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{{trope}}

'''Imperial Tank''': [[Hand Wave|Don't ask]] [[MST3K Mantra|ridiculous questions!]]|''[[Command & Conquer]]: Red Alert 3 tutorial''}}

 

Because [[The Computer Is a Cheating Bastard]], don't [[Not Playing Fair with Resources|expect it to actually need resources]]. He's still gathering them, but it's likely he can do without. Running out of resources is the surest way to hear the [[Most Annoying Sound]].

 

{{examples}}

 

Almost every RTS has some sort of Resource gathering, but here's some examples of the different types of resources:

 

 

* The original ''[[Warcraft]]'' is the [[Trope Codifier]] for the Gold- and Lumber-type resources. Gold, the primary resource, is obtained from gold mines, which contain finite supplies of gold, have a clear maximum collection rate, and collapse once they have been completely drained. Lumber is used to build Archers (or Spearmen, if you're playing the orc campaign) and Catapults. There's also a Population-type "resource" which extends the [[Arbitrary Headcount Limit]], and is acquired by [[Construct Additional Pylons|building more farms or burrows]].

** ''Warcraft 3'' also has another minor tertiary resource - corpses. The most obvious way to get them is to kill ground units or creatures, but the Undead can also produce them at Graveyards or in Meat Wagons, and carry them around in Meat Wagons. They're primarily used by the Undead for raising Skeletons and Carrion Beetles, healing Ghouls and Abominations, and for the Death Knight's [[Animate Dead]] ability. They're also used by the Night Elf Warden's Avatar of Vengeance, the Human Paladin's Resurrection ability(only friendly corpses), and the Tauren Spirit Walker's Ancestral Spirit ability(only Tauren corpses).

*** Earlier in development (as shown in several previews years before the game came out), corpses were supposed to play a far greater role in the undead economy, but this could never be properly balanced, so they were scaled back to the limited use seen in the actual game.

** Zerg larvae are used to produce ALL Zerg units and they spawn from the main production buildings once every 14 seconds or so.

** Population also show up in Starcraft. Each race has a standard Population cap (Terran supply depots, Zerg overlords, Protoss [[Construct Additional Pylons|pylons]]), independent of each other. If you can acquire a [[Worker Unit]] of a different race, you get an entirely new population cap to work with that applies only to that other race's units.

** ''[[Age of Mythology]]'' ditches Stone, but adds [[Gods Need Prayer Badly|Favor]], used for mythological units and technologies.

*** In general, Microsoft-published RTS's tend to follow a pattern: Food from farms and fishing boats, wood from trees, gold/wealth from mines and caravans, and stone/metal from mines. Also a population cap that is boosted by constructing houses.

** The Orks also have population, as you need to build more Waaagh! banners to increase the Population cap on your army. In the ''Soulstorm'' expansion, the Sisters of Battle have a "Faith" resource generated and stored by specific units and buildings while the Dark Eldar harvest Soul Power from dead foes and allies ; both enable the use of powerful abilities which consume the resource. The Necrons offer an interesting variation on the trope, as they use requisition as a Power-type resource, each listening post built over a strategic location improving the speeds at which units and buildings are built (up to a 100% bonus for 5 listening posts) and power pays for ''everything''.

** In ''[[Dawn of War]] 2'', power is a Lumber-Type resource. Some lower tier units only require requisition.

** The affection and respect of the townspeople can in some ways also be thought of as a resource.

* ''[[Submarine Titans]]'', an underwater RTS, has Metal for building stuff, Gold for researching technology, Corium for giving energy to your ships' weapons, and "Oxygen" which is analogous to Power. Silicons, an alien race, use different resources: Silicon (their equivalent of Metal), Corium and Energy (their equivalent of Oxygen.)

** Unlike RTSes, however, the only resource ''you'' need (as Mayor) is money. Power, water, and waste management are things you build with that money that are necessary to attract Sims (i.e. citizens), create jobs, and gain popularity. Since population, jobs, and popularity are ([[Video Game Cruelty Potential|theoretically]]) your goal, these "resources" are actually more like the ''units'' in an RTS, i.e. the tools with which you achieve your aim. However, it is true that money works like Gold and power works like Power, as do water (with the proper infrastructure) and waste management (again, with proper infrastructure).

* In ''[[Achron]]'', all the races require 'L-Crystal' and 'Q-Plasma', which fulfill the roles of Gold and Lumber respectively. CESO (the humans) have a resource called 'Reserves' which ostensibly looks like Population (its icon is a small stick-figure person, and all units have a small integer cost), but it doesn't act as a unit cap; Importers continuously generate more and more Reserves over time... its closer to a cap on the number of units you can generate per unit time. The Vecgir also have a power resource called, appropriately, "power". When power demand exceeds supply, vecgir vehicles do not regenerate energy, eliminating the ability to use special abilities like self teleport.

* Initially, in ''[[Space Empires]]'' you had construction points generated by facilities, which were affected by the value of the planet. In IV, this resource was split into three: Minerals (gold), Organics, and Radioactives (lumbers). Population simply generates itself if you have at least one million citizens.

* One of the most infamous issues with the horrid ''[[Left Behind]] Eternal Forces'' can be summed up as follows: men are a gold resource, women are a lumber resource.

* ''[[Plants vs. Zombies]]'' mostly relies on sunlight, which is the gold type listed above, although the backyard and roof levels do have a variant of the population type, with lily pads being required for almost all pool development and flower pots being required for all roof levels (although you're always supplied with at least some of the latter as appropriate).

* A non-videogame example, but the characters in the webcomic [[Homestuck]] must collect resources in order to build weapons and items. It is implied that there are around thirty six types.

* The economy in the ''[[X (video game)|X-Universe]]'' games revolves around the production of wares. Energy is spontaneously generated on solar power plants, and is required in the production of every other ware. Minerals are mined from asteroids and are used in tech factories and military equipment. Bio (wheat, raw meat, etc) is made by bio factories and used by secondary factories and food factories. Food (burgers, MREs, etc) is used in the production of Tech and Military equipment. Secondary factories build mostly non-essential goods, though some Tech factories need them. Tech (microchips, fighter drones, etc) are not used in the production of non-player wares (though they are used by the player to build ships), and Tech typically has some utility, like placing satellites in sectors or defending stations with automated laser turrets. Military equipment (lasers, shields, missiles) built essential equipment for equipping ships. Every race has its own unique Bio, Secondary, and Food factories, and their Tech and Military factories require that race's food. For example, an Argon Particle Accelerator Cannon Forge requires the Argon's Meatsteak Cahoonas, Energy, and Minerals.

 

{{reflist}}

[[Category:Video Game Difficulty Tropes]]

[[Category:Strategy Game Tropes]]