History Main / CommandAndConquerEconomy

[[folder: Action Adventure Games]]

[[folder: Four X ]]

[[folder: Real Time Strategy ]]

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[[folder: Simulation Game ]]

[[folder: Turn Based Strategy ]]

* In the ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}}'' games, no city will build any improvements or units or develop their own surroundings unless the player or the player-appointed AI specifically orders it. This is particularly notable in the later iterations of the series, and the related game ''VideoGame/SidMeiersAlphaCentauri'', where the player can declare their nation to be operating under free market economics. Presumably justified by the idea that there's a lot of economic activity separate from the government projects that are presented to the player--the improvements available tend to either be publicly owned by necessity (e.g. a military barracks or a courthouse), require government resources and/or permission (e.g. a harbor or broadcasting tower) or tend to be backed by government money at the beginning and transition to private operation later (e.g. a marketplace or stock exchange). Also, in ''Alpha Centauri'', one can set a base to operate under a Governor, and define things a governor can and can not do, allowing the AI to run each base according to the priorities you set and you to intervene when necessary.

* In the ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}}'' games, no city will build any improvements or units or develop their own surroundings unless the player or the player-appointed AI specifically orders it. This is particularly notable in the later iterations of the series, and the related game ''VideoGame/SidMeiersAlphaCentauri'', where the player can declare their nation to be operating under free market economics. Presumably justified by the idea that there's a lot of economic activity separate from the government projects that are presented to the player. Also, in ''Alpha Centauri'', one can set a base to operate under a Governor, and define things a governor can and can not do, allowing the AI to run each base according to the priorities you set and you to intervene when necessary.

* ''VideoGame/DwarfFortress'' might meticulously model every detail of the dwarves' mental lives, but they still won't build or dig anything without orders from the invisible omnipresent player.
** Highlighted by [[http://www.threepanelsoul.com/comic/on-mixed-economies this]] ''Webcomic/ThreePanelSoul''.
** The third-party utility Dwarf Foreman was created to automate manufacturing, automatically dispatching work orders to create more of an item should your stocks fall below a certain amount.

* The settlers of ''VideoGame/{{Fallout4}} won't bother to build or ''do'' anything. If you manage to recruit a full settlement of 20 settlers, they'll all wander around complaining there's no food, no water, no beds. You the player have to plant every last crop, build every last house, every settlement defense, down to the individual beds and chairs. There's a mod that changes this, such that you simply designate zones for certain types of buildings and resources, and the settlers build them when you're not looking (meaning they simply appear with suspension of disbelieve assigning credit to the settlers)

* ''VideoGame/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.

** Made worse by the fact that the first few games didn't feature road blocks, which meants that priestesses were often providing spiritual care to your farms instead of your workers.

* In the ''Videogame/{{Caesar}}'' games, citizens will build their own houses (in areas you designate), but you have to place everything else in your city: Markets, farms, granaries, workshops, etc. They'll run themselves as long as they have labour and raw materials, though.

* ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}'' attempts to avert this with the sector mechanic; emphasis on "attempts". An empire can only control a certain amount of star systems directly without suffering penalties to just about everything due to inefficient logistics. If you have more settled systems than your core world administration can supervise, you can establish semi-autonomous sectors and outsource your surplus systems to them. The sector AI will then run these systems according to the guidelines you set for them, and transfer up to 75% of their resource production to the core sector (read: to you). It's a nice idea in theory that comes with two problems. First, unhappy populations on your planets can go rogue, instigate a rebellion and potentially take the entire sector they're in with them if they manage to secede. Needless to say this is highly annyoing at best, absolutely devastating to your economy at worst if that sector was particularly large and wealthy. Second, despite many improvements over the course of several patches, the sector AI is still sorely lacking when it comes to constructing fleets and ''especially'' buildings. It's not uncommon to witness it tearing down unique, irreplaceable structures and erect some bottom-tier garbage building on the smoking ruins. The sector system is thus quite a matter of contention among players, with a large portion preferring to scrap it entirely in favor of managing all planets manually, even if it means having to rifle through long lists with dozens, sometimes hundreds of worlds.

* Most games in the ''Franchise/HarvestMoon'' series follow an AnEconomyIsYou model: the success of your farm spurs on the growth and success of your village. Then there's ''[[VideoGame/HarvestMoonIslandOfHappiness Island of Happiness]]'', where the island's re-development doesn't happen if you don't explicitly order and pay for it. [[note]]most of the infrastructure destroyed and population chased off by storms[[/note] New roads, bridges, expansion of the local hotel - if you don't pay for it, it doesn't happen.

* ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}} attempts to avert this with the sector mechanic; emphasis on "attempts". An empire can only control a certain amount of star systems directly without suffering penalties to just about everything due to inefficient logistics. If you have more settled systems than your core world administration can supervise, you can establish semi-autonomous sectors and outsource your surplus systems to them. The sector AI will then run these systems according to the guidelines you set for them, and transfer up to 75% of their resource production to the core sector (read: to you). It's a nice idea in theory that comes with two problems. First, unhappy populations on your planets can go rogue, instigate a rebellion and potentially take the entire sector they're in with them if they manage to secede. Needless to say this is highly annyoing at best, absolutely devastating to your economy at worst if that sector was particularly large and wealthy. Second, despite many improvements over the course of several patches, the sector AI is still sorely lacking when it comes to constructing fleets and ''especially'' buildings. It's not uncommon to witness it tearing down unique, irreplaceable structures and erect some bottom-tier garbage building on the smoking ruins. The sector system is thus quite a matter of contention among players, with a large portion preferring to scrap it entirely in favor of managing all planets manually, even if it means having to rifle through long lists with dozens, sometimes hundreds of worlds.

[[folder: Other]]
* This occasionally happens in RealLife. During the [[{{UsefulNotes/WorldWarII}} Battle of Stalingrad]], German soldiers assaulted a tractor factory that was refitted to make tanks. The factory workers would man the unpainted tanks that came fresh off the assembly lines and drive them into the battle literally outside their doors, since they were the people with the most knowledge of the tanks in lieu of trained tank crews.
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* This occasionally happens in RealLife. During the [[{{UsefulNotes/WorldWarII}} Battle of Stalingrad]], German soldiers assaulted a tractor factory that was refitted to make tanks. The factory workers would man the unpainted tanks that came fresh off the assembly lines and drive them into the battle literally outside their doors, since they were the people with the most knowledge of the tanks in lieu of trained tank crew.

* This occasionally happens in RealLife. During the [[{{UsefulNotes/WorldWarII}} Battle of Stalingrad]], Soviet factory workers would man the unpainted tanks that literally came fresh off the assembly lines and drive them into battle a few neighbourhoods away, since they were the people with the most knowledge of the tanks.

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

* ''{{Spore}}'' eventually has the player managing an entire interstellar empire. There are no structures the player doesn't build, there is no trade the player doesn't initiate, the only war the player doesn't wage is brought by rival computer-controlled empires, and the player has to physically travel to any place where something needs to be done.
* The third ''RailroadTycoon'' averts this, not only there are other rivals companies building their own transport networks but the game itself implements an alternative method; unpicked goods and materials are gradually moved from their production sites to the places where they are needed, following a supply and demand logic and price curves. This process is usually very inefficient but depending on the relative locations it can actually feed industries on its own; the cargo moves very slowly inland (even more so in mountain terrain), but faster via rivers and other bodies of water.

*** Obviously, ''[=SimCountry=]'' has a [[http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Social_market_economy social market economy]]. They don't get electric bills but they get taxes.

** ''VideoGame/SimCity Societies'' reverts to this trope straight by requiring the player to even build the houses. The player just picks what style they want the city to be in and starts plopping things down accordingly.
*** Granted you still need knowledge society energy if you want the nicer structures to benefit your power production.

* This was a huge annoyance to many players of ''VideoGame/BlackAndWhite'', where the pisswig villagers can't even do so much as build a single hut without divine intervention. Though the frustration may have had more to do with the game's awkward controls...
** ''VideoGame/BlackAndWhite 2'' made things slightly easier (emphasis on the slightly). Villagers will do whatever is required at the time without direction, such as gathering food or building a building, but they tend to vacillate between the available options frequently. The player has the option of "divinely guiding" a character by assigning them a task, as which point they will do nothing else for the rest of their lives.
* In ''TransportTycoon'', the towns will automatically develop over time, without your assistance. This includes the building of roads, but you can assist in doing so if you want to coerce the development of a town in a specific way. You can accelerate, but not control, the growth of town buildings by dealing in Passengers there. This is necessary in some cases because towns will only pay for Goods once they build enough high-rise buildings, which only happens once they reach a certain size.
** The alternate climates in the ''Deluxe'' version have additional restrictions. Arctic towns above a certain elevation have to have Food delivered before they grow. Tropical towns in the desert require Food and Water.
* In VideoGame/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...
** Might be FridgeBrilliance for techs whose benefits are military in nature - if the government isn't doling out large amounts of money for such projects, there's pretty much no demand for them in the market.

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

** ''VideoGame/AssassinsCreedII'' starts us off by having the player able to repair and built houses in Monteriggioni. Having the player pay to build shops, Churches, pay for barracks, mining and even a brothel. Partly subverted as as you build your own mansion will improve in appearance as you sister will have more money to refurbish the house.

* ''{{VideoGame/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.

* The third ''RailroadTycoon'' averts this, not only there are other rivals companies building their own transport networks but the game itself implements an alternative method; unpicked goods and materials are gradually moved from their production sites to the places where they are needed, following a supply and demand logic and price curves. Depending on the relative locations it can be inefficient or actually capable to feed the industries on it's own, as the cargo moves very slowly inland and even more in mountain terrain but faster via rivers and other bodies of water.

* Exception: The game ''VictoriaAnEmpireUnderTheSun'' from Paradox had a complicated world market that meant that one did ''not'' necessarily have to make all of the various goods (such as paper, canned food, telephones, etc.) you might need yourself. The expansion, Revolutions, allowed you to create Capitalists, who, upon having enough extra cash, could build factories and railroads for you. Depending on your government, you might even be ''prevented'' from building factories or railroads yourself.

* Used in ''RiseOfLegends'', but somewhat handwaved as a matter of desperation, not careful and brilliant planning. The heroes aren't making a slow-and-steady push to grind their enemies down, they're running (and often flying) like mad to important sites to outmaneuver their enemies there, and have to build up anything they need from what's available instead of dragging a gargantuan army plus supply lines after them. Each mission map is technically a whole province with multiple cities, so they're also trying to establish a command economy that works just enough to keep them supplied and leaves the province sufficient once they're gone. Men thus come from the cities you build up, and mechanical (or magical) units are built in factories (or conjured on the spot) to save from having to transport an army of slow, heavy equipment all over.

* In the ''VideoGame/{{Civilization}}'' games, no city will build any improvements or units or develop their own surroundings unless the player or the player-appointed AI specifically orders it. This is particularly notable in the later iterations of the series, and the related game ''SidMeiersAlphaCentauri'', where the player can declare their nation to be operating under free market economics. Presumably justified by the idea that there's a lot of economic activity separate from the government projects that are presented to the player. Also, in ''Alpha Centauri'', one can set a base to operate under a Governor, and define things a governor can and can not do, allowing the AI to run each base according to the priorities you set and you to intervene when necessary.

* ''SwordOfTheStars'' works this way. The player is responsible for designing every single ship type and ordering the construction of every new ship, while all the infrastructure is built automatically. Given that most of the species in ''Sword of the Stars'' have authoritarian governments where the head of state holds (theoretically) absolute power, it's mostly justified.

* Everything in the ''SpaceEmpires'' series has to be expressly ordered by the player. Planets are useless if you don't set up the various facilities for them to generate income and build ships.