How to Play • Gameplay • Resources
There are multiple technology and upgrade levels in Evolution RTS. Tech 0 Is provided by your Overseer. This will allow you to build the most basic structures and units. Further technology advances can be obtained by building a Tech Facility. The Tech Facility will provide Tech 1 once it is built. It can further be upgraded to provide Tech 2 and Tech 3. Higher tech will allow you to build more advanced structures and units.
The Overseer and Unit Factories can be upgraded by clicking the relevant buttons on the orders menu when those units are selected. The overseer can be upgraded into a variety of forms. Some will provide a large cloak of invisibility to anything in the area, others will provide shielding in a large area.
Factories can be upgraded all the way to Mark IV. This gives your units faster firing rates, more armor and more damage. A Mark IV army will obliterate a Mark I army quite quickly. It should be noted that the higher upgrade level, the more energy will be consumed while firing, so make sure to keep your energy production on pace to supply your army.
Metal is used solely for construction projects, whether you are trying to build a turret, factory, generator, tank, aircraft, etc, Metal is what is used for that construction project. More metal income means that you can build more things simultaneously, faster. You start out with a 1 metal income, and you need to build mexes to increase this income. Mex spot can be found all through out a map, and the best way to build mexes is by using the "Area Mex" button, which is on your Overseer and Lifter.
If your available metal is equal to your maximum metal storage amount, metal income will be ignored, wasting potential resources. However, if you have allies a percentage is spilled over to them, providing that they aren't maxed out as well.
Energy is used specifically for utilitarian purposes. Those purposes include, Units firing, Recharging shields, Upgrades, and Cloaking.
Energy is extremely important. The same buildings that provide energy also provide you with Power. The most basic reasons of why energy is so important is the fact that your units require it in order to fire their weapons. As a result, if you get in the middle of a battle and run out of energy, your units will no longer be able to fire, and that might not only cost you the battle, it might also cost you the game!
Energy income is determined by how many of these generators are built. If your energy on hand is the same amount as your maximum energy storage, the energy from the energy income is wasted. However, if you have allies a percentage is spilled over to them, providing that they aren't maxed out as well, similar to the metal storage mechanic.
Energy storage can be supplemented with Supply Depots. Energy storage is arguably as important or even more important than energy generation because energy is generally consumed in large bursts during battles or nuke launches as opposed to in a slow, gradual but consistent fashion like metal consumption, meaning that in peace time a high energy income is not useful.
Energy can be obtained via the following buildings:
Basic Generator, this gives +5 energy generation. Geothermal Generator, this gives +10 energy generation. Advanced Generator, this gives +10 energy generation, but requires tech level 2.
Generators provide energy for your army to operate effectively. Every time a unit fires a weapon, energy is used to create the projectile. All units draw energy form your energy reserves in order to make this happen. If your reserves are empty, your units will not fire. This fact alone makes generators the single most important building in the game. Energy is also used for powering shields and other utility purposes. The available generators are the /Basic/Geothermal/Advanced Generators.
Geothermal Generators can only be placed on spots that have smoke coming out of it, you can find these spots easier if you click on a Geothermal Generator in the build menu. Geothermal spots will be highlighted on the minimap with a yellow X and on the map itself with a very tall yellow column. If you can place a Geothermal Generator near your start position, it is a good idea to build it rather than Basic Generators as you get to start with most units unlocked.
Supply is similar to population seen in other RTS games. Attack units use Supply, and thus you cannot build any more of them once you reached the Supply limit. Supply Depots also increase Energy and Metal maximum reserves by +25 per Depot.
In addition to increasing your army supply limit, Supply Depots are excellent tools to help buffer your Energy reserves. When your Metal and Energy reserves are full, any excess is wasted (if in a 1v1 game, otherwise it spills over to your allies in team games), so it makes a lot of sense to have a large buffer zone for your resources. It can allow you to have much greater staying power in a large battles where your units are using tons of energy in order to keep fighting.
Increased supply and resource storage can be obtained via the Supply Depot building.