Resources

The term resources refers to materials extracted from special island buildings which are used by all players from the same island. These materials are fundamental to your town's operation, as they are required to perform almost any action in the game. Resources can be stored in ever-increasing amounts in your cities' Warehouses, but any amount over the safe capacity of the warehouse can be pillaged.

The are two types of resources: Building material, more commonly known as wood, which is extracted from the Saw mill present on every island, and luxury goods, which can only be produced after Wealth has been researched at the Academy. Each island has only one type of luxury good deposit, meaning that, while wood universally available, any given city can produce only one type of luxury good.

Wood
Wood is the main resource of the game, harvested at the Saw mill. This is the first resource a player will be able to collect, and is used in the expansion of every building, upgrading the Saw mill or Luxury good resource, founding of colonies, creation of military units and ships. To gather wood, click on the log pile (Saw mill) in the island view.

Once on the Saw mill window, changing the slider bar will affect the wood and gold production of your town. For each citizen turned into a worker, you will gather per hour but your gold income will be decreased by.

While you are logged on to Ikariam, the menu will show this symbol:. This represents the amount of available wood you currently have in your town to use for upgrading or building things. A mouse over tip will indicate the maximum capacity at your current Warehouse level, which is reduced by any amount currently stored in your Trading Post. When you reach 75% of maximum capacity, this number will turn red; at 100% capacity, it will turn bold red, and any more resources received will be irretrievably lost.

After researching Helping Hands, you are allowed to send 50% more workers to harvest building materials. However, these extra unskilled workers only produce 25% of the normal amount of building materials. You will need to assign 4 workers (and lose their income of ) to receive 1 extra building material per hour.

Luxury goods
Luxury goods have a variety of functions, but they all require Wealth before they can be gathered. Each island has exactly one luxury good resource, so a player will have to trade with other players, pillage them, or colonize new islands in order to have access to all luxury goods. To gather a luxury good, click on the appropriate icon on the island view (Bricks of marble, the Vineyard, some crystal, or the volcano)

Once in the luxury good deposit window, changing the slider bar will affect the luxury good and gold production of your town. For each citizen turned into a worker, you will gather 1 unit per hour but your gold income will be decreased by.

After researching Helping Hands, you are allowed to send 50% more workers to harvest luxury goods. However, these extra unskilled workers only produce 25% of the normal amount of luxury goods. You will need to assign 4 workers (and lose their income of ) to receive 1 extra luxury good per hour.

Wine
Using the best grapes from the Vineyard, ripened to perfection. Wine is distributed among your population and consumed at the tavern to increase its satisfaction, making wine indispensable for you city's growth.

Wine is also used for the expansion of Palace at high levels, as well as to create the military unit Cook.

Marble
Marble, mined from the Quarry, is used in the expansion of almost every building of your town, except the Academy and the Temple, thus it becomes an essential resource.

Crystal Glass
Crystal Glass, mined at the Crystal mine, has varied functions: expanding the Academy and Palace, researching upgrades at the Workshop and training of Spies, Doctors, and Diving Boats.

It can also be consumed to produce more research points after Experiments has been researched: if you have enough glass to finish the current technology, a button will appear in the Academy window, allowing you to purchase it immediately and continue to the next research. If you don't have enough crystal yet, the Academy will tell you how much you need.

Sulphur
Sulphur, mined at the Sulphur pit, is used almost exclusively in the production of military units. Almost all units and ships require to be created; only the Spearman, Ram, Slinger, Doctor, Cook and Diving Boat do not.

Sulphur is also needed to upgrade the Palace and the Governor's residence to level 3 or above, so you will need some if you want more than 3 colonies.

Other resources
While these are not, strictly speaking, resources, they are produced and consumed by your towns, and are often essential to the game:


 * Action points [[Image:Action small.gif|link=Action point]]: Action points limit the maximum number of missions each city may launch at the same time. For example, a city with 3[[Image:Action small.gif]] could, at the same time, pillage two towns and send a trading fleet to another. You town gets more action points as your expand your Town hall, and as soon as the mission is complete, the action point is restored.


 * Ambrosia : Ambrosia can only be obtained using real money. It is used in the various features of the Ikariam Plus system.


 * Cargo Ships [[Image:Cargo Ship.png|30px|link=Cargo Ship]]: Cargo ships are used to transport units and resources between islands. They are purchased using gold at the Trading Port, and your cities share the same trading fleet.


 * Citizens : The citizens of your town can be changed into workers to produce resources, scientists to generate research points, or left as citizens to produce gold. They are consumed in varying amounts to build military units and ships. Your city gains more citizens as long as you maintain a positive satisfaction.


 * Cultural goods [[Image:Cultural small.gif|link=Treaty#Cultural Asset Treaty]]: Cultural goods are exhibited at your Museum to increase your town satisfaction. It can be acquired through Cultural Asset Treaties with other players after you have researched Cultural Exchange. All your cultural goods are available to any of your towns. You can see how many cultural goods you have by clicking on one of your Museums.


 * Diplomacy points: As soon as you build a new Embassy, you get 3 diplomacy points. Each embassy level gives an additional point. These points are consumed when offering and accepting treaties with other players, and are restored as soon as the treaty is canceled. You can see how many diplomacy points you have in your Diplomacy Adviser window.


 * Gold : Produced by citizens and by selling resources at the Trading post, gold is used to maintain your town finances and facilitate trade between players. Your gold stands for all your cities.


 * Research points : Produced by scientists at the Academy, they are collected to complete new researches. All your cities share the same technologies and pool of research points.