Command and Conquer Economy: Difference between revisions

{{trope}}

 

In most civilisation- and city-building games, nothing ever gets built unless the player specifically orders it. While it is simpler to depict the resource management in this way, it is very unrealistic to, for example, have to build "state" stables and "state" smithies in order to recruit knights in a medieval-themed game, or have to specifically order a resource extraction operation rather than have an autonomous agent do it in response to increased demand.

 

 

It also prevents [[Artificial Stupidity|poor AI from sapping all your resources into pointless crap.]]

 

{{examples}}

 

* In the ''[[Civilization]]'' games, no city will build any improvements or units or develop their own surroundings unless the player or the player-appointed AI specifically orders it. This is particularly notable in the later iterations of the series, and the related game ''[[Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri]]'', where the player can declare their nation to be operating under free market economics. Presumably justified by the idea that there's a lot of economic activity separate from the government projects that are presented to the player. Also, in ''Alpha Centauri'', one can set a base to operate under a Governor, and define things a governor can and can not do, allowing the AI to run each base according to the priorities you set and you to intervene when necessary.

* ''[[Star Ruler]]'' both uses and averts this. While you need to manually order the construction of ships, you can set Governors to automatically build structures on the planets you colonise.

 

 

* All you need to make your army in [[Act of War]] is just money, which can be obtained from oil derricks, banks or prisoners of war.

* In the ''[[Total War]]'' games, feudal warriors like knights or samurai must have player-built buildings representing armouries, weaponmakers and stud farms present in order to be recruited. It would of course be more realistic to have them equip themselves from the income of their estates, train offscreen and show up when obliged to fight.

** Some of the games wouldn't even let you control many aspects of the cities unless you put a general there.

** Several mods, such as ''Real Recruitment'' and ''Byg's Grim Reality'' for ''Medieval 2'', try to avert this trope and [[Ridiculously-Fast Construction]] by instead giving you a virtually fixed number of units. These can only be sent out of their home province through great exertion, unless led by legendary-quality generals. This is arguably very realistic, but it does make waging the eponymous Total War nigh-on [[Fake Difficulty|fake difficult.]]

* ''[[Majesty]]'' averts this trope - no heroes get hired or marketplaces built without your royal order, but most of the infrastructure of your city - houses, sewers, graveyards, and places of ill repute - is outside your control.

** Which is pretty cool, but makes it very hard to build your [http://wiki.teamliquid.net/starcraft/Sim-City sim city] when some house or sewer pops up in a horrible place and totally ruins your plans.

* Used in ''[[Rise of Legends]]'', but somewhat handwaved as a matter of desperation, not careful and brilliant planning. The heroes aren't making a slow-and-steady push to grind their enemies down, they're running (and often flying) like mad to important sites to outmaneuver their enemies there, and have to build up anything they need from what's available instead of dragging a gargantuan army plus supply lines after them. Each mission map is technically a whole province with multiple cities, so they're also trying to establish a command economy that works just enough to keep them supplied and leaves the province sufficient once they're gone. Men thus come from the cities you build up, and mechanical (or magical) units are built in factories (or conjured on the spot) to save from having to transport an army of slow, heavy equipment all over.

* ''[[Warcraft]]'' games have the player assigning peasants to their tasks and building farms and lumber mills as well as more military kinds of facility.

* Partially averted in the ''[[Settlers]]'' series. The player decides what buildings should be built where, and what enemy building should be attacked but from that point on your peasants/soldiers just take care of it. Additionally, once you've built something like a woodcutter, sawmill, farm, etc, it will cheerfully continue to run itself as long as your economy can provide it the necessary resources.

* ''[[Total Annihilation]]'' and its successor ''[[Supreme Commander]]'' have this as a central part of the setting as well as a core gameplay mechanic. Thanks to nanotech, a single construction unit can build an exponentially-growing base and army limited only by local resources.

* In ''Outpost 2'', you get to build structures and vehicles, something the citizens of the base will not do on their own. You also get to build structure kits, satellites, launch vehicles, and interstellar starship parts, all of which have to do with the story.

 

 

* ''[[Dwarf Fortress]]'' uses this, but it makes sense because the leader of the fortress would most likely be pissed if his dwarves were tunneling like crazy without his permission. {{spoiler|And considering what [[Sealed Evil in a Can|said dwarves might find...]]}}

** The third-party utility Dwarf Foreman was created to avert this trope for manufacturing, automatically dispatching work orders to create more of an item should your stocks fall below a certain amount.

 

 

* The Sims in ''[[The Sims]]''. Without player guidance, they cannot buy furniture, get jobs, get married, etc. (Some non-player Sims will get jobs or marriages on their own in ''The Sims 3'', but they'll still only have the furniture that came with their house, and the Sims in the active family still won't.) They can still do basic actions such as cook, sleep, use the toilet, and so on if free will is turned on, but in the first two games (and even the third to a lesser extent) they tend to be rather stupid about it. Turn free will off and they'll just stand in place until they starve if not explicitly told to do otherwise.

*** Obviously, ''SimCountry'' has a [[wikipedia:Social market economy|social market economy]]. They don't get electric bills but they get taxes.

*** Granted you still need knowledge society energy if you want the nicer structures to benefit your power production.

* ''[[City Life]]''. You must manually plop every single house, work place, service and utility building. And by "services", Monte Cristo means malls, supermarkets, hospitals, schools, parks, police and fire stations, community centers, ''and even leisure businesses''. (Sounds awfully like ''Societies'', but the social class system makes it better than it sounds).

* The ''[[Cultures]]'' series takes this to absurd lengths. Your citizens will not build anything, begin gathering materials, get a place to live, get a job, bring resources to and from stockpiles, buy anything, marry, or even have children without you telling them what to do. You can even order them to eat and sleep (admittedly realistic for troops, but?).

* Provides an amusing contradiction in ''[[Tropico]]'', which features a Capitalist faction that complains if the eponymous island's economy is not profitable or diverse enough, but don't seem to mind that the player, as President, controls the wage rate, hiring policy and pricing of every business on the island, as well as the building of every structure larger than a shack. Some justification may be possible by assuming that wages and prices are actually abstractions of the effects of taxes on the businesses in question - but doesn't begin to answer the question of building placement or hiring policy. Of course, some capitalists are more capitalist than others.

* This was a huge annoyance to many players of ''[[Black and White]]'', where the pisswig villagers can't even do so much as build a single hut without divine intervention. Though the frustration may have had more to do with the game's awkward controls...

** ''[[Black and White]] 2'' made things slightly easier (emphasis on the slightly). Villagers will do whatever is required at the time without direction, such as gathering food or building a building, but they tend to vacillate between the available options frequently. The player has the option of "divinely guiding" a character by assigning them a task, as which point they will do nothing else for the rest of their lives.

 

 

 

* The Koei line of ''[[Romance of the Three Kingdoms]]'' video games (as in, the ones named for the series, not [[Dynasty Warriors]]), you are a warlord that has to manage an ever-growing series of cities; fortunately, you can create districts and delegate your officers to do most of the micro-managing.

* Averted to some degree in the Amiga game ''Global Effect'': While you had to micromanage most things like power and sewage and such, the game would build residential areas on its own as demand increased. Sadly, this was actually ''detrimental'', as not only did it take energy (the standard resource you use for everything) from your own supply (thereby keeping you from completing more essential constructions), but it built them completely at random next to anything else you've built. So if you built a long sewage pipe leading waste far away from your planned residential zone, to keep people from getting sick? Surprise, now you have people living right in the middle of the sewage-plant area, or halfway along the pipe in the middle of nowhere. And they want you to provide power and water and roads. Presumably you could change this in the options menu, but due to a genius in the game's design, ''accessing the options cost more energy''.

 

 

* ''[[Erfworld]]'', being based on turn-based strategy games, uses this extensively. Everything in the world is geared towards war; although there are mines and farms, they are only supplemental to the much greater funds received from fighting.

 

 

* Italy before XI century had a feudal economy without the concept of market: the lord built farms and workshops with his own resources, assigned serfs to work the land and do artisan jobs, and got almost all the profit to spend in further building or military campaigning.

[[Category:Just for Pun]]

[[Category:Strategy Game Tropes]]