whut, probably would help with a screenshot or two, and the details in which you generate the random map (map size, and map type (balanced, mountain, etc).

I usually see essence in my starts though, might be your just damn unlucky

Sincerely
~ Kongdej

I think chance to get essence at the start is high, but not 100 %. In 3 games (medium map, hard difficulty, standard settings) i had once 0 Essence, once 1 Essence and once 2 Essence, but the 0 Essence should not happen, because Essence is very important.

True, the initial resource distribution seems to be a bit better in 0.95, but there's still a long way to go.

Yesterday for example i had bad luck on a row and control-N'd my way through at least 5 starting spots without essence and very meager resources.

@Malsqueek:
Agreed, mountains for creating barriers and choke points would be fine, but often they're so massive, that i only see them as a waste of map space.
Especially when they cut off ranges of 2 tile wide coastlines and make them very unattractive for settling or outposting in the process.

I'm undecided on whether essence should be a right  or a bonus on start location. But I will Ctrl-N if there is no location within range that doesn't have at least 3+ material for production. Production is far too vital in this build to have a slow starting city.  It's simply not an option to start a game with a 2 material bonus to get your infrastructure moving, even with essence and enchanted hammers.

(I also always play with scrying pools, so perhaps I'm more lenient on the lack of essence).

It *is* powerful. Which is why I sort of think it should be rarer, and not a gimme on a start location. It makes a city a "magic city".  1 Essence doesn't do a lot on its own, but a city with a 2+ essence should be something you're willing to go to war for.

On the other hand if essence is too rare, it greatly diminishes an entire field of spells.

I think maybe City spells should have a flat bonus, and not scale with # essence, while # of essence still determines how many "perks" you can run.

Like I said, I'm still forming an opinion. I'm not sure it needs to be a gimme. To me it's sort of like saying "I need to start with a magic weapon". It's great to have, and certainly powerful, but not necessary to start with. A normal city will get me up and running, as long as it has a high enough material value. I'm not gimped with a 3/4/- city in any way.  The AI certainly doesn't seem to value essence that much...most of their cities are essence-less.

This is the first build I even remembered to use city buffs, except on my one military production city, which was almost never my starting city.  Theyre powerful and useful, but I fail to see how they're mandatory. A good solid production city within spitting distance of some shards was good enough before. It's good enough now to get started. 

Like I said, you're competing against the AI, which only seldom utilizes an essence source. So that's a big advantage over your opponents. So it's great if you roll one to start with. And if I see one out in the world, I'm going to grab it. But mandatory? Hardly. Obviously a 2 essence city would provide you with the potential for a number of bonuses, but I have yet to hear a compelling argument why anyone would be gimped with a 3/4/0, or a 4/4/0 starting city.

I'm not arguing against it. I havent fully formed my opinion yet. I'm just not certain I see the case for essence as a gimme. It seems like a luxury to me. I think people are just sort of used to the idea that theyre supposed to be able to cast as many buffs on any city they want, and clearly that has changed. Now they are more like slotted magic items you find, with the city spells being the "gems" you can insert to it to customize it with magical bonuses to suit your wishes.

I often get starting positions with no settlement tiles so having an essence tile is a bonus.

More importantly is having an area for your second and third city within a reasonable distance and not being land locked in by an AI territory when looking for your second city leaving war as the only option in the early game.