Multiple resources

I have been thinking about more than 2 resources too.

4 resources based on 2 variables. Seems to be impossible.

Here is my idea for 3 resources.
Resource B would be based on the body value.
Resource W would be based on the weapon value.
Then there are credits or C, that are based on 2 options.

Option 1 is that C is based on the difference again between B and W.
Option 2 is that C is based on what is equal or actually the lowest value.
In both cases, the value C is subtracted for half from B and from W.

Examples:

Normal units have 50% body and 50% weapon points
Option 1: costs 50% B and 50% W
Option 2: costs 100% C

Support units have 25% body and 75% weapon points
Option 1: costs 50% W and 50% C
Option 2: costs 50% W and 50% C
This seems to be the same.

Meat units have the same as well.
Meat units have 75% body and 25% weapon points
Option 1: costs 50% B and 50% C
Option 2: costs 50% B and 50% C

Walls?
Option 1: 100% B
Option 2: 100% C

I don't like these results tbh.

Maybe I can do something with the attributes.
I have:
Organic and Mechanic
Units and Structures

I think that Units would mainly need credits.
Structures would go with building components.
Then we have Mechanic, which is obviously steel.
And lastly, Organic.... credits again?

Not sure...

Another suggestion from my group was similar.
Organics, Mechanics and "Energenics"

I think that having the "Energenics" fit nicely with units that are fast in movement and rate of fire. Also the distance of the projectiles fit in this one.
But now to find a good balance.
And I guess I have no choice other, than to get something in the game that converts resources.

Once a certain ammount is reached, that resource is less needed.

I think trading would be the only option.
However, I had an idea.

What if players can gather only 1 resource. And in order to get another resource, this resource has to be refined. Not as complex as other games like factorio.

Either the units become cheaper this way over time. Or more access is possible.

So, units cost metal.
And advanced units cost metal AND steel.

Or another resource.

Although, it isn't like several different resources and different costs for the units.
The inflation can actually be done in an easy way.

After a set of time. All resources, including the income. Are lowered. This way, designs will be constant. And the variables are more variable.

Here is an "realistic" example:
The inflation is 25/24 each round.
That is roughly 4%.
And after 10 rounds, roughly 50%.

How it works?
Each round, the players pay 1 credit for every 25 credits they have.
And the resources reduce in income.
Every 25, 1 is subtracted.

Only the resource income might be difficult to handle.
This could be done with 2d10 or a d100.
If a resource starts with 50, the next round it will be 48. Then it reduces every round with 2 until it reaches 25.

It depends on the game, hoe many rounds you have. And how fast you the inflation want to be.

You need to test it out a bit.
It is fidly if there are a lot of resource income.
And the credits a player owns might also be difficult to track.

Let me know what you think?

A primary resource for all:
Meat units, walls, production facilities.
The border is at 50-50. Meaning that a 40-60 unit will cost 80 primairy and 20 secondary.
A 60-40 unit will simply cost 100 primairy.

The secondary resource is for all specialists:
Attributes to weapons and body, support units, projectiles that are produced on the spot, and other modifications.

The primairy resource is going to be materialistic.
The secondairy resource is going to be of energy nature.

It looks a lot like Starcraft now. But with a good logical basis.

I think the resources should be Iron ore and Oil.

The basis of each army will be mid 20th century technology. And the advanced is like 2 centuries ahead.

The balance is often the issue.
I spend some time on RTS design forums.

2 resources are often already a mess.
Why even bother..?

But there was one guy who actually had the same idea.

1 primairy resource. Only half of the designs (or less) the second resource on top of it.
But os also exponentially rarer.

So, you get a resource managment.
And on top of it. A second resource managment.

Only then, a new dimension is added.
But the next problem popped up.
Supposedly, people are too stupid to manage 2 resources that way :D

I am not worried about my game buddies though.

Now to find a good formula in order to split the resources.

The access to any part of the RPS system should be conserved.

The rocket soldier is an infantry unit with a rocket against tanks.
This is clearly a support unit.
But the costs should remain basic.

My second attempt was to have only the first projectile being part of the basic costs. Which would units with a projectile multiplier to 3, easily in a unit with basic costs.
Thus the rocket soldier AND the flamethrower would both be basic units.

The second attempt failed at the moment that there is a choice between 2 (or more) different projectiles.
I can't simply have an average. Because that isn't abuse free.

I have yet to try the "hitting" projectiles. Which would immediately discard the abusement of the calculation.

***

Right now, I have arrived at the following option.
I factor the costs.

A design has 2 parts.

Basic = 0.2 x Hfactor + 1
Support = Σ(Multiplier x Accuracy) - 1
Total = Basic + Support

If Support > Basic then
Secondary = 2 x (Support - Basic)
Primairy = Total - Secondary
endif

If Primairy < 0 then
Primairy = 0
Secondairy = Total
endif

Total factor = Primairy + Secondairy
Costs primairy = Design costs x Primairy / Total factor
Costs secondairy = Design costs x Secondairy / Total factor

I think this will do for now. But I need to test it.

It has come to an end for now.
And so far, what I thought of has worked after several adjustments.

There is still something to decide on though.

Not sure, which one of the 2 would be best.

But that is for a far future concern.

Right now, I decided to postpone the story/quests campaign.
Things have taken so long again.
It has costed me valuable things too.
Unknowingly something was going on, while spending some "autistic" time here.
And the total time has depleted.
I rather focus now on having some proper games again.
Hoping that work life and the retarded will leave me be.

I want to focus on the fun things and my family now.
And I did already this weekend.
Whilest a lot of protest arrived from anything related to work.

Being happy, is that too much to ask from me?

Another reason for not having multiple resources.
If they are based on the properties of units. Then having the games where we use our combination cards. Are not to be readjusted.

In that case. We have only one choice.
Resource A is entirely on the body.
Resource B is entirely on the weapon.

All walls would be entirely be made of resource A.
All 1 shot weapons (except suicide units) would entirely be made of resource B.

Basic units would have a 50-50 distribution.

It is self balancing.
And it looks very simplistic (in a bad way for the smart).

However, in order to win. You need weapons. So resource B would be priority 1. Strategy based on specialism is not an option any more. Production facilities would have the special ability perhaps that their production (resource gathering) is all based on resource A.

Some games have XP.
You get XP for the kills you make. Then spend them all at once for units that are like 3 times more powerfull or adjusted in other area's.

Earlier versions where sickening complicated for new players. So we go with the factor of 3, predesigned, nowadays.

***

Some games have SP.
Strategy points.
This is a bit more complicated.
Players choose designs, which have a certain worth.
Like 300 or 400 or 500 per unit.
The thing is, the region limit and game limit can be for example 1200.
This means that 1 AP, action point can be used on 1200 worth of units.
(We handle retro RTS prices, but single digits are possible too)
The number of units that a player can have is 4x 300 or 3x 400 or 2x 500.
As you can see, the last design is missing 200 credits.
A squad of these is weaker in the long run.

If a player has this design in its faction. Then each round, the player will receive 200 SP.

There are 2 modes.
Mode 3 is spending the SP on any unit.
Mode 2 is spending the SP on designs that give SP.
Mode 1 is spending the SP only on the design that gets SP.

The SP spend will allow for the same worth of units to perform an extra action.
Players can also save up the SP.
So that eventually a certain unit will perform many actions in a round.

In the given example, every 5 rounds, the player has enough SP to have both units worth of 500 to perform 1 extra action. Meaning that while 1200 would be able to do 5 actions in 5 rounds. 1000 would be able to do 6 actions in 5 rounds.

Depending on the number of designs per faction. We might decide if the SP-AP are used in a separate system. Meaning that if a squad performs an action, the cumulative AP will not increase for the SP action.

***

I already named them.
AP, action points.
Each player has 7 per round. It depends on the game though, sometimes we pick only 3 or 6. But 15 has also been tested (and discarded). Sometimes a player can upgrade the AP per round. But this has been proven to be over powered.