History Main / NotPlayingFairWithResources

*** When playing as Allies you can turn the tables in certain missions however, the Ally's Spy steals half of the opposition's money if it touches their refinery and the AI is too stupid to sell it's buildings except when scripted to. So on say the assault on Moscow you can clear out the area around a soviet refinery, fortify the area against reprisals and continually steal an absurd amount of money every few minutes.

* The AI in ''VideoGame/{{Homeworld}} 2'' does this when it doesn't just use OffscreenVillainDarkMatter to spawn whatever it wants. Even if you manage to block every resource available to the computer, it can build no matter what. It tries to play fair, in that it will not exploit this to build ships unless it's at least making a token effort to gather resources, but it becomes obvious it's cheating when it sends endless waves of resource collectors in a hopeless attempt to mine the pockets. In short, the AI only gathers resources to [[SpitefulAI spite you]]. This is of course pointless, though, because by about six of seven missions in you'll have enough resources to rebuild your entire fleet twice over, and that number only goes up from there.

* The Ancient Greece themed RTS ''VideoGame/RiseAndFallCivilizationsAtWar'' features an AI that will appear to collect resources but will really have an infinite supply. At the higher difficulty levels, once an AI's main base is destroyed it is not uncommon for it's remaining production facility to pump out an endless supply of it's most powerful units despite not having any legitimate incoming resources.

** (That last is particularly ironic, considering just how strongly ''VideoGame/RiseOfNations'', the game ''VideoGame/RiseOfLegends was [[SpinOff spun off]] of, pushed the "a complete part of this balanced strike force" angle.)

** ''Dual Strike'' has the Black Crystal: a property that restores 3HP to any nearby enemy unit for free. [[spoiler:They're actually a plot point explaining how Black Hole recovered so quickly after their last defeat.]]

This is a common form of [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard cheating]] in strategy games (FourX in particular). Since the player is generally much smarter than the computer, the designers compensate by giving the AI player(s) an unfair ability [[YouRequireMoreVespeneGas to gain or gather resources]] in order that the enemy will actually pose a challenge to the player.

* ''VideoGame/{{Aerobiz}}'': The game does this and [[MyRulesAreNotYourRules makes its own rules]] in one stroke. If your airline runs in the red for a year, it goes bankrupt and [[NonStandardGameOver you lose]]. If an AI airline runs in the red for a year, it goes bankrupt, changes its name and gets a huge influx of cash to start over and bounce back.

* In several ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' titles (''Videogame/FinalFantasyV'' immediately comes to mind, but this trope exists in other titles of the franchise), boss encounters either have an absurdly huge (as in, the maximum number that can be stored in memory) MP pool, or simply have boss-exclusive abilities that can be spammed for free, making it all but impossible to shut them down using MP-drain abilities.

* ''Videogame/TeamFortress2'': The robots in Mann Vs. Machine mode all have BottomlessMagazines, but to keep things fair(ish) any weapon with a clip in it will have the same default clip size as you and thus they have to periodically stop to reload...except for the GiantMook versions, whose level of [[MoreDakka bullet]]/[[MacrossMissileMassacre rocket]]/GrenadeSpam are enough to make you weak at the knees.

* VideoGame/MachinesWiredForWar::The computer can build units without resources. (Resource consumption is real-time rather than paid at once at the beginning. For the computer, production goes on even at 0 BMU's while it stops for a human player. This doesn't affect building construction, however.) It can place building blueprints without paying the 5 BMU placement cost. It can launch a nuke for free while it normally costs 500 BMU's.

* In SidMeier's original ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}}'', the player's civilization must devote immense amounts of resources to building one of the Seven Wonders of the World; your AI opponents, on the other hand, do not actually 'build' these but simply have a random chance (minute, but significant in the long run) of being awarded one each turn. This goes above and beyond the usual accelerated-build advantage of strategy games because ''only one civilization ever'' can build any given Wonder - so the AI not only gets a free toy, but may ruin your own investment.

* The AI in ActOfWar will periodically be granted $500. You can test this by destroying everything it has except for its headquarters. It will produce construction vehicles indefinitely.

* The Ancient Greece themed RTS ''Rise and Fall: Civilizations at War'' features an AI that will appear to collect resources but will really have an infinite supply. At the higher difficulty levels, once an AI's main base is destroyed it is not uncommon for it's remaining production facility to pump out an endless supply of it's most powerful units despite not having any legitimate incoming resources.

*** In the campaign missions, the AI often has infinite resources (sometimes not even having a refinery) and can simply spam units nonstop until you destroy its production facilities.

** The first one compensates for it's [[ArtificialStupidity laughable AI]] by almost always outnumbering you nearly 2 to 1 with enemy units and properties.

* ''AIWarFleetCommand'' has the AI draw resources from a separate pool, where it warps in reinforcements and units.

* CPU-controlled enemy {{Pokemon}} never run out of PP for their moves in the original Red and Blue games. This was changed in later games.

* An actual evidence of cheating has been found in ''{{StarCraft}}''. There, modders eventually deciphered the files that control AI actions. While most opcodes in them just match normal player actions, they also found codes that will give the AI player instant ore and gas or let it create units out of nowhere. In addition, if you extract the campaign maps and open them in the map editor, you'll see how surprisingly often the AI is helped by scripted game events ("Triggers"). This goes so far that the AI plays with unlimited resources for almost the whole campaign. Those advantages are usually not abused, so the game doesn't become frustrating even despite the cheating.

* In ''{{Eve Online}}'', NPC ships have a fixed 100% capacitor level. [=NPCs=] labelled as mercenaries typically fly somewhat cap-poor Caldari ships shooting very cap-hungry lasers, which they can do ''all day'' if you let them. It also means that energy neutralizers, often quite lethal in [[PlayerVersusPlayer PvP]] combat since they (indirectly) disable the target's armour repairers as well as its weapons, are completely ineffective against them. On the flip side, energy vampires (which steal cap from the target but only if the victim's cap level is higher than yours) always help you (but likewise don't hurt the [=NPCs=]).

* In ''{{Earth 2150}}'', until the latest patch, ''enemy AI units never had to reload'', even though your own units always had to. It was patched because people kept complaining about it, as it's simply unfair, especially im missions with limited resources and/or no Dropzone to get reinforcements.

* ''VideoGame/RiseOfLegends'' does this; high-level computer opponents have access to bonus resource rates and instantaneous micro (Toughest computers instantly construct what they need at the beginning of the game), significant enough to render them unbeatable... if not for their incredibly predictable formulaic AI, which renders them intensely vulnerable to timed strikes during their early expansions. The entire experience is markedly unsatisfactory: either you're too slow and you'll be crushed, or you're fast enough to catch the AI with its pants down and can anticipate a relatively easy victory. Medium-speed players can sometimes find a reprieve in the AI's building patterns: it will, without fail, attempt a balanced unit spread that stands no chance against, say, a Muskets-and-Clockwork mass slam.

** (That last is particularly ironic, considering just how strongly ''RoL'''s prequel, ''RiseOfNations'', pushed the "a complete part of this balanced strike force" angle.)

* In ''VideoGame/DuneII'', you need to harvest Spice Melange to generate credits, which are used to fund your campaigns. Your enemy has infinite credits to replace soldiers and vehicles, but you still have to compete with them to acquire Spice (justified for plot reasons; Spice is one of the most valuable commodities in this universe). In a concession to fairness, the enemy only has inexhaustible combat units; when enemy installations are destroyed, they stay destroyed.

* ''VideoGame/DuneII'' requires you to mine Spice to generate currency. Your enemy never runs out of money to replace soldiers and vehicles, but you still have to compete with them for Spice (justified for plot reasons; Spice is one of the most valuable commodities in this universe). In a concession to fairness, the enemy only has inexhaustible combat units; when enemy installations are destroyed, they stay destroyed.

* ''Videogame/FinalFantasyTactics'': Enemies have infinite stores of both single-use restorative items and throwable weaponry (which, incidentally, get better and better the more chapters you proceed into the game, topping off at [[BonusDungeon Deep Dungeon]]). The latter can be abused with the Thief reaction ability Catch to get free copies of, say, the InfinityPlusOneSword.

* ''SystemShock2'' featured zombies toting shotguns with infinite ammo. Invariably, upon killing one, he'd drop a broken shotgun with 1 or 2 shells.

* A lesser example, but when you visit homeworlds in ''StarControl'' they are protected by an infinite number of ships, despite the fact that you seem to be the only one in the galaxy actually ''gathering'' any resources. This can be partially [[JustifiedTrope justified]] in that they had a large supply of ships before the game began ... but once the race has been recruited to your Alliance you most definitely do ''not'' gain access to said ships! If you want any you'll have to build them yourself with your own mining profits.

* In ''{{League Of Legends}}'', there are only two differences between Beginner bots and Intermediate bots; Intermediate bots will actually use their summoner spells (at the exact perfect time, [[ComputersAreFast of course]]) and they'll automatically gain XP and items more quickly. Trying to keep them from kills to deny gold/XP? Good luck with that.