Hi All,
As I always see lots of talk about new civs in future dlc I thought I might start a discussion about something else. What if more resources were added to the game? No I don’t mean adding metal, or coal or the like, I mean adding new ways to obtain the resources we already have.
Each expansion we get new huntables, herdables and tress, sometimes new fish and even once new forage bushes. I’d love to see both new resource points as well as maybe some new ways of gathering these resources. Below is a breakdown of some of my thoughts on the matter split by resource.
Food
Probably the most straight forward. Apart from simply adding more game, fish or forage items (mushrooms, grasses,wild roots, aquatic roots) the only thing I could come up with was a 2 civ bonuses. The first would be most at home for a horse nomad civ like the tatars or mongols. This bonus would give the player a small amount of food for every mounted unit they kill, representing how these civs used horse meat in their diet quite regularly. The other would be for a civ which was known to practice cannibalism (like the Aztecs for instance) which again would provide a small bit of food for every unit they killed. For both of these it might require a bit of a debuff for farming or other food production long term,
Stone
Sure I’d love to see some alternate colours for stone; white marble, black basalt, red sandstone. Be nice to see all of them on the map, though this might be tricky for quick recognition in game. However there are also some other possibilities for stone gathering.
-Ruins, the remnants of ancient civilizations have been used by their descendants building materials all over the world, famously the Colosseum was used as a quarry to provide stone to medieval Rome, which is why it no longer has seats. You could have greco-roman, Egyptian, Mesopotamian, Indian, Mesoarmerican, east Asian depending on the map.
-Clay Pits/Mud Pits rather than be mined like stone these could be gather like from a forage bush to create an alternate building material like mud brick, terracotta, clay bricks or adobe.
-Sand Bank found along beaches and rivers (like fish) this type of sand can be used to make concrete, could be collected by villagers if near the shore or by fishing ships.
-Quarry this would be a unique building for a civ known for it’s quarrying. You could put say up to 5 villargers in it and the more villagers inside the higher the trickle of stone you would get. Limited to one.
-Brickmaker this works more like farm, basically wood for stone over time. One villager does the gathering. probably needs to be limited for balance, Good for civs famous for adobe maybe Mesoamerican or African civ.
Wood
Well there’s not a lot apart from wood that can be used as wood. But maybe structures like barns, or wrecked ships could be used as lumber.
Gold
And by gold we mean of course treasure.
-Alternate mines, basically like the gold mines we have but different colours. Copper could tap out quite quickly, silver last a bit longer but not as long as gold (to reflect their relative values, Lapis Lazuli would be blue, Jade green (both mostly aesthetic) as well as “Gem mines” which would be multicoloured.
-Coral, fished up by boats rather than mined
-Amber, found along beaches
-Pearl Beds, shellfish that could be gathered or fished to produce “gold” , maybe a hybrid food/gold
-Cowrie shells, used as currency in large swathes of the world at various times
-Bronze Statues, could be torn down to make coins. Constantine stabilised Roman currency by melting all the bronze statues of pagan gods into
-Wampum Shells, the shells of whelk and quahog used in Traditional North American Indigenous peoples Wampum belts. These were often used as a means of exchange and were seen as a currency by settler populations and used as such in European within European settlements as well into the 1600s. (Only if North American civs get added)
-Gathered Spices and Dyes plants like saffron, cardamom and various types of peppercorns of various species was the source of a lot of wealth. Likewise dye plants like Madder and Indigo made fortunes for traders.
-Gathered Dye creatures Kermes, Tyrian Purple, Cochineal various creepy crawlies that when processed yield valuable dyes.
-Trees Cinnamon, Allspice, cloves and nutmeg all valuable spices yielded by trees, similarly brazilood can be processed into brazilin which is what gives the country brazil its name.
-Hunted creatures, tortoises (as well as turtles ) could be hunted for their valuable tortoiseshell, and certain mammals #### ####### ermine, stoats and martens were prized for their furs. Elephants, walruses and certain wails all yielded valuable ivory.
-Wool works unique building which produces a trickle of gold for a relevant civ when garrisoned with herdables
-Silk weavers unique building which produces a trickle of gold, similar to the quarry I suggested. Best for an East Asian civ
-Bank unique building maybe for Italians or a split off Italian civ, could be used to create a set of mechanics where you can buy loans which provide you with a chunk of cash immediately but it is recouped by taking a percentage of your resource gathering for a certain amount of time. Maybe other players could also have access to it and you issue the loan to them and they have to repay the interest to you over time.
-Distillery, unique building maybe for celts (Scots and Irish both claim to be first whisky producers), Poland or Slavs (Poland and Muscovy both claimed to be first vodka producers) Basically a farm but reseeded with food rather than wood to represent the fruit/grain/tubers that are needed to make spirits.
-Fur Trade civ bonus for a hypothetical North American civ or maybe a Slavic split civ. Hunted animals also produce gold when killed, wolves as well as deer.
What does everyone think, neat ideas, something to add?
Any ideas of your own you want to throw out there?
Even just an animal or tree you would like to see in game?