GalCiv2 Spend Rates

I don't completely understand...

from GalCiv2 Forums
Hello chaps,

Straight to the point:)
I don't really comprehend the three Spend Rate categories. For example, my home planet has 24 industrial capacity and 24 research. Now, I set Overall Spending to 100%, Military spending to 66% and Research to 34%.
So, my planet now generates 24 * 100% * 66% = 15 (15,84) shields. If this is so then it's ok. BUT! Why cannot I set BOTH Research and Military to 100%? I understand that Social and Military spendings are mutually exclusive, since they share the same factories, but only because the planet's shipyards work like hell, my scientists are resting and doing nothing (even if I have more than enough cash to make'em work)?
This seems silly to me, and also frustrates me to no end. I build a nice shiny research facility, have the credits to finance it, my overall government spending is at 100% (by the way, how is this 100% calculated, what does it mean? My industry is NOT at 100% !), BUT because my shipyards work as well, the research facility operates at a much reduced capacity. However if I build more research labs then the overall research is increased, since 34% of the new facilities is used as well, thus increasing the total pool. Like the government increases research not by using existing capacities to full extent, but by building new facilities, paying hefty maintenance and then only using a percentage of the total infrastucture!

Please tell me I'm wrong, or explain this somehow!

Otherwise GalCiv2 is a mighty fine game, and StarDocks supportive behaviour is most appreciated.

Regards,
SA
12,407 views 10 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
You aren't wrong and I agee that it doesn't make any sense to not have all of the sliders go from 0 to 100%. It's been that way since GalCiv and it never made sense.

Look at it as focusing the work. If you put research to 100% then all your efforts are pooled into research. As soon as you want to do other stuff, you have to draw from research and put it there. Whatever that "effort" consists of... evidently not money. Nor workforce (higher pop doesn't change anything). Maybe work time or something.... pick whatever you like.

Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
OK, so it really does work like this? I thought I misunderstood something...
well, if it does, then I guess I'll have to live with it
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Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
It is not perfectly realistic. In real life you would have a guns verses butter situation, with diminishing returns for ever-higher levels of focus due to marginal costs (the opportunity cost is not the same at each level of production). Of course, that is less fun, because it means the player has less control over their race.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
actually, it seems fairly realistic to me.
The way I understand it is, it's not a matter of having enough people working hard enough, it's a matter of funding.
So, basically, you have your tax rate, which brings money into the gov... then you have the overall industrial spending slider which dictates how much money you're putting into your industry, which will obviously be less if you have a lot of maintenance costs for ships and buildings...

and then below that, you have the sliders to determine how much of your overall industrial finances go into each area. So, you can't put 100% in ALL areas of production, because it's impossible to spend 200% or 300% of your funding. Instead you have to do like a real leader would, and decide how much money goes into each area--military, research, or infrastructure.
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
actually, it seems fairly realistic to me.


Me too.

In real life the government has X dollars and budgets as it sees fit. If they don't budget research to some extent the scientists do sit around pondering the universe, writing scifi or doing nothing.

Since private money funds some research it would be reasonable that research would never be zero but very low when the sliders at put on zero percent but then we are splitting hairs
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
Um ... well since it's the same from galciv 1 it basically works like this:

Your tax income is say 100bc per turn for the empire. You set spending slider to 100%. This is now spending all of your goverments tax revenue on military, social, and research. Your income might go negative now because of costs coming from upkeeps, tributes, leases etc...(trade can really help here)

Your sliders on military, social, and research determine what percentage of the tax money goes to pay for what. If you put one of the sliders at 100% then all funding (100bc)goes to that one production group. It's important especially in the early game to focus the sliders on a particular industry as needed. A balanced economy will slow you down in the begining.
Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top
Are you sure about this? I thought the spend rate was a % of your total capacity, not of your total tax income. When I set the spend rate to 100%, my total spend is usually much higher than my tax income.

I totally agree that spend rates for social/military vs. research need to be separated. It should a slider each for how much IUs and RPs to fund. Then there should be a separate slider to shift IUs between military and social.

And how exactly does the planetary focus work? Why would focusing on a military project vs. a social project have any impact on your research, when RPs are separate from IUs?
Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top
Um ... well since it's the same from galciv 1 it basically works like this:

Your tax income is say 100bc per turn for the empire. You set spending slider to 100%. This is now spending all of your goverments tax revenue on military, social, and research. Your income might go negative now because of costs coming from upkeeps, tributes, leases etc...(trade can really help here)

Your sliders on military, social, and research determine what percentage of the tax money goes to pay for what. If you put one of the sliders at 100% then all funding (100bc)goes to that one production group. It's important especially in the early game to focus the sliders on a particular industry as needed. A balanced economy will slow you down in the begining.


Actually not exactly. Don't be misled by the somewhat misnamed "Spending Distribution". Like the "Spending Industrial Capacity" slider above it, it's really about capacity, NOT spending.

To demonstrate:
Set the "Spending Industrial Capacity" slider to 100% (just for ease of example);
One at a time, set each of the 3 "Spending Distribution" sliders to 100% and notice the spending level. That level will be different for each speciality. It reflects the capacity you've built up in each area, not related at all to your income.

Your income only figures in next when your net profit/loss in calculated.
Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top
If a planet's starport is idle then it's military spending is not deducted (shields grayed out) but the same is not ture for social spending. i think if my planet's build queue is empty then I should not charged 1bc for each hammer.
Reply #10 from Stardock Forums Top
If the allocated IUs for military aren't spent, why can't I use them for social projects? We need planet-by-planet sliders. That's the only way to achieve real specialization. I know we want to avoid micromanagement, but with planetary specialization, you shouldn't have to adjust the planet sliders every turn. And these sliders should be controllable from an empire wide management screen, so you can fiddle with everything from one place.