Universal Resources

[towcar]

I noticed the resources are good but I almost find them limiting. Sure some factions suit really well with certain resources but I think a more universal resource set would work better.

How about:
Gold, Technology, Metal, Food, Wood

I personally find this simple 5 resource set more simple. With this many factions will either use all, or skip out on one.
I'm not proposing anything big, I'm just opening it for discussion. I also figure with this having varied factions work under the same tree alot easier.

[modman]

What you are proposing is a good idea, although you will need better reasons to get people moving.  I personally think that gold, stone, wood, iron, food, and energy would be better.  This only involves the addition of the resource iron, which would be easier.

I think stone is necessary because Magic uses it so much and it just "seems magical" to me.

[towcar]

Well Proposed
What I was also thinking of was the sci-fi and Robot factions. Since metals are such a wide variety of things, and how do you explain the technological advances of the robots or of plasma rifles for example with stone, wood, gold, food, iron, and energy.
Technology can be earned maybe by having scientists research which is usable in all factions.
Energy makes sense too since you need a power source for both magic and mechanical.
So having
Gold, Technology, Metals, Food, Wood, Energy as your resources makes it widely flexible.
Then when designing maps you only need to have to create resources for gold, food, and wood. Everything else could be harvested through things built by the factions.

[-Archmage-]

I think we need: gold, stone, metals, wood, energy, and food, nothing more.
Technology is a kind of stupid cartoony resource, you advanced through building buildings, and researching stuff. For scientists to only have to make some technology's, that would make Glest seem kinda stupid and cartoony.

[towcar]

But you agree that we should add metals to the list? I personally always though of stone as a primitive sounding resource to me. I don't see how technology seems cartoony since to me it seems like another challenging factor that you must intertwine with everything, though I guess you don't need to explain the technological advances right?

[-Archmage-]

Researching is how you technologically advance!

[jda]

I think a Technological resource is simply a very different aproach to tecnhnolgical advance.

Currently we have buildings researching upgrades. These upgrades cost resources other than the proposed technological one. A building producing "technology points" (knowledge), so to speak, which would then be used by other buildings to do research makes more sense in a way (more straightforward) and at the same time kind of dematerializes technological research (you usually need materials to do applied research, money (gold) in any case) but then again you can just assume the materials are part of the knowledge (technology points) gathering and upgrade research. You can likewise assume the knowledge gathering is part of the material resource requirements (as well as other upgrades, buildings and units as prerequisites).

Having materials or (prior) knowledge to do research are just two requirements for research in the real world. The question is: will one work better ingame than the other? Would it work any better if you had both?

Simple answer (and most effective for future development if you ask me): TEST IT OUT! Do some mod that takes whatever aproach you think best and see how it works out. If the other modders like it they'll follow, if not well...

BTW, I just leaped back in the forum for a quick look! Quickly leaping back out!
Keep up!

[John.d.h]

I think that approach works better for more modern and futuristic factions, where new technologies are discovered through dedicated research, rather than by random discovery.  Either way, it might be more interesting to have different factions use different approaches, so it makes it a little bit of a different experience.

[Idanwin]

I agree.
Personally I don't like the Technologie idea - I'm used to the other one - but I'm certain that if anyone would make a mod like that, it could give quite a nice result.

The most used resources are (according to me): Food, Wood, Stone and Gold (the classics)  + Energy (both magical and electrical) and Metal

[Omega]

No changes please! Definately no changes please! Change is usually good, but I disagree with this (sorry).

[-Archmage-]

Let's just add metal.

[Carl the Great]

What about Clay? Like in Tribal Wars?

Thanks! 

[Idanwin]

Before adding a new resource you have to know wherefore it should be necessary.
Clay - in the end - is quite similar to stone and - imho - adds nothing of importance to the game. You could prove me wrong, but for now not a single tech uses it (as far as I know). If anyone makes a tech using a new resource, and the tech reaches a certain reputation, it could be considered an addition.

Just keep with the basics and metal, used in most modern and futuristic tech trees.
For now, at least.

I do appreciate the fact people are posting new ideas, and they may continue to do so, it doesn't do any harm. I just don't think those newly born resources will be added yet.

~Idanwin

[Omega]

Here's a more detailed post of mine. Firstly, the vast majority of AI troubles are because of the resources. Because of this, I do not recommend you change the resources or the way they are obtained. If changing resources, care must be taken and it should preferably be obtained via a method similar to the current resources (ie: wood should generally come from chopping trees, most things from mining, and only a few (ie: food) should come from production, since that is where most bugs occur). Too many resources is bad since that causes lots of micromanagement (notice when they added shrines to FPM, they made it an invisible resource so that you wouldn't have to worry so much about extra resources).

When resources are added, they should ONLY BE ADDED AS NECESSARY, or as I said, there becomes too many. I mean, in reality, we may need iron, steel, bronze, copper, tin, wood, concrete, sand, glass, and many more materials. Does this mean we need all this in a game? NO! Just wood, possibly with 'metal' is good enough! The only resource I support adding is metal, though it fits better in present day/future mods (ie: military) better.

[Carl the Great]

Well there are other resources like the Indians in the Megapack with the Housing, and the Elves with the Grace resource.

Thanks! 

[Omega]

I know. Generally, ideally, we would have 1 resource as either a consumable or static that is used for production of most units, such as food or energy (or grace, or housing).

Then the rest of the resources are tech (with the exception of wood, which should be the ONLY tileset resource, as others are not generally accepted and not placed in maps). There should be 1-2 tech resources, since more than that will not work due to the fact most maps only have two set. Generally this is gold and stone. However, they can technically be whatever you'd like, though there is usually more gold (resource 1) on the maps than stone, so resource one should be the primary resource (ie: metal replaces stone in military).

Of course, there is also the RARE exception such as in FPM where an extra resource(s), which is ALWAYS static or consumable.

[Mark]

I would like someone to fix a current way the game is, even if it is not a bug.  Right now, the game has only a capability to show you 8 resources in game on a 17 inch monitor, which is what most of my friends and other acquantances use, if not a 19 inch.  If someone tried to make a mod where like in stronghold there was like 20 resources, you would only see 8, not 20.  It would be cool if someone made it so that there was a second row, or the font and image were shrunken so more resources could fit.  Just a thought, and someone may already be working on this because I proposed this as something to fix probably 3 months ago.

[modman]

If anyone has any hopes of making Glest any bit more complex than it already is, addition of resources is where to do it.  Of course there are those who think it is complex enough, in which I would point you to any more complex game.  As a general rule, though, the more resources there are at a player's disposal, the more complex gameplay becomes.  This is because you will need to maintain and stabilize another factor in the game.

[Omega]

Interesting point mark. This is especially so with laptops, such as my own, which has a fifteen point some inch screen, with a mere 1280 x 800 resolution (widescreen). Ideally, the resources should fit on a 1024 x 768 resolution, since that is the standard 'small' resolution these days, and almost every computer, except some wee little netbooks that are good for nothing support it. It (I believe), is the default resolution in Glest. Larger monitors CAN view smaller resolutions, but smaller monitors cannot view larger resolutions. The point is, if it can't fit on a 1024 resolution, its pointless. I'm not sure how many resources that is (6?) but that's an effective limit.

Multiple rows might be a good idea, however, in the mean time, it does make an effective resource cap... [Insert the evil emoticon that doesn't exist here]

Turning back to the topic of many resources, you'll notice games like civilization IV have many types of resources. However, only a handful (ie: oil, uranium, iron, bronze, aluminum) are actually needed for unit production. The many others simply increase food, health, and happiness. In short, it only uses a small amount of resources. However, on the other hand, it has very large maps that are generally the size of the world, not a small patch of land (you can have a planet that looks like earth and has resources like earth). It also doesn't use the resources in the same way, needing only one resource to build anything that is needed (ie: you only need to discover one patch of iron to produce as many iron-using units as you want).

I don't see glest benifiting from too many resources...

[modman]

Maybe you don't see the benefit, but does your lack of foresight (sorry about this one, but you said "I don't see" refered to the future.  Fore+sight...) mean you think limits should be imposed?

[Gabbe]

i`m about to make a game, and i will add some new recources. i Hope it won`t mess with the AI of the other CPU players.

Food
Housing
Wood
Stone

I have thought about these extra recources:

Clothing
Iron
Gold
Herbs

then i thought make these resources expand into more recources like this:

Wool -> clothing
Herbs ->medicine
Gold   ->Money
Iron   ->Swords

Also i thought of making some "rare" resources:

Iron -> Swords
Money -> tax
Wood -> plank -> Bow
Wood -> arrows

Now you might think: geez he`s crazy, how long script?
Yes, long script
No, not so crazy

Going to take a while, but i want Glest to evolve so it can compete with other RTS games.
Im also looking for help, just check my post.

Also, when we`r done with the Recource script, then others may find it usefull and create more factions including or exculding some of these resources. Think of a online RTS were you can create your own factions? Actually im talking of a HUGE update to Glest, wich may or may not come.
Anyways, im going to make it, with, or without others involvement.

I think like this, The more complex the game the more fun

[me5]

Just an idea: make the names of resources changeable. For example if you don't need gold for your mod but metal just define/rename it somewhere in the modfiles.
maybe something like this:

resource1= metal
resource2= whatever
...

[Carl the Great]

Well in Stronghold 2 there are many resources:

Gold
Wood
Stone
Iron
Pitch
Wool
Cloth
Grain
Wheat

Thanks! 

[Carl the Great]

Sorry for double posting:

Here is some more resources from Stronghold 2:

Flour
Candles
Grapes

In the granary, there are four possible resources aka food:

Apples
Bread
Meat
Cheese

And in the Lord's Kitchen there are actually five possible food:

Pigs
Eels
Geese
Wine
Vegetables

And this two posts I made isn't OT. It means these are the resources, but I recommend the first ones, in Stronghold 2, which they are stored in a stockpile/in stockpiles.

Thanks!