Mineral Resource Depletion Moddable?

[solops]

Can mineral resource depletion be modded out of the game? Not only do I find that concept absurd, given the scale of the game, but it precludes playing a long game in a large galaxy, or even a small one. For instance, a single moon of frozen methane could supply all the organics an empire could use for darn near ever. Same for other minerals. The only bottleneck should be deliverability. The mechanic has some appeal for certain types of scenarios, but not any that I care to play. I suggest that mineral depletion be a game mechanic that the player can set to "On" or "Off" during the game set-up as many people will disagree. That way everyone can play as they wish.

[von Runstedt]

how is resource depletion not believable? there are only so many minerals in the ground and once you mine them all, well, you can't draw blood from a stone. Believe me, I had your concern about this issue as well but have you gotten to the late game yet? By then you can colonize gas giants that are absolutely teeming with resources. It's because of this that I've played the game out to 2,500 years and have not run into serious resource shortage problems. By the same token, however, I do agree that this would probably make games on smaller maps more difficult but that is, presumedly, why smaller maps have fewer AI opponents, so that there are more worlds open to colonization and fewer hands grabbing at them.

[solops]

Disagree. As I said, on an multiple star system scale depletion is simply not going to be a factor with planets and asteroids full of resources. As a petroleum engineer (retired), I dealt with depletion every day. Give me one moon of frozen methane or a few asteroids of iron and the tech to get them to the ground (implied in this type of game) and I will put all of the oil companies and iron miners out of business in a week. Same for everything else. As I said, not everyone will see this in that way, so give us the option and let us play as each of us sees fit. And yes, I have played the game out to the "end" with all techs and seen the result.

[von Runstedt]

Well you say that now but we are also talking about empires which, in real terms, would consist of trillions of people. Not to mention technology that would likely put far greater strains on resource allocation than would be the case in or current level of development. Just look at our own history. less than 200 years ago oil prospectors probably couldn't have dreamed that there would be enough demand to run all the oil on the planet dry in the space of less than 3 centuries but that's because they also couldn't have imagined the taxes on resources that ever more modern levels of society would place on that resource. When you put those together, that one moon full of frozen methane might be lucky to last a couple years let alone decades at the most and the same for those iron mines in the asteroid belts. Would these things be enough to solve all of earths mineral demands? maybe, but a society with trillions of inhabitants on hundreds of worlds powered, presumably, by thousands if not millions of cargo ships that are many times larger than the tallest skyscrapers today? I think not.

[von Runstedt]

By the same token though, I do have to agree with you in some respects because I happen to think that the time scale for resource depletion in this game is a bit too fast as well, probably being more on the scale of 10's of thousands rather than a couple thousand of years but as with everything in this game everything is smaller than it is in real life. there are far fewer stars, the populations are far smaller than they presumably would be in reality, and so the resources are also probably scaled down to reflect the miniature size and time scale of this universe. It also does take some of the fun out of it so I can definitely see the appeal of having a way to turn it off if you wanted.

[Rosseau]

The AIs and I like a fast start, so increased everything from 3-5x. The game has remained relatively balanced and less stressful

The Bldg folder files are very easy to edit. But you have to start a new game obviously, so be sure you got what you want.

[Friese]

I suggest that mineral depletion be a game mechanic that the player can set to "On" or "Off" during the game set-up as many people will disagree. That way everyone can play as they wish.

It's already in the game. Click "change settings" in the launcher, go to "other" and there under "hidden" you'll find what you need.

[solops]

I suggest that mineral depletion be a game mechanic that the player can set to "On" or "Off" during the game set-up as many people will disagree. That way everyone can play as they wish.

It's already in the game. Click "change settings" in the launcher, go to "other" and there under "hidden" you'll find what you need.

Well, DUUUUUHHH!....Thank you. I never knew that was there. That menu crashes a lot when I access it before starting the game. Anyone else have that problem?