Lack of one resource - destined to lose

The only element I typically have a hard time finding is metal (not materials), sometimes I go over 100 turns without metal, luckily it's not used as much to build units & things because I haven't had problems with the lack of it.

.. it seems that sometimes when I click "edit" on this forum it'll duplicate my posts instead of just allowing me to edit? Have any of you experienced this?

It's absurd you can't trade resources on the market.

When ever im without something I just take it from someone else. :/

Works pretty well in elemental.

I really like the idea that the Adventure tech would open a screen where you could pick what resource you need each time you open a new "step" in the tree.  Great idea!  It would allow a LOT of flexibility and make the game FUN instead of frustrating plus offering flexibility in play styles.

Hope SD picks this up!

Yeah, a lot of variability in resources.  Once [1.08] I had a game with no gold node at the start, and none nearby, even with exploration tech.  If you are weak enough 30 or so turns into the game with sparse, disparate and poorly defended cities, the AIs tend to gang up on you I think.

A way the adventure tech could compensate for lack of a certain resource is to allow the player to choose what reward they get for a quest, i.e. either a silver flute, gold, food, materials, whatever.  Maybe make reward choice a level 2 or 3 adventure tech so you have to commit to adventuring a little, but not too bad if you are struggling out of the starting gate. 

This is an issue but I also like the randomness of your starting situation, and wouldn't want to change that.

Have not had an issue getting materials, crystal and metal tend to be harder to find, even with high levels of material. Have had to pay a lot more attention to food too, had some troops dessert over  negative food / gold after conquering a city. I now tend to raze cities I capture often and just start new settlements if I need to expand.

I'm in a game now that I have no metal and no crystals, with an empire of 10 cities.  I took over a neutral city because they produced 2 metals.  If the AI were to declare war and take that city first, I would very screwed.  Are there any techs that cause new crystal or iron resources to spawn?  I thought there was, and I thought I was choosing them, but they never spawned anything...but I am easily confused...

At about 200th turn I have tons of materials and I don't really know what to do with them. In every game. I can sell them once to minor faction but what then? I agree that the metal and crystal are hard to get in 1.08. Last game I've got my first metal mine after about 400 turns by research of ventri mine. 

Some of the high level Adventure techs may.

That said, don't discount the power of cannon fodder. I beat armies of axe wielding warriors with base staff wielding warriors at no loss due to cheap, plentiful numbers and high skill level. Combine that with a decent champion, it can seem unexciting but don't discount them.

I don't mind specific resource scarcity, it makes you adapt rather than play the same every game. If low on materials you have to bias away from materials expensive buildings and troops, same with metals and crystals. Naturally you pick your military/expansion targets accordingly

Playing as empire, who only get 1 material through buildings, I've had plenty of games with no special material resources for a long time - I used the creatures available through the Negotiation branch as they only have gold cost.

The only scarse thing for me is uhmmmm... I don't often encounter the crystals  o__o

This is a pretty good point.  I got nothing to add other than to agree.

on Kindom under cival you are able to make a bulding that provides a bunch of material.  First tech on I believe it is called production

Currently, I don't think there's an issue.  So long as you have enough essence, you can make due with any amount of shortages on the other resources.  With essence alone you can maintain a big army, conquer foes, and capture new areas.  Go a few steps up the magic tech path to get an essence bonus and you're in business.  If you're low on resources and feel crippled, this is the way to go.

Theh developers have made clear they're going to iron this out, and that presents some issues.  I've never had material shortages (save for some early-game hiccups), but I've had severe gold and metal problems before.  The big problem with gold is that all the decent military units are exorbitantly expensive here, but once you do have them they pretty much decimate all the cheap low-end stuff.  Once summons and channelers can no longer carry a faction, I'm actually afraid gold could very well become the end-all resource.

Metal is pretty bad if you're missing it, but I've found that usually I can lean on archers and get away without it.  Food is also pretty nasty to be low on, but I've found that this just makes me be more careful about where I place my cities, and I can almost always get by.

I think we need some options for more material-intensive units in the early-game to present an alternative to the gold-intensive units like archers and metal-intensive units like armored swordsmen.  Right now there's simply no way to put large amounts of materials to use, so people who do have excess of them can build up obscene amounts like 1000 materials and still be unable to buy anything because they have maybe 20 gold.

I've found the rarest resource to be mounts.  My last three game maps have been completely devoid of any mount resources.

The units you get through Diplomacy and the empire equivalent cost only gold.

Hope it doesn't work for you in real life, though

Asmodean

i agree that resources should be reexamined.  there needs to be a way to get them, without sacrificing the exploration/challenge of the game.  this should be at a considerable cost to the player.