Firaxis: why is there NO OIL in my game?

heidlejohn · April 23, 2002, 09:51

I am playing my first 1.21f version of Civ3 with a standard random map. I am in the industrial age having researched refining and now motorized transport. BUT there is NO OIL anywhere in the
world! NONE AT ALL! I can see the entire map (no black spots) due to my getting maps or exploring (I conquered the Great Lighthouse). I have scanned several times with the map revealed.

The reason there is no oil is because there is no tundra or desert in the game. According to the online encyclopedia, oil can only appear in desert or tundra (which is a separate stupidty, e.g., Romanian or Indonesia oil in WW2). I also am not using any modifications or using the editors. This game is not a continuation of a game started on 1.17f either.

I would like an answer from Firaxis as to HOW this could occur. Isn't there an internal check to see whether or not the game can have oil? There seems to be a luxury resource check, but why
isn't there a similar check for strategic resources? Shouldn't the game check to see if all resources are available, and then redraw the map if they aren't? (Iron, coal, and rubber are in this game, but oil is not.)

My PC is a new Dell (2002) with XP, 256 MB RAM.

Attached zipped file if it works == no oil anywhere
or email heidlejf@yahoo.com to get the zipped file

player1 · April 23, 2002, 10:11

Random map has no tundra or Desert?

How is that possibile?

cephyn · April 23, 2002, 11:39

Quote:

Originally posted by player1
Random map has no tundra or Desert?

How is that possibile?

I once played on a warm, wet world that had no tundra...and very little desert.

Oncle Boris · April 23, 2002, 12:12

Actually, this is quite funny! Humanity can at last exist in a pollution-free world!

ixnay · April 23, 2002, 12:17

I'm currently playing on a tiny random map, and for some reason, the only luxury resources that exist are wines....

AJ Corp. The FAIR · April 23, 2002, 12:41

Heidlejohn,

Aren't there any oil requiring units active at all by any civ?

If so, a (AI) city may have been built on the resource and you wouldn't be able to see it (? , maybe yes through terrain info).

AJ

monkeyman · April 23, 2002, 13:14

I had the same thing happen and I was the Germans

waiting for my chance to blitz the romans and zulu.

, imagine my surprise when this happened

I'll likely lose to the Chinese now, but if this is intentional, it does make an interesting end game. I just wish I knew beforehand that this was possible.. I feel like Wile E. Coyote running into a painting of a tunnel...

I don't know that there is no desert or tundra, but it sounds right and it seems that nobody has oil.
no one else has tanks or transports or battleships or destroyers. I don't know how to check for oil under AI cities.
-mm

Grrr · April 23, 2002, 14:54

That is insane. All resources should be present. Indeed, you should however check if the AI hasn't built a city on oil though.

Inverse Icarus · April 23, 2002, 15:05

:: points to firaxians that said there were at least 3 sources of every resource on every map ::

but firaxis hasn't lied before, so look harder. you'll find it, eventually...

PatLasch · April 23, 2002, 15:12

Try to look under the celan map in the map preferences. That might help.

Cort Haus · April 23, 2002, 15:25

Lucky you ... no enemy tanks or battleships to worry about then

The nearest I got was on a tiny map where there was only one oil. Luckily it fell into the hands of a weaker Civ and I won without it

hetairoi22 · April 23, 2002, 15:29

Quote:

Originally posted by UberKruX
:: points to firaxians that said there were at least 3 sources of every resource on every map ::

but firaxis hasn't lied before, so look harder. you'll find it, eventually...

FrostyBoy · April 23, 2002, 15:40

Same here, tho there was no desert or tundra in my game, I did find oil on a forest (that was on grassland). The only civ that had it were the damn Greeks. (which is why I was forced to go to war with them (see thread about culture problem =o) ).

Honestly, the game just got screwed over, have to start a new one now.

p.s. it did make the game very interesting, much like it is now if you were without oil, you had to fight for it. but in my case, it was near impossible considering their culture size aswell. I had to ask the Japanese to help out, they seemed pretty happy about doing that too.

Shadowlord · April 23, 2002, 18:30

Wierd...

Shadowlord · April 23, 2002, 18:32

But it is possible for worlds to form with no oil. That makes sense. For instance, there's no naquadah (sp?) on earth. (I assume at least one person will know what I'm talking about...)

Coracle · April 23, 2002, 18:51

Quote:

Originally posted by UberKruX
:: points to firaxians that said there were at least 3 sources of every resource on every map ::

but firaxis hasn't lied before, so ...

ROFLOL!!

As far as I am concerned, they lied by omission when they marketed the game WITHOUT telling us that THIS Civ had NO SCENARIOS or Cheat Mode.

They lied when they put in an Editor that causes CRASHING if you really mod the game. (So it really CAN'T Edit).

And a lot more since then.

player1 · April 23, 2002, 19:06

AFAIK there is 1.5 Iron & Horses per civ, 1 per civ of other resouces and a little less urnium.

Oerdin · April 24, 2002, 00:19

Quote:

Originally posted by Oncle Boris
Actually, this is quite funny! Humanity can at last exist in a pollution-free world!

And the pollution from the coal?

notyoueither · April 24, 2002, 00:43

You get credits for not using oil.

star mouse · April 24, 2002, 01:02

To fix this problem, just make resources available in one or two extra terrains. I know it's a kludge, but it works - I have had no resource problems in any game I have played.

Every resource should have at least 3 terrains it can appear in. A good choice is to use terrains from both ends of the spectrum, for example the combination Tundra/Desert/Jungle covers warm, cold, wet and dry all at once.

notyoueither · April 24, 2002, 02:01

Oil should appear in Plains. It did. They dumped that. Their decision sux. Change it.

Ethelred · April 24, 2002, 04:31

Wow I am impressed. I think this first time someone claimed to have nothing of a specific strategic resource in the entire world and ACTUALLY didn't have hiding somewhere.

This is not good. Belongs on the bug thread.

DrFell · April 24, 2002, 08:13

You could say it's realistic. After all the world didn't necessarily have to have a source of oil. It's not necessary for it to exist. Adds a bit of variety to the game I'd say.

Grumbold · April 24, 2002, 09:04

If the world had no oil they would invent alternative modern weapons. Having modernisation grind to a halt because of a missing resource is stupid.

Grrr · April 24, 2002, 15:38

Modernisation wouldn't grind to a halt

Sava · April 25, 2002, 09:32

I think having oil be exclusively in Tundra and Desert is stupid. Texas is plains and they had oil. And what about offshore drilling? There was oil in the Eastern US too. It just got used up real quick.

Sava · April 25, 2002, 09:32

But, God forbid I suggest anything to make the game more realistic.

LaRusso · April 25, 2002, 13:50

Quote:

Originally posted by Sava
Texas is plains and they had oil.

Texas is strange.

bigvic · April 25, 2002, 14:05

Quote:

Originally posted by notyoueither
Oil should appear in Plains. It did. They dumped that. Their decision sux. Change it.

Oh no...I was saying such good things about the patch on other thread. Why do they do this kind of thing? Well, you can still mod, right? Does it change in pre done mods? I gotta mod to really enjoy the game anyway, so no big deal.

bigvic · April 25, 2002, 14:08

plus, there should be more, not less resources. Anyway, I forget, to make resources more plentiful do you adjust the number on the mod up or down?