How To Avoid Resource Depletion

Giant_Squid · November 25, 2001, 17:10

I hadn't had any problem with resource depletion until my last game. I was the Persians in ancient times. I had all six of my neighbors at war with me without any allies, but that was OK because I was building rank upon rank of Immortals, which were doing pretty well. Then my only iron resource ran out. I could no longer build the Immortals, and I lost miserably.

For my next game, I tried another strategy, which worked rather well. I didn't connect my resources until I needed them. During peacetime, I built up an army big enough to defend myself, and then I pillaged my own road leading to the iron. No chance of depletion. I stationed a worker there, and, during war, I reconnected it. Now I can build the Immortals without worrying about depletion when I really don't need the resource.

Another strategy which I haven't tried but which should work can lead to ZERO resource depletion. You station both a military unit and a three workers on the resource. At the beginning of your turn, you build a road to the resource. You set your cities' build orders to things that need the resource, and then you pillage the road. The build orders complete, but the computer never calculates the resource as being used since the calculation is only done between turns. This can be continued as long as necessary.

Rather complicated to avoid something that rarely happens, but if you only have one iron or oil and are fighting a protracted war, it might be useful.

Smash · November 25, 2001, 17:46

if it works(it should)..sounds like a good plan to me.Conservation.

Jaybe · November 25, 2001, 17:57

There is also the "Build A City On It" theory. It also supposedly avoids depletion.

ProfessorPhobos · November 25, 2001, 18:08

<<>>>>

Doesn't work. I built a city on my only Iron resource, and it tapped out right when I needed it for Railroads.

(Luckily, I Had already kacked my neighbors with Immortals...I love the Persians so...)

Blaupanzer · November 25, 2001, 18:24

Resources will deplete without ever having been used (roaded and/or colonized). I have seen this personally with oil in a space I kept an eye on inside another's empire in case my source ran out. Was never a road, but one day it just disappeared.

War4ever · November 25, 2001, 18:31

it appears random to me.. whether i build on, around , mine or road....resources just seem to come and go..... with no real pattern that i can notice as of yet

Harfang · November 25, 2001, 19:22

I happened to be looking at the scenario editor today and found something about that. In the specific case of iron, there is 1 in 800 chances each turn that an iron resource will disappear. Over 100 turns, that amounts to 12% chance of losing any given iron resource. Another one will appear simultaneously in a random square somewhere else on the map. The help notice specifies that this is unaffected by player use. In short, it looks like bad luck and nothing more. By comparison it is 1:200 for oil and 1:120 for rubber. For horses, "0" is listed; since division by 0 is impossible, I presume this means horses resources never dry up.

Giant_Squid · November 26, 2001, 02:03

Hm. Strategy guide said when it was in use. I guess I'll connect that iron after all.

MaSsConFUsi0n · November 26, 2001, 02:09

having a road there doesn't make the resource NOT disappear.... what would really be nice is if units cost a certain amount of a resource.... you stockpile the resource over time, it runs out but you can still make some units since you've been stockpiling it. i was playing in some game where i had like 3 oils. i wasn't building any unit that required oil then it ran out... kinda weird since i wasn't even USING the resource, ya know?

MaSsConFUsi0n

Smash · November 26, 2001, 03:24

I noticed that also.Maybe the idea is when you started that unit there was enough material to complete it.Any more and you need more iron,rubber or whatever.
then again,it could be a boo boo

gamma · November 26, 2001, 17:21

Heh. MaSsConFUsiOn has a good point - a resource really shouldn't ever go away if no road to it is ever built. The real-world event this is trying to model would never happen this way. Well, I suppose the horses could run off.

But that's it.

I really like the way resources are handled in WarCraft and StarCraft. You get X units of a resource. Extract as much as you like, as fast as you like. But once it's gone, you have to tromp around in search of more. You can eventually run out completely. It'd be really neat if Civ3 could have done this in the same way, even if discovery of new resources is allowed.

"We found oil, Mr. President, but only 5000 units of it. We need to find more." Units of each resource get stored at the city nearest the source. You can use a worker to transfer up to X units from one city to another; otherwise, the required amount is deducted automatically by a city whenever it builds something that requires it. Different units could require different amount of resources. You could trade X units of oil for Y units of aluminum. Et cetera.

MarshalN · November 26, 2001, 17:49

Gamma, I think the problem with that is that it'll make the game too dependent on luck. If you happen to run into a map that has very little of resource for you (and someone else having a huge reserve) there's no way you can win. At least now an iron is an iron, and it's all the same. If that system of limited resrouce is implemented, you can have 10 iron and the other guy has 50, and he knows (through spy or whatever) and he'll use that to his advantage, and your game's over for the stupid reason that you have no iron and no way of getting it with your scant resource (can't build enough good units to beat the other guy). No fun

For iron, the chance of losing it in any of the 100 turns is actually 11%, for oil, it's 30%, and for rubber, 36.4%. Those are pretty high numbers