Resource use and their abundance

from GalCiv3 Forums

I have played only one game since before Crusade.  So, I'm not really sure on how things are, balance related, and I know the maps are randomly generated, so 1 out 1 experience is insufficient to report and issue.  I'd like to know about other user's experience.  I was playing on a huge map.

In my recent game, I had, just as before, an abundance of Durantium, maybe 3-4 times more than other resources.  Lots of antimatter too.  Not so much prometheon and thullium.  Fine.

Now, when I look at the resources needed to build a starbase, I use *a lot* of durantium, *a lot" of elerium, some antimatter, but almost never prometheon and thullium.  So my resources are in the thousands for the last two, while I always struggle with the first two, having to buy them at the market to upgrade my resources, and I even max them out of the market, unable to buy anymore at some point.  Elerium was a problem too.

Armor and mass drivers use durantium.  Missiles and and counter-measures past the first two levels use durantium instead of antimatter.  Beam&shields use elerium, a lot of it.  Thullium and prometheon, I can't remember many modules using them.  Economic starbases require mostly money (I had a ton of money, not a problem), mining starbases requires durantium for all their non military upgrades, the others mostly money too.

So, was that unusual in that I should have had way more durantium than I actually had in this game or was it normal behavior?
If so, shouldn't some starbase modules require something else to rebalance things?  Or was it by design because we're not supposed to have an hundred starbases late game when we aim for conquest victory and simply wipe out everyone as quick as possible?  (not my fault if my allies keeps surrendering to me!  ;) ) I got to rework all their planets and upgrade/decommision their starbase).

 

13,099 views 10 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

I can't address the intent of the game developers as to whether the resource requirements should be rebalanced.  But I can tell you that your galaxy settings determine the resources generated on the map.  Asteroid frequency determines durantium frequency, black holes determine antimatter, and nebulas determine elerium.  Promethium and thulium are determined by the number of dead planets.

So if you set black holes to rare, you won't find much antimatter, rare asteroids will leave you a shortage of durantium, etc.

Reply #2 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Everything was on default, except galaxy size, IIRC.

EDIT: ah, I see I posted in support.  I thought I posted in the "general" section.  Sorry.

Ashes of the Singularity II
Reply #3 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Mass drivers use thulium.

Reply #4 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting AdamMG, reply 3

Mass drivers use thulium.
End of AdamMG's quote

That explains it.  I never use mass drivers on my ships, only on starbases, and only in late game.

Reply #5 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting redviper37, reply 4

I never use mass drivers on my ships
End of redviper37's quote

Your missing a trick here. They can be seriously OP with the right configuration of traits, abilities and components. (mostly due to the refire rate, 4 times faster than missiles and 3 times faster than beams)

Reply #6 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting Horemvore, reply 5


Quoting redviper37,
reply 4

I never use mass drivers on my ships



Your missing a trick here. They can be seriously OP with the right configuration of traits, abilities and components. (mostly due to the refire rate, 4 times faster than missiles and 3 times faster than beams)

End of Horemvore's quote

right, I only considered their short range compared to beams and missiles...  I think I'll try them in my next game.  Too late now :)

Thanks!

Reply #7 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting redviper37, reply 6

short range compared to beams and missiles
End of redviper37's quote

Lots of Range extensions for them. (110% I think, if you take them all you end up with 1700ish range vs 1300 and 1000) So it is easy enough to negate beam and missiles advantage here aginst the default AI ship designs. (They only use them on support ships, not thier regular navy)

Reply #8 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Who cares about min/maxing unless you are playing against another player? You can easily roll over AI ships even if you capped yourself at plasma pods.


Terraforming uses Thullium, and that is rally the largest sinkhole for most of the game for me.

Reply #9 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Endgame engines use a ton of promethium (6 per, iirc). Advanced sensors use Thulium as well, although I imagine the argument against them is that you don't need them to defeat AI ships either. I'm one of those people who likes to get to the top of the tech tree though, so I usually am scraping the barrel for those 2 resources.

Reply #10 from GalCiv3 Forums Top

Quoting EazyWin, reply 9

Endgame engines use a ton of promethium (6 per, iirc). Advanced sensors use Thulium as well, although I imagine the argument against them is that you don't need them to defeat AI ships either. I'm one of those people who likes to get to the top of the tech tree though, so I usually am scraping the barrel for those 2 resources.
End of EazyWin's quote

Nah, my argument against sensors would be that you only need to have one ship with sensors per fleet or one ship stacked full of sensors per quadrant, and since you can literally sweep the map with one fleet, you do not need much sensors. On the other hand, every planet wants terraforming, so you sink about 32 per planet.

There is definitely a resource distribution problem, however, as certain resources definitely need to be used more than others, but they are not necessarily more common than others. For example, Anti-matter is the most common resource if you play with abundant everything, but it is probably the least used resource. Furthermore, if you play with abundant black holes, it actually eats into the number of Elerium that spawns, so never play with blackhole resources on abundant.