History Main / ConstructAdditionalPylons

* The whole ''{{X-COM}}'' series. You need to build facilities to house your soldiers, scientists, engineers, craft and various supplies, you do not build people - these are recruited and delivered using some normal transport - and building your own craft in the midgame takes relatively realistic amount of time (they are pretty much fighters or transport fighters ranging from 14k - 34k man hours per one - this only counts the work your engineers do though. The construction costs you materials and money, which means there are probably lots of subcontractors who supply you with various non-alien parts in the design). The third installment, Apocalypse, expands on this. You can now no longer recruit anonymous guys from a practically bottom-less pool. You have applications which you browse to find the best skilled people and if there are no applications, you can't recruit anyone, period. Until the pool replenishes that is. The various vehicles have an headcount limit, but far from arbitrary - you can only stick so many guys in the cramped transport. In Apocalypse, this could be remedied by landing several transports at once or ferrying the agents group after group. In the tactical portion, you were limited to IIRC 6 squads of 6 people each though...

* In ''VideoGame/LegoRockRaiders'', you are only allowed to teleport in 9 [[WorkerUnit Rock Raiders]] before you have to construct a Support Station. After that, you get ten additional worker spaces for each Support Station constructed.

* ''VideoGame/SupremeCommander'', spiritual successor to the aforementioned ''TotalAnnihilation'', has as a central plot-point the ACU (Armored Command Units), a marvel of technology that can create enormous armies out of nowhere (actually, exploiting the current landscapes of its mass and energy). This theoretically would reduce the casualties of war to, well, one single commander per battle. The problem is that the Aeon are fond of "Purging" non-believers (and thus, killing civilians in civilian structures) while the UEF is not above targeting civilian structures for the moral effect. Even the Cybran, in their bandit form, not under the fatherly leadership of Brain-in-a-futuristic-holographic-Jar Dr. Gustaf Brackman, tend to target civilians. You, ultimately, don't need the civilian structures to raise your headcount as your army is completely automated. They are there only for story-driven and aesthetic purposes.

Several of the best-regarded games in the genre are ones that do something interesting with the concept. In ''VideoGame/{{Battlezone|1998}}'', the struggle for the AppliedPhlebotinum behind such wonders leads to a plot where the UsefulNotes/ColdWar is secretly duked out in hovertanks across the solar system. In ''TotalAnnihilation'', the ability to build armies out of nowhere is not an incongruity but the basis of the gameplay mechanics. If one constructor can build another constructor, then those two can build four, those eight, those sixteen...

* Arbitrary restrictions on placement of buildings, usually called the control radius or somesuch. TropeCodifier ''VideoGame/DuneII'' could justify it by restricting your construction to rock, instead of building your houses on sand. Most games don't have such justifications. Increasing this radius is part of why ''StarCraft'' tells you to construct those [[TropeNamer additional pylons]].

[[HowUnscientific Highly unrealistic]] and often not even addressed, this is still [[NecessaryWeasel necessary to some fans]]. The feeling of building and managing a city in wartime is oft preferable as a fighting experience than going through with tactics and strategy. A great many varieties of AppliedPhlebotinum are invoked as justification, generally some way of ultra-fast manufacturing or teleporting assets onto the field. This is such a staple of RealTimeStrategy that games lacking it are sometimes categorized as being in a different genre altogether - specifically, Real Time Tactics.

'''Common fantastic/unrealistic elements include the following:'''

* In ''TotalAnnihilation'' all sides start out with a Commander. The Commander builds factories that build construction units that build more factories and power plants and defenses. While there is no arbitrary limit on the size of your base, you are restricted to building mobile units from factories only. Unlike many other RTS games, resource collection is mostly preformed by stationary buildings - your construction units can reclaim wreckage of destroyed units, rocks, miscellaneous metallic structures, trees and flora, and the bodies of dead alien creatures (the serpents and scorpions) for a set amount of metal or energy, but otherwise you need to depend on stationary buildings for a steady stream of resources. Resource management is an important strategy, as the player who can control more of the metal deposits can get the upper hand.

* Played completely straight in the upcoming real-time strategy game ''{{Achron}}''.

* In the second ''The Lord Of The Rings: The Battle For Middle-Earth'' game, the amount of farms (or mallorn trees in the case of the elves, or mines in the case of the dwarves) determines how many command points you have, capping at 1000.

** Averted in DOW2 and its expansions; the main campaigns feature no base building at all, simply capturing strategic points and at most setting up an automated defense turret. Multiplayer only featured your main production building and whatever structure you could build on captured points.
* In ''LegoRockRaiders'', you are only allowed to teleport in 9 [[WorkerUnit Rock Raiders]] before you have to construct a Support Station. After that, you get ten additional worker spaces for each Support Station constructed.

* ''Sudden Strike'' has no base building at all; you have a set number of forces to use in a given scenario and must make do with those. Enemy bases and factories can be captured though, repaired and in some scenarios put to work.

* ''GroundControl'' has the player select their units at the beginning of each level, and then fly them in from orbital {{Drop Ship}}s. Buildings and units are never constructed.

* ''WorldInConflict'' completely eschews base building, but does involve building small field fortifications at control points. While it is not realistic to have everything flown onto the field of battle during the fighting, it is a good deal better than pumping them out on the fly from factories.

* The ''NintendoWars'' series has all the buildings on a map in place prior to deployment, which you'll have to capture with infantry to use. Although factories produce military hardware seemingly out of money instantly, you can't build more of the factories themselves.

* In ''Battle Realms'' you built the buildings to train soldiers, however, in order to actually get soldiers, you have to tell the peasants to train in the building. Apparently, the unit cost was the food/water that recruit needed.
* In PopulousTheBeginning, in order to train warriors, you need to send peasants to the barracks.

* ''EndWar'' has no buildings (except Uplinks, which are mission objectives, and cover, but they're not stuff you build), and only the ArbitraryHeadcountLimit, your Command Points, and your available reinforcements deciding how many units you can deploy to a given battlefield.

* ''{{Blitzkrieg}}'', a WWII [=RTS=] that SugarWiki/NeedsMoreLove, lacked bases or resources of any kind. You have all your units at the start, and if you lose them they're gone. (Except for infantry, who can be resupplied as long as one member of the squad is still alive.) Sometimes you would get extra units in the form of 'reinforcements' arriving, but that was it.

* ''DawnOfWar'' also has most of these gameplay elements. It also does away with traditional resource gathering (mostly -- you still build field generators). The resource you must gather is ''controlled territory'' (represented by Strategic Points). The more of the map you hold, the quicker your requisition points come in.

* ''VideoGame/DuneII'', while not the first RTS game, is the prime TropeMaker here. It and its derivative ''CommandAndConquer'' and ''Red Alert'' game series feature every element mentioned above to some degree.
** The first ''CommandAndConquer'' game did have a minor avoidance of this ... as Nod, you didn't manufacture your vehicles. Instead, you bought them, and had to fly them in. Given what's going on, you'd think that the backing powers would give you a bit more opening resources when you're, say, [[AdamSmithHatesYourGuts staging an attack on enemy HQ that's meant to wipe them off the planet.]]
* For the FourX-based ''RiseOfNations'', you build whole cities and infrastructure instead of normal bases: the cities expand your territory, your infrastructure increases your resource revenue, the resource increase only applies to farms, mines and lumber fields built within a certain radius of your city, you can only build within your own land. However, building a state is really the point; the game is really aiming at "{{RTS}}-style ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}}''" than ''CommandAndConquer''-style war. The EasyLogistics of battle are averted as your units suffer attrition damage when inside enemy turf, which is nullified if you keep a Supply Wagon nearby. The fact that nothing enters your military production buildings is still kinda strange though (helicopters ''never'' land, for instance).

* {{Lampshaded}} in the ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert3'' tutorial, in which the Soviet Tank wonders why the most powerful military forces must gather ore in the middle of a war and wondering what's in that stuff anyways. He is immediately shot by the other tanks for "asking stupid questions".

* In the ''TotalWar'' series there's no building units once you get to the battlefield. The only forces you get are the ones you've built and brought to the battle on the grand campaign map.

* ''VideoGame/PanzerGeneral'' averts this, where units are requisitioned from HQ and have to be paid in "prestige" (i.e. the more successful you are, the more willing your superiors are to give you more units. This would work even better if one of the Soviet tanks [[GameBreaker wasn't]] [[GoodBadBugs free]].

[[quoteright:211:[[StarCraft http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/211px-pylon_8342.png]]]]
[[caption-width-right:211:One down...]]

** We owe this trope also [[http://www.newgrounds.com/portal/view/387223 this in return]].

* [[ClownCarBase Building factories and barracks that spew out vehicles and soldiers without anyone or anything (re-)entering them]]. Usually [[UnitsNotToScale not to scale]] either.

* The TropeNamer is ''{{Starcraft}}'', which tells you [[MostAnnoyingSound incessantly]] that "You must construct additional pylons" in order to build more Protoss units. Pylons not only raise your ArbitraryHeadcountLimit but provide building limitations by supplying power to other structures; structures cannot be built outside a Pylon's power radius and will go offline if the Pylon(s) powering it are destroyed. The game justifies Zerg building limitations by requiring them to build on Creep, a carpet of purple MeatMoss. Their supply cap is "control", provided by the Overlord air units. Terrans rely on Supply Depots to extend the unit cap (and act as ad-hoc walls), but can plonk their buildings down pretty much anywhere there's room--heck, some of them can lift off and fly somewhere else!
** Also ''{{Warcraft}}'' with farms (Alliance), burrows (Horde), moonwells (Night Elves) and ziggurats (Scourge).

* Mostly averted/[[JustifiedTrope justified]] in Sierra's ''VideoGame/{{Outpost 2}}'', a ''VideoGame/SimCity''/''Warcraft''-esque RTS InSpace with humanity colonizing another planet to survive. The planet they live on closely resembles Mars and thus their buildings have to be connected via airtight passageways, and humans mostly only work in buildings as overseers. All construction/resource gathering/fighting work is done by robots. As such, your base ''is'' a small city, and while there isn't necessarily a hard cap on population, not satisfying the colonists' various needs, such as housing and medical care, ''as well'' as paying attention to the military element, can lead to morale and workforce problems that can destroy a colony from within.

* ''WarWind'' requires the player to set up living quarters for every couple of units, which they then hire from elsewhere or recruit from people in the overworld.

* ''{{Blitzkrieg}}'', a WWII [=RTS=] that NeedsMoreLove, lacked bases or resources of any kind. You have all your units at the start, and if you lose them they're gone. (Except for infantry, who can be resupplied as long as one member of the squad is still alive.) Sometimes you would get extra units in the form of 'reinforcements' arriving, but that was it.

Several of the best-regarded games in the genre are ones that do something interesting with the concept. In ''VideoGame/{{Battlezone|1998}}'', the struggle for the AppliedPhlebotinum behind such wonders leads to a plot where the ColdWar is secretly duked out in hovertanks across the solar system. In ''TotalAnnihilation'', the ability to build armies out of nowhere is not an incongruity but the basis of the gameplay mechanics. If one constructor can build another constructor, then those two can build four, those eight, those sixteen...

* The TropeNamer is ''{{Starcraft}}'', which tells you [[MostAnnoyingSound incessantly]] that "You must construct additional pylons" in order to build more Protoss units. Said pylons also provide power to nearby buildings, and as such act as a control radius for the Protoss. However, if they are destroyed, buildings in the radius not covered by other pylons go offline. The game justifies the control radius for the Zerg by requiring them to build on the Creep, an area of purple biomass "carpet". Their supply cap is "control", provided by the Overlord air units. Terrans rely on Supply Depots to extend the unit cap (and act as ad-hoc walls), but can plonk their buildings down pretty much anywhere there's room, and can relocate certain larger buildings through slowly moving them through the air.
** Also ''{{Warcraft}}'' with farms, burrows, moonwells, and ziggurats.
** The weird thing is that, canonically, you ''aren't'' constructing Pylons. You're warping in already-constructed pylons.
*** Made weirder by the fact that [[spoiler:the planet you're supposedly warping them in from has been overrun by Zerg in the expansion.]]
*** The weirdest is in ''VideoGame/StarcraftII'', where in one mission you are warping the units in, [[spoiler:despite this being the galaxy's last stand against the zerg]]

[[quoteright:211:http://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/211px-pylon_8342.png]]

* In PopulousTheBeginning, in order to train warriors, you needed to send peasants to the barracks... additionally, in order to get more peasants you have to get them to populate the huts (or convert wild people).

* Building factories and barracks that spew out vehicles and soldiers without anyone or anything (re-)entering them. Usually [[UnitsNotToScale not to scale]] either.

* Mostly averted/[[JustifiedTrope justified]] in Sierra's ''VideoGame/Outpost2'', a ''VideoGame/SimCity''/''Warcraft''-esque RTS InSpace with humanity colonizing another planet to survive. The planet they live on closely resembles Mars and thus their buildings have to be connected via airtight passageways, and humans mostly only work in buildings as overseers. All construction/resource gathering/fighting work is done by robots. As such, your base ''is'' a small city, and while there isn't necessarily a hard cap on population, not satisfying the colonists' various needs, such as housing and medical care, ''as well'' as paying attention to the military element, can lead to morale and workforce problems that can destroy a colony from within.

* Mostly averted/[[JustifiedTrope justified]] in Sierra's ''{{Outpost 2}}'', a ''VideoGame/SimCity''/''Warcraft''-esque RTS InSpace with humanity colonizing another planet to survive. The planet they live on closely resembles Mars and thus their buildings have to be connected via airtight passageways, and humans mostly only work in buildings as overseers. All construction/resource gathering/fighting work is done by robots. As such, your base ''is'' a small city, and while there isn't necessarily a hard cap on population, not satisfying the colonists various needs, such as housing and medical care, ''as well'' as paying attention to the military element, can lead to morale and workforce problems that can destroy a colony from within.