Hi, this is my first question. So far I like the game, but am confused about one thing in particular, if I trade a strategic resource with another faction, do I lose that resource for good, or after a certain point do I get it back? thanks!

You lose that resource for however long the deal is active. The deal will remain active unless/until you or the other breaks it. Deals can be broken directly, or they can get cancelled if you go to war. AI will sometimes break deals with you when your relationship grows worse.



Here's a terrible analogy:



Let's say you're an apple farmer, and your neighbor is an orange farmer. Every month (turn), each of your apple trees produces one apple, and each of your neighbor's trees produces one orange.



So you decide to trade apples and oranges. Let's say you both have 4 trees, and you decide to trade 2 apples for 2 oranges.



So each month, both of you, effectively, have 2 apples and 2 oranges. The two of you actually have to meet to trade the fruits, though, it's not like you're giving them the tree.



So say one day the two of you get into a fight, and the deal's off, you're still left with 4 apples/month, not two, since you still have all your trees. You just don't get any oranges anymore (and they're back to their original 4 oranges/month).



Basically, you don't trade the source, you trade the product.

Thank you so much, I don't know why I didn't think of that, ha. Also, I think that your analogy was perfect for explaining how it works. Thanks again, I'll mark this as answered

Happy to help, and glad my analogy made sense! lol