Resource Caps

Limits on numbers of resources allowed to be used or stored.

Players very often handle different types of resources in games and acquiring more is usually beneficial. There may however be limits on how much of a resource can be collected, either for balancing purposes or for practical issues of having to provide enough physical tokens (or not to have to handle large amounts of them), and these limits are Resource Caps.

Examples

Each land area in the board game Advanced Civilization has a Resource Cap on how many units can be sustained there, and this makes players wish to expand there territory to avoid having them be removed due to starvation. Origins: How We Became Human has a similar functionality but here all units a players has are in use always - either as producers, consumers, or population on the game board, or a 'locking' tokens regarding innovation, population actions, or brain functions.

The Age of Empires series has population caps for each player, although this varies from game to game (50 in the first game, 200 in the second and third, and 300 for Age of Mythology) and some civilizations get raised caps (e.g. the Goths in the second game being allowed to have 210 units); in addition, some units counts double or not at all in the third game and in Age of Mythology.

Using the pattern

Resource Caps need to be linked to specific Resources, and choosing which to apply the caps on and what the caps should be are the primary choices need to be made when using the pattern. Any numerical Resource can be used, but also the number of Units a player may have and by limiting how often actions can be done by Action Caps these can be viewed as a type of Resource. If the Resource Caps are to be given some physical expression in the game, Containers or Inventories can be used.

Arithmetic Progression

Excise

Balancing Effects

Limited Resources

Changing the actual numerical limit of a Resource Cap is a suitable candidate for Rewards or Penalties - for games with Characters this may be a way to provide Character Development.

Diegetic Aspects

Resource Caps can diegetically be motivated as Inventories or Containers, and acquiring more of the latter can easily explain increases in the caps.

Consequences

Resource Caps can make the effect of Renewable Resources not happen; to avoid this players' may engage in Resource Management in the form of making sure that Resources are used so that are below the cap limit, and this provides one form of Encouraged Constant Player Activity.

Relations

Can Instantiate

with Renewable Resources

Encouraged Constant Player Activity, Resource Management

Can Modulate

Renewable Resources, Resources, Units

Can Be Instantiated By

Action Caps, Containers, Inventories

Can Be Modulated By

Penalties, Rewards

History

New pattern created in this wiki.

References

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Acknowledgements

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