How do we improve resource harvesting in Real Time Strategy games?

I was recently asked the question; "how do we make resourcing more interesting?" And of course, me being me, it's not really a question with a simple and straightforward answer. First off, we have to figure out why we want resourcing to be interesting, and what the idea of 'interesting resourcing' even means. Then, we can look at interesting resource systems to see what they do well.

Finally, we'll wrap up with a simple set of rules for resourcing that should be generally applicable across the board for strategy games. Please note, I do say "generally" since I don't think there is a solid universally good resource system that will work in any game. Your StarCrafts are going to have different economic needs from your Supreme Commanders, which will have different needs from something more tactical like Iron Harvest, after all.

(you can read the original post and more at my blog)

Defining 'Interesting'

For me, resourcing is one of the core pillars of the strategy genre. Without something to build up, and limits that force players to make tough choices about what they're going to do next, what you're making isn't really an RTS to me. And if we're talking about this fundamental piece of the RTS puzzle, it makes sense to try to do it right and to make it an enjoyable and interesting part of the game.

Mr. Callum McCole, the game designer and proprietor of Generals Gentlemen who occasionally puts some of his excellent RTS analysis into this very blog, has been writing a lot about what makes RTS games fun. Things like super units, and meta campaigns, and what have you. And I think that is a good place to start.

But the words 'fun' and 'interesting' - what do they even mean in this context? Is the idea that you should be jumping for joy with each SCV you produce?

I mean, couldn't hurt right?

But the idea, at least as far as I'm concerned, is that RTS live and die by how they engage players' attention and present them with ways to show mastery while not overloading them with unnecessary work. Maximum depth achieved via a minimum of required complexity. That is, of course, always the goal.

Realizing the Goal

For me, it sometimes rankles a bit that players have so many options when it comes to engaging the enemy, and for building out their tech infrastructure, but what feels like comparatively few when it comes to handling the other big bit of the game: their actual income. Think about it. In StarCraft (as, actually, in most RTS), about half of your army by population usually ends up being composed of a single unit: workers. You have like, 90 population of SCVs and the other 90 is divided up into whatever mix of units you're using to take the fight to your opponent. Surely, we can find little ways to increase this diversity without killing players under a glut of complexity.

... I promise, I won't just use StarCraft as an example. It's just always so easy to use as a launch point for talking about what happens in RTS games. We could also use villagers in Age of Empires, since you're in the same boat in that game with a ton of diversity and choice in offensive units, but far less so when it comes to economics.

And I have a couple of examples that give me hope in regards to simple systems that still provide players with a wealth of options regarding resourcing. In the next section, we'll take a look at games like C&C3 and the Dune games from Westwood, as well as games in the Total Annihilation space. Age of Empires will also be making an appearance, though in that regard I'm mostly looking at how it handles its Food resource (the Market is another praiseworthy system but I won't be going into much detail there, sorry).

The best resource systems, hands down

Food in Age of Empires is like, one of my gold standards for resource systems. First, in comes in multiple forms: gazelles that run from you when you get close to them, elephants that attack your villagers and can kill them if you're not careful, easy-to-gather but quick-to-consume berries, and of course farms, which are cost-inefficient but a renewable resource. There's even fish for if you're going to be going for water-based play. It's all just so glorious to me. There are tons of decisions to be made in the early game, there's ways to mess with your opponent (e.g. stealing sheep from them, killing animals early so they don't have the option to use them for food, killing either villagers or farms or resource stockpiles etc).

One good example of a multi-part system is Emperor: Battle for Dune. Having Carryalls support spice harvesters is a really neat symbiotic relationship. Harvesters can actually work without Carryalls, but the Carryall lets you mine anywhere on the map with ease.

There's a really fun dynamic to that system, considering the hostility of spice blows and worm attacks and enemy units tracking you down to kill your harvesting operations. Also, with Refineries having additional harvester slot upgrades, there's a surprising amount of nuance involved. It would have been even more interesting if Carryalls could ferry other units around the map (perhaps they actually did do this and I never took advantage of it? That sounds like me).

Lastly, Grey Goo had an interesting idea with its resource. By running in 'veins' underground, it was possible to have 1 player mine out a resource zone really quickly by tapping all of the geysers in an area, or to have players competing with each other to mine out a vein quickly. Unfortunately, it didn't often work out that way in the game. I would've loved to see more mileage pulled out of that system. 

You could spend a whole article talking about the intricacies of Total Annihilation and Supreme Commander's system, but I'll only touch on it briefly. Using resource and energy storage to modify unit costs and build times is pure damn genius, and positional resource advantages for structures is woefully underutilized in the genre.

I'll wrap up quickly with a quick note about Ashes of the Singularity: Escalation's Substrate faction and their economic options. The optional harvester unit, which boosts the production from a control point, as well as the Support Powers that can be used to briefly boost your income, are exactly the sorts of thing I want to see in RTS games. These things aren't necessary, you don't just lose if you don't use them, and they don't stop your entire economy when they're not utilized, but with careful planning and expenditure (since they themselves take up resources that could be used elsewhere, including the scarce Quanta resource that is so important for Ashes) they can be used to tip the scale just enough to matter. It's really smart in my humble opinion.

Army harvesting and combat workers

I also really like systems that get your army involved. In my personal StarCraft 2 mod, SCRAP, some resources are locked away inside of neutral structures on the map, and you have to take your army to kill the buildings to get the resources out. Additionally, one faction's worker is also it's basic fighting unit (WarCraft 3 has this with the Ghoul as well) which leads to some hard decisions about how and when to allocate those units to fighting versus harvesting.

Warcraft 3 has some of the best examples of this in the entire genre. First off, the XP resource (yes, I count it as a resource in this particular case) is mostly gathered by actually fighting things, and we all know that creep camps and keeping units from turning into XP for the enemy are huge parts of the game.

But the utility of worker units is something that I particularly love in this game. Wisps are a phenomenal design for a worker unit: they gather lumber without killing trees, but more importantly: they have tactical utility. Wisp explosions can be HUGE in WC3, and watching workers used in multiple areas of the game is something I love to see. Peasants turning into militia is another thing I like seeing (though it never feels very effective to me). The Horde's raiding mechanic is another stroke of genius, allowing Grunts and Raiders to generate income by attacking structures. It's little touches like these, folks, that drive games to the top level.

In Conclusion

I don't want to stop writing about this. It's such a full and rich topic. I haven't even touched on resources themselves yet. Like, the actual design of Tiberium is masterful. It hurts infantry that walk on it. There's so much to unpack there. It's out on the map instead of tucked close to you where you can easily protect your workers (there's a lot to unpack there too!) and at least in C&C 3 slowly regenerates over time. Spice in the Dune games can spontaneously appear in a unit-killing Spice Blow. In Grey Goo, harvesters loaded with resources explode when they die, which can kill attacking units if you're unlucky - or, lucky, depending.

Anyway, what it boils down to, is that your resources themselves should be interesting, the workers involved need to have interesting systems supporting how they harvest or store resources, the systems could have extra components, etc. It's easy to go overboard: in Earth 2150, one faction had 2 separate structures for processing resources, and I think 2 units involved as well. That felt too rickety to me, especially since both other faction's systems were much simpler.

Look at how the resource itself impacts the game. Is it a natural defense that must be preserved, like Lumber in Warcraft? Is it a murderous nuisance like Tiberium? Can players compete over stockpiles of it, like you see in C&C3 with some of the large central Tiberium fields?

Look at how the units that harvest the resource interact with the player's army. Providing combat utility for workers, or resource-gathering utility for combat units, is often overlooked.

Look at how buildings can be used to improve the system. Drop off points are a good start (here's lookin' at you, Lumberyard), but there's so much more space there, as Supreme Commander shows us.

Lastly, look at ways you can include semi-optional harvesting accessories that conflict with other economic or military priorities. Like spending Quanta (used to raise popcap and upgrade damage) to increase the income of other resources, or creating expensive units that can boost workers alongside of one's army.

There's so much out there besides green gas and blue crystals.

(you can read the original post and more at my blog)