THE problems with strategic resources

[jinif]

I think that the major problem that is making resources unrealistic is that you only need one to supply your whole country. What would be more realistic is if you needed more than one resource to upkeep your units and improvements. This would make things more realistic, for example the U.S. produces lots of oil, however it needs more oil than it can produce, so it has to import it. I dont know how exactly it could be work in, but I haven't heard anyone else mention it so I thought I would.

[Minuteman]

I don't think they were striving for absolute realism concerning resources. To do so probably would have required the introduction of an overly-complex resource management system that wouldn't have been any fun for the average player to be confronted with.

The game tends to be slow enough in the latter stages of the game. Can you imagine how snail-like the pace would be if the game had to also calculate the precise amount of a resource each city consumed per turn?

I don't know about you, but having to peruse a stat-choked chart in order to ascertain the amount of oil I would need to import would have put me to sleep.

[Willem]

Originally posted by jinif
I think that the major problem that is making resources unrealistic is that you only need one to supply your whole country. What would be more realistic is if you needed more than one resource to upkeep your units and improvements. This would make things more realistic, for example the U.S. produces lots of oil, however it needs more oil than it can produce, so it has to import it. I dont know how exactly it could be work in, but I haven't heard anyone else mention it so I thought I would.

Yeah, I've mentioned it. My idea is to have more resources over all, but each one can only supply a number of cities. So the bigger you get, the more you need. And in the event you have a shortage, you could assign priorities in the Domestic Advisor screen.