Missing something

from Stardock Forums
I just started playing this game yesterday, and it seems really fun, but i'm having troubling getting a handle on the whole economy thing.

When I start the game I set both my tax rate and my gov spending rate at 50%. With Earth as my only planet this usually gives me an income to expense rate of about 14 to 7, which I figured wasn't too bad. Once I colonize my first planet, however it all goes hell.

I understand that income on new planets is low, cause many people to be taxed. What I don't understand is why my expenses on new planets are almost as high as they are on earth, when I'm not even building anything on them? Is there a way to manage spending on a planet by planet basis, or are you stuck just setting it up for your empire as a whole?

Every time I try to play I colozine 4-5 other planets, and always end up with a deficit(sp?) of nearly twice my income. This is also with my tax rate up to 62% and my gov spending rate down to 30%. I go bankrupt long before my pop increases enough to provide decent tax income, and even longer before I can possibly establish any trade routes (since I don't even have a chance to meet any aliens before my economy redlines). I must be doing something wrong, or missing something simple. It makes no sense that my economy can't even support a few planets and a survey ship, let alone trying to build anything.

Any help on clearing up my stupidity would be much appreciated, and if anyone needs any more specifics about what I did to create the situation i'll provide them.

Thanks in advance.

-Wolf

P.S.- Oh yeah, I do understand the whole leasing ships concept, so I'm not at a loss to explain ALL my expenses, just most of them :)
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Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
When I start the game I set both my tax rate and my gov spending rate at 50%.
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Its no good idea to raise tax that early (beware moral)

What I don't understand is why my expenses on new planets are almost as high as they are on earth, when I'm not even building anything on them?
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the expanses also depand on the PQ, the lower it is the more money is used for upkeep of yout colonies.

You also should not build ALL improvements opn your worlds. Only the ones you need, for exemple economy booster like the banking center, that will help you to keep your expanses on a controled level, while providing you with additional incom.
Also trade is way more important that tax (you can never get as much tax income as trade income). As soon as you can build freighters!

Hope this helps
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Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
So it's normal for every new colony you get to put you further and further into debt? I got the trade thing down, plus the economic improvements, but how does that help me if I go bankrupt well before I can get any of those?

I usually play on a gigantic galaxy, and all the starter strategies say to go and colonize stuff right away to get a good start, but how does that help when those colonies are what's bankrupting me?

I'm gonna follow your adivce and try to limit my beginning colonies to higher PQ worlds.

My other question is when you see how much spending a particular planet is able to put towards something (i.e. research 3+0) does that value ever change as the planet gains in population, or is that set from the beginning, only to raise thropugh bonuses you come across?

Thanks for the info Icho
Elemental: Reforged
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
normally all plamnets below PQ 15/16 take more then they give the first years. You may also consider increasing the empirewide social spend rate, that normally gives a small econ boost too.

The planetary spending mainly changes due building and pop i think
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
In addition to Icho's great advice, I find that it helps to build constructors at a few planets since each planet is allotted an equal amount of money whether you build ships or not. By building a starbase in the path of your mini-freighters and adding trade modules to them, one can increase the income generated by mini-freighters as they pass through sectors that contain these starbases.
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
Thx a lot Icho, you were absolutely right. Without playing long enough to make huge use out of trade my economy still requires careful handling, but I'm able to stay in the black easily.

I probably should have have played longer before freaking out, but when I saw income of like 0 from every colony I had, I started to panic. Of course they were all PQ 12-14 :SURPRISED:

I still have an assload of questions, but it's probably best that actually complete a game first, before spamming the forums :)

Although I would like to mention that after playing for a little bit, this is an awesome, with a really lousy manual. Barely even gotten into a real game yet, and already encountering things left and right that barely mentioned in the manaul (if at all).

I do have one more question though. What are those symbol-things at the bottom of your posts?

Thx again for the help.
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
I still have an assload of questions, but it's probably best that actually complete a game first, before spamming the forums
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You ain't spamming, this are best ways of lerning the fine tunes of this game, asking the "veterans" and playing youself. We will reply to your questions when we are able to.

Although I would like to mention that after playing for a little bit, this is an awesome, with a really lousy manual. Barely even gotten into a real game yet, and already encountering things left and right that barely mentioned in the manaul (if at all).
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Thats true (:( you get more out of the forums and the different docs around here (plus i've reconed the doc on the disk is better then the manual as far as i remember)

I do have one more question though. What are those symbol-things at the bottom of your posts?
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That symbols are: The Empire i belong to (Jedi Republic a good crew) and some "rewards" for playing and submitting games to the metaverse (the online Highscores), my avarage morality and difficulty I play



~SDC~
Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top
I do have one more question though. What are those symbol-things at the bottom of your posts
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You can see what the symbols are exactly by placing your cursor over them. The only one that doesn't show up is the gold or blue bars that indicate the number of games posted.
Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top
I understand that income on new planets is low, cause many people to be taxed. What I don't understand is why my expenses on new planets are almost as high as they are on earth, when I'm not even building anything on them? Is there a way to manage spending on a planet by planet basis, or are you stuck just setting it up for your empire as a whole?
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One thing to understand:
income (for a planet) is based on PQ, population via taxes and morale. So high PQ planet are nice as populated planets. BUT, if morale is too low (near 24%), you have a huge drop in income from taxes.
Planetary spending is linked to PQ, population and global spending (set at 50% at the beginning).
So what a planet can spend isn't linked to the income generated.

As said, for any planet with PQ below 15, no iincole are generated, but spending is increased (due to life support system needed for such planet).

PQ can be increased with soil enrichement and habitat improvement (research medical theory then basic environnement control).

One thing to know is that population growth is important (more people mean more taxes) but is is a tricky thing, since more low populated planets accept higher taxes (but generated lesser income) than heavily populated planet. One thing important to manage is morale on planet. This link http://diplomats.galciv.org/forum/viewtopic.php?t=385 (you shouldn't be afraid to register to the corresponding site) explains some relations between morale and population growth.

Don't forget to change governement. It allows better taxes incomes. Sure it also increase the efficiency on each planet (they will spend more for the same galobal spending rate).



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Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top
Cool, thx again for all the info guys. I understand that asking questions is the best way to learn, but I really enjoy trying to figure things out for myself.

That being said, there is one thing that's bugging me, and I can't figure out what to do about it. I keep getting messages to this effect:

"Your intelligence operatives have been working closely with the (some minor race name that I can't remember). They have stolen all the tech advances that the (some major race) possess. They are willing to give them to you, but for a price. They prefer planetary systems."

That's probably not word for word, but you guys get the idea. My question is what am I supposed to do about it? I never even met the minor race that is supposedly helping me, and I can't figure out how to talk to them. So how do I set up negotiations to trade stuff with them?

Thx in advance, and maybe in a week or two i'll have questions that aren't so Newbish.

Oh yeah, one more thing that'll probably be made obvious to me if I ever finish a game. When you win, how do you submit your score? Does game give you option, or is it automatic? Do I need to register anywhere else for it to work properly? :notsure: LOL
Reply #10 from Stardock Forums Top
I can't figure out how to talk to them. So how do I set up negotiations to trade stuff with them?
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There are two ways to go about it. One is to click on one of the thier planets and in the upper right hand corner there is a 'Speak To' button. CLick it. The other way, if you don't know where their world is, and you have made contact with them, go to the diplomacy screen, and at the bottom there is a button for 'Minor Races' You'll find all of them there.

When you win, how do you submit your score? Does game give you option, or is it automatic?
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When you finish a game, either win, loss, or retire, you get a summary screen and once you click past that you get the option to submit. You must register you player on this site first. Use that email you register with in the submit screen, as well as the Alias.

Galactic Guardians http://guardians.galciv.org/
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Reply #11 from Stardock Forums Top
"Your intelligence operatives have been working closely with the (some minor race name that I can't remember). They have stolen all the tech advances that the (some major race) possess. They are willing to give them to you, but for a price. They prefer planetary systems."
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I've had this happen to me twice in recent games. Both times I've immediately tried to trade with the minor (I think it was the Carinoids both times) only to find that they reject my offers. Even when I offer planetary systems for a single tech they refuse. I wasn't willing to give up more than two systems, so I didn't push it to see at which point the trade would turn green. Anyway, despite the wording of the message, I don't think that the willingness of the Carinoids to trade is affected at all by your spies' help.

~SDC~
Reply #12 from Stardock Forums Top
I do have one more question though. What are those symbol-things at the bottom of your posts?
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Expanding on what Icho tolot said, here is a link that explains the symbols http://www.galciv.com/metaverse/legend.asp

The metaverse is sort of a team game. If you join a team your submitted scores are added to that teams score (by some complicated algorithym). Then your score and your teams score displayed on the metaverse scoreboard.

If you are interested in joining an empire clik on the empires tab on the right side of the screen and check out some empire threads to determine who you would like to join. If you wish you can also create your own empire. The top 10 - 15 empires are the most active.
Reply #13 from Stardock Forums Top
One other thing that might help would be for you to make sure that you have upgraded your game to v1.20. That is the latest version and it is available as a download or through the stardock central application that you can get at www.stardock.com
Reply #14 from Stardock Forums Top
When you win, how do you submit your score? Does game give you option, or is it automatic
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When you finish a game, either win, loss, or retire, you get a summary screen and once you click past that you get the option to submit. You must register you player on this site first. Use that email you register with in the submit screen, as well as the Alias.
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You must be connected to Internet in order to have the submission screen appears after the summary screen

Reply #15 from Stardock Forums Top
Cool, all your advice has been very helpful. I'm finally winning a game. I set it to cakewalk, so I could concentrate on figuring things out, and not getting my ass beat :D

Almost forgot about upgrading the game. Thanks Newfy for the reminder. Will this affect the current game I'm playing, or only future games? Should I wait to DL/install patches until current game is complete?
Reply #16 from Stardock Forums Top
Yes! You should definitely finish your current game before applying any updates.

In some cases it's safe to upgrade mid-game, but you're better off not taking the chance.