History Main / CommandAndConquerEconomy

* ''TotalAnnihilation'' and its successor ''VideoGame/SupremeCommander'' have this as a central part of the setting as well as a core gameplay mechanic. Thanks to nanotech, a single construction unit can build an exponentially-growing base and army limited only by local resources.
** ''Supreme Commander'' features a slight aversion in that if you order a support commander to assist a bunch of buildings, he will automatically rebuild any that are destroyed. But you do have to tell him which buildings to protect first.

** ''VideoGame/MasterOfOrion III'' is largely based on an attempt to revolutionize this trope: the sorts of direct orders you can give are heavily limited, and the management of your empire is very much ''management''. You do not get to actually do much at all, aside from give generalized orders and hope the AI carrying them out doesn't manage to foul up the details as they trickle down. Not at all coincidentally, this entry in the series was bad enough to prove why this trope is indeed one of the AcceptableBreaksFromReality.[[note]]Technically, you ''can'' micromanage your empire as if it were a standard example of this trope. However, your ability to do so is buried and you have to go looking for it, and the AI can and ''will'' fight you over how to manage your empire.[[/note]]

** ''VideoGame/MasterOfOrion III'' is largely based on an attempt to revolutionize this trope: the sorts of direct orders you can give are heavily limited, and the management of your empire is very much ''management''. You do not get to actually do much at all, aside from give generalized orders and hope the AI carrying them out doesn't manage to foul up the details as they trickle down. Not at all coincidentally, this entry in the series was bad enough to prove why this trope is indeed one of the AcceptableBreaksFromReality.

* In ''VideoGame/{{Hamurabi}}'', the player control the amount of bushels of seed eaten by the citizens, sowed in the fields and stocked, and can also decide to spend it for buy bfarmland - he can also sell land.

** Averted with basic houses; if you don't provide affordable housing to your citizens they will build their own sacks. Beyond that the game is a planned economy where everything is built, owned and operated by the state.

* While not requiring the player to build the necessary buildings, the ''AdvanceWars'' series requires the player to capture buildings on the map in order to build an economy and produce units. Never really explained why the armies couldn't bring everyone, although justified and handwaved in the latest DS game, Days of Ruin in that the world has been decimated and humanity almost wiped out, while the units produced by automated factories are useful only in a close proximity to their factory of origin, presumably that particular map.

This is why YouRequireMoreVespeneGas. Compare EasyCommunication, where it's your units who require an unrealistic amount of instruction from the player. Compare GameplayAutomation where the game handles the economy.

* Noticably averted in ''DistantWorlds''. The universe contains a vast and thriving private economy that the player cannot control. This economy does many things that other games abstract out. Examples include the transport of resources from one point to another (be this within your own economy or trade with other civilizations) and tourism. These are then taxed by the player's government. Therefore, it is financially beneficial to arrange things so that a private economy develops, even if you can't control the details. In addition, one can delegate large swathes of gameplay to the AI which will automatically manage it, or so that the AI will make suggestions of the player, asking for only a thumbs-up.

* Also created by Westwood Studios (who made ''Command and Conquer''), ''DuneII'' was the TropeMaker. Spice was gathered for cash, and justifiable in that local mining operations close to the battlefield, while contributing nothing to defense (indeed, increasing your need for defense) would be more expedient than shipping the raw materials and manpower to the front.
** ''EmperorBattleForDune'' tried to reduce some of the FridgeLogic by showing the Construction Yard drilling and mining for resources to build the buildings with.

* Played straight in ''GalacticCivilizations''. Each planet has 2 build queues: one for structures, and one for ships. Nothing will happen unless you, the leader of an interstellar empire, tell it. The sequel adds planetary governors, which add a level of automation.

* The Koei line of ''VideoGame/RomanceOfTheThreeKingdoms'' video games (as in, the ones named for the series, not DynastyWarriors), you are a warlord that has to manage an ever-growing series of cities; fortunately, you can create districts and delegate your officers to do most of the micro-managing.

* In ''VideoGame/StarRuler'' you need to manually order the construction of ships, but you can set Governors to automatically build structures on the planets you colonise. Military-oriented Governors will also hastily build small ships to defend their planets if an enemy enters their system. ''Star Ruler 2'' has automated building production based on "pressure" from imported goods; raw materials like metal will spur the creation of factories, luxuries builds up markets, et cetera. Megascale Imperial projects require the player to place them; most are the size of ''multiple'' cities and early on they can take your entire budget.

* Played straight in ''{{Achron}}''. The buildings are purely military installations, as tends to be the case in most real-time strategy games.
* In ''CompanyOfHeroes'', the player's capacity for resource gathering expanded automatically when new territory was captured. But the player has to micromanage other aspects of infrastructure, including upgrades to individual units.
* In ''Outpost 2'', you get to build structures and vehicles, something the citizens of the base will not do on their own. You also get to build structure kits, satellites, launch vehicles, and interstellar starship parts, all of which have to do with the story.
* In ''KnightsOfHonor'' villagers collect the available raw resources from the province automatically, but the player has to manage all other infrastructure per castle.

* ''VideoGame/{{Banished}}'' - Your citizens can have all the stone and wood in the world, but they'll freeze to death before building a house without an order.

** Highlighted by [[http://threepanelsoul.com/2009/07/21/on-mixed-economies/ this]] ThreePanelSoul.

* In the ''TotalWar'' games, feudal warriors like knights or samurai must have player-built buildings representing armouries, weaponmakers and stud farms present in order to be recruited. It would of course be more realistic to have them equip themselves from the income of their estates, train offscreen and show up when obliged to fight.
** ''{{Medieval}} II'' balances between the two. A big castle with no stables can still build knights, but only a few of them. France, the most heavy-cavalry-oriented faction in the game, even has a specific knight type, "Noble Knights", who are identical to another type except that they're available from a castle instead of a stable and cost more in upkeep.

** Starting with ''Napoleon'', the mechanic for replenishing troops has changed to simply "refilling" depleted armies with money to waiting a certain number of turns (depending on supply lines) until the reinforcements trickle in. Still played straight with ships, though. Carried over to ''Shogun II''.

* ''{{Majesty}}'' averts this trope - no heroes get hired or guilds/guardhouses/marketplaces built without your royal order, but most of the infrastructure of your city - houses, sewers, graveyards, and places of ill repute - is outside your control, and can interfere with your municipal/strategic planning. So is the control of the heroes themselves, who must be incentivised with bounties if there's any particular place or monster you want them to discover or slay.

* In ''VideoGame/StarRuler'' you need to manually order the construction of ships, but you can set Governors to automatically build structures on the planets you colonise. Military-oriented Governors will also hastily build small ships to defend their planets if an enemy enters their system. ''Star Ruler 2'' has citizens automatically building new cities on planets, though projects like the Megafarms (which are as large as 9 cities) require the player to designated them, as their construction consumes a huge amount of money.

This is why YouRequireMoreVespeneGas. Compare EasyCommunication, where it's your units who require an unrealistic amount of instruction from the player.

* In ''VideoGame/StarRuler'' you need to manually order the construction of ships, but you can set Governors to automatically build structures on the planets you colonise. Military-oriented Governors will also hastily build small ships to defend their planets if an enemy enters their system.

In most civilisation- and city-building games, nothing ever gets built unless the player specifically orders it. While it is simpler to depict the resource management in this way, it is very unrealistic to, for example, have to build "state" stables and "state" smithies in order to recruit knights in a medieval-themed game, or have to specifically order a resource extraction operation rather than have an autonomous agent do it in response to increased demand.

Of course, this grossly unrealistic Command Economy mechanism in games like ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquer'' is often one of the AcceptableBreaksFromReality; many players would find it less fun to put down some infrastructure, set certain policies and watch the results rather than tinkering with everything themselves. Also, it is obviously more difficult to create an AI that could simulate the dynamics of city or civilisation development in a reasonable manner. Some games, like the later ''Total War'' and ''Civilization'' games, avert this by allowing you to let the AI manage cities autonomously. Even then, experienced players rarely use that feature when it's available, because they don't trust the AI to make smarter decisions than a human.

Of course, this grossly unrealistic Command Economy mechanism in games like ''CommandAndConquer'' is often one of the AcceptableBreaksFromReality; many players would find it less fun to put down some infrastructure, set certain policies and watch the results rather than tinkering with everything themselves. Also, it is obviously more difficult to create an AI that could simulate the dynamics of city or civilisation development in a reasonable manner. Some games, like the later ''Total War'' and ''Civilization'' games, avert this by allowing you to let the AI manage cities autonomously. Even then, experienced players rarely use that feature when it's available, because they don't trust the AI to make smarter decisions than a human.

* As the [[TropeNamer title]] says, ''CommandAndConquer.'' Granted, these are invariably military buildings, and you're typically the first military presence to enter the area.

* In the ''CityBuildingSeries'', the citizens show even less initiative than in most games. Not only do you have to build everything for them except housing (which you merely designate plots for), they do not even go to the market themselves to buy food and goods; a peddler has to walk past. Owing to the vagaries of the walker system, you risk losing a lot of workers to an entire street being deserted due to a priestess failing to walk down it sufficiently often.

* ''WarCraft'' games have the player assigning peasants to their tasks and building farms and lumber mills as well as more military kinds of facility.
** Naturally, ''StarCraft'' games being from the same company, have the same economy model. Just substitute lumber with minerals, gold with [[YouRequireMoreVespeneGas vespene gas]], and food with supply or psy (for humans and the alien races, respectively)

* In {{Cybernations}}, ''nothing'' gets built without player say-so. Justified in that in RealLife, maintaining armies and infrastructure ''are'' the purview of the government, but you'd think that technological research could be handled by private labs...

Of course, this grossly unrealistic Command Economy mechanism in games like ''CommandAndConquer'' is often one of the AcceptableBreaksFromReality; many players would find it less fun to put down some infrastructure, set certain policies and watch the results rather than tinkering with everything themselves. Also, it is obviously more difficult to create an AI that could simulate the dynamics of city or civilisation development in a reasonable manner. Some games, like the later ''Total War'' and ''Civilization'' games, avert this by allowing you to let the AI manage cities autonomously.