The thing to keep in mind always is that you are designing a game - not a rigorous model of a real-world economy. You should think about your economy in terms of the decisions it imposes on the user. A production chain (resource to processing to manufacturing) is of no purpose in a game unless the middle steps create challenges. Otherwise, user will just plop down a Smelter next to each Mine and a Factory next to each Smelter and then what was the point of defining three buildings? And more importantly, where's the game in that?

Most economicy-oriented games create The Game by restricting where the nodes of the economic system can be. And the game is setting up the transport system to connect them.

What is getting produced is almost beside the point. You define the way they relate to each other and then what you call them in the interface is a matter of taste. Iron Ore + Coal = Steel. Pixie Dust + Whiskey = Espresso Machines. Whatever. ;)

Feel free to use any of my ideas... I'm glad if anyone finds them useful.

Quote:

The thing to keep in mind always is that you are designing a game - not a rigorous model of a real-world economy. You should think about your economy in terms of the decisions it imposes on the user. A production chain (resource to processing to manufacturing) is of no purpose in a game unless the middle steps create challenges. Otherwise, user will just plop down a Smelter next to each Mine and a Factory next to each Smelter and then what was the point of defining three buildings? And more importantly, where's the game in that? Most economicy-oriented games create The Game by restricting where the nodes of the economic system can be. And the game is setting up the transport system to connect them. What is getting produced is almost beside the point. You define the way they relate to each other and then what you call them in the interface is a matter of taste. Iron Ore + Coal = Steel. Pixie Dust + Whiskey = Espresso Machines. Whatever. ;)

It's all true... but I come up with ways of how to fit it into my game after I know what buildings/resources I'm going to include. For example, since there are different kinds of Smelters, that presents the user with more choices and strategic trade-offs he can make.



By the way, I remembered about a book that is very useful for understanding the structure and processes of industry.

"Covering agriculture, resources, energy, communication, transportation, manufacturing, and waste, this is the Book of Everything for the industrial landscape."

http://www.powells.com/biblio/%200393059979?&PID=25450

Check out the "Economics" section of Amit's site.

Well in the game I'm trying to build right now, what I have is basically factories and plants that produce certain types of material goods. They require certain inputs and certain amounts of labor. The inputs must be trasnported by rail, barge, etc. Transport capacity is limited to how much rail/trucks/barges you have.

I don't like dealing with money because its too complicated(how do you set prices, exchange rates), so I'm probably going to omit it from the game.

The above posters were correct in that iron is extracted from certain types of ore. But past 1870 or so what you really want to make is steel. Steel, depending on quality, requires mostly iron and a small amount of coal as well as trace elements like vanadium, maganese, nickel, chromium, etc. There are dozens of different steel types, so you probably want to just stick to a few types. Say consumer grade steel, armor grade used for tanks and ships, etc.