Real Cost of Resources

Article written by Council of Elders (Hosted with permission from MrFixitOnline)
Published on 09-18-2008; updated on 08-17-2014
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Age of Kings is a game of military conquest, but beneath those charging armies is a powerful economic engine. Economic strategy is often more important than military strategy. To make the right choices you need to know the real cost of your assets in four economic sections: Pre-Castle (including both Dark and Feudal Ages), Castle, Imperial and Post-Imperial. This article will reveal the real cost of every resource, unit, building and technology in the Pre-Castle Age.

How much do resources cost?

Villager-gathered resources are the heart of your economy. These resources are used to build assets (units, structures and technology) and their resource costs are well known. A villager costs 50 food, a house costs 30 wood and Loom costs 50 gold. But how much do the resources themselves cost? How can you measure the cost of 50 food or 30 wood?

In Age of Kings, a resource’s cost is based on its gather rate. Wood, food, gold and stone are not equal because they have different gather rates. Gather rates are based on how much of a resource a villager can gather in one second. Look at the table showing the gather rates and costs for wood, food, gold and stone, then read the explanations below.

Resource Wood Food Gold Stone
Ideal Gather Rate .388 w/s .316 f/s .379 g/s .359 st/s
Avg. Gather Rate .313 w/s .314 f/s .353 g/s .329 st/s
Real Cost 3.28 vs/w 4.36 vs/f 2.90 vs/g 3.24 vs/st

Notes

  1. The farm food gathering rate is used for all Pre-Castle food calculations.
  2. Feudal Technology is not used to improve the gather rates until the Castle Age.
  3. Only buildings include their build time (bt) in their VS costs.
  • Ideal gather rate measures one villager working efficiently without walking or crowding by other villagers. Unfortunately you can’t work at these rates in a real game. Ideally a villager could gather .388 wood every second.
  • Avg. (Average) gather rate measures a 30 villager economy over 8 1/2 minutes with 10 farmers, 10 lumberjacks, 5 gold miners and 5 stone miners. On Average, a villager can gather .313 wood every second (quite a bit less than ideal).
  • Real Cost measures the cost of each resource (including average gather rates and overhead costs) in Villager-Seconds. It takes a villager 3.28 seconds (including overhead) to gather 1 wood.
  • Villager Seconds (VS) is the measure of a villager working for 1 second. 2 villager working 10 seconds = 20 vs.

Examples of real costs

  • A Villager costs 50 food. Therefore the “real cost” of a villager = (50 f* 4.36 vs/f) = 218 vs. since each unit of food costs 4.36vs</li
  • Loom costs 50 gold. Therefore the “real cost” of researching the loom = (50g * 2.9 vs/g) = 145vs. vs. since each unit of gold costs 2.90vs
  • A House costs 30 wood and takes 25 seconds to build. Therefore the “real cost” = ([30w * 3.28 vs/w] + 25vs) = 123 vs.

How to calculate the real cost of resources?

The two components of a resource’s real cost are: the inefficiency, and overhead:

  • Inefficiency is based on the ideal gather rate plus walking and crowding. This is shown in the Average Gather Rate with a 30 villager economy: 10 farmers, 10 lumberjacks, 5 gold miners, and 5 stone miners.
  • Overhead is the cost of the resource-gathering building. Wood and Food have similar gather rates, but 10 farmers (10 farms = 600 w) have much more overhead than 10 lumberjacks (1 lumber camp = 100w).
Resource Wood Food Gold Stone
Avg. Gather Rate .313 w/s .314 f/s .353 g/s .329 st/s
Cost/Unit 3.195 vs 3.185 vs 2.83 vs 3.04 vs
Total Units 4,000 w 175 f 5,600 g 1,750 st
Gather Cost 12,780 vs 557 vs 15,864 vs 5,319 vs
Building Cost 354 vs 206 vs 354 vs 354 vs
Total Cost 13,134 vs 763 vs 16,218 vs 5,673 vs
Real Cost 3.28 vs 4.36 vs 2.90 vs 3.24 vs
Overhead 3% 27% 2% 6%

Here are the steps to Calculate the Real Cost of Food.

  1. Test the Food Avg. Gather Rate. (10 trials in the simulator, rate = 3.14 f/s).
  2. Find the Cost per Unit in VS ( [1 food / .314 food/second] = 3.185 vs).
  3. Estimate the Total Units efficiently gathered by one building (1 farm gives 175 food).
  4. Find the Gather Cost for the estimated Total Units (175 food * .314 food/second = 557 vs).
  5. Find the resource-gathering Building Cost ([60 wood * 3.195 w/s] + 15s build time = 206 vs).
  6. Add the Gather Cost and the Building Cost for the Total Cost (557 vs + 206 vs = 763 vs).
  7. Real Cost is the Total Cost divided by the Total Units (763 vs / 175 food/second = 4.36).
  8. The Overhead % is Building Cost / Total Cost (206 / 763 = 27%).


So there you have it! You are off and on your way to victory over your enemies as you dazzle them with your economic brilliance. Just remember that behind every swinging sword is a shiny plow that feeds the army.

I want to thank MrFixit and all the MFO staff for helping me. Special thanks go to Lord_Captn_Kidd for helping me develop the Real Cost model. And extra special thanks go the “Dictionary of Business Terms” for helping me understand what they were talking about.