What is a Resource Drive for?
INTRODUCTION TO THE RESOURCE DRIVE SYSTEM
Greetings, Defender! This guide is intended to give you a general idea of how a Kingdom’s resource system works, and how to interact with it. We will begin by explaining its main mechanic, Resource Drives.
RESOURCE DRIVES AND STOCKPILES
As you travel among cities, towns and settlements found on the planets; you may run across Residents or small “Prototype Gear” robots which, when approached, provide a message of a specific material being requested. These are the local resource drives, and the items they are requesting are connected to the needs of the settlement or the region as a whole (in some cases, even the ruling organization). Handing in items provides a variety of rewards, additionally they get registered as being added to the location’s inventory, known as the Stockpile. The items being requested follow a list of 25 items the Stockpile can carry, and it moves to the next item every hour, in order. Knowing this, if you take note of the items a Stockpile requests, you can predict and plan for when it will be asking for an item next.
WHAT CAN BE DONE WITH STOCKPILES?
As projects come about, such as repairing a town after an attack, researching a new device, maintenance on a flying vessel or construction of a new structure; materials will be required to make these things happen. The first place the M.O.B. will look to in order to meet these quotas is the Stockpiles of allied locations. If players have been hard at work in keeping a healthy stock across various locations, these projects can begin work immediately. Even if the quota is not immediately met, it will help cover part of the initial cost.
FIELD STOCKPILES
To meet specific needs or help construction efforts in an area where there isn’t a Stockpile built, temporary Field Stockpiles can take their place. These are usually in the form of groups of workers or beasts of burden receiving a single item at a time. These do not rotate hourly like Stockpiles do, so they are meant to aid with gathering a single item to get the job done (whatever that may be). If more than one item is needed, more than one Field Stockpile can be placed, but doing so requires another team of workers or beast of burden to do so. The rewards obtained in Field Stockpiles are also different than those on Resource Drives. Denoting the name ‘Field’ in Field Stockpile, they are usually not set up within settlements or cites.
HOW CAN WE KEEP TRACK OF STOCKPILE INVENTORY?
The leaders of a Ruling Organization, such as Generals, or Defenders who have become involved in the projects, such as Union staff members, can request for Stockpile Reports which will be sent to them via Mail. These give a snapshot of the current stockpile of the town, it is wise to recollect these as a major project comes up. If one location does not have the necessary materials for a project, a caravan can be called from one that does in order to provide the needed stock. Keep in mind however that locations cannot hold on to materials they do not ask for, so for example a town that does not ask for Steel cannot hold onto it indefinitely. However, the leaders of an organization can change which materials a location is allowed to Stockpile, so properly supplying a Kingdom is a game of proper planning and thinking ahead, we hope Defenders who enjoy this style of gameplay dive into the Resource Drive system!