I would honestly prefer it that our sovereigns start in a random location on the map, and that the resources are also randomly spread out all over the map. I think that a part of the gameplay should be going out and looking for that prime real estate, but instead we're basically given it at the start. Why move around at the beginning? Just click found city and you're already good to go. So in short, all of the resources, shards, goodies, and baddies should be randomly positioned on the map. Perhaps they can be spaced out automatically with some sort of algorithm so they won't bunch up much.

I would just like to have that "Should I found my city on this spot, or see what's over the next hill?" type of question during the beginning of the game. The longer you take to found your first city, the potentially more damaging it is for you, but on the same token, you may find better real estate in the process.

Well, if I had it my way, there would be resources strewn throughout the map, so technically no, you wouldn't have issues starting without anything around for the most part. Although, if you want a location with a mine, shard, fertile land, and so forth, you'll have to do a bit of leg work to find that prime real estate.

If they have an option that perhaps is a checkbox in the game difficulty setting, to start with resources, or to start without resources, I would be cool with that. Then it would please both crowds, the ones that want to forage for their starting location, and those that want it given to them.

I think the resources are ok from what I can tell, at least in terms of being spread over the whole map. I'd like a few more 1 per map 'rare' resources that make them very wanted and unique, I think that would add a bit more flavor to the map.