Lo-Fi Games

Location Based Resources

simply means, that you can not build stone mines, ore mines, farms and so on wherever you want.
The idea is to give importance to having more than 1 town and trading between town.

For example stone mines can only be build on/near certain rock formations and farms only close to an oasis.

This makes building mining-outposts and farming towns far more interesting.

In addition the resources could/must be claimed and/or are reasons for wars.
Giving you the possibility to buy a resource from a faction (like Empire) for say 1.000.000c or conquering it from a bandit gang that had its lair there.
Obviously other factions who can't stand you try to take it from you, so it has to be defended as well.

What about a sliding scale? It's still possible to build a mine/etc anywhere, but if the mine for example isn't on a rock outcrop then the yield is much lower/takes much longer to get.

That way, you aren't absolutely boned for resources without setting up 5 different towns, but it still encourages diversity.

Currently the way things work is, I imagine, something of a placeholder. The science skill mentions prospecting, we'll find out soon apparently whether or not this is already implemented for metal ore. Chris stated in the recent interview that there will be certain places where you'll have to set up outposts for various reasons that will be harder to defend and offer lucrative rewards as incentive.