More uses for resources other than gold

from Elemental Forums

Just about everything needs gold. Unit upkeep is also solely in gold. I only focus on gold improvements in my cities because it's the major limiting factor in what you can do. By midgame i usually have hundreds of extra material and more metal than I could use because the needed gold severely outweighs the other resource needs. The AI tends to have thousands of materials too, so it becomes useless for trading. Equiping champions takes a lot of gold and nothing else. Making units reduces your possible gold income even further, causing other resources to be even more worthless. 

I suggest adding material, metal, and crystal upkeep on units and reduce the gold upkeep slightly. Also add material, metal, and crystals into the price of champion gear. Instead of thinking of it as shops selling you equipment, they 'craft' it with your resources

5,667 views 4 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

Really? I actually find materials very limiting early, especially when playing as Empire. I never have enough crystal or elementium

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

I find myself short on gold most of my games also. Maybe a new option/feature for the shop owners, "Buy crafted items". Maybe you can unlock it by researching a tech.

Another idea I have is a "Visit workshop" option. In the workshop they sell the same items as the shop except they require only a small percentage of the gold, while requiring materials and/or iron etc.

Or maybe introduce a black market system similiar to Sins of a Solar Empire.

Ashes of the Singularity II
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

Actually it kinda depends on how you play the game. A lot of the equipment you can put on your units cost more amounts of Material, Metal, and Crystal. I find early game I do have a lot of extra Materials, Metal, and Crystal but once I unlock armor and magic items I burn through my reserves really quickly becuase gold is also the most common resource. So I end up with gold left over and not much of the other stuff.

However if I focus mainly on my champions or poorly armored units I have large reserves of resources left over that continue to stockpile. Since most of those items are heavy on gold cost and light on anything else I tend to run into the same problem as you. It really depends on what your building as to where you resource go.

I do think there should be more options though as Metal and Crystal are only used to make troops. Several buildings at least use materials and so does the majority of early units.

The other source of issue is that since gold is used for upkeep your income for gold is constantly decreasing as your empire's army grows. Which is why late game I tend to focus more and buffing up my units with armor and burning some of that extra materials.

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

But even adding equipment with heavy material and metal usage still adds tons of gold to the cost too. Gold is pretty much only part of the cost I look at. Unit upkeep costs get extreme, yet if you don't keep your army up to par then you get severe diplomatic penalties. You still end up with a trickling gold income and a massive material, metal, crystal income.