Is it good to maintain SOME inflation?

[unmerged(16983)]

Just playing a game as Sweden, my economy has been doing exceptionally well, and I have never needed to have the cash slider set to anything other than 0, so I've had 0% inflation the whole game. Recently I got an event that decreased inflation by 5%, and gave me 100 ducats. The 100 ducats were nice, but the deflation was kind of a waste since I already had 0% inflation. So I got thinking, would it be a good idea to keep inflation at 5% in anticipation of these random events, or just try to keep it as low as possible anyway?

 

[tyrel68]

Just playing a game as Sweden, my economy has been doing exceptionally well, and I have never needed to have the cash slider set to anything other than 0, so I've had 0% inflation the whole game. Recently I got an event that decreased inflation by 5%, and gave me 100 ducats. The 100 ducats were nice, but the deflation was kind of a waste since I already had 0% inflation. So I got thinking, would it be a good idea to keep inflation at 5% in anticipation of these random events, or just try to keep it as low as possible anyway?

IMHO, 5-7% inflation is acceptable BUT 10%+ is too much.

 

[EvilSanta]

Id still go for no-inflation way.Its so random getting these events.And your tech benefits too.

 

[unmerged(51378)]

Just playing a game as Sweden, my economy has been doing exceptionally well, and I have never needed to have the cash slider set to anything other than 0, so I've had 0% inflation the whole game. Recently I got an event that decreased inflation by 5%, and gave me 100 ducats. The 100 ducats were nice, but the deflation was kind of a waste since I already had 0% inflation. So I got thinking, would it be a good idea to keep inflation at 5% in anticipation of these random events, or just try to keep it as low as possible anyway?

Now that is the most stupid logic I've ever heard. Then why not keep Stability at 2 so you have room for improvement, or have a little army in case you get an "Entusiasm for the Army" event.
Honestly, it's absolutely best to keep it on 0%. There's no guarantee you'll get that event and you'll have expenses until then, right? Every 1% gives an extra expense of 2 ducats when you pay 50, I believe. 5% means 10 ducats.

 

[MarkDey]

I'd rather keep inflation at zero. No sense counting on a random event to optimize your economy when you can do it yourself. Sure, you can't use the deflation, but so what?

-Mark

 

[TheLoneTaco]

The only time I EVER mint money is when I need to in order to pay off a loan or I'm stuck in the middle of a losing war. Keep inflation at 0%! :^)

-Matt

 

[unmerged(3931)]

Now that is the most stupid logic I've ever heard. Then why not keep Stability at 2 so you have room for improvement, or have a little army in case you get an "Entusiasm for the Army" event.
Honestly, it's absolutely best to keep it on 0%. There's no guarantee you'll get that event and you'll have expenses until then, right? Every 1% gives an extra expense of 2 ducats when you pay 50, I believe. 5% means 10 ducats.

Ahem... it is not a question outside of debate, even regarding stability. Check the math, 1% of 50 is not 2. At 5% inflation, a tax collector that would cost 50d would then cost 52d, not 60d.

I would suggest not being so tight about inflation when inflation is below the random event amount (5% in older versions, 2% in the most recent versions). If inflation is near 0% and there are reasonable investments to be had, then mint some money and spend. The inflation might not make too much sense while at peace, but while at war there should be some good loot to mint. Spend it on improved relations with Portugal. Trade maps. Spend money on colonizing. Conquer pagans. Spend on converting pagans to Christianity. Spend on building refineries or FAAs. Spend on building more troops for more conquests. There is most often no lack of good investment opportunity. Still, for a time, you may be concentrating on a particularly important tech level. So you do not want to mint money then.

 

[unmerged(32886)]

Inflation isn't really bad, but try to keep it as low as possible. You should mint once in a while if your monthly income is very high (and you need the money, for manu's, loans,...). A monthly income of 200d means 200d to treasury when minting 1 month, whilest a monthly income of 20d just gives 20d to treasury; Both situations give 0.1% inflation of course.

 

[unmerged(34338)]

Now that is the most stupid logic I've ever heard. Then why not keep Stability at 2 so you have room for improvement, or have a little army in case you get an "Entusiasm for the Army" event.
Honestly, it's absolutely best to keep it on 0%. There's no guarantee you'll get that event and you'll have expenses until then, right? Every 1% gives an extra expense of 2 ducats when you pay 50, I believe. 5% means 10 ducats.

Actually 2% means an extra expense of 1 ducats when you pay 50, so it's not as bad as you say.
While 0% inflation is better than 1% with all other things being equal, always keeping inflation at 0% is not the best thing you can do. Good investments can be worth minting. Tax-collectors and manus for instance.

While a non-inflation strategy is very good advice for a newbie IMO, when you have some experience you should not be afraid to have a little inflation.
That said, keeping inflation on 5% because an event might lower it is not a good idea. Mint because there are good ways to spend the money. If there are none (like at start of the game after tax-collectors are built), don't.

EDITED: I should really be faster

 

[unmerged(15337)]

Q: Is it good to maintain some inflation?

A: It depends on what you do with the cash that caused the inflation. Nobody advocates getting inflation just so you can have some inflation; the point is to have a general guide for whether minting cash for some investment is worth it, given the inflation you will accrue as well as the time not spent in research. Very broadly speaking, I have seen experienced players divided into two camps. On the one hand some are fairly aggressive about minting as needed for major and very beneficial investments -- for example, manufactories. On the other hand are those who are more conservative and avoid inflation unless at time of crisis. For newer players I recommend a more conservative strategy, because it's much easier to learn to mint when it really helps than to learn to close the mint and live off of your annual tax if you have been doing the opposite. As players get more experience, they will see for themselves when minting makes sense.

Edit: spent too long proofreading etc, beaten twice. Oh well.

 

[DSYoungEsq]

Without the long-winded explanations, and reduced to a simpler focus:

You should not incur inflation simply to reap the 'benefit' of the random events that cause deflation (Excellent Year, Deflation, etc.). As was pointed out, no one suggests keeping the stability below +3 simply to gain +1 stab from events, or the Centra slider to 9 in order to gain a +1 from random events, etc. In the long run, doing so will incur a lifetime of increased costs you don't need.

On the other hand, inflation is not the grand bogeyman so many make it out to be. For one thing, there ARE deflationary events. For another, after Infrastructure 5, you get lifetime deflation just by promoting mayors to governors. When there is a good reason to incur inflation, do it. But don't do it just to "benefit" from deflation.

 

[Featauril]

I like to always have some inflation just in case one of those deflation event comes up.

Just like I don't like having 0.0 badboy.

Seriously though, at 0 inflation as a non-poor country I'd consider raising inflation to buy a manufactory.

 

[Stonewall]

Inflation is not necessarily a bad thing. If you incur it gaining something more valuable, its worth it. Having inflation just to have it reduced by event is not necessary. Unless, of course, you mint and do something useful with the money that will create more wealth than it will take away by raising prices and costs.

 

[unmerged(20077)]

I heard that the AI countries' inflation is changed so that it's kept not much higher than yours. Although you never want high inflation, ever, it might be worth a small amount, depending exactly how this system works... does anyone know?
I don't mind a few percent, at least some of the time.

 

[unmerged(3931)]

Those AI inflation rules are the old rules from 1.07 and earlier. A modification of those old rules still applies to easy and very easy play. On easy and very easy, AI inflation may skyrocket while at war (that was not the case on the old rules, inflation was capped). Then at peace, AI inflation quickly drops to within a few percent of the player's inflation.

 

[unmerged(45766)]

Inflation is not necessarily a bad thing. If you incur it gaining something more valuable, its worth it. Having inflation just to have it reduced by event is not necessary. Unless, of course, you mint and do something useful with the money that will create more wealth than it will take away by raising prices and costs.

Hear, that's the only reason to accept any inflation. And it's the reason to accept any amount of inflation.

Basically, as long as the return on the investments (those you'd make with the money you gained inflation for) is higher than the increase of all costs (i.e., 'new' inflation compared to 'old' inflation), you can safely incur the inflation. If not, better refrain.

 

[unmerged(49521)]

Spend it on improved relations with Portugal. Trade maps. Spend money on colonizing.

a bit off topic, but... when I trade maps wisth portugal I usuall get about 70-80 provs, but so far there were hardly any lefto to be colonized - there were Portugal's level 1 trading posts everywhere. Any tips on this?

mv

 

[unmerged(32886)]

a bit off topic, but... when I trade maps wisth portugal I usuall get about 70-80 provs, but so far there were hardly any lefto to be colonized - there were Portugal's level 1 trading posts everywhere. Any tips on this?

mv

When trading maps, you don't get locations of unoccupied (=uncolonized) provs. Only way is to discover them is to explore them yourself or sack Portuguese capital so you can steal the maps.

 

[unmerged(7996)]

In general, inflation should be avoided when possible. During early wars, when you are a small country, this may not be possible. Also, reasonable inflation can and should be incurred to build weapons or refinery type manufacturies in ideal provinces (i.e. wine for refineries).

Later in the game, inflation is not a problem because your governors will run it down. You can control the inflation by then.

I typically dump all of my research ducats into infrastructure and land tech (75% Inf/25% Land) until infrastructure hits the level for governors. Then I switch to balance trade, land, and naval techs.

Note: I usually play regional power vice world conquest games.

 

[artemis667]

For me, I don't have a problem with minting a little bit every now and then, when stability is high and I've got things I want to do with the money. I don't worry too much about the percentage, so long as my research is up where I want it to be. If you get a lot of income from trade but have a relatively low tax base, it's practically necessary every now and then if you want to expand at all - which is important - the more power you have, the easier it is to project it.