Resource System

There are two parts to the resource system.  The first keeps you from harvesting the same tree forever, and the second tracks resource usage and availability across regions.

Local Resource Depletion

When a resource is harvested from a location, that resource is marked as "depleted."  A tree may hold 50 units of wood.  If 10 logs are harvested from it, it will then hold only 40 units of wood until resource regeneration occurs. 

Resource regeneration occurs at regular intervals, and returns a portion of depleted resources to the ecosystem.

The "difficulty" of harvesting a given resource is inversely related to the depletion level of that resource.  Difficulties range from 10 (at 0% depletion) to 90 (at 100% depletion).  Note that at 100% depletion, nothing can be harvested.   This difficulty is used as a guide; actual difficulty will range from 0 to 2 times this difficulty.  In this way, unskilled lumberjacks can eventually harvest wood from a heavily deforested area; it will just take them longer, on average.  It is never impossibly for anyone to harvest from a given area, unless that area is totally depleted.

Resource Pools (not yet implemented)

The second level of resource management is resource pools.  The map is divided into regions, which define resource availability of the various types.  As resources are harvested from a given region, its resource level will drop.  As this resource level drops, the implicit "depletion level" of the region increases.  If a region's resource level is at 25%, every source of resources within it will be considered to be at a 75% depletion level, for example.

As items are destroyed, resources will be returned to the these regional resource pools.