Quick Poll: Is the production scale weak?

[Tyrant]

In most cases, even with resource intensive nations, the answer is to build more castles and/or build one an iron mine. So as is, it's really only usefull if you have cap-only resource heavy units and/or for the rare heavy metal quick start plan. Micah's suggestion seems like the easiest fix, though the castle suggestions would be more fun.

I've strained my brain trying to think of a another thematic additional effect, and auto-PD build is the only thing i came up with. TC has that as a dominion benny, so there's some code for that already, but i dont' have any idea if would be easy to implement.

[Chris_Byler]

One other possibility is just to play with a lower resource multiplier. Sloth hurts worse and productivity is less likely to be excess, for everyone. (Except nations that *really* never need resources, like Yomi or LA Ermor. But it's thematic for them to have sloth anyway.)

I think the most fundamental problem is the obsolescence of troops, and therefore resources, in the later game, while gold is good for everything, all the time, at all stages of the game. Tougher research combined with lower base resource production and a high indy strength (high enough to endanger awake SC-pretenders that try to solo provinces unequipped, and to force almost everyone to have some losses that need regular reinforcement) could make sloth's slower starts really dangerous. The resulting game would have the emphasis shifted away from late-game SC and spell combo strats toward early expansion and getting the most out of troops and low-level spells, though, which some players might not like.

Or, of course, you could just make troops cheaper or mages more expensive in gold; the fact that IW didn't do that along with changing the base resource/supply amounts is largely (IMO) responsible for the fact that troops vs. mages decisions haven't shifted as much since Dom I/II as you might otherwise expect. You *can* make many more troops now, but it's still not necessarily a good idea compared to using Dom 3's more abundant gold to simply make even more mages.

[Agema]

Resources sort of *are* gold.

If you boil all issues down to survivability and killability, a 10GP/20Res unit is far better than a 10GP/1Res unit. So you could view a Res-heavy unit as worth X Res-light units. In every game I've played in even in the midgame there are still large armies being thrown around. Shields and armour are still making troops more survivable from all manner of spells, arrows and so on, and decent weapons are still enabling troops to kill enemies faster.

Consequently res-intensive units save you gold because you need fewer units to make an effective army, and save more money because you don't have to replace losses to the same extent. That money can go to castles, mages, and all the other funky things money can buy.

Yes, Res becomes steadily less useful as the game goes on. But it allows you to pack more punch for an equivalent gold cost (or pack the same punch for less gold), which makes it potentially a very useful tool for a head start.

[moderation]

High resource troops don't necessarily survive longer at all stages of the game. All the armor in the world won't help if you run up against AN attacks like R'yleh's and heat and cold auras will still kill your troops, not to mention SCs and thugs. Ulm has really high resource high protection troops, but they will still be squashed by tramplers. A lot of times low resource, high damage units might be more appropriate.

Armor works some of the against some things. Sometimes it's better to have blockers like MA R'yleh's 5GP/1Res Lobos. And units with natural protection like crab hybrids and hydras are fairly durable while only costing 1 resource. Of course, high resource troops can be useful, but since you have to mass them over many turns, you'll have to pay upkeep and you will have to plan ahead to have enough troops on the field.

There are pros and cons to high resource troops and productivity, but it's hard to say that resources are nearly as useful as gold the way the game is right now. If castles had to be built with resources, as others have mentioned, production might be useful.