Dev Diaries: On Post-Cataclysmic Economies news - Nuclear Dawn

Nuclear Dawn’s RTS gameplay gives would-be post-apocalyptic commanders the possibility of developing, manufacturing and deploying an impressive arsenal, a full array of base structures, and a full complement of player-controllable vehicles.

No commander, no matter how rousing their speeches, or how righteous their cause, is going to go far without acquiring resource points, which provide the raw materials and extra juice to research and produce, repair and rebuild, clone and deploy just about anything in-game, from players to structures and vehicles. Without resources, commanders are just players with a god complex and a shiny badge.

Only soldiers can capture resources, which come in three flavours, and provide different levels resource points per second.

First off are tertiary resource points. These small pieces of surviving pre-Dawn equipment that serve as geothermal power sources, and are scattered all over the game maps. Each map will contain a fair number of tertiary resource points, and each can be captured by a single soldier, and they will be in typically easily defendable areas, such as isolated rooms and narrow passages. Tertiary points are not worth a lot of resources, but they do come in enough quantities to make up for their relative lack of individual value.

The next step up the resource production ladder are, unsurprisingly, secondary resource points. Typically larger, and harder to capture than their tertiary cousins, secondary resource points provide substantial amounts of resources – enough that losing a single one will be a blow to the faction’s economy. They are harder to capture, as they require more manpower and a longer time to completely control, and they also are usually harder to defend, as they will be found in open industrial areas, which soldiers will have to patrol together in order to be effective.

Tertiary and secondary points together account for roughly 50% of the resource production of a level. The other 50% is provided by the mighty primary resource points. Deeply tied into the history and nature of each map, primary resource points are buildings, structures and pre-Dawn technologies that require an organized squad to effectively capture and hold.

As an integral part of the landscape, primary resource points are easily accessible, which means that an attacking force will have several ways in and out of the site, and that constant vigilance and fortification are key to keep on controlling them.
As well as providing an impressive amount of resources, primary points also unlock special level-based weapons that provide a powerful edge in combat, against a trade-off for their resource production.

For example, in New York, the primary resource point is a fortified computer room in the basement of the Empire State Building, which controls a powerful orbital cannon. Controlling the resource point places the obital cannon under player control, allowing the commander to blast their enemies from the leaden skies, provided they don’t mind losing a considerable percentage of their resources while the cannon’s targeting computers triangulate the next trajectory.

With three types of resource points, and true weapons of absolute destruction, Nuclear Dawn commanders will have the power to decide the destiny of their factions first hand, by dedicating most of their forces to capturing and controlling the main resources, or by collecting enough secondary and tertiary points to fight back against the player that does. Are you ready to start counting beans?

Igor Raffaele, Lead Game Designer

(Concept art created by Benjamin Salmi, and 3D Art created by Alan Van Ryzin)

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