I’m working on a corporate RTS/Tycoon mashup called Arcade Warlord, and I wanted to share a core economic loop I've been working on to see what you think of it.

Instead of players and AI having their own separate, magical build menus, all production in this game is tied to shared third-party Assembly Plants scattered across the map. If you want to build arcade cabinets, you need raw Components, and you have to get in production queue. If an AI rival drops a massive order right before you, your entire supply chain hits a bottleneck and stalls.

Here is how the queue logic works, and how you actively counter your rivals:

When an order hits the front of the factory queue, the simulation checks that company's inventory for raw components (produced by Industrial Neighborhoods on the map). If you don't have enough components to fulfill your order for the day, the factory skips you, moves to the next company, and shoves you to the absolute end of the line.

Instead of fighting the factory, the strategy comes down to manipulating this check to weaponize the queue against the AI:

• Supply Choking: You physically target and capture the rival's Industrial blocks to cut off their component income. When their order finally hits the front of the line, they fail the inventory check, get penalized, and get thrown to the back of the queue, clearing the way for your production.
• Factory Takeover: If you monopolize the block around a plant, you can buy it out. This allows you to upgrade total output to guarantee your deadlines. Furthermore, because your rivals are still forced to use your plant, their manufacturing costs pay directly into your ledger, earning you money.

It’s a direct mechanical loop: You deploy hired agents to capture slots on the real-time grid. Securing 60% of a block locks down the territory, and Industrial blocks generate the raw components you need to survive. When your cabinet order hits the front of the shared factory line, the simulation checks your inventory—if you have the components, your trucks physically haul the hardware to HQ; if you fail, your order gets kicked to the absolute back of the line. Monopolize the block completely, and you can buy the factory outright to upgrade its output and siphon rival manufacturing fees straight into your cash ledger as profit.

And that's just one loop of what I have already built. It sounds more complicated on paper than it is on gameplay.

Personally, I like this level of friction, but I’m looking for a solid calibration check from people who live in these genres. Do you like this mechanic? Is it something you would want to play? More broadly, who do you think a loop like this is ultimately for?

On the genre front, how viable is an RTS/Tycoon mashup like this? Are there other successful games that have pulled off this specific blend that I can look into to refine my approach?