Wargames

This covers resource production.

History of resources in Wargames:

In 2005, the game started first with cash, and perhaps surprisingly metal which was used to create units. Around the same time, Food and Oil also came into play, largely as a support for purchasing and transporting troops for battle. Food became a resource for maintaining towns.

Later on, Wood came into the game representing building material, and early units such as archers.

Uranium representing radioactive material ultimately opened up the case for Nuclear weapons, but also civil use in the form of Power plants.

Eventually, Food and wood became consumable units which population took on a regular basis, mainly as a balancing act as the easiest resources to produce.

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In 2.0 release, the game introduces the concept of by-products. Uranium was made a by-product of Metal Mines, but came in three flavours: unenriched is the raw material coming from the mines, while the other two are enriched from the building of the same name. However in 2.0 uranium for power plants and uranium for nukes are two different things, and using the enrichment slider (similar to pre-2.0 slider for civic/war use of Factories) switches how much gets enriched to which category. Raw material does not get enriched at the same rate, requiring far more raw material than the end-product produces. For balancing, weapons grade Uranium requires longer and more raw material than that for power plants.

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Future ideas

By-products for farms and oil rigs could also be a potential idea, however a couple of new unique resources is more likely. A future age metal will likely be created for foreign planets (Moon, and now Mars including its two moons) are visible in game). Stone as the main building material could replace Wood, which currently represents it is also possible; the negative side being that wood could become undesirable and there is little use for players to maintain forests as it is.

Gunpowder as a ammunition and explosive resource is also a potential commodity to trade and use. Deciding how to represent modern replacements however, and the fact that most black powder was produced from caves is a barrier to insertion. The name will likely be used to represent all ammunition related resources, much as 'Wood' currently represents building material, and 'Metal' isn't divided up at all.

Finally, 'Consumables' is a possible additional resource, however not used as a useful resource but as a tax draining one. Lack of consumables can be used to simulate black markets and tax dodging, effecting income. Black market idea could also be used to fund forced revolutions if tied to ideologies.