Economy
Four resource slots, mechanically equivalent in shape but cosmetically renamed per army. The economy is localized — resources live on the tiles that produced them, gatherers walk supply routes between producers and consumers, and engineer projects are paid out of the consumer tile's stockpile. No global player pool. The supply chain is the strategic puzzle.
Resource Slots
Generic placeholder names used in code and design until army-flavored names are designed. Each army will have flavored variants (e.g. a sci-fi army's R4 might be "Plasma Shards"; a fantasy army's R4 might be "Mana Crystals"), but the four slots have the same number, generation, and spend rules across armies.
| Slot | Generic name | Concept |
|---|---|---|
| R1 | Currency | Money / coin |
| R2 | Material | Building / crafting material |
| R3 | Research | Knowledge / research material |
| R4 | Essence | Magic / tech / arcane material |
Generation
Resource Producer rule
- An owned tile set to Resource Producer rule passively generates the configured resource slot at a level-scaled rate. No unit spawn — the tile's job is purely to produce.
- Generated resources stockpile on that tile, capped at
50,000 × tile levelper slot. - A single tile can be retasked between unit-spawning and resource-producing as the front advances; a frontline army-producer becomes a backline resource- producer with one engineer project.
Home Base baseline
The home base passively trickles all 4 resource slots at a low baseline rate (specific rate TBD). This is the recovery floor — even if all dedicated Resource Producer tiles fall, the home base keeps you alive. Replaces the old per-player passive trickle.
Transport — Gatherers
Resources don't appear in a global pool; they have to be moved. Gatherer units walk gather-paths picking up at producers and dropping at consumers along the route.
| Concept | Rule |
|---|---|
| Carry capacity | level² × 100 per resource type — separate per-type slots, mixed cargo allowed. |
| Pickup at producers | Stops on the producer until per-resource fill-% on the gatherer is met (configurable per-tile per-resource). If the stockpile depletes mid-load, the gatherer waits for production. |
| Drop-off at consumers | At each owned consumer tile along the route, drops % of the gatherer's capacity. Default 10%, configurable per-tile per-resource. |
| Drop on death | Cargo drops on the tile as a loose pile — separate from tile stockpile, bypasses tile cap, any team can pick it up. Slow decay (~1%/min of original drop) when uninteracted with. |
| Pickup eligibility | Producer stockpiles are same-team only; loose piles are any-team scavenge. |
The route a gatherer walks is the player's Gather path tree from the producer tile. Per-type traversal rules in Paths & Flow apply — gatherers reverse one hex on enemy contact at the leaf (flee-once) and drop their cargo as a loose pile if killed mid-route.
Spending
| Spend type | Behavior |
|---|---|
| Unit production (auto-spend) | Spawn-X tiles continuously debit their own stockpile by the spawned unit's slot cost. Insufficient stockpile gates spawning. |
| Engineer projects (pay-upfront) | Rule swaps, level-ups, and type conversions are projects. Resources are reserved from the tile's stockpile when the project is queued; engineers contribute work-time afterward. Cancel refunds the materials. |
| Leader unlocks / abilities (R4 reserved) | R4 Essence is reserved for big spends only — leader unlocks, type conversions, late-game upgrades. Not used for unit production. |
Spawn cost slot-mapping
Which resource slots gate each unit type's auto-spend production. Specific numerical costs deferred to balance pass.
| Unit type | Slot gates | Rationale |
|---|---|---|
| Army | R1 Currency + R2 Material | Basic combat: upkeep + equipment |
| Gather | R1 Currency | Cheap labor; single slot |
| Engineer | R1 Currency + R3 Research | Skilled labor; knowledge cost |
| Scout | — | Free — Tower rule regens scouts at no resource cost |
| Defender | R1 Currency + R2 Material | Physical fortification |
Towers — The Special Producer for Scouts
Scouts have no Spawn-Scout rule. Instead, the Tower rule maintains
a pool of level Scouts per tile via free regen — no resource cost
gates the spawn or respawn — and provides a 4-hex vision aura around the tile.
Scouts are the only direct-control unit type, useful for active recon and rapid
claim of empty dormant territory.
The home base inherits Tower mechanics on top of its Home Base rule, providing each faction with its 1 starting Scout and home-base-level vision aura by default.
Tile-Capture Stockpile Behavior
- Resource Producer rule + sub-config preserved through capture.
- Stockpile preserved, but the tile must be de-leveled to capture — each level drop sheds resources beyond the new lower cap.
- Best-case attacker yield: full L1 cap (50K). Most stockpile burns off during the capture grind.
Strategic Notes
Supply lines are real
Cutting an enemy's gather route is now a direct economic strike — producers still produce but stockpiles back up to cap, consumer tiles starve, projects stall. No longer just a metaphor.
Producer placement matters
Resource Producer tiles want to be deep enough to survive raids, near enough to consumers that gatherer round-trips are short. Forward producers fund offense fast but die fast.
Loose piles invite scavenging
Battlefields recently fought over leak loose-pile resources from dead gatherers. Slow-decay means there's a real window to send your own gatherers through to scoop up enemy cargo.
R4 Essence is endgame
Reserved for leader unlocks and late-game conversions. A player who never builds an R4 producer can still play the early-mid game; an R4-rich player gets the late-game power spike.