Hi, wondering if anyone had good resource games they could reccomend for pc? Just tried civ IV colinization, and loved the intricate systems of the resources, though didn't like that you had to fight your king. Also like tropico 3, so any resource/economy game. Cheers
Anno 1404 has you building up an empire, satisfying your town's population, keeping trade routes active, fighting off raiders and all the sort. The Settlers series (ignoring the more recent failure that is Settlers 7) is also a good game for those that like resource management. If you don't mind fairly poorly designed systems, Medieval Lords: Build, Defend, Expand is a good game. For something more in a more modern style, SimCity 4 is good fun.
I know, but isn't that all to fuel a combat focused rts, I haven't played 3 so not sure, but the first two had very simple rts resource management.
You probably won't like Anno 1404 either then as this also involves a lot of combat. You could try the City Life series - a bit like Sim City (it's only £8 on Steam at the moment too). No combat at all! *edit* I believe the latest version is called Cities XL 2011
Don't mind combat, aslong as a big chunk of the complexity is in the resources, like the old setttlers, (though havn't played them in years and years, somemory might be hazy) AoE was a bit too simple, i.e. stick villagers on it job done, no industry tiers ro anyting to add complexity.
Tropico 4 is out soon. You could also try X3 Terran Conflict. That's a space game but you can basically do anything at all, you play it how you want. So you could set up an entire drug empire or become a trader or start up lots of factories and become a millionaire etc.. You can fight too but it's not really essential to do lots of it. Then there's stuff like Age of Wonders and Heroes of Might & Magic, which are about building an empire and killing your enemies, but that involves plenty of combat. The only other stuff I can think of are old games, like Capitalism 2, Hospital Tycoon, Dwarf Fortress, Yoot Tower, etc. edit: Oh, and games that are technically the same genre as Tropico, are Pharaoh, Pizza Tycoon, Sim City 4000, etc.
Anno 1503 - the more recent 1404 is full 3D whereas 1503 is 2d isometric and resource-management and empire-building vastly outweighs combat. You can use lumber as the basic building material. As your people become more refined in their tastes they will upgrade their house by visiting your warehouse for more building materials. Their tastes range from simple food and clothing to salt, tobacco, silk, herbs etc. Certain crops will only grown in a certain climate so you have to explore the other islands and consider trade if the ideal spot is occupied. I loved the effort needed to construct a ship - wood for the ship itself, cloth for the sails, iron for the cannons, and you had to grow hem and weave it into rope for the sails etc. And you needed iron and coal mines as well as a stone quarry to make bricks. The resources were - to my knowledge - infinite. Another good one that's a blend of RTS and turn-based is Rise of Nations. There's a cool 'RISK'-style conquest mode where you take over territory and when a battle ensures the real-time element kicks in where you have to build and maneuvre troops on the playing field. You can upgrade outposts on the world map so that if a battle takes place there you start out with more buildings, defenses and troops. If you have people to play with - Minecraft is awesome for resource-gathering. You need wood, stone, iron, gold and diamond to make tools, various things for buildings and architecture/design, fuel for furnaces such as coal and charcoal, farming requires irrigation and crops can be trampled by animals if left unattended. I play with a handful of friends and together we're constructing a pretty awesome world. Possibly the best resource-based game, or more specifically best commerce-based game is Eve Online. Everything you buy is player-made. Asteroid mining is the root of it all, with various ores needed to refine them into manufacturing materials. Venture into lawless space to find the most precious high-end ores. Capital ships require their components to be manufactured before being assembled into the ship itself. And it's realistic in the sense that you need to be part of a corporation (guild) in order to make the biggest and most powerful stuff. And X3: Terran Conflict is without a doubt the best single-player Eve-ish experience you'll find until someone remakes Elite.
