Going Bankrupt to pay Leonardo da Vinci?

[Marshall Thomas]

Leonardo da Vinci cost 14.61 ducats per-month! I cannot come close to affording that. I keep taking loans that I end up needing to extend, but I just can't bring myself to sack him! Plus three to administrative power and plus ten percent to production efficiency... is it worth 14.61 ducats-per-month? I have a tiny army and navy just to make him more affordable and I'm still losing almost seven ducats a month!

Thanks in advance

 

[ErikHeinrichs]

Leonardo da Vinci cost 14.61 ducats per-month! I cannot come close to affording that. I keep taking loans that I end up needing to extend, but I just can't bring myself to sack him! Plus three to administrative power and plus ten percent to production efficiency... is it worth 14.61 ducats-per-month? I have a tiny army and navy just to make him more affordable and I'm still losing almost seven ducats a month!

Thanks in advance

Leonardo Da Vinci is just as good as "Donald Duck" in this game. Name means nothing. So why are you going bankrupt because of a name that you can't afford?

 

[Rey]

Hehe, he is more costly than your entire army

Advisor costs increase exponentially with their level. Do you really need +3 ADM? If not, just sack him and get a +2 one.

 

[Marshall Thomas]

So you must be rich to afford any level 3 advisor? I can't believe how expensive they are! I can afford three level 1 advisors.

 

[calvinhobbeslik]

So you must be rich to afford any level 3 advisor? I can't believe how expensive they are! I can afford three level 1 advisors.

Yes.

 

[Marshall Thomas]

So I guess it's good-bye da Vinci! Sad to see him go.

 

[quinntan2222]

I think a cool idea would be to have advisors cost money based off of the total number of points you're getting. That way, if you don't hire a military and diplomatic advisor, you could still afford the level 3 adviser's upkeep which would be the cost of 3 level 1 advisors. This would also allow you to make up more for a bad leader in one stat when you're small and allow for you to hire the historical advisors.

 

[justin6477]

I think a cool idea would be to have advisors cost money based off of the total number of points you're getting. That way, if you don't hire a military and diplomatic advisor, you could still afford the level 3 adviser's upkeep which would be the cost of 3 level 1 advisors. This would also allow you to make up more for a bad leader in one stat when you're small and allow for you to hire the historical advisors.

Eh, the difference between +1 to each stat and +3 to one stat isn't exactly the same. How about higher purchase price, but same upkeep?

 

[Solo4114]

I've come to the conclusion that "+3" anything basically is an anomalous state in this game. +3 stab, +3 advisors, you're really just not supposed to ever have these things for any prolonged period of time.

 

[Rubidium]

I've come to the conclusion that "+3" anything basically is an anomalous state in this game. +3 stab, +3 advisors, you're really just not supposed to ever have these things for any prolonged period of time.

Once you get big/rich enough, hiring +3 advisors is both affordable and a good idea. And when I get Religion for one of my early ideas, I not infrequently find myself sitting at +3 stability for a surprisingly long time, thanks to all the nice events.

 

[Rey]

I've come to the conclusion that "+3" anything basically is an anomalous state in this game. +3 stab, +3 advisors, you're really just not supposed to ever have these things for any prolonged period of time.

I never increase stability beyond +1, higher values increase a lot the chances of certain stab decreasing events like comets. The advisors, you can hire them as you want as long as you have money to pay them. In the middle and late game one usually makes enough money to have three +3 advisors.

 

[TheDanish]

I've come to the conclusion that "+3" anything basically is an anomalous state in this game. +3 stab, +3 advisors, you're really just not supposed to ever have these things for any prolonged period of time.

Certain empires can hire +3 advisors for the majority of the game. Playing as Ming I've always had +3 advisors except when there were none to hire, and I've kept a positive income.

 

[quinntan2222]

Eh, the difference between +1 to each stat and +3 to one stat isn't exactly the same. How about higher purchase price, but same upkeep?

Probably would be a good idea, keep purchase price the same but have upkeep based off of total stats.

 

[joelzhl]

Early game, depending on your starting nation's economy, it might not even be worth it to hire +1 advisors. 1 gold per month is enough to support 10 infantries at 0 maintenance, 5 at max. The cost of 3 +1 advisors is enough to maintain an army of 15 infantry and 6 cavalry during peace time.

However, mid late game you'll want to hire more and better advisors until you have +3 advisors in all 3 slots. +3 advisors is really the only way to maintain +3 stability. You don't really have to invest MP to boost stability, the +1 stab events that comes with +3 advisors will eventually push and keep it at +3. With a large enough empire, the extra taxes from +3 stability will easily pay for the advisors' salary.

 

[Incompetent]

The cost of advisors is high so that so you don't rush to get +3 advisors straight away. They are only meant to be affordable in the long term for major powers (who generally have more things to spend monarch points on that minors do).

 

[Tormodius]

So you must be rich to afford any level 3 advisor? I can't believe how expensive they are! I can afford three level 1 advisors.

Yes you must be rich. Later in the game it will be easier to afford one, but then Leonardo wont be alive, but there will be others.
I have now one lvl3 adviser as Great Britain and still running with profit, but thats after much colonial ventures and unifiying and much buildings in provinces and its almost 1600AD so its possible then if your rich. But it was not possible for me in the beginning as England. The game was very hard then. I guess thats how its supposed to be.

Btw, does a lvl3 adviser give you more frequent nice events than a lvl2 or lvl1 ?
I hired one lvl3 and got some cool events multiple times. One event that also gave me money.

 

[Marshall Thomas]

For purposes of immersion and realism, I've come to see the very high level 3 advisor "salary" as representing the funding for all of the many expensive projects that that advisor is suggesting/undertaking. In da Vinci's case, that +3 per-month to administration represents all sorts of expensive projects (not to mention the +10% to production).

If the 226 ducats hiring fee and the 14.61 monthly cost were actually his salary, then he would be individually wealthier than many countries! ...including my own, which is why I can't pay him.

So if I keep my army small to pay a level 3 advisor and, as a result, an enemy takes advantage of the situation and attacks -it's not because I'm building a mansion the size of a province for my advisor; rather it's that I'm saying yes to all of his brilliant (and, of course, very expensive) ideas and projects.

I know that gameplay and balance are more important than realism, but immersion and realism are still nice to have; even as abstractions.

 

[Darsara]

Part of my problem with the costs for advisors is that they are part of a potentially viscous cycle: to afford better advisors, upgrade your income source! Problem is, that you need monarch points to upgrade your economy... and if you really need a +3 advisor, you probably can't afford one. Plus, since the upkeep is purely based on the date, slower teching nations find the costs of their advisors outstripping the rate they can upgrade their economy.