when I exhausted my only Iron before even building one Swordsman, another Iron appeared somewhere in the world?

[Sevorak]

Yep. On some hill or mountain somewhere, a new Iron appeared. Occasionally, in the endgame with large empires, the new appearance will be within your own borders - I've noticed it several times, once with a Uranium resource that vanished from a mountain only to appear in the forest one tile over.

-Sev

[Mr. T]

so it is silly to create jungles in the hopes of finding rubber?

[IronSpam]

Yes it is absolutely useless to make forests hoping for rubber. It only took me two games to realize that.

Oh yeah I once exhausted a source of Iron. A new one popped up two squares away. Imagine the luck.

[Sevorak]

No creating forest hoping for rubber, you won't find any. You'll see a lot of rubber on grassland or plains, because rubber is one of the two resources that don't go away (horses the other). Since rubber doesn't go away, rubber obviously doesn't spontaneously appear. I do maintain large tracts of forest on unused flatlands, though, because Uranium certainly does deplete and definitely appears in forests. So while the AI is busy hewing every forest in its territory into firewood, I plant "nature reserves" on land I don't use. Increases the chances that if I deplete my uranium sources, the new ones are in my territory.

-Sev

[Capt Dizle]

Am I the only one finding large concentrations of strategic resources on islands. Haven't you guys noticed that luxuries always appear on the land masses where civs start as opposed to islands.

But I always find islands loaded with strategic resources.

Feedback please. Please go look at your maps and tell me what you see!

[EricWright]

Originally posted by jimmytrick
Am I the only one finding large concentrations of strategic resources on islands. Haven't you guys noticed that luxuries always appear on the land masses where civs start as opposed to islands.

But I always find islands loaded with strategic resources.

You're not the only one... I'm the world leader in my current game, although I started out over 20 squares away from ANY resources, strategic or luxury. This game is on a large map, continents (2 major, 1 minor) with exactly 2 islands. One island is off the coast of the middle sized continent and is 1 square in size. The other is in the middle of the ocean to my east, and is 7 squares, all jungle. Guess where my only coal is coming from.

Also, I just discovered refining, and found that my saltpeter rich desert is entirely without oil. At least the Egyptians (who I'm currently in a 3-on-1 war with) have some... it'll be mine soon.

On a related note, I started a war with the Egyptians (I was bored). Since then, both the Americans and Greeks have asked me for a MPP. I accepted one with the Greeks since the Greeks, Egyptians and my Romans are all on the same continent. What fun... Alex and I are planning to split the Egyptians: he gets the south and west, I get the north (with oil!) and east...