The Economic system is probably the worst weakest part of Imperator by far. Not only is it way too tedious, it makes little logical or gameplay sense. You have to manually set up import goods for each province and then come back every few years in case routes have gone up? It's tedious and its silly. And I am not even going to get into the silliness of a town importing just 1 type of good rather than a bit of everything like a normal person.
Production system is also so weird. Every 13 slaves produce 1 good?? That is BY FAR the WORST idea PDX ever put into a game. So 1 slave produces 1 food, 12 slaves still produce 1 food!?!? Not only is it ridiculous logically, it makes things so tedious since you have to micromanage how many pops you put into each province. Or just ignore the mechanic completely.
Why not just have a more logical system (inspired from Vicky 2):
1. Each province produces a trade good with its quantity (including fractions!!!) based on its population which is then consolidated at the Empire level. Buildings, roads, governors, tech, happiness etc. improve production.
2. The thousands of horse carts carrying these around your Empire should be abstracted. Apparently THIS is the part PDX chose not to abstract with province level trade routes. :/
3. Each pop uses up some amount of each good. So for example, every salve needs 0.05 grain and that's it. Every citizen needs 0.1 grain, 0.05 incense, 0.05 fish etc. While a noble needs a little bit of almost every good. Doesnt this make more sense than just using your 1 trade route to ONLY import Incense for the next 300 years??
4. If you have shortage of a good, you get unhappiness and growth stops. Or you can import which will make trading empires more powerful too. You can just conquer those trade goods but the infra devastation/ pop deaths from war would actually lead to a reduction in supply in the short term. So conquest is not a no-brainer like it currently is.
5. Not all goods should be made by slaves. Some luxury goods should be made by citizens and that would make cities the powerhouses that they should be.
6. Infra would still be important. Granaries will store food that will be used up when blockaded or under siege or during some events. For overseas territories, you will need bigger ports. Bigger cities will require more roads while smaller towns might be serviced by just a single connection.
7. Imports should COST you money. That would make you want to conquer strategic areas and then build infra in those areas.
None of this is groundbreaking really. I am just shocked by how bad the current system is.
Production system is also so weird. Every 13 slaves produce 1 good?? That is BY FAR the WORST idea PDX ever put into a game. So 1 slave produces 1 food, 12 slaves still produce 1 food!?!? Not only is it ridiculous logically, it makes things so tedious since you have to micromanage how many pops you put into each province. Or just ignore the mechanic completely.
Why not just have a more logical system (inspired from Vicky 2):
1. Each province produces a trade good with its quantity (including fractions!!!) based on its population which is then consolidated at the Empire level. Buildings, roads, governors, tech, happiness etc. improve production.
2. The thousands of horse carts carrying these around your Empire should be abstracted. Apparently THIS is the part PDX chose not to abstract with province level trade routes. :/
3. Each pop uses up some amount of each good. So for example, every salve needs 0.05 grain and that's it. Every citizen needs 0.1 grain, 0.05 incense, 0.05 fish etc. While a noble needs a little bit of almost every good. Doesnt this make more sense than just using your 1 trade route to ONLY import Incense for the next 300 years??
4. If you have shortage of a good, you get unhappiness and growth stops. Or you can import which will make trading empires more powerful too. You can just conquer those trade goods but the infra devastation/ pop deaths from war would actually lead to a reduction in supply in the short term. So conquest is not a no-brainer like it currently is.
5. Not all goods should be made by slaves. Some luxury goods should be made by citizens and that would make cities the powerhouses that they should be.
6. Infra would still be important. Granaries will store food that will be used up when blockaded or under siege or during some events. For overseas territories, you will need bigger ports. Bigger cities will require more roads while smaller towns might be serviced by just a single connection.
7. Imports should COST you money. That would make you want to conquer strategic areas and then build infra in those areas.
None of this is groundbreaking really. I am just shocked by how bad the current system is.
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