Rebuilding Lost Forests?

[Veracitas]

I'm playing a game with two continents, each with four civilizations (well, three on mine, cause i wiped out Japan, and the remaining two have like one or two cities each). My continent is roughly the same size as the other continent, but somehow, it seems to have much fewer resources (we have 1 iron, they have 11 iron; we have 2 saltpeter, they have 5). So, I have to ask, does the computer sort resources on a continent by how many countries are on it (on my continent, there is effectively one, while the other one has four, roughly equal civs)? Or are all the strategic resource locations decided from the very beginning?

If the strategic resources are decided randomly in the game (ie. when a civilization discovers the proper advance) then might it be useful, for instance, to replant forests after chopping jungles/forests down so that, later on, one might find uranium or rubber?

For instance, I want to irrigate the conquered Greek city states, but their part of the continent has no fresh water. THe only way to irrigate it would be to chop down this massive jungle that lies between my core cities and the former Greek cities. But that jungle may be useful to me later on, because it could be a possible source of rubber and coal. So, could I, for instance, chop down the jungle, irrigate, then replant a forest there to increase my chances that rubber might pop up? (funny how the irrigation system thing works, I need to be connected to fresh water to irrigate at first, but even when I cut off that connection to the fresh water later on, the irrigation still works like a charm).

[Matthevv]

I think you can quite safely chop down the jungles. The appearance of the resources later on will not be affected by doing so.

The irrigation thing is a bit weird generally, but its sort of inherited from earlier Civ games.

[Veracitas]

Originally posted by Matthevv
I think you can quite safely chop down the jungles. The appearance of the resources later on will not be affected by doing so.

Hrm...so, if there was supposed to be rubber in a jungle square, but I de-jungle-ised it, then, later, when I discover the tech, the rubber will be on the grassland? Are you certain?

On certain strategy threads, I've been reading that you ought to preserve tracts of wild forest/jungle to have higher chances of getting the resources later on.

Also, why are there So FEW resources on my continent?? I was wondering whether I overdeveloped it too much, and that was why these resources were not coming up (as the Chinese, I have a slew of fast, hard-working little buggers that have "modernized" (or should I say "medievalized, as we're in the Middle Ages?) nearly every square within a city's borders.

[shayovitz]

As I understand it, the game decides where the resources are at the start, the jungles and forests have uranium and saltpeter when you know iron working and pottery and don't even begin to dream about fission. When you discover the right advances, those resources "appear", but are not allocated only then, they have already been allocated when the map was created.

That's why getting rid of forests and jungles won't affect the appearance of the later resources in any way. They can still appear on those developed grasslands and plains that were once jungles and forests.

You can clear as much as you want, you won't be shooting yourself in the leg resource-wise.

[Kc7mxo]

Yes, you will get rubber on grassland if you wack down the jungle. no sweat.

[Padmewan]

I wouldn't be surprised that the paucity of early resources means a lot of later resources.

Isn't there a river or lake you can irrigate from in the jungle? I though jungles almost always had fresh water.

[Badtz Maru]

Only possible drawback to removing certain kinds of terrain is that it may reduce the chances of a resource popping up later in the game. The ones that are placed at the beginning will be there regardless of what you have done to the terrain, but when a resource is used up it will pop up somewhere else that is of the appropriate terrain type. If you remove all the terrain for that kind of resource from your empire, when it runs out there may be no chance of it being replaced - not totally sure on this, but I've never seen a new resource discovered in inappropriate terrain like I've seen it discovered there when the advance is first discovered.

[Apostle 83]

shayovitz is absolutely correct; the game decides where every resource is during map generation. Resources "popping up" are simply resources that you didn't see, but that were already there. Also, since tiles can only have one resource, it is possible that those starved for resources early on will see an abundance of game later on.

[Expatriate]

No, Badtz Maru is correct in that resources will randomly "move" somewhere else when they are "used up". These locations are not predetermined, as all predermined rescources will show once you have the tech needed (you can test this by using the editor to make a make with some specifically placed resources and then watch them all show up when you get the tech).

In my current game I had an iron resource that was used up, only to pop up in the hill square right next to it instead

[Veracitas]

thanks for all the responses.

does anyone know if the used up resources will always pop up on the same continent (or tend to pop up on the same continent) or will it simply pop up anywhere in the world?

[ICMB]

Originally posted by Veracitas
does anyone know if the used up resources will always pop up on the same continent (or tend to pop up on the same continent) or will it simply pop up anywhere in the world?

My experience is that they may pop up anywhere in the world. I have certainly been on a continent by myself when a resource ran out, and it did NOT reappear on that continent. (Of course, I have seen it appear back on the same continent as well. It's very nice when you exhaust your single Oil supply and then it pops up fresh in the middle of your empire...)

- ICMB