Resources

Background

In traditional RTS's only a few resources are kept, mostly categorized. Often there are a few type of resources: money/gold/credits + a few others. For instance, wood, rock, iron, oil, gasses. Used for diversity in order to construct (complex/advanced) things. It offers a bit more of a challenge to be able to construct good units (often better units/troops require a more diversity and quantity of different resources).

I envision that resources are more tightly coupled. I think resource gathering itself should be rather easy. However, complexity can be added by using markets, stock prices and have money effect more than purchasing power. On Arrakis there is plenty of Spice, yet how you use that spice is up to the player.

The player will need to satisfy several goals tied to spice (one obvious goal is to deliver a quota to the Emperor every X time) yet at the same time the Spice can (and should!) be traded for credits and water. The trading mechanisms should be easy to use and should be continuous so the player does not have to 'remind himself' of trading stuff regularly.

My vision

The Spice Melange

"The Spice is the most precious substance in the universe."

The spice melange is what ties the universe to Arrakis. Without it there would be no commerce and civilisations would end. A lot of parties are interested in Spice since it is incredibly valuable in many ways.

Parties interested in spice

• The Emperor
• The Spacing Guild (responsible for interstellar travel using the spice to 'fold space')
• Mercenary
• The Fremen (for several reasons (like survival), but also for bribing the Spacing Guild to keep their satelites from reporting Fremen activity to obscure the real plans of the Fremen (and their real numbers)

How spice can be used

• To trade for credits or water
• To bribe other parties
• ship to the Emperor ("The spice must flow")

How to obtain Spice

• Harvesting spice
• Missions

Examples

• Pay Mercenaries to launch attacks on enemy players
• Give to Fremen to befriend them (although it won't be enough to just give spice)
• Bribe the Spacing Guild yourself to avoid radar detection (given you know how to directly contact them)
• Flood the market with spice and let other players suddenly be confronted by abundance therefor getting less money for their spice == less agility (building stuff, sustaining troops, etc)

Credits/Solari/Money

Obviously spice plays a big role, but other aspects are interesting as well. Spice in itself will not be enough, but it will play a vital role in acquiring another resource: money.

In order to construct things, you need to pay for construction materials, labor hours, etc. This is done with credits (or Solari?, see: http://dune.wikia.com/wiki/Solari)

The credits are a currency. Its value is determined by the Spice.

Example: you can exchange Spice for money for a given rate. If there is too much spice 'out there' the amount of credits you get for an amount of spice (lets say 1 gram?) will drop (abundance). Though, when Spice is scarce people will pay more for the same amount of spice. The amount of spice 'out there' is determined by the amount of spice that is shipped out of Arrakis in a given time frame.

A player must be able to influence the market by deliberately shipping too much spice

What are credits used for?

• All troops want to get paid salary. Depending on how well you pay them they might not obey orders or side with others...
• Buildings need to be kept in condition, requiring repair costs and manpower.
• Some buildings require manpower to operate (ie turrets, outposts)

How to obtain credits?

• Trade on the Imperial Market for spice
• From other parties / missions

Water

On Arrakis, one could say water is more valuable than the spice melange.

What is water used for?

• The Fremen - for their dream to terraform Arrakis
• Your troops. Water == life. With enough water your troops will function optimally.
• Buildings (for troops keeping your buildings operational)

How to obtain water

• Dew collectors
• Conquer a Fremen Sietch (which so happens to have a big collection of water)...
• Befriend a Fremen Sietch (will get you all water at once (like when conquering) but you do benefit on the long term (gain water over time))
• Get it from the Imperial Market - though very expensive (Water sellers are sly business men!)
• Missions

Examples

• You rantion your troops because you don't have much water - your troops will not function optimally (less firepower, less move speed, easily tired, etc).

Power (Wind)

Arrakis winy on places, which makes it possible to generate power using Wind traps.

What is power used for?

• to power structures

How to obtain

• Place windtraps in windy places (less windy == less power generated)