Prospecting for resources QoL

[Michael Gladius]

I was playing a game earlier today as the USA, and went to prospect for aluminum in 4 states (NY, AR, TN, and WA). As I was prospecting, I noticed an odd pattern: as soon as the timer finished, they immediately reappeared as they were before, with no apparent changes. I checked and saw that the aluminum, indeed, had been added to the "Trade" tab, but I foresee this creating 2 problems:

1. The number of times a player can prospect is unlimited, and in this case can be done without researching any new techs above level 2.
2. The lack of changes in the presentation may lead new players to assume it isn't working, and file bug reports.

To remedy this, I propose:

1. If there are multiple opportunities to prospect the same resource in a single state, then tie each new opportunity directly into extraction techs. For example, if I can prospect aluminum in New York at level 2, then the next opportunity should require level 3. This will make it actually feel like a progression, rather than a mindless repeat.
2. For each successive prospecting, have a different title. It could start with "Prospect Resource X," then follow it with "Develop Resource X," and then finally "Maximize Resource X."

 

[BeauNiddle]

I agree, I got confused by those decisions as well. They do say on them that they are repeatable but it's such an odd ability to constantly keep mining for better resources.

The UK have an oil one in the middle east as well.

They are late game decisions (I think they needed fairly good excavation tech) so maybe it's a conscious decision to allow unlimited resources in the late game but it felt weird.

 

[Louella]

The UK oil ones can only be repeated something like 4 or 5 times.
I'd have to check but the USA ones are probably similar.

 

[blahmaster6k]

The time spent prospecting the resources increases each time you do the decision, so it requires more and more CIC days per repeat of the decision. Is it theoretically infinite resources? Yes. Will you keep getting more and more every 60 days? No. Is it the best use of your factories? Probably not.

I suppose for the infinite resources aspect, it could just be represented by one sentence:

We need to go deeper.

 

[Iskulya]

The US really needs to make use of those resources after the Axis dominates Europe. Especially when Japan gets into the DEI, there's just not enough tungsten to go around for Britain and the US. US is already hurt by very few factory slots compared to what it should have, but the price of balance I suppose. It just does seem odd that the Soviet Union gets so many more factory slots than the US, but oh well.

 

[Louella]

I've checked the decisions.

Many of the prospecting decisions can be repeated, some of them up to 5 times. Each time, it takes longer to get a result. E.g. the first time, it's a 30 day project, the second, 60 days, third, 90. etc. Which will tie up a lot of factories for a substantial amount of time, if you want to reach the maximum.

The resources are not infinite.

 

[Michael Gladius]

I've checked the decisions.

Many of the prospecting decisions can be repeated, some of them up to 5 times. Each time, it takes longer to get a result. E.g. the first time, it's a 30 day project, the second, 60 days, third, 90. etc. Which will tie up a lot of factories for a substantial amount of time, if you want to reach the maximum.

The resources are not infinite.

So what I'm proposing is that for the second, third, fourth, and fifth times to be available, a new extraction tech needs to be researched. Even if they technically aren't unlimited, that's not readily apparent and will lead to bug reports.