I like the idea of many resources.

I also think there are some resources that there should be nodes of everywhere. They are common, and these should be the resources needed for building most of the basic equipment. Iron, wood, crystal. I do not like the idea of the cities producing a basic minimal amount automatically. I much prefer that these "backbone" materials are so readily available on the map that no one gets blocked from producing things. However holding multiples should give bonuses, the guy with 10 iron mines should be able to produce iron things faster than the guy that owns 3. I really prefer that mined materials mines produce a given quantity and they get stockpiled or whatever, So that you are dealing in units of crystal/wood/iron. But I don;t think that is the current direction.

I also would like for some resources to be uncommon and even rare. I think there should be a lot of different ones of these - so even if you don't get one of everything, if you control much land at all you will likely get at least one or a few. these should be for upgrades, for instance mounts - horses should be the common one, something else for the uncommon and bears the rare. If you did not have bears or could not trade for them, you wouldn't research bear cavalry tech. there could be some rare metals that add to the durability of armor, or another that makes more powerful weapons. Again, you wouldn't research the technologies unless you had the associated resource. So resources I think should be visible early on (with possibly a few popping up at random times due to "weathering" or whatever - so you might get the occasional pleasant surprise of a new resource appearing.

So I think there should probably be maybe half a dozen common core resources that are all over the place. Then maybe a half dozen to a dozen more uncommon ones, and then literally as many rare ones as you guys have time to code a use for. Having even dozens of different rares could provide for some interesting surprises. Bear cavalry with adamantium armor and riders with metorite shard swords? Possible but unlikely! I think having them tiered common, uncommon and rare would make it pretty fun and easy. And I prefer that having a given resource be required to make something rather than providing a bonus (trading for it with another civ is alway an option).

I like the thought that resources you don't have just make the unit more expensive and/or take longer to produce (maybe based on how far away the nearest supply is, and how friendly that supplier is?).  Trade tends to imply that there'll be a bit of everything everywhere.

In terms of resources, I can see a two tier system being handy - there are a few common resources (wood, iron, gold, food?) that are everywhere.  And then there's a bunch of rare resources that may only exist in one place, or a particular region.  This would give different parts of the maps a distinct 'flavour' to them ("Mithril, the rarest of rare metals, found only in the depths of the Broken Spine Mountains.  Many a war has been fought over that desolate land").  OK, so it doesn't need to be quite so black and white, there could be shades of rarity.  But you get the idea.

Gold common?

Sorry. I know that we base the game's economy in gold based currency but now that I have read that... I'd prefer some kind of "credits" system. Maybe just call them Coins.

I'm also in favor of a lot of resources.

I'm also of the opinion that in most cases it should be possible to obtain something in small quantities that you don't have. Black Markets, Pirates and Brigands who sell things, or just finding a lucky chunk of iron ore in a mountain as that rare meteorite pellet or whatever. However, the rate at which you produce should be very small indeed. Not just maybe .1 but also say maybe impossible to produce so you can only produce units of 1 without the resource. So if you work hard enough at it your heros might have some good gear but your armies will still suck.

By the way I'm for maximum diversity that can be reasonably balanced. I love the various mana node types and would like to see resources of tin and brass as well as iron (You shouldn't skip from the stone age to the late iron age in tech). Plus I hope to see either the finding or creation of mystical metals like Orichalcum, Mithril, Adamantium, "Cold Iron", etc. It would be nice to have a variety of rares that could be super-uncommon so that each civilization is unlikely to have more than one each of them granting them a unique "found" advantage in the game.

How about salt as a resource? Salt and Spices were some of the most important resources to militaries because they meant you could preserve foods for long marches to the enemies far away. You might put a "range away from city" limit on non-sovereign or scout units if you don't have food preservatives. You could double the need for it in "Death" infused lands because clean water and food is so rare.

While the diversity does add micro-management, I'd like to see ways of getting around it through excellent trade or piracy.

 I recommend having a base level of resources... say 8 or 10... then each of the base level resources can be combined with other resources to create one of the second level resources.  Naturally a player would need to research each method of combining resources.  Stardock could even create  third level resources where a player combines two resources from the second level.  Naturally the higher level resources are more valuable.  The benefit with this design strategy is anytime in the future new important resources can always be created by Stardock from the combination of current resources.  Depending on modding functionality players could also create their own combinations.

EXAMPLE:

   LEVEL_1 =RESOURCE_A...............RESOURCE_B.................RESOURCE_C..................RESOURCE_D  

   LEVEL_2 =..........RESOURCE_E ( is A+B )....................................RESOURCE_F ( is C+D )

   LEVEL_3 =............................................RESOURCE_G ( is E+F )    

I like the tiering ideas as well as having a variety of resources that are absolute requirements, while others are merel bonuses.

I would prefer more resources versus less as even if you have too many you can do the same thing you are doing with techs where not every resource is part of every game.

Whether or not you choose many or few resources make sure the game can support an unlimited number of resources so that modders can go crazy.

How about the game rolls a dice every time you build a city and then a city might produce 0.1 metal. But perhaps it produces no metal at all but 0.1 blood crystals. This would require the player to adapt his strategy now and then. Makes a game more interesting and avoids "perfect" strategies you play over and over again.

I liked how Sword of the Stars used this with the variable tech tree.

Opinions?

What about such 'resources' as races/species? For example - you rule some region where are elven settlements so you should be able to have units being 'made' of elves (who have different abilities)? Or this will be in independent kingdoms?

One more thought about minerals: IMHO it should be done like this. Basic materials like iron and copper are available for all cities; however, if you control one of such resource's mine, you should be able to pump units from this city much, much faster. As for some high-end materials like mythril, gold, crystals: you can only produce units if you own such resource or you have a trade alliance with a kingdom/empire that has it.

It's arguable if you should be able to build more units (faster) in EVERY city because you own a resource in some city, or you have the bonus present ONLY in the city that has it. It's all matter of whether or not we allow resource trading between cities (caravans filled with mythril attacked by an enemy - how does that sound? ) or not.

Resources

Q)  How many?
A)  Only as many as you need.

How many resources do you need to make the resouces system you want fun?

List the things you want to get bonuses from resources.
Research
Prestige
Income
Production
Units
    Attack
    Defense
    HP
    Speed
    XP
    Healing

Should all resources be created equal (Is Silver as good as Gold)?
    Copper    +1 Income
    Silver    +2 Income
    Gold    +3 Income
    Gems    +4 Income
        OR
    Gold is the only Income Resouces

Should there be Muli-Use and Compound Resources (Tell me about Copper and Bronze)?
    Copper    +1 Income AND +1 Production (Can also be used to make up to +1 Att/Deff equipment)
    Tin    +1 Production

    Bronze    +3 Production (Can also be used to make up to +3 Att/Deff equipment) *
* - Not found on the map, becomes availible when you control 1 copper and 1 tin resource.

Should there be different Resource Levels and a Default Resouce Income?
    Basic        +1 per city (Stone and Wood)
    Standard    +0.1 per city (Copper and Iron)
    Advanced    No city Income (Coal, Gold, Marble)
   
Resources as bonuses vs Resouces as requirements
    I would like to see Resources as requirements to build equipment (If you have Default Resource Income).  When you research Copper you can then add Copper Weapons and Armour to unit designs.  You can only build these units if you have enough Copper equipment (And you can only build that if you have enough copper). 
You get Copper from;
    +10 Copper Mine (Improved Copper Resources)
    +5 Copper Resource
    +0 - ?? Trade
    +0.1 per City

Sammual

I like the idea of bonus given according to who controls the resource rather than making them prereqs for crafting items. Made me think of watered down honey or varying metal mixtures. Controlling the mine means you can add more of that metal to your armor in turn making it better quality.

As far as resource numbers are concerned, it really depends on how big an impact on gameplay they have and what the focus on the map is.  Should they be important enough to fight over or are they only nice to haves? If they give great advantages, the number of different resources and the amount of each type that appear on the map could have a large inpact on gamplay.  You dont' want too many different types if they negate the enemy's bonuses or yours without much effort by the player.  

For example lets say you have two resource types, horses for riders and giant trees for long spears. If they both cancel each other out as counters to one another and one player controls both, is the other player at a great disdvantage? I think they should be and should have to find a way to compensate by some other means or regain control over one of the resources.  Now if you have a third resources that adds hitpoints which reduces the advantage of riders and better spears from the opposing player, then why care about trying to acquire either of them?

"I keep thinking that it’s better to have more resources than fewer. I’d love to hear how others feel about this...

...I was thinking there could be resources that give bonuses to research, prestige, along with resources that let you add equipment to your soldiers that give them more hitpoints or increase the speed of their attacks or increase their healing rate or how fast they level up and so on and so on."

More resources would enable a larger variety of things to be produced which opens the door for different strategies to be employed and more counters to them. Things like 'happiness' resource modifiers, like Wine and Sugar in Civlization, provide small - but note worthy - improvements and strategies. If we're able to play the game focused on different aspects apart from combat, we should have access to resources - or uses for other resources - other than Unit bonuses. Iron, for example, could be used to improve your troops armour/weapons or it could also be used to build larger caravans thus increasing your trade revenue.

"I.e. every city produces say 0.1 metal per turn no matter what. If you control a metal resource then that amount goes to 1. If you control 2 then it goes up to 2. And the city that actually has the resource gets another bonus."

Personally, I prefer the "no resource [x] then no [x] unit" approach, as even producing a small amount of a resource over time doesn't effectively allow you to counter a race who has a large quantity of it. If I want to build Iron Armour, I should need Iron ore to do so - this places a higher value on Iron and makes for more interesting games as we fight to control the resource. Producing a small amount of Iron per turn may enable me to produce a small number of Iron based units, however it simply would draw out any defense I could make - it's kind of an "all or nothing" situation, in my opinion. Having small amount of Iron doesn't change enough to warrant it's inclusion, in my opinion. I made mention in another thread that I liked the idea of Stockpiling resources - perhaps this is an acceptable compromise?

With enough UI work, you could also have an option to make it so that a given piece of equipment can be picked as “required” versus “optional”.  That is, if it’s optional and you don’t have the resource, it won’t use it when constructing the unit.

This is an interesting concept, and combining it with the option for preferences - sort of an 'If/Then Statement' for equipment (No Mithril Breastplate, use Iron Breastplate) - would cut down on excessive Micro management. I certainly don't want to have to resign my entire Army if I lose a single resource node.

Just like to say, I find the resource system in Anno 1404 quite fine right up until you have to start setting up trade routes between your colonies. Then it gets tedious.

I don't have much to add to the discussion, other than to say resources should be important. Flat, small percentage modifiers, like Gal Civ II, is terribly dull. The resources in your realm should be an important feature in all aspects of that realm - its warfare, its culture, its trading, its research.

What I'm trying to get at it that I'd like to see kingdoms naturally play to their strengths, and their strengths being those resources. A land of plains with wild horses should become a land of powerful horsemen; their horses should be sought after in trade, their military horse-based, etc. Horsemen should become hugely desirable, so that multiple resources are valuable and interesting.

Resources should have a big 'push' on the player on what direction to take their kingdom.

Ditto.

I'm definitely for more resources, but I think only a handful should be really necessary. So you'd need your wood and steel, and the like, to build a successfull empire, but the other stuff will just give you small bonuses here and there, and not having one will not be a deal breaker. As long as I only have to worry about micromanaging a few essential resources and can let the rest sort themselves out I'm good.

Those essential resource should be available to all, like you said, even if it's at a 0.1 rate, but I do think that unless you have access to the resource, you should be limited in what you can build. So for example, without access to steel you can still build your basic foot solder with a crappy sword, but you can't build a knight. Or with wood, you can always build your basic huts and buildings - but anything fancy that gives you alot of prestige, well that requires proper access to timber.

I guess the basic idea is that you should always be able to build up your empire and army at least a little bit, even if you lucked out and have no access to resources. That way you have a better chance of taking them from somebody, but at the end of the day, if you don't have them, you can't really prosper.