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* At least the older ''[[The Settlers]]'' games runs on this trope, first games added complexity by requiring roads to connect workshops.
* ''[[Imperialism]]'', similar to Victoria above had resources that needed to be gathered, then in factories refined to better stuff.
* ''[[Dwarf Fortress]]'' mostly runsrevolves onaround this, directly or indirectly.
** Pig Tail Seeds/Rope Reed Seeds (Farm plot) --> Pig Tail/Rope Reed (Farmer's Workshop) --> Thread (Loom) --> Cloth (Clothier's Workshop) --> Bag; Wood (Wood Furnace) --> Ash (Ashery) --> Potash (Kiln) --> Pearlash; Wood (Wood Furnace) --> Charcoal; Bag (Glass Furnace) --> Sand-filled Bag; Sand-filled Bag, Pearlash, Charcoal (Glass Furnace) --> '''Clear Glass'''.
** Tame animal/killed wild animal (Butcher's shop) --> Skinanimal hide <ref>also Fat, Meat, Bone, Prepared organs, Skull, Scale, Hooves, Ivory, Tooth, Hair, Wool - depending on the animal</ref>; Chalk <ref>or Calcite, Limestone, Marble</ref> (Kiln) --> quicklime (Ashery) -> milk of lime; hide + milk of lime + hide (Tanner's Shop) --> parchment sheet; wood (Craftsdwarf's Workshop) --> book binding; sheets (Craftsdwarf's Workshop) --> quire (Library <ref>originals by scholars, copies by scribes</ref>) --> written quire; quire with writing + thread + book binding (Craftsdwarf's Workshop) --> Book.
*** That'sThis ignoringignores that workshops themselves may need refined items to build, and the complex process to create the axe used to cut the tree to get the wood in the first place. Forging requires a metal bar and fuel - charcoal (made at Wood Furnace from wood) or coke (made at Smelter from coal), and the Forge itself, that needs an anvil (which can be made... at a forge, so you have to buy at least one). And the metal has to be refined from ore at a smelter, using fuel again, and more coke if you want steel. Ore and coal have to be dug up with picks (made in the same process as axes). Yikes. Needless to say, a pick, an anvil, and axe rank very high on what resources to bring with you when you start a new fortress.
**** Often players gamble on anvils being available later via merchants and don't take one, and instead bring only ready tools to focus on building up all necessary non-metal industry and basic security first - which is likely to be longer than it takes the first caravan to arrive... or the second... Food and drink industry aren't as long-windedcomplicated as clear glass, but things add up. The upside is that by the time you are ready for smithing, you may well be able to produce qualityenough of trade goods to pay for your anvil and morethen some.
**** While you can keep most goods on the floor, proper use of containers saves a lot of space and time, and containers have to be made. Logs/stones can be cut to 4 much lighter blocks that are interchangeable with them as a building material; this uses a job, but you need to gather less of raw resources, it saves time later because blocks are easier to transport and allow 10x more dense storage (in bins), and it gives the carpenter/mason some practice.
*** A common shortcut is to skip fuel for anything but steel-making, if you have access to magma <ref>and made sure the creatures that can swim in it won't have access to your workshops... which involves making ''more'' items - at very least, grates - from magma-proof materials. Luckily, most can be made of various heat-resistant stones which you most likely will already have by the time you'll dig to magma)</ref>.
*** One shortcut is to not use fuel, but only magma-heated furnaces. Naturally, you'd need to make sure that the creatures who can swim in magma won't have access to your workshops... which involves some extra items made of magma-proof materials. Luckily, most of these can be cut from stone in one job, and you most likely will have some heat-resistant stone long before you'll dig to magma. Also, magma is used to produce obsidian by mixing with water - the process you need to set up, rather than order as a job, and then dig the solid obsidian out - giving you unlimited stone of a fairly high value (thus natural choice for trade goods).
** Refinement also affects strategy of spending embark points. Low-grade resources are ''much'' cheaper. From humble willow logs, you can make light containers and training weapons soon after building a carpenter's shop, even if there are no fitting trees on the map, or they are guarded by giant badgers. If you have thread, you'll have your own cloth, rope, bags and more as needed, so it may be a good idea... unless you want to keep woolly cattle - then as long as you keep a safe pasture, you'll have a steady supply of yarn and milk (which can be turned into cheese). Plants are easier to protect from local fauna, however. Leather will be messy to make on your own, but if you already have it, many items that are fairly expensive in ready form (like quivers and light armor) are but one step away. And so on. You also can spend points on starting skills - there are skills you don't want to learn by trial and error (like medical ones), but skills that you can train may be worth some points too: if dwarves work faster, they'll save time to do some other job - which speeds up development and allows to catch up on making the goods you don't bring with you.
** Every process is a job that keeps some dwarf occupied, which reflects in optimization. E.g. many jobs go faster if done by trained and/or talented workers, but you won't have 1 dwarf for 1 job for a long, long time - for one, because you'd need to provide materials fast enough - and then there's [[Wax On, Wax Off|"cross-training"]].
* In ''[[Minecraft]]'', the [[I Was Told There Would Be Cake|Cake]] has one of the most complicated crafting procedures in the game. The end result is a food item that can almost fully heal you. It requires 3 buckets of milk, 2 sugar, 1 egg and 3 wheat. While some ingredients are, although somewhat uncommon, relatively simple to obtain (i.e. eggs are laid by chickens, sugar is refined at the workbench from sugar cane, which grows near water), others are a bit more complex:
** Wheat - Grown using dirt, a source of water, a hoe, and seeds. The last one is initially obtained by smashing tall grass.
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* In ''[[Sid Meier]]'s [[Colonization]]'', the economy is built on this trope. In theory you ''could'' just sell raw materials to and buy manufactured goods from Europe, but it's much more beneficial in the long term to build your own industrial base in your colonies, especially considering you'll have to fight your mother country in the endgame. Of course, advanced resources mostly are still traded away, but for a greater profit. The only refinements consumed in your own colonies are Ore -> Tools <ref>spent in production of ships, cannons and non-basic building, or used to equip units and then spent by [[Worker Unit|Pioneer]] jobs</ref> -> Muskets <ref>used to equip units</ref> and Food -> Horses.<ref>used to equip units</ref>
* The ''[[Hearts of Iron]]'' games require refining of crude oil into refined fuel. Metal, rare materials, and energy are also "refined" by your industrial capacity into supplies, based on how much of the IC is allocated to producing that resource.
* ''[[LegoLEGO Rock Raiders]]'' features the Ore Refinery, which uses Ore to create Building Studs, a building material which substitutes for Ore in construction and is valued at five Ore per Stud. Upgrading the Ore Refinery allows Building Studs to be generated from fewer and fewer Ore pieces, significantly increasing their value in construction.
* ''Emperor of The Fading Suns'' - you get Food and sometimes Exotica fromare gathered by Farms, Metals, Traces and sometimes Gems fromby Mines and Energy fromby Wells, everythingthe elserest is produced from them. You can purchase stuff, but merchants are kind of cutthroats and also will start trouble if they'll ever accumulate enough of money. Also, youYou can get extra income early at leaston from selling excess of Trace from mines and sometimes Exotica that farms give whether you want it or not, but you'll alwaysusually get more from refined stuff, thus Electronics plantand usuallyChemical ismay onebe ofamong the first towns (others areafter Farms, because [[You Require More Vespene Gas|you always need food]], more and more food]] as you build units, and ''a lot'' for settlers you needEngineers to create all those buildings, and possibly Wells, because <s>oil</s> Energy is used to produce ''anything'' else). The first two add 150 Fb of value and Fusorium adds 4455 Fb (!) per turn. However, the Bioplant runs at a loss of 50, and Cyclotron at a loss of 1000 Fb of possible profit... yet while it's possible to buy these resources from the League, with their markup it would be ''even more'' expensive - assuming the nearest Agora will have enough for your needs at all.
** Chemicals plant: 10 Energy + 5 Trace -> 10 Chemicals (for rocket weapons, hovercraft, space fighters and a few exotic units)
** Electronics plant: 10 Energy + 5 Trace -> 10 Electronics (for aircraft and most scout or advanced units, including Officers you need to control planets without sending your precious Nobles there)
** Ceramsteel plant: 10 Energy + 10 Chemicals + 7 Trace -> 10 Ceramsteel (forhovercraft and other advanced tougher vehicles, [[Powered Armor]] and most spaceships).
** Fusorium: 10 Energy + 7 Electronics -> 10 Monopols (for hovercraft, energy weapons and [[Powered Armor]] and energy weapons, including space defence and armed spaceships).
** BioplantCyclotron: 10 Energy + 10 ExoticaMonopols + 107 ChemicalsGems -> 101 Singularity (jump-capable Biochemsspaceships).
** Wetware plantBioplant: 10 Energy + 10 CeramsteelExotica + 10 BiochemsChemicals -> 10 WetwareBiochems (this and Biochems are used for exotic units, though- mostly [[The Dark Arts|proscribed or borderline technologies]]).
** CyclotronWetware plant: 10 Energy + 10 MonopolsCeramsteel + 710 GemsBiochems -> 110 SingularityWetware <ref>for jump drives</ref>(ditto).
* When ''[[City of Heroes]]'' introduced bases for super groups, the mechanism for creating improvements involved extracting or combining "ordinary" salvage to create any of about half a dozen special components, which were then combined using randomly-dropped recipes for the various items with which one could outfit a base. The process was complicated, tedious, and quickly abandoned by the developers for a somewhat simpler, more streamlined scheme that didn't involve any "refining".
 
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[[Category:Money Tropes]]
[[Category:Strategy Game Tropes]]
[[Category:Refining Resources{{PAGENAME}}]]