Ridiculously-Fast Construction: Difference between revisions

 

 

* [[Lampshaded]] in ''[[World of Warcraft]]'' by the ingenious goblin invention "Town-in-a-Box" used in the goblin starting area, which houses several buildings as well as living goblins, who afterwards complain of it being dark and uncomfortable to be stuffed into a hundreth of your size.

* The MMO ''[[PlanetSide]]'' also uses the Nanoconstruction explanation. Additionally, vehicles that you aren't using any more can be set to disassemble themselves and disappear, and characters with Engineering certifications can carry Nanorepair devices to "heal" machines, and multipurpose "mines" which can be transformed into turrets, mines and others things as needed. Refuelling the main nanotank at each base is part of the game, so that you don't run out of juice in the middle of a battle.

* Similarly, in the fantasy-themed ''[[Sacrifice]]'', buildings and units are not constructed at all, but summoned/created out of thin air by magic—literally, [[A Wizard Did It]].

* The ''[[Command & Conquer]]'' series made its overcoming of this trope an integral part of the story. Tiberium is the element that allows for 'micro-manufacturing' of all those buildings within about 5 seconds or so, which is why GDI and NOD fight over it so much. The official strategy guide for the original ''Command and Conquer'' not only explains how Tiberium enables quick, automatic building construction, but even goes into how your troops and tanks never run out of ordnance, due to a Tiberium reinforced supply of micro-manufactured warheads. They even go into a long spiel on how Engineers can capture enemy buildings so fast—they're trained ''so well'' in the use of shaped charges that they could walk straight through a bank vault without changing pace. Further, much of their training is conducted completely blind, and off-color jokes abound about how quickly they can accomplish certain operations in the dark. In the case of NOD, the majority of all vehicles are also bought and flown in via airstrip, eliminating the construction aspect of the necessity to explain why they materialize so quickly, but not how deliveries are so rapid and constantly successful.

** In ''[[Warcraft|Warcraft III]]'', only the orcs and humans use workers to build structures in the traditional sense. The undead instead summon them, and the night elves grow them like plants, even though only some of the buildings are sentient trees, and others are obviously artificial in nature. The game makes no effort to explain the ridiculously fast training for any of the four races, but in the single-player campaign, it is implied that all the units already exist and are fully trained, and the buildings only serve to bring them into action. In some cutscenes, as examples of [[Gameplay and Story Segregation]], we see units training outdoors "for real".

* ''[[Battlezone (1998 video game)|Battlezone 1998]]'' has "bio-metal", an insanely useful and multipurpose recyclable living metal that can be reformed and shaped innumerable times with the application of energy. It's [[Lost Technology]], left behind by [[Ancient Astronauts]]—who seem to have inspired the Greek gods—that were subsequently slain when some of their creations [[Turned Against Their Masters]]. Chasing after bio-metal, as with the Tiberium in ''[[Command & Conquer]]'', is the central plot driver of the game.

* ''[[Empire At War|Star Wars: Empire at War]]'' has a slightly different, but still pretty absurd, take on this one. Units can be produced only in the strategic galactic map, and take much longer periods of time to produce. And can be dropped into the battle in limited numbers. This would be a justifiable subversion if it weren't for the fact that you can build the Death Star from scratch in less then a month, (game time), and most units in less then a day.

* ''[[Hostile Waters|Hostile Waters: Antaeus Rising]]'' explains this with nanotechnology. The 'base' in the game, the adaptive cruiser Antaeus, is equipped with "Creation Engines" which contain trillions of nano scale assembler robots capable of creating new vehicles from blueprints stored in the carrier in just seconds. The only resource required is 'metal' obtained by scavenger units using disassembler beams to reclaim various wreckage from the battlefield. The disassembling process does take time, presumably due to the lesser numbers of nanobots involved.

* Averted, along with many other RTS tropes, in the many historical RTS games by [[Creator/Paradox|Paradox]], such as the ''[[Europa Universalis]]'' and ''[[Hearts of Iron]]'' series. These actually feature realistic building and training times, so even though a game takes place over many years, you still really have to plan ahead to make good use of them. ''Hearts of Iron'' is an especially interesting example, as construction times vary wildly depending on what you're building. Replacing a militia unit takes about a month. What's that? The ''USS Enterprise'' was sunk? You're gonna have to make do without for a while, it takes almost ''two years'' to build a new aircraft carrier. It also varies depending on what else you've been building - order a run of multiple destroyers or divisions and each unit past the first will be produced slightly faster than the previous one as the factories already have the necessary tooling set up and experience in place.

* Justified in ''[[Halo Wars]]'' as similarly to ''[[Dawn of War]]'' buildings, units, and almost all of your resources are brought down from your ship in orbit, UNSC supply pads periodically show ships landing and off-loading supplies and the construction cinematic for a new base depicts two drop ships dropping the two halves of the base which are then welded together.

* In ''[[Majesty]]'', it's a good idea to recruit gnomes. They can build things freakishly faster than the peasants and dwarves. Get a group of 9 gnomes, all your buildings will be complete before you can type the "restoration" cheat.

* ''[[Universe At War]]: Earth Assault'': the Hierarchy actually has construction that seems to take longer then it should. Their buildings are constructed by their orbiting ships, all their builder units do is create unnecessarily elaborate circles to be scanned and read like bar codes. As for units, most of them units are teleported by their [[Humongous Mecha]].

* ''[[Rise of Legends]]'' plays it straight, but it might be explainable for the Cuotl (who look like they're just teleporting their units and buildings onto the map) and the Alin ([[A Wizard Did It|who are masters of magic, and this is clearly shown]].) No explanation for the Vinci, however.

* Played straight in the ''[[Achron]]'' alpha. Buildings are constructed ridiculously fast, even for an RTS. However, this could be explained by the game being in its alpha stage: there's a good chance that it'll slow down to standard RTS speeds by the time the finished product rolls out.

* ''[[Earth 2150]]'':

== Simulation Game ==

* ''[[Animal Crossing]]'' mostly runs in real time based on the system's clock. But when another villager wants to move in, her house just appears overnight.

** Residences and workplaces are gradually and automatically constructed in zones that you designate. Still, the buildings seem to spring up awfully quick, even for the sped-up time scale.

* Averted in some of the ''[[Harvest Moon]]'' games, where construction of new facilties on your farm take at least two days to complete, given the right amount of materials and gold. Played straight, however, in ''Island of Happiness'', where the island's lone carpenter, Gannon, can put together anything overnight once you give him enough money to work with. This seems to suggest that he's [[Charles Atlas Superpower|really good at his job]], or that he [[Must Have Lots of Free Time]].

[[Category:Plot Time]]

[[Category:Strategy Game Tropes]]