Resources

States across all five countries hold deposits of natural resources that can be extracted by corporations. These resources feed the commodity market, affect corporate profit margins, and represent sovereign wealth that governments can choose to contract out — or protect.

The Seven Extractable Resources

Seven resources can be extracted from state deposits. Each is measured in its own unit:

These seven are a subset of the eleven commodities tracked in the broader commodity pricing engine. Standard manufactured commodities (steel, electronics, consumer goods) have no extraction model — they come from corporate sectors processing other inputs, not from the ground.

The Capacity System

Every state that has natural resources holds a resource capacity document specifying the maximum extraction output (in commodity units) it can yield per turn. These figures are benchmarked to real-world production data.

For example, Texas holds a capacity of 450,000 bbl/turn of oil and 2,250,000 MMBtu/turn of natural gas. Alaska adds rare earth deposits. Wyoming is one of the few states with coal, oil, natural gas, timber, and rare earth all present.

A reference calculation: a $10M/day extraction corporation running at a 20% supply rate produces roughly:

• Oil: 25,000 bbl/turn
• Coal: 13,333 tons/turn
• Natural Gas: 48,000 MMBtu/turn
• Copper: 111 tons/turn (at a 10% rate)
• Timber: 2,000 m³/turn (at an 8% rate)

States without a capacity document are treated as uncapped — a backward-compatible default for any state not explicitly seeded with resource data. In practice, every major producing state has been seeded with real-world-derived capacity numbers.

R&D Can Expand Capacity

Extraction corporations with active R&D budgets can permanently increase a state's resource capacity through innovation breakthroughs. A breakthrough for an oil-and-gas corporation grows that state's oil and natural gas capacity; an iron mining breakthrough grows iron capacity only. This mechanic represents "unlocking new deposits" and means state capacities are not truly static over the game's lifetime.

How Capacity Affects Corporate Output

Capacity caps work as a multiplier on extraction sector output, not a hard cutoff:

• If a sector's computed output for a resource is below the state's capacity ceiling, it operates at full output (multiplier = 1.0).
• If demand from all extraction sectors in a state exceeds available capacity, output is proportionally squeezed.
• States with no capacity document produce without a cap (multiplier stays at 1.0 for all resources).

The result: resource-rich states support more extraction activity before running into diminishing returns, while resource-poor states effectively can't supply commodities they don't have in the ground.

Contracted vs. Open-Access Capacity

State resource capacity is divided between two pools:

Contracted capacity is reserved exclusively for a corporation holding an extraction contract. The corporation has guaranteed priority access to its contracted share of the state's ceiling.

Open-access capacity is the remainder — available to all extraction sectors in that state on a first-come, proportional basis. If total demand from uncontracted sectors exceeds the open pool, every uncontracted sector's output is squeezed proportionally.

When contracts add up past 100% of a state's capacity (an over-allocated state), the open-access pool collapses to zero. Uncontracted extraction sectors in an over-allocated state produce nothing for that resource.

Which States Have Which Resources

Major resource concentrations across the five countries:

United States — Texas leads in oil and natural gas. Pennsylvania and West Virginia are major gas and coal producers. Minnesota holds the largest iron deposits. Arizona is the copper hub. Wyoming and Alaska are uniquely diverse, holding five or more resource types each.

United Kingdom — Scotland holds the country's largest oil and gas deposits (North Sea). Wales, Yorkshire, and the East and West Midlands hold most of the UK's remaining coal and iron.

Germany — North Rhine-Westphalia dominates coal and iron production. Lower Saxony holds oil and natural gas. Bavaria and Rhineland-Palatinate hold rare earth deposits.

Japan — Hokkaido and Kyushu hold coal and timber. Chugoku and Tohoku hold rare earth and natural gas. Japan's overall resource base is modest compared to North American counterparts.

Canada (not currently in-game) — reserved for future expansion.

Why Resources Matter

Resources flow directly into the commodity pricing engine. When extraction output is high, commodity supply is abundant and prices fall — benefiting industrial sectors that use those commodities as inputs. When output is constrained (whether by capacity ceilings, lack of contracts, or over-allocation), supply tightens and commodity prices rise, squeezing margins for downstream sectors.

Legislators can influence resource flows through two tools:

• Extraction contracts — granting exclusive capacity shares to specific corporations
• Subsidies — providing margin bonuses that make extraction sectors more profitable regardless of commodity prices

For the corporate side of this system, see Corporations.