Better Global Resource Idea's

After seeing so many new players come into the game over the last alpha and leaving because we all want space and will push them away from us i started to think of ideas. And this is just one of the thoughts i had...

Most of us that attack our neighbors are trying to reach for Global Resources or The chance of Global Resources. Since the globals are really spread out and scarce it is only natural it turns to a blood bath when you have 4 border neighbors...  And most of us have also been attacked and pushed around when we first started the game too, and this way of playing kind of sticks in the game and stays with the new players that end of staying in the game and the cycle repeats.

So i thought if there was a better global resource system where it is not so hard to obtain them, then this game would get a lot more calm and much more friendly. There will still be battles and war of course, but not so much pushing for huge amounts of space.

tl;dr

My idea - sell/trade global resources like they are items, you have a sulphur? Sell Gunpowder barrels to your neighbors. So a building could ask "To build this you need 1xSulphur OR 5xGunpowder" And it should cost more gunpowder barrels for each upgrade, And cost nothing if you have a sulphur. Same goes for horses, metals, etc.

Just an thoughts, anyone else have any thoughts?

I like it!! 

How would that unfold for globals such as Gold/Silver, Diamonds, Wool... thinking of the ones that aren't necessarily "goods" in nature, but rather,  an effect... 

I like it!! 

How would that unfold for globals such as Gold/Silver, Diamonds, Wool... thinking of the ones that aren't necessarily "goods" in nature, but rather,  an effect... 

That would be a tough one, My thought was lending a percentage of the resource out. Diamonds you could lend 5%-20% and it deducts from the percentage you can use. Or lend the entire thing of course.

I like this idea.  As far as things like diamonds etc, two of my alliance members traded diamonds back and forth, so each got them for every other tech researched.  I thought that was quite innovative and right neighborly, and it can be done voluntarily.

Now, sheep and deer and fruit, etc?  that may be an issue, lol but I do like the idea of trading globals.

Also, the ability to lend to another alliance member, even if your borders don't touch, would be helpful so if one member of an alliance has a lot of sulfur for instance, he/she can lend it to another who may be far away, but needs it.  This might reduce the incidence of battering other players for those types of globals and others, and make it a friendlier place for new players too.  :-) 

I like all of the above ideas, especially what dbarns suggested, that if there is another option to obtain the desired items, not just the luck of the draw and it is inside your borders. Better yet, there could be more globals, or "super globals that produce more and are meant to be shared.    Sharing back and forth does work very well.

Another idea would be to make some or all global resources dual purpose in nature. 

You could have a new tech , somewhere in the tech tree, call it "Food Processing". After learning this tech it would give the opition to change animal globals to food, that are attached to your town.

For example instead of cows being a transport speed up they could become a food speed up. This could be done by building a "Food Processing Plant", with each level adding say 2% to your food production in that town.

This could also be done with sea globals. Learning a "Fish Processing Tech". Which would let you build a fishing trawler, each fishing trawler adds 2% to food production at your port.

Another thought would be  to make a new resource call it "Minerals" and a new tech " Mineral Refining" which would let you build a Refinery Building to convert say coal into minerals. The minerals would then be tradeable between players. If you had a Refinery Building you would then be able to convert Minerals plus food, ( workers have to eat) into say sulpher. The higher the building level the more you could convert and or Higher levels lets you convert different gobals.

The dual purpose opition, I would think would give more value to all globals. I might go to war over sheep but not so much cows. This would probably promote trade, make more players interested in building ports and give collective players more opitions in the game.

All very good ideas and worth considering.  :-)  I like the idea of processing techs allowing the globals to have alternate uses.  :-)

Sulfur is the worst. it really needs to be changed. an army of pikemen and engineers will not be very effective against monsters whether you are despot or collective. There is no sense behind the current system of sulfur.

Sulfur is the worst. it really needs to be changed. an army of pikemen and engineers will not be very effective against monsters whether you are despot or collective. There is no sense behind the current system of sulfur.

Ok, I will consider adding fighting close-range unit into the Industrial barracks to make it better.

that is an ok compromise on that issue of sulfur for industrial. I did not address the bigger issue of it here. Maybe someone else would bring it up :)

One of the problems with sulfur is that it is partially determined by RNG, and it is so vital to middle-to-late-game gameplay that if you don't have it, you miss out on a significant proportion of the game. Part of the fun of the game is to research and train new units.

Finding out you don't have sulfur and not being able to train any effective units is not a particularly fun experience for a new player, nor is restarting because an alliance member told you that you don't have any sulfur within reach from your starting location.

The statements below are conjecture:

Continuing into later, unreleased ages past industrial, this problem may get worse as more and more powerful units are released, which may require other global resources, for example uranium/plutonium. This will lead to a greater divide between players with the globals and players without. A possible fix is to rework sulfur into a natural resource found in towns on a rare basis, similar to oil patches, but maybe appearing once in four towns, and allow players to build sulfur mines over them. The appearance of sulfur could be made using procedures to ensure every player has access to sulfur (similar to the appearance of the Rude Architect).

Looking around I have to agree that the sulfur distribution is way off, imo.  I think that having the sulfur that is assigned to a town supply ALL the building needs of that town would help.  You can have a classical siege workshop and a medieval one without tobacco, for instance, but you can't have a renaissance siege and industrial siege without an extra sulfur if I recall correctly.  This won't solve everyone's issues but it might be a good start.  :-)

Looking around I have to agree that the sulfur distribution is way off, imo.  I think that having the sulfur that is assigned to a town supply ALL the building needs of that town would help.  You can have a classical siege workshop and a medieval one without tobacco, for instance, but you can't have a renaissance siege and industrial siege without an extra sulfur if I recall correctly.  This won't solve everyone's issues but it might be a good start.  :-)

Even if I agree with you, having sulphur to suplly ALL the military buildings will make warriors extremelly powerful. Honestly, devs will never accept it :(((

One of the solution offered tho is the new politic - dictatorship ? - I cant remember the name sorry - which allow you to attach 4 globals to a town. Paintfully process tho even with anarchy reduced to 24h instead of 48h.

Maybe for planes we may need ONLY aluminium? Same thing for ships ? And let sulphur to be used for siege and destructive land units in ren and industrial? That will solve partially fighters's issues and compensate luck of sulphur for some players

I understand that I am more technologically advanced supposedly, but why loose the ability to even have medieval wood ships if I cannot build any new ships without Sulphur? I am not sure what difference it would make to be able to attach four world resources to your town if you have very little Sulphur, and losing 30% resource production really doesn't offset the gain. The only people who would become too powerful if Sulphur was allowed to provide everything a town needs are those who have it in abundance. If you only have three sulfur in a country of 5 cities, never will you be as powerful as someone who has 5 or 6 of them regardless of whether they let you build everything or not. Something must be done to level the playing field for all and not just those lucky enough to have it in their domain. I am sure there are collective players who will want howitzers for defense but cannot build them since they have no Sulphur. This issue does not just affect despots.

I can see where the devs might balk at my solution, but instead of having one sulfur supply all the town's needs then limit it to land weapons and infantry but for both ren and industrial.  If your domain has one sulfur then you will get two high era siege buildings and that's the extent of your power.  It won't make you super powerful regardless.   Of course, if a hero is lucky enough to have lots of sulfur, yeah, it will make that hero more powerful than some others. 

Maybe there just needs to be more sulfur around.  :-)

What is the purpose behind sulfur anyway? It seems like an artificial wall meant to halt progress. If it is meant to limit army power, then doesn't that mean units are the problem, not sulfur?

It doesn't even help the game make money, because you can't even pay for it.

I have only played 2 climates ever since I started but from what I've noticed ever since is that there are global resources that are only available on specific climates which makes sense but it makes the gameplay a bit odd. I mean what is the point of researching something that you can't use? There isn't really just that you HAVE to research it eventually. This is why I'm surprised there are no alternative global resources to exchange whatever we can't get. For example you can easily exchange camels with polar bears or tobacco with other magical plant.. It just makes it really unfair that you are limited on global resources because of the climate and even though it makes sense you can't have camels in tundra climate for example, you can have something else... Also, I'm surprised no one has suggested this throughout the whole alpha seasons?