Inaugural Development Post

Hello all,

I'm making this initial post to document our plans for the immediate future in regards to the development of DORF. While there are an enormous number of changes that need to be made to OpenRA engine to allow for us to do the things we want to do with the game, seeing as we are a small team of just 2 people, only one of which is actually a programmer, this will be a lengthy process. Each major change to the engine to allow for more features will be documented here from now on.

The current phase in our project is a partial revision to the way OpenRA engine handles resources. Currently, as that engine was designed to accommodate Command & Conquer-style resources - as in, a single resource type - there is no way to create multiple resource types in the engine. Obviously this needs to change.

While nothing is set in stone now, the plan is for this game to have three resource types; Materiel, Fuel and Authority.

- Materiel is a broad resource type that's used for almost everything, from basic infantry to structures to vehicles. It can be acquired from mining ore, harvesting the scrap from destroyed units and ruins, and by decommissioning units and structures.

- Fuel is, of course, extracted from oil, which is found in reservoirs, which must have a structure built upon the reservoir, and designated units to come and extract the crude and bring it to a refinery for processing. Fuel will be less commonly used than Materiel, but is essential nonetheless, being used mostly by vehicles and advanced units.

- Authority, while an abstraction of a concept rather than a physical "resource" as we would think of it, represents the player's command over the battlefield and his privilege of being able to requisition strategic assets, such as calling in airstrikes or fire support, and acquiring certain advanced units. Unlike the other resources, which are mined or extracted in some way, Authority is earned through battlefield performance, either by destroying enemy units, completing objectives, or acquiring valuable assets like gold or enemy intel. Unlike the previous two resources, Authority does not need to be stored in silos, and can't be stolen by the enemy or lost (outside of spending it).

Unlike most RTS games which feature a solitary worker unit or harvester-type unit to actually acquire the resources, DORF will sometimes feature multiple units that can harvest resources, though sometimes they may be limited to only being able to harvest or transport a single type. For instance, basic infantry can often harvest scrap from the battlefield to be processed into useable Materiel, but can't transport oil to be converted into Fuel. A truck carrying Fuel could also not mine scrap on its own.  

Going back to the technical side of things, the current task is for tovl to replace the scripting that determines the way resources work, and allow for the game to have multiple designated resource types. This sounds easy at first, but bear in mind this means combing over every other .cs file that relates to resources in some way (such as, for instance, the trait governing unit experience, which currently uses resource value to determine unit XP value) and altering it to accommodate this new system.
In addition to these changes, there will also need to be other changes as well, such as logic that allows miners to mine from a distance, support for resource "deposits" (in game terms, the oil wells), and UI changes.   

In addition to this, there will be changes meant to support further changes to the resource logic that will be made in the future, as this is essentially only phase 1 of the resource overhaul. In the future we plan on a resource system radically different from any other RTS, in which resource and production gameplay also must factor in logistics; what this means in practical terms is that factories must be supplied with resources in order to construct anything, so no building your Tank Factory right outside the enemy base to magically produce units, even though your resource refinery is on the other side of the map. This sounds tedious, but the game will largely automate a lot of this tedium away. Specifically, the game will include automated transports that move resources from your refineries to your factories to be stockpiled there, as well as suspended conveyers and oil pipelines that move the resources from building to building as needed.  

As well as making it so players can't abuse production structures by just building them as close to the enemy base as possible, and also adding some extra points of vulnerability within everyone's bases, this also means players must be clever about their own base layouts; build a messy base where your transports have to run around the entire length of the base constantly, or build a convoluted web of pipelines and conveyers and you're going to run into problems.  Of course keep in mind that this logistics system is far away from being implemented, and as said earlier, these other changes to the resource system will be implemented first.

Much more to come, so stay tuned for further updates and development blogs.