History Main / RefiningResources

* In ''SidMeier's VideoGame/{{Colonization}}'', the economy is built on this trope. In theory you ''could'' just sell raw materials to and buy manufactured goods from Europe, but it's much more beneficial in the long term to build your own industrial base in your colonies, especially considering you'll have to fight your mother country in the endgame. Of course, advanced resources mostly are still traded away, but for a greater profit. The only refinements used up by your own colonies are Ore -> [[hottip:Tools:spent by Pioneer jobs or production of ships, cannons and non-basic building]] -> [[hottip:Muskets: needed to to equip soldiers/dragoons]] and Food -> [[hottip:Horses: needed to by equip dragoons/scouts]].

* ''{{Outpost 2}}'' had a fairly realistic version: mines produce ore, which must be hauled by truck to a smelter to be refined into metals, which are then used to build everything.

* ''Outpost 2'' had a fairly realistic version: mines produce ore, which must be hauled by truck to a smelter to be refined into metals, which are then used to build everything.

* ''[[KingdomHearts Kingdom Hearts II]]'' has a little of this: towards the endgame, you can now regularly battle Nobodies, which drop Dusk- and Twilight-type synthesis materials. These can then be used to synthesize Mythril materials, which before that point are only in limited supply from treasure chests yet are needed for many (if not most/all) other synthesis items.

-->-- '''Chairman Sheng-ji Yang "Looking God in the Eye" ''', ''SidMeiersAlphaCentauri'', (itself not a game that follows the actual trope)

* ''VictoriaAnEmpireUnderTheSun'' has 47 different types of resources. A lot of the basic ones are required to create the more advanced ones. (culminating in something like 4-5 steps for the most "high tech" stuff like Radios and Tanks) Due to the highly complex market mechanic, and to represent the situation in the time-period depicted, it's not always most profitable to immediately produce the high-tech stuff though, since demand for basic resources like lumber and Iron will be very high at the beginning of the game.

* ''DwarfFortress''

** Milk - Mine 9 pieces of iron ore with a stone pickaxe, smelt them in a furnace with a fuel source (coal, wood) to get 9 iron ingots, craft them into 3 buckets at a workbench, then finally find some cows to obtain 3 buckets of milk.

*** ... That's about it.

* In ''{{Sid Meier}}'s VideoGame/{{Colonization}}'', the economy is built on this trope. In theory you ''could'' just sell raw materials to and buy manufactured goods from Europe, but it's much more beneficial in the long term to build your own industrial base in your colonies, especially considering you'll have to fight your mother country in the endgame. Of course, advanced resources mostly are still traded away, but for a greater profit. The only refinements used up by your own colonies are Ore -> [[hottip:Tools:spent by Pioneer jobs or production of ships, cannons and non-basic building]] -> [[hottip:Muskets: needed to to equip soldiers/dragoons]] and Food -> [[hottip:Horses: needed to by equip dragoons/scouts]].

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* In ''{{Sid Meier}}'s {{Colonization}}'', the economy is built on this trope. In theory you ''could'' just sell raw materials to and buy manufactured goods from Europe, but it's much more beneficial in the long term to build your own industrial base in your colonies, especially considering you'll have to fight your mother country in the endgame. Of course, advanced resources mostly are still traded away, but for a greater profit. The only refinements used up by your own colonies are Ore -> [[hottip:Tools:spent by [[WorkerUnit Pioneer]] jobs and production of ships, cannons and non-basic building]] -> [[hottip:Muskets:spent by equipping units]] and Food -> [[hottip:Horses:spent by equipping units]].

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<<|MoneyTropes|>>

** And that's ignoring the complex process to create the axe used to cut the tree to get the wood in the first place (requiring coke (made from lignite); an anvil (made from iron and coke); and a metal bar. All these have to be dug up with picks (made in the same process as axes), and the metal has to be refined at a smelter. Yikes.

** Turned UpToEleven with certain mods. Industrialcraft is particularly brutal here. Want the top-tier energy storage device? Here's how you do it: Extract rubber from sticky resin, create wire with copper ingots, combine the rubber and the wire to make insulated wires. Make four of those. Now take 4 diamonda and surround them with redstone to make energy crystals, put 8 iron through the furnace again to make it refined iron. Use the 8 iron to craft a machine block, then put the crystals and the insulated wires around the machine block to make the second-tier energy storage device. Now combine 6 insulated copper wire, 1 refined iron, and 2 redstone to make a basic circuit. Make 13 of those. Add 4 redstone, 2 glowstone dust, and 2 lapis to one of the circuits to make an advanced circuit. Make one of the aforementioned machine blocks again, then craft 3 refined iron, 3 bronze, and 3 tin to make two mixed metal ingots, then put them into a compressor to make alloy. Take 16 coal dust, craft that into 4 carbon fibers, make that into 2 carbon mesh plates. Combine the machine block, the alloy, and the plates to make an advanced machine block. Now, make six more of the previously-mentioned energy crystals, then combine 6 lapis lazuli and 2 of the basic circuits on each energy crystal to make it a lapotron crystal. Combine your six lapotron crystals, advanced machine, and advanced circuit to make the top-tier energy storage. [[SelfDemonstratingArticle If your eyes went cross-eyed reading this, you probably shouldn't play this mod]]. This, of course, doesn't count all of the stuff you need beforehand, like macerators and compressors and a power supply worthy of this top-tier storage.

* What about the original ''Capitalism''? You need so many expensive resources that full vertical integration of car or consumer electronics production chains is halfway impossible.

* In ''{{Sid Meier}}'s {{Colonization}}'', the economy is built on this trope. In theory you ''could'' just sell raw materials to and buy manufactured goods from Europe, but it's much more beneficial in the long term to build your own industrial base in your colonies, especially considering you'll have to fight your mother country in the endgame.

** '''Gathering'''. You gather the raw materials required for intermediary/end products. Activities such as Mining(basic minerals), Moon Mining(moon minerals), Gas Harvresting(Booster/Wormhole Gas), Salvaging(Rig components), Planetary Interaction fall into this category. This is often delegated to specialized miners/gatherers so that the guys running the production chain can concentrating on factory operation and logistics.
** '''Assembly'''. You gather basic resources and assemble them into an intermediary/end product. The assembly process requires a blueprint of the end product, which may be an original(indefinite uses) or copy(expires after certain amounts of uses). Assembled products can often be disassembled into component parts. The assembly process can be conducted both on stations and mobile starbases(POS).
** '''Reaction'''. You put the basic resources into a reaction facility and receive an intermediary product. Reaction can only be done on systems with security rating of less than 0.3, making the reaction process either a risky business(for small scale manufacturers) or a profitable, monopolized industry(for large alliances).

*** '''Capital Ships''': Gathering(Mining) -> Assembly(Basic Minerals -> Capital Ship Components) -> Assembly(Capital Ship Components -> Capital Ship). (Process looks simple, but requires THE most hauling effort. Each capital component takes about 2000 times more space than regular modules, and you need more than a hundred of them to make the smallest fighter carrier.)

-->-- '''Chairman Sheng-ji Yang "Looking God in the Eye" ''', ''SidMeiersAlphaCentauri'', (ironically not a game that follows the actual trope)

** Wheat - Grown using dirt, a source of water, a hoe, and seeds. The last one is initially obtained randomly by tilling grass with the hoe.
** Milk - Mine 9 pieces of iron ore with a stone pickaxe, smelt them in a furnace with a fuel source (coal, wood) to get 9 iron ingots, craft them into 3 buckets at the workbench, then finally find some cows to obtain 3 buckets of milk.

* {{EVE|Online}}. Dear god, EVE. A list of all the various production processes would be a page of it's own. Things are only going to get worse when Planetary Interaction goes live...

* {{EVE|Online}}. Dear god, EVE. I could list all the various production processes, but that's a page of it's own. Things are only going to get worse when Planetary Interaction goes live...

* {{EVE}}. Dear god, EVE. I could list all the various production processes, but that's a page of it's own. Things are only going to get worse when Planetary Interaction goes live...

* At least the older ''TheSettlers'' games runs on this trope. (although ThisTroper lost interest when they removed the roads...)

* ''Sid Meier's {{Colonization}}'' has a relatively simplified version of this: The most complicated resource (muskets) requires only three steps (ore>tools>muskets)

* ''SidMeiersColonization'' has a relatively simplified version of this: The most complicated resource (muskets) requires only three steps (ore>tools>muskets)