But global extinction is not what is being modelled in the game. If you civ only has access to a certain resource in a certain area, then that resource can be exhausted. This is entirely consistent with the real world.
If you can have access to horses on a continent, they cannot become extinct just in one place but on the whole continent. That is, if horses strategic resourcre disappears, all horse resources on the same continent should disappear. And Civ3 didn't model exhaustion in any sensible way. You could find a resource, not use it (just happened to have a road there, but have no unit built) and pop! it suddenly disappears. You can give weird rationales to that but it is just stupid. Exhaustion of resources should be linked to the player's actions, not random probabilities coming out of the blue. Civ3 handling of resources is, imo, pitiful, both by the choice of resources (iron, saltpeter are not scarce, horses once found in one place can be bred anywhere and are no longer linked to one source of production) and how they disappear for no good reason.
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