Economical hints?

[cthulhu]

So I played as France this morning. Last night I also had huge problems to get a balanced budget (I hate to borrow money IRL and I'm not going to start in the virtual world if I can avoid it). But as the sun rose today I was succesfull!

I've played to 1843 and have £ 300000+ on my account. What did I do? Well first off I killed much of the military and half the fleet. Then I increased taxes for all to 50% and tariffs to about 80%. I cut defence spending to a 1/5 and maintainance of the armed forces to a 1/10.

Then I took a look at what resources I had in France and in North Africa. I'm not really good enough yet but I built a winery in Bourdeaux and two steel factories (to build railroads faster). I also built a shipyard for clippers.

I've only researched economy techs so far, but now my economy is thriving although I've an industrial rank of 180th. I make something like £500 and afford a large army and defence spending.

I've made a lot of mistakes, built lumbermills, paper factories, clothing factories that no one works in. But I'm sure I'll get the hang of it soon. Just wanted to give you fellow nebies hope!

 

[unmerged(2238)]

Originally posted by cthulhu
So I played as France this morning. Last night I also had huge problems to get a balanced budget (I hate to borrow money IRL and I'm not going to start in the virtual world if I can avoid it). But as the sun rose today I was succesfull!

I've played to 1843 and have £ 300000+ on my account. What did I do? Well first off I killed much of the military and half the fleet. Then I increased taxes for all to 50% and tariffs to about 80%. I cut defence spending to a 1/5 and maintainance of the armed forces to a 1/10.

Then I took a look at what resources I had in France and in North Africa. I'm not really good enough yet but I built a winery in Bourdeaux and two steel factories (to build railroads faster). I also built a shipyard for clippers.

I've only researched economy techs so far, but now my economy is thriving although I've an industrial rank of 180th. I make something like £500 and afford a large army and defence spending.

I've made a lot of mistakes, built lumbermills, paper factories, clothing factories that no one works in. But I'm sure I'll get the hang of it soon. Just wanted to give you fellow nebies hope!

Hehehehe... it's great to have all that money now, but you don't have an army anymore!!!

I'm liking the looks of the frustrated posts about maintaining econ and doing all the other things you want. IMO there should be huge tradeoffs between econ policy/military/diplomacy, etc! I think it's a very good sign so far.

 

[cthulhu]

Originally posted by John_Keats
Hehehehe... it's great to have all that money now, but you don't have an army anymore!!!

But really that's the beauty of it. Now I can have a pretty large army!

 

[Grosshaus]

Originally posted by cthulhu
So I played as France this morning. Last night I also had huge problems to get a balanced budget (I hate to borrow money IRL and I'm not going to start in the virtual world if I can avoid it). But as the sun rose today I was succesfull!

In the start loans are GOOD! Just avoid bankcrupty.

I've played to 1843 and have £ 300000+ on my account. What did I do? Well first off I killed much of the military and half the fleet. Then I increased taxes for all to 50% and tariffs to about 80%. I cut defence spending to a 1/5 and maintainance of the armed forces to a 1/10.

Some countries do start off with too impressive armies, but remember to keep enough to prevent the AI from thinking you as easy prey. Cutting maintenance makes divisions smaller, which might prove disastrous at the time of war, especially if you have cut your defence funding and have little manpower.

Tariffs seem like easy money, but beware of their effect on people who like free trade.

I've made a lot of mistakes, built lumbermills, paper factories, clothing factories that no one works in. But I'm sure I'll get the hang of it soon. Just wanted to give you fellow nebies hope!

Use factory AI to assign workers. It doesn't do wonders, you must have the required pops in the first place. Perhaps you need to upgrade some farmers?

 

[cthulhu]

Originally posted by Grosshaus
In the start loans are GOOD! Just avoid bankcrupty.

I guess you're right 'cause with the ammount I now have I could easily repay a large loan. Still I want to run my country as Bill runs Microsoft

Tariffs seem like easy money, but beware of their effect on people who like free trade.

I have it down to 0 now. I don't know how much damage it has done though...any ideas?

Use factory AI to assign workers. It doesn't do wonders, you must have the required pops in the first place. Perhaps you need to upgrade some farmers?

I think I'm using the factory AI (isn't that default?) I'll try the farms when I get home. Now that you mention it I think most farms are 5/5. ALso I only have 36% literacy, I guess that makes it harder to get the ammount of clerks you need?

 

[unmerged(12244)]

God, im getting second thoughts about this game.
Maybe i should get a degree in economics before i buy it.
Seems ver,very complicated to say the least.

 

[cthulhu]

Just forget your debt and start developing your state (build factories and expand any 5/5 factory or farm. Use auto on all you don't want to understand. And build railroads, from what I've read from the answers above (and my small experience) I think you're going to be OK.

 

[Havard]

Originally posted by skkrrt
andrey where are you from? You dont seem like the kind they would choose as a beta (you have just 9 posts) and you dont specify. And you seem to know an awful lot for a person who at the earliest bought the game today.... (im just wondering here, not accusing)

I was about to ask the same question. I see you are a US resident, and the game isn't released in the US yet. I'd be curious as to how you have got the game.

 

[unmerged(14393)]

Originally posted by cthulhu


I've made a lot of mistakes, built lumbermills, paper factories, clothing factories that no one works in. But I'm sure I'll get the hang of it soon. Just wanted to give you fellow nebies hope!

So...why won´t they work in those factories?

And yes...thank you for giving us hope!

 

[unmerged(2567)]

Originally posted by eye-switcher
God, im getting second thoughts about this game.
Maybe i should get a degree in economics before i buy it.
Seems ver,very complicated to say the least.

Wait till VIC 2 when they have currency markets

 

[unmerged(14393)]

Originally posted by eye-switcher
God, im getting second thoughts about this game.
Maybe i should get a degree in economics before i buy it.
Seems ver,very complicated to say the least.

It is very, very complicated....which will just make the experience so much stronger when you finally get the hang of it!

 

[cthulhu]

Originally posted by christianx
So...why won´t they work in those factories?

Probably because I have a 36% literacy only (not enough trained POP, clerks maybe) and need to expand my farms. I'll experiment further if this bloody working day could end soon!

And yes...thank you for giving us hope!

My pleasure, it felt pretty hopeless last night. I suspect most because I thought I'd master it in an hour

 

[Drakken]

Also, do not forget that your income comes from taxing POPs on their own income. Exporting balance do not go directly in your budget. While you pay in full for your imports, you tax POPs on their income depending your exports. The more valuable goods you export, the more money you get indirectly.

But Xie's lesson is good: get the flow of the WM. If a good you produce isn't rentable anymore and your factory is in the red ink, it might be a good idea to close this factory temporarily and relocate your workers in another, more profitable industry.

D.

 

[Dievs]

I don't get it - why would I pay in full for all the imports - don't the POP's buy their goods and pay for them?

 

[unmerged(4848)]

Originally posted by Dievs
I don't get it - why would I pay in full for all the imports - don't the POP's buy their goods and pay for them?

Good question. I can't give you the answer although I have a degree in economics but still not the game...

 

[danielwww]

Originally posted by Dievs
I don't get it - why would I pay in full for all the imports - don't the POP's buy their goods and pay for them?

No they buy their goods they need directly from the word market.
Your import is only for your industry and other stuff the nation needs (building rails, reeducate pops, recruiting new divisions ...)

 

[unmerged(2377)]

Originally posted by christianx
For example...what do you experienced beta players think is a reasonable daily balance? It would be very useful to hear your opinion about this.

BTW...I am playing as Sardinia Piedmont right now. My daily balance is -56...needless to say I have already had one bancrupcy...my prestige is because of that -350. *Lol* But...I don´t know what to do. I can´t starve my people and neglect my armies. Neither can I totally neglect reforms, and so on.

And however replies "F 12 money F 12" shall receive a very angry PM.

Bit of old advice:

Buy low, sell high.

 

[TheDarkside]

Originally posted by danielwww
No they buy their goods they need directly from the word market.
Your import is only for your industry and other stuff the nation needs (building rails, reeducate pops, recruiting new divisions ...)

Hmm, that is a good question, and I'm not satisfied with this answer. If you're suggesting you need to buy goods for the factories, then that means they are state run factories, and you should be getting all the profit for producing those goods, right? Otherwise, the factory is private and the people should be buying the resources they need from the world market to run them. The only thing the state should be buying is military related stuff.

It seems like this situation would be similar to US government paying for all the raw resources for Cocal Cola to produce it's goods, then Cocal Cola can sell these goods and only give a portion of profits to government. Maybe I'm misunderstanding something here...

Lemme ask this then, so I understand things clearer: You take funds from state treasury and build a steel mill. Now you use same funds to buy resources to produce steel. Now you sell finished steel product to world market. Do you get entire profit of this steel?

 

[Chaingun]

Hehe I'm going to buy the game this weekend, the economics part seems VERY interesting. (No wonder I study economics in school though...)

 

[Johan]

Originally posted by TheDarkside
Hmm, that is a good question, and I'm not satisfied with this answer. If you're suggesting you need to buy goods for the factories, then that means they are state run factories, and you should be getting all the profit for producing those goods, right? Otherwise, the factory is private and the people should be buying the resources they need from the world market to run them. The only thing the state should be buying is military related stuff.

It seems like this situation would be similar to US government paying for all the raw resources for Cocal Cola to produce it's goods, then Cocal Cola can sell these goods and only give a portion of profits to government. Maybe I'm misunderstanding something here...

Lemme ask this then, so I understand things clearer: You take funds from state treasury and build a steel mill. Now you use same funds to buy resources to produce steel. Now you sell finished steel product to world market. Do you get entire profit of this steel?

The amount you pay of imports depends on your economical policy of your ruling party