Lesser Resources, farmers and a few suggestions

Have you tried researching new resources in the tech tree, I think its under Adventure? This sometimes produces more resources within your borders...

Yeah the "Lost Bounty" Research if i remember correctly.

do not add more food.  this game is finally starting to have the right food balance.  we don't want city spam.

 So far in version 1.09p I've played 2 games and both of them had plenty of food. At one point in the 2nd game I thought there might be to much food available. Perhaps you simply had a very unlucky map seed at the start of your game?

You may be lucky and get 3 fertile lands near your startig point. Most probably you will have to look for it (sometimes far far away), deciding if you wait to build your cities only near those types of resources or if you create one near another type of resource.

Sometimes the food resources are difficult to find (near to your interest areas), but I don't really have problems with it in my games. And Adventure tree is there to help with resources.. if randomness is in your favour: I hate when my researched food tiles appear in the enemy's lands.   (my main reason to start wars because no one touches my food!!!)

yes exactly Trojasmic, the resource distribution seems so much better in this build, you need need to hunt for resources, and the balance seems just about right, however metal seems very difficult to find unless you research it....

Yeah you have to research the food tech in adventuring, then you will find stuff just like you suggested all over the place!

You think more food would show as the game progresses, nature being a tough one and all.

Ever since v1.09n I've had a long string of especially resource poor maps.  In general, researching the resource bearing techs has_Not resulted in new resources.  I've explored deep both pre and post tech.  Then there are the few times where the resources are better balanced... few here and there.  Enough to work with, but not so much that I'm missing out on the early games "tough choices".  I'm all for variety and the tough choices it allows.  However in most of my recent games, the barreness has been over the top to a most unfun degree.

Anyone stuck on a string of barren resource luck, might want to customize a faction to add the Wanderlust tech (it may be for Kingdom factions only).   It gives you the exploration tech which is a resource spawner.  When I've selected this tech in the faction creator I get some spawns.  But when I research the tech, I have generally not.  I'm not sure if the Cartographer and Habitation faction techs work for Kingdoms.  I've selected them but once in game I do not have any techs from the main tech tree.  I know that Cartographer allows the Mapping tech which is an Empire tech.  Are the faction creation techs Empire/Kingdom specific? (Yes they are) If so, they should be labeled as such.  More info on what they do (in the faction creator) would be nice as well.

It has happened in Civ games where we get stuck with getting the same opponents game after game.  In EWoM I've noticed that I have NEVER gotten any Minor Faction beyond the Ilyan Orekeepers.  Is it possible that ultra-barren maps get "stuck" like the Ilyan have?  Maybe that is why some people are fine with the reource spawning while others are not?  Are there some cache files I can reset?  I've looked but not found anything I identify as being resource and Minor Faction related.

I've gotten a lot of boring and barren maps too, most of the time there's not much to fight over, and nothing interesting going on on the map even several Adventure techs in.

I think there need to be more resources, but they should be less useful. It /is/ a wasteland, but there needs to be things to fight over, a reason to explore, and just in general...something to break up all the empty terrain I'm forced to stare at.

You get new resources when the AI researches the resource techs also.  This is something I'd like to see changed in the future.

I'd like to see some crappier versions of the resources we have now, like food resources that are +2 instead of +5, or silver deposits, bronze ores, etc.

getting more but less significant food resources would be a good way to make the food system more finely graded. at the moment one fertile land resource can mean the difference between healthy growth and economic paralysis.

What Xykon said.

...Err, Sethai.

i guess to make everyone happy, Stardock needs to make a slider on the world creation screen that lets the player choose food resources between few, normal, lots, etc.

same with other resources

same with monster spawn

same with champion availability

Electronic Arts Sports, Civilization and Age of Empires (or similar to a slider) all learned the hard way that the best way to stop the flood of tears, is to give the babies a slider to rattle around at their whims.

I wholeheartedly advocate for a slider as well, as it could also allow me to personalize the map while still keeping it randomly generated. Sometimes I feel like a challenge with very little resources on the map. Sometimes I feel like a minor challenge with more champions around.

Of course, I could just edit the XML files myself... Oh wait! I did.

Yes!  Personalized choice is best!  A slider for resource appearance I would warmly welcome!  And I too like to mix up my gaming... particularly for a game I play over the course of years as I foresee with EWoM.  Sometimes I will want a resource poor challenge, other times I want a world which supports empire building on a grand scale (not just for me but also for my opponents).  At the moment though, all my games are the same... a grind to make the best of a barren and limited world.  My decisions are decreased, and my options are limited.  With the resource spawning of v1.09e I had many more gameplay choices and decisions to make than I have with v1.09n+.  A resource slider would help us tune the game to that which we are seeking at that moment.

To the point of the OP... I'm all for your Lesser Resources idea madtemplar0. 

EXACTLY NO MORE FOOD RESOURCES. Make it take a LOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOONGGGG time to build up cities. We don't want level 3+ cities all over the maps in 50 turns or less. This is what the food adjustments were all about to prevent stupid noob city spamming.

Food seems pretty good right now.  Maybe some minor tweaking to make it more 'consistent' across the map, and maybe a couple of more food added to 'fill in the holes' on the map as necessary, but not too much food stacked in one place.

Any 'tweaks' should be in the form of housing.  if 40 citizens per house isn't cutting it, make it 50.  That way, you food goes a little farther.

The resource I've been hurting for a LOT lately is materials.  Perhaps a slight increase in clay mines, stone quarries, old growth forests, etc. is in order?

Also, the Diplomatic Capital resources seem a little too rare.  I generally only see one every third game that is close enough to my capital be immediately useful (i.e. within reasonable pioneer range, say 8-10 turns).

Agree, I think there is already too much food already.

I agree with the slider.  We could all customize the world to our hearts content.

One of the X's in 4x is Expand!  Expansion is a major draw to the genre for some of us.  If you don't want to be arsed with the handling of multiple cities you can choose to just not build them.  You can burn AI cities to the ground, you can select small maps, you can reduce # of opponents.  I think it is a mistake to limit empire building in an empire building game simply because some players don't want to deal with multiple cities.  There are plenty of options for those who want quick and simple games without having to tailor the entire game for them.    

I think City Spamming is an AI problem thats been misapplied by those seeking a game with fewer cities.  It is when the AI spams worthless cities on every plot it can reach.  Neutering the game to limit AI city spam is the wrong approach.  You'd be throwing the baby out with the bathwater so to speak.  I agree that Resource management is a good approach towards increasing strategic options and decision making.  But the maps I have been getting since v1.09n have been so resource poor that it limits my options and decisions.  In this case, resource management is not working in the way it is intended.  For the most part.. I get just the one fertile land we all start with.  No more spawns between me and the AI (Large map 10 players or Medium with 8 or less).  To get more I must conquer my nearest neighbor.  I research three resource spawning techs to no avail.  The lack of food actually encourages me towards a sprawl strategy because I need the early unit production in order to capture resources. 

I think it possible that there is a notable disparity between what some of us are getting for resource spawning.  But I think there are others that just want a simplified game with fewer cities.  And I think phrases like "to prevent stupid noob city spamming" speaks towards someone who doesn't want to deal with numerous cities, and wants to impose that on others.

Everyone agrees with expansion is part of a 4X game.  But this game needs to be fixed.  For me it is in the concept of the game.  If we are rebuilding a broken world, why would it make sense to have 15 cities in 100 turns--the world is broken.  One of the reasons I have agreed and suggested to put "sliders" to determine resources and food available in the world is so we can customize the worlds we rebuild.  To me, spamming is boring and a flaw.  In addition, city spamming is a disconnect with the entire concept of what this game is supposed to be.  However, if that is what you want, if there were sliders, then you could crank it up and build as many cities as you want.  I on the other hand, will turn them way down, hopefully to a point on the slider where the game even asks me "really, you are going to suffer for 1000 turns to build two cities".  That is the game I want to play.  Spamming is too easy and gets boring.  I want to to have to search forever to find additional resources, and have miles between my cities, not 3 squares.

This isn't even close to what I'm looking for.  In EWoM, I'm looking for 3 core cities to be established by turn 100.  3 fat cities growing towards metropolises.  Then depending upon each games circumstance, I might seek to settle a couple outposts by that point.  I think that quite reasonable, and not out of the ordinary for the majority of 4X TBS gamers.  As it stands now, I have the resource choice for one metropolis and one outpost.  Or I cap the capital at level 3 and have 2-3 outposts capped at 1-2.  With this increased unit production I go out and conquer a neigbors capital so I can get my second food resource.  That's not good.  The lack of resources, not just food, pushes me towards a city sprawl strat.  The consistent lack of food reduces my options towards early war.  The lack of all resource types limits my expansion decisions to near nil.  This lack of resources to claim, compels me to build my cities closer together than I would otherwise prefer. 

I disagree.  Empire building is exactly what the concept of this game is.  We are rebuilding civilization here.  Not building isolated outposts in the wild.  Isolated outposts are represented by Minor Factions, Lost Libraries, Arcane Temples and hopefully more stuff in the future.  Civilization had been destroyed, the land made barren.  Time passed and the land gradually becomes fertile again (look to Mt. Saint Helens if you need a real world model of rebirth after utter cataclysm).  The land begins to renew as the survivors exponentially increase their breeding rates.  And now, in the case of the two leggeds, they search for signs of civilization reborn.  As we build our cities, people come flocking in from the wilds (city prestige).  Our settlements bring life back to the land... quite literally in a gameplay sense.  From our cities spreads life.. barren land turns to grassland.  Some leaders will be less empirical than others I'm sure.  Sometimes I will want to RP a faction of woodfolk who are just interested in establishing a small civilization to protect their own against murderous beasts and men.  Other times I will want to play a faction which is bent on conquering the world to unite it.  etc.  Whatever I RP, the point is going to be to restore civilization in one form or another.  I'm not interested in creating a minor faction hybrid which is sorta what the lack of resources limits me to.  *Note:  I think some of us may be getting different resource spawn rates than others.  As I said in my post open, I am looking for 3 core cities by turn 100 with the potential for a few outposts as situations dictate.

I want to know why it is that people in nice houses eat less food.... WTF??  If I live in a hut, damn I am hungry, but if I live in a villa I don't need much food at all? Wait... what?