Resource-Item Storage-Creation-Processing

Resources and items can be stored in either a global or a local position. Games like Starcraft and Warcraft and Majesty use global storage. City builder games like Emperor: Rise of the Middle Kingdom and Stronghold use local storage.

Everyone is mostly familiar with global systems but I will touch on the one difference possible in Mandate Engine games. Mandate allows Total Annihilation style streaming creation and expenditure of resources globally. Think Zero-K.

Local storage is more complicated. Local processes for processing can only consume resource located at the structure that possesses them. Resources must be stored in storage structures when finished and new raw materials brought in. Certain structures can sell items in some game types. These can have unlimited items or need to be stocked. There is a basic transport command whereby a unit will move back and forth from a storage facility to a production one or maybe more than 2 nodes in the production graph. Some commands set up trade routes for either money or just transport of goods which can be almost arbitrarily long. It might be necessary in some cases to assign escorts to transport units leaving the safety of one base to go to another.

One of the build command options requires you to set a foundation and then bring in resources which can be used in streaming production to construct a building. Standard transport command should be able to do this.

Resource or item creation produces items or resources on a timer from thin air. You might build some of these on nodes or pre spawn them for capture, or you might in the example of taxes have resources spawn from a not visible to the player economy. This can be local or global.

Processing is special in that it consumes one or a group of resources and outputs either other resources including useful by products like ash and the target resource, say charcoal, or it can output an item.

Resource chains can be as complex as the game designer or modder desires.

These options are enable in the unit and/or item XML. Another part of the wiki will cover XML options.