deposit-depletion mechanic sourced
Deposit depletion
Extractable deposits hold finite quantities and run out, forcing expansion, relocation, or substitution.
definition
Each deposit holds a remaining quantity that every extraction cycle decrements. At zero the node disappears or the extractor stops; some games instead decay the extraction rate toward a floor. Factorio ore patches store an amount per tile that mining drills consume, while crude oil fields report a yield percentage in which 1% equals 300 pumpjack cycles and depletion stops at a 20% floor. Warcraft and Age of Empires gold mines and The Settlers II mountain mines run dry. Satisfactory is the counterexample: its nodes are infinite and differ only in purity. Inputs: extraction cycles. Outputs: remaining amount, current rate, and an exhaustion event that idles the extractors and any chain they feed.
player experience
A visible timer the player cannot stop. Every mine is temporary, so the player keeps scouting, claiming, and rebuilding at new sites, and judges how much infrastructure a deposit deserves given how long it will last. Losing a key deposit mid-chain creates a scramble to relocate before stocks run out.
design levers
- starting quantity per deposit and its distribution across the map
- whether depletion ends output or decays the rate toward a floor
- efficiency upgrades that change output per unit removed, such as Factorio mining productivity research
- visibility of remaining amounts and warnings before exhaustion
- whether deposits regenerate, can be rediscovered, or have substitutes
failure modes
- Depletion that is too fast makes relocation the whole game and punishes building anything permanent.
- Depletion that is too slow is never felt within a session.
- Hidden remaining amounts cause sudden collapses that read as bugs.
- Infinite nodes or high rate floors remove expansion pressure, so the map stops mattering after the first claims.
dynamics
- Pushes expansion outward, which raises defense, logistics, and threat costs at new outposts.
- Creates contested chokepoints in competitive maps as the last deposits run out.
- Drives substitution toward recycling, alternate recipes, or trade once local supply ends.
- Staggers rebuild cycles, giving long games a rhythm of boom at new sites and decline at old ones.
open questions
- Can procedural geology models generate deposits whose size players can estimate from surface signals, turning prospecting into inference?
- What depletion time relative to session length keeps relocation interesting rather than tedious?