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1This is a common form of [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard cheating]] in strategy games (FourX in particular). Creating complex AI is both difficult and time consuming, so the designers instead give the [[VideoGameAI AI player(s)]] the ability [[YouRequireMoreVespeneGas to gain resources]] or produce things faster than human players in order for the enemy to actually pose a challenge.
2
3'''This can take several forms:'''
4* AI can generate units and buildings without expending resources and/or more quickly than the player can.
5* AI [[YouRequireMoreVespeneGas gathers resources]] faster despite using the same technology.
6* AI gains resources without having to gather them.
7
8Depending on the game, simply starting with more resources might not be cheating, as in some games even two human players might not have identical resources. The amount of resources each side starts with is determined by the designers at the start of the map, and some games [[AintNoRule never had a rule]] stating that all sides must begin on equal footing.
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10Almost never is this justified by anyone actually saying that ''"The enemy has a ludicrously massive amount of storage and are only gathering further to make it bigger and starve us out."'' line.
11
12In some cases, the trope is justified by painting the enemy (or an ally of the enemy) as a more advanced civilization (especially aliens). Otherwise, you get StoryAndGameplaySegregation.
13
14One of the most common uses for this is as a component of the higher DifficultyLevels - in which case it is entirely justified, as the players opt into the challenge. In this case it's also common for the game to explicitly warn you that the AI will be breaking the rules in order to make it more difficult. This is also sometimes inverted, with the lowest difficulties either reducing the AI below baseline or giving the player unfair boosts.
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16Compare OffscreenVillainDarkMatter. See also MyRulesAreNotYourRules, NumericalHard, and (of course) TheComputerIsACheatingBastard.
17
18[[foldercontrol]]
19----
20!!Examples in RealTimeStrategy and TurnBasedStrategy games:
21
22[[folder:Real-Time Strategy]]
23* The AI in ''VideoGame/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.
24* On Hardest difficulty, the computer in ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpiresII'' actually DOES have extra, invisible resources. The best way to demonstrate this is to create a custom scenario, create a CPU opponent that has no villagers (only a town center and 2 required buildings for age advancement) and 75 military units (to prevent it from making villagers). Now set difficulty to hardest and give the CPU no resources at all. Now start the game and before long the computer will have advanced in level. Where did it get the food and gold needed to do this if you gave it none and it cannot produce any?
25** If you have a look at the AI files, you'll notice that on 'hard' and 'hardest' difficulty, the AI pulls resources out of nowhere whenever they drop to almost zero. If you write your own AI, you can give it this ability too, even unconditionally, giving you infinite resources.
26** In ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpiresIII'', the player can also set a "handicap" which is a percentage bonus (+0-100) to resource gathering. Bcause this affects only the resources received, not resources gathered, this means that at +100%, that player receives 600 wood out of each tree instead of 300. Since trees are the only limited resource without homecity shipments, this can prove to be a tremendous advantage.
27** ''VideoGame/AgeOfEmpires'' notably averts the infinite resources trick, making it possible through smart defenses and expanding to whittle your foe's resources to zero, meaning they turn into a sitting duck(a sitting duck with backup, maybe, but a sitting duck nonetheless).
28* ''VideoGame/AIWarFleetCommand'' has the AI draw resources from a separate pool, where it warps in reinforcements and units. It's explicitly mentioned that the AI, who starts out dominating absolutely everything and already wiped humanity out, has exogalactic facilities and forces dealing with something else; it just reassigns some of them to killing you as you make it mad.
29* The AI in ''VideoGame/{{BattleZone|1998}} II'' has a "scrap cheat" which gives them a small amount of resources every minute, but they still need to gather resources to increase their maximum storage (and thus, their tech level). However, the scrap cheat does allow the AI to produce high-tier units ''far'' faster than they have any right to - in Instant Action mode, expect to find your base being rushed by dozens of Assault Tanks or Maulers. Later patches allow the player to disable it for the AI, or give ''themselves'' a scrap cheat.
30* ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquer'':
31** ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberianDawn'':
32*** A full Tiberium harvester load is worth twice as many credits to the AI than it is to the human player. The computer also builds its units (and rebuilds its buildings) much quicker than you can. In some missions you can't expect to win unless you completely starve them by killing all their harvesters, because their production ''far'' outstrips yours. In fact, one harvester load is worth the exact amount of credits it takes to build a new harvester - so if a single one manages to get back, the AI can build another harvester to replace the one you just destroyed.
33*** It's actually worse than just twice as much money. At least in some cases, the computer gets an unlimited amount of money any time they successfully harvest Tiberium. If one of their harvesters reaches a refinery, all refineries and silos are filled up completely. The only thing keeping the AI from never running out of money, ever, is the fact that the game only allowed you to have a limited amount of money "on hand" at any time, as defined by how many silos you had to store resources in.
34** ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert2'':
35*** The AI in this game cheats, too. The enemy can rebuild a building in just a few seconds, and not only start with a pile of cash but receive regular payments from nowhere. The only way to defeat computer players is to destroy their construction yard first and then go for everything else.
36*** This can be exploited by the player in certain missions, however. When playing as the Allies, the Ally's Spy steals half of the opposition's money if it touches their refinery. Addtionally, the AI is too stupid to sell its buildings except when scripted to. So in certain scenarios, you can clear out the area around a soviet refinery, fortify it against reprisals, and continually steal an absurd amount of money.
37** ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerTiberiumWars'':
38*** The only difference between "Hard" and "Brutal" Difficulty is that a Brutal computer generates double resources.
39*** In many of the campaign missions, the AI has infinite cash (sometimes not even having a refinery) and can simply spam units nonstop until you destroy its base. The only thing that prevents you from being crushed is the scripted nature of the missions, and the fact that the AI doesn't know how to mount a strong attack, sending units towards you in small groups instead.
40** ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerRedAlert3'':
41*** The Empire Mission in Hawaii notably features the computer's base having either 6 or 8 Seaports and multiple Airbases, all producing units at the same time, non-stop, until you destroy their base or Ore Refineries. On the opposite side of the map, where you are, there are no extra resource nodes.
42*** Likewise, Insane enemies get the same +100% bonus to resource gathering as Brutals did in ''C&C 3.''
43*** Good luck getting at their Ore Refineries, they have heavy defenses (in addition to a never ending wall of units) and not nearly enough power plants to support it, if they had any at all.
44** In ''VideoGame/CommandAndConquerGenerals: Zero Hour'', there are "Challenges" available where the player goes up against an enemy General who specialises in a specific type of warfare. Examining the scripting behind these Challenges reveals an infinite-loop AI script trigger: "if Credits < 10000, give 10000 Credits". The AI has infinite cash, since they immediately get given 10k more when they drop below 10k in the bank. [[GeneralFailure Kwai]] [[EpicFail still]] manages to run out because of his [[AttackAttackAttack endless tank spam]].
45* The AI in ''VideoGame/CompanyOfHeroes'' on Normal receives a massive Manpower boost. If both sides capture the exact same number of points on a map with the exact same levels of Manpower/Munition/Fuel income, the AI will normally have 1/3 extra manpower points than the Player. This can be seen in the summary screen after completing a Skirmish map. On Hard and Expert mode, the AI receives a Manpower bonus of 2x and 4x, respectively.
46* ''VideoGame/DawnOfWar'':
47** The AI will start the game with extra resources if you put the difficulty high enough.
48** It also has faster resource gain rates. The Dawn of War AI, however, is basically designed to spam units at usually low to medium tier, so if you can actually survive long enough to tech up, you can usually win regardless of the AI's level. In team games, rushing the AI can have the same effect.
49** They don't seem to be bound by population caps like the player is, either. This is most obviously seen in the Eldar stronghold mission of Dark Crusade, where the Eldar base constantly summons fully reinforced squads of infantry - apparently no one told them that there's a cap of 2 on the best vehicles. It's justified as them warping units from an offworld ship, and you're supposed to cut them off from said ship [[BraggingRightsReward instead of destroying their base.]]
50** The same applies to the AI in ''Dawn Of War II''. Not only will they inexplicably be producing squads faster than should be possible given resource gain rates, letting them get to tier three means you'll almost certainly be confronted by a population cap-defying number of units, including super units. This is likely because the AI is also quite stupid and has a habit of leaving squads standing around doing nothing.
51* In ''VideoGame/DungeonKeeper 2'', enemy Keepers often have inaccessible mana vaults, generally so that they can spam imps and spells and sustain a ton of traps.
52* 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, vehicles and buildings, 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 minor concession to fairness, the enemy AI is very inept at replacing leveled installations, so once you've made some headway into destroying their bases, it's pretty much your battle to lose.
53* In ''VideoGame/{{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.
54* ''Videogame/GrimGrimoire'': Your opponents aren't restricted by silly things such as resource levels or build times--in fact, you can even catch them in the act of directly teleporting in more {{Mooks}} for them to use.
55* 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 or seven missions in you'll have enough resources to rebuild your entire fleet twice over, and that number only goes up from there.
56* ''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.
57* 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 its remaining production facility to pump out an endless supply of its most powerful units, despite not having any legitimate incoming resources.
58* ''VideoGame/RiseOfNations'' explicitly features this, at first in favor of human players on the easiest and easy difficulties, and later in favor of the AI players on the hard and HarderThanHard difficulties.
59* ''VideoGame/RiseOfLegends'' does this as well; 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.
60* ''VideoGame/{{StarCraft}}'':
61** Actual evidence of cheating was found when 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 really become frustrating even with the cheating.
62** In campaign maps, the computer really has no choice but to be scripted with bonus resources or units; the campaign maps are heavily triggered for storyline purposes, and it wouldn't make sense for an "unstoppable Zerg outpost" to be demolished by a steamroller player when it is specifically triggered to be destroyed by a surprise appearance by an ally or the like. Of course the Campaign maps also often start with the player explicitly supposed to be at a disadvantage with the enemy already have a large base an army or incoming reinforcements, unlike the multiplayer game where everyone is on even footing.
63** It's made extremely obvious after winning a campaign level when all the end stats are shown that the computer receives a huge amount of starter cash. An example would be that you'll occasionally see the end-level resource stats for the computer in the 50 thousands even though the computer most of the time only has about 4 actual workers gathering resources, which basically spells out to you that the computer started off with 50,000 minerals and gas each.
64** In skirmish games, the computer ''does not'' get a resource advantage. The ''[[http://www.entropyzero.org/BroodwarAI.html Broodwar AI Project]]'' reveals that, due to the limitations of the AI, and how much can actually be edited, a resource advantage is required to ensure an even playing field. Although, if you don't swing for that, an AI ''is'' included that does not get a resource advantage, but just a smarter build order.
65** In Starcraft 2's skirmishes, it's confirm-able that the hardest AI mode gets minerals and gas faster. Watch a replay against one while watching its resources. Each worker gets 7 minerals instead of 5, and 6 gas instead of 4. They have since been renamed to Cheaters.
66* The space RTS ''Videogame/StarRuler'' is very upfront about this. When you start a game and activate AI empires, you can both choose the difficulty level and whether or not it cheats. What that option actually does is give the AI a set amount of resources depending on how long the game has been going on, capped at some ridiculous number. So, early on, it doesn't get very many resources while at the end it gets over 1 million of every resource per second!
67* Before its first patch, the computer opponents in ''VideoGame/StarTrekArmada II'' would often suddenly turn up with a huge [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin armada]] of the highest tier ship in the game. Imagine, if you will, a horde of Negh'vars coming towards your Starbase, piled up like a packed convention line.
68* ''VideoGame/StarWarsGalacticBattlegrounds'' scenarios invariably have some kind of "Game World: gives supplies to computer AI" code.
69* The AI in ''VideoGame/{{Stellaris}}'', as of version 2.0, has been confirmed to have its maintenance and civilian good costs halved on difficulties at least as low as normal, as well as receiving some additional bonus to energy income.
70* The [=AIx=] of ''VideoGame/SupremeCommander'' isn't smarter than the regular AI; it just builds faster and resources have no effect on build speed. Note, however, that when you select an [=AIx=] variant, the game tells you to your face that it's a cheating AI.
71* Units in ''VideoGame/SwordsAndSoldiers'' can be instantly created if enough gold is available. There's a cooldown before one can summon another unit of the same type. In the campaign the AI will flagrantly ignore this and send 5-10 of the exact same type of unit at any given time.
72* The computer player in ''VideoGame/TotalAnnihilation'' gets ordinary units that produce power and metal for free. Naturally, when you play as that faction those units are completely ordinary in every way.
73* In the original ''VideoGame/{{Warcraft}}'', the computer AI has infinite resources. It can even build more units than it has farms to support. This means the computer shows its peons mining gold and lumber, and building farms, entirely for show. It doesn't abuse this power (it only builds a small number of units at a time, then sends them to attack).
74* In ''VideoGame/WarcraftIII'' skirmishes, the amount of gold and lumber the AI earns depends on the difficulty (on "insane" difficulty, it receives twice the amount of gold and lumber as the player than what it actually harvested, where as on "easy" and "normal" difficulty it only receives the normal amount.
75** On certain missions of the campaign the AI continuously gets free resources from scripts whenever it's running low.
76** In some campaign missions this is actually inverted, where the AI only gathers 1 unit of gold or lumber per worker each trip. This is because those resources are limited, so it ensures that the AI doesn't mine all the gold and lumber before the player gets there, while also attempting to make it look at least somewhat realistic.
77** The AI in ''Warcraft III'' has permanent bonuses to movement speed, which makes certain manoeuvres like intercepting fleeing opponents more difficult; it gets to the point where your faster-moving units literally cannot catch up with their own slower units. However, it seems that both an AI's and a player's workers have a chance to speed up while harvesting resources. This bonus is built into the game engine and cannot be removed even in custom maps.
78[[/folder]]
79
80
81[[folder:Turn-Based Strategy]]
82* Every single ''[[VideoGame/NintendoWars Advance Wars]]'' ever made:
83** The games mostly have [[ArtificialStupidity laughably bad AI]], so they almost always outnumber you 2 to 1 with enemy units and properties to compensate. The campaign missions in also often give the enemy unique units or structures in the later games as well.
84** The sequel improves the AI a tiny bit, but also introduces ''factories'': an enemy property that can produce any unit in the game once per turn at no cost. Of course they only appear on a few maps, and they aren't abused to nearly their full potential: they actually are hard-coded to make specific units each turn (For example, on ''Liberation'' it always makes a Recon and Battle Copter on turn 1, an Anti-Air and a Mech turn 2, etc) and, while they are "timed" in a way to make inconvenient units (like Missiles around the time you're likely to be drawing close with air units), this means they're often used to make cheaper units like tanks or anti-air, that the AI can't just constantly spam out the most expensive and powerful units possible, and that via TrialAndErrorGameplay you can know in advance what units you'll be facing on the map.
85** ''Dual Strike'' has the Black Crystal: a Black Hole installation that restores 2HP to any nearby enemy unit for free along with maxing out their fuel and ammo. [[spoiler:They're actually a plot point explaining how Black Hole recovered so quickly after their last defeat.]] In the same game is [[spoiler:The Black Obelisk, which does the same thing that Black Crystals do but over a larger area.]]
86** ''Days of Ruin'' cuts down on this considerably thanks to a very improved [=AI=], until you get to the [[spoiler:[[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard ridiculously overpowered]] [[GameBreaker final boss.]]]]
87** ''Super Famicom Wars'' has Billy Gates. He gets 10000 extra money each turn.
88* In Creator/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.
89** In ''Civilization Revolutions'', the computer players get armies for free, give technology to each other (you have to research, buy or trade), they can spawn armies off of ships and out of the Fog Of War in places they could not possibly get to otherwise. This on top of the fact that they never attack each other, so it's always a 4-on-1 game.
90** The ''Civilization'' series' consistently uses this trick for difficulty. The higher the DifficultyLevel, the bigger the boost the AI gets to their economy and production, among other things. Of course this is also mirrored on the lower difficulties, where in some cases the AI actually gets a malus to production.
91*** The AI seems to screw with the random number generator quite a bit. Often its massively underpowered unit stacks will destroy your own more advanced forces, unless you've got tanks or something else far in advance of their own units. The AI also appear to be able to generate units out of thin air as soon as they decide they need reinforcements, or as soon as you declare war on them. This encourages the player to enter into wars only if he or she has a massive tech or production advantage over the AI, not just more units of the same type.
92** In Civilization II at least, the AI tended to surround its cities with irrigation and roads with alarming efficiency. It's almost guaranteed the computer has better infrastructure than you!
93** In ''V'', the AI even starts with considerably more than you on higher difficulties. The player always starts with a Settler and a Warrior, but the AI on Deity starts with three Warriors, a Scout, two Workers, and two Settlers.This generally means that for Deity players the entire challenge is doing enough to compensate for their overwhelming early advantage. Once you catch back up with the AI, you generally won't fall behind again.
94* ''VideoGame/{{Colonization}}'' AI gets [[http://t-a-w.blogspot.com/2007/05/colonization-tips.html tools and guns for free]] in every new colony.
95* ''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.
96* In ''VideoGame/FrontMission1'' the enemy gets to deploy more wanzers than you can, can utilize more supply trucks, can equip better weapons than you have access to at any given time, and gets to casually ignore the "weight" and "engine" stats and thus equip whatever they want to whatever they want without overloading their machines. Possibly justified as you're a mercenary unit responsible for securing your own parts, members, and performing your own maintenance while they likely have proper supply chains and are being maintained by proper mechanics and technicians.
97* ''VideoGame/GalacticCivilizations 2'' informs you that the more potent AI settings aren't going to play fair with resources.
98** However the weaker AI settings actually cheat to the players advantage, penalizing the AI's resources. In the pre-set AI, only the "Intelligent" or "Tough" difficulty setting plays fair with resources, though you're free to tinker with how much the AI is helped or hampered in this manner.
99* ''VideoGame/HeroesOfMightAndMagic'' has this with the computer in the higher difficulty levels, their resources appear out of thin air. In the impossible difficulty the computer gets 1000 gold and 2 of every resource for doing nothing at all. Top this off with the fact that you start with no resources at all while the computer starts with a bunch of resources makes this difficulty level [[ExactlyWhatItSaysOnTheTin nearly impossible]], however there have been rumors that [[NintendoHard it can be beaten]] (this info is based off of the impossible level in ''VideoGame/HeroesOfMightAndMagic 2'', it may vary in other games of the series).
100** This can also be built into a map using boon-granting events that explicitly only affect computer players, which will apply on all difficulty levels. And of course, if you play such a map on a higher difficulty level, the computer will get ''both'' bonuses. The developers [[LampshadeHanging lampshade it]] in the built-in maps with flavor text like "[=FedEx=] for computer!" that [[EasterEgg can only be seen if you poke around the maps using the editor]].
101* In ''VideoGame/MasterOfOrion'', the AI has a random chance of getting a free colony ship every turn.
102* ''VideoGame/SwordOfTheStars'' gives its Hard AI 50% extra earnings and research speed. The player gets these advantages on Easy, though. [[AIIsACrapshoot AI Rebels]] get sizeable advantages over normal players, whether human or computer-controlled, as part of the "Death" side of the DeathOrGloryAttack that is AI research.
103* ''VideoGame/WarGroove'' takes a Administrivia/TropesAreTools approach. The AI is okay, but not nearly as good as a skilled player will be for obvious reasons. The Campaign goes for a "challenge over fairness" paradigm, such as giving the AI free units when the mission suits it, but the player is given total control over how fair (and thus, how hard) they want the game to be, scaling bonuses to themselves and enemies up or down. This is also pretty much all the difficulty setting in Arcade mode changes, with Easy giving the AI only 50% income, Normal being fair, and Hard giving them double income.
104[[/folder]]
105
106!!Examples in Other Video Games
107
108[[folder:Driving Game]]
109* In ''VideoGame/TwistedMetal 2'', in addition to the standard weapons that are governed by ammo pickups, there are special moves that drain a meter that slowly regenerates. Run out of meter, and you can't use your special moves until it fills up a bit. [[TheComputerIsACheatingBastard The computer]] is under no such limitation, nor is the AI smart enough to hide its cheating, leading to frustrating situations like being [[CycleOfHurting stun-locked]] to death with an infinite loop of [[KillItWithIce ice blasts]].
110[[/folder]]
111
112[[folder:Shooter]]
113* In both ''VideoGame/BioShock'' games the enemies will have unlimited ammunition. However when you search them, they will only have a few bullets on hand.
114* A lesser example, but when you visit homeworlds in ''VideoGame/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.
115* ''VideoGame/SystemShock2'' featured zombies toting shotguns with infinite ammo. Invariably, upon killing one, he'd drop a broken shotgun with 1 or 2 shells.
116* ''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 levels of [[MoreDakka bullet]]/[[MacrossMissileMassacre rocket]]/GrenadeSpam are enough to make you weak at the knees.
117[[/folder]]
118
119[[folder:MOBA]]
120* In ''VideoGame/LeagueOfLegends'', 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.
121[[/folder]]
122
123[[folder:Puzzle Game]]
124* Despite being ostensibly an RPG/Puzzle Hybrid, ''VideoGame/PuzzleQuest'' still has resource gathering, to a degree. Rest assured if the opponent goes first, they will have at least one combo available that provides them with an additional turn... and the RandomNumberGod will be kind enough to give them a few more comboes to fill up their reserves before you get a chance. This rarely happens for the human player.
125** Well, that depends on your version. Technically, the DS version doesn't have a random number generator, so it would be more of a Predetermined Board God.
126[[/folder]]
127
128[[folder:Role-Playing Game]]
129* The ''VideoGame/BravelyDefault'' series: Both games also include the Salve-Maker job, whose Dark Potion works exactly like Minus Strike, and of course the boss has an infinite supply of consumable items for the job's item-blending mechanics.
130* ''VideoGame/EveOnline'':
131** 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=]).
132** Likewise, NPC ships are ''extremely'' resistant to target jamming. While they can be jammed, it takes far more effort than it would for the equivalent ship piloted by a player. This was likely implemented to prevent players from having a target-jamming friend come into their mission and basically render it more-or-less trivial.
133* In several ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' titles (''Videogame/FinalFantasyV'' being the biggest offender), 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. The first game in the series where it was even possible to stop a foe from using spells by depleting their MP was ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI'' (and even then, several monsters have 0 MP special abilities).
134** In the first three games in the series, enemies simply didn't have magic points - they could spam any spell they knew at will.
135** ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyBraveExvius'' approaches this in a different direction - while enemies all have mana pools sensibly related to the type of foe they are (animalistic monsters having nearly none, more trained and intelligent foes having more, spellcasters having the most), it's moot because the enemies don't consume magic points at all to use their spells and abilities - this is most obvious in the various fights against the Sworn Six in the first season, as they'll continue to use -aga level attack spells (which would cost the player 20 MP per cast) even if their magic points have been zeroed out. The main reason they have limits on their magic points is so that the player cannot have infinite magic points by repeatedly using [[ManaDrain Osmose or related abilities]].
136* Special mention to some bosses and mobs in ''VideoGame/GuildWars'' missions, while the enemy [=NPCs=] do usually have a fair energy limit, some casters in missions actually use spells as their auto atttacks resulting in something like this (PC Mesmer casts 3 energy draining spells, enemy -40 energy + NPC caster boss- Immolate, Immolate, Immolate, Immolate, Immolate, Immolate, Immolate, Immolate, Immolate, Immolate, Immolate, Immolate, Immolate, Immolate, Immolate = 6 people dead).
137* In ''VideoGame/MassEffect2'', [[PlayerCharacter Commander Shepard]] is apparently the only person in the entire galaxy who doesn't have access to infinite amounts of [[strike:ammunition]] thermal clips. Both enemies and allies are unlimited, despite enemies usually only have a few on their bodies. That said running out isn't a huge issue for you either.
138* CPU-controlled enemy ''Franchise/{{Pokemon}}'' never run out of PP for their moves in the original Red and Blue games. This was changed in later games, although all but the most powerful moves have enough PP that you only run out after being worn down across numerous battles anyways, something the [=NPCs=] don't have to worry about.
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141[[folder:Simulation Game]]
142* ''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. This is fixed in ''Supersonic'', where AI airlines that go bankrupt do not get a name change and cash injection and instead are eliminated just like player-run airlines would be.
143* The computer companies in ''VideoGame/TransportTycoon'' don't pay money for raising or lowering terrain, explaining why they don't go instantly bankrupt when their first action is to level a mountain or two just to build one coal train.
144* In the ''[[Videogame/{{X}} X-Universe]]'' series, player-owned Solar Power Plants require Crystals - which require an [[RefiningResources expensive and convoluted supply chain to produce]] - in order to produce Energy Cells, used to power every type of factory. NPC-owned power plants do not require Crystals, allowing them to generate energy cells from nothing. Because the X-Universe was never designed in mind for mass Crystal demand (as it's an otherwise unimportant resource), the economy comes crashing down ''hard'' within a few hours when modders require NPC power plants to use crystals.
145** A much more popular type of mod equalizes things by going the other way, and making ''your'' power plants crystal-less. Argument against cheating is spawned every time such a mod is made, because being that Energy Cells are a primary resource and the ''entire universe'' needs ''massive'' amounts of them ''constantly'', you can pretty much name your price and completely effortlessly wait for the money to roll in.
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148[[folder:Sports Game]]
149* In ''VideoGame/TouhouSoccer'', your players need to expend guts to do all those killer moves. The help file specifically states "By the way, the AI has absolutely no idea what this Guts restriction means." This also turns the single character in the game who can actively reduce opponents' Guts useless when on your side.
150** This gets [[LampshadeHanging lampshaded]] when Kaguya only uses "[[MemeticMutation Help me, Eirin!]]-mild-" for an entire match to save her guts, only to be told afterwards that it was a waste of time because of this trope.
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