Victoria Economic Model

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After playing this game for a while, I'm becoming increasingly more suspicious that the economic system is a bit . . . bizarre. I noticed this when on the ledger, I realised that nearly every nation was a net exporter.

What exactly is the role of the world market? Surely it's more of a middleman that simply buys goods on a whim and then sells them; regardless of supply and demand?

 

[SeedSnatcher]

What exactly is the role of the world market? Surely it's more of a middleman that simply buys goods on a whim and then sells them; regardless of supply and demand?

That's exactly it. IMO, it's the biggest problem with Vicky. There's always a buyer, so a sudden large drop in demand for a country's more or less sole export won't quite ruin it.

 

[OHgamer]

the global market model is an abstraction, not a simulation, designed back in 2002 for a game to be played by computers that had as little as 128 MB RAM.

Expect behavior to be abstracted, simplified, and in some cases not following proper economic behavior if such behavior would hinder gameplay performance on low-end systems of the time of development or add yet further layers of management to an already overly micro-managed gameplay system.

And remember, the emphasis in the term AI for Victoria should be on the artificial, it has no intelligence whatsoever and thus whatever cheats, abstractions or elidations are needed to make the computer remotely competitive towards game end are vital to the gameplay experience.

Paradox's AIs have improved vastly in the six years that have followed since the development of Victoria, so if a new game based on the Victoria time-period was developed using the EU3 engine, I expect the AI would be much more competent. As for Victoria, we simply have to accept that it is a relic of an earlier period in Paradox history, with all the limitations, problems and inconsistencies that implies.

Still doesn't take away from the fact that Victoria is a lot of fun with lots of replay value, but in the end it is preferable not to look too closely at the AI behavior, given the age of the game and the much stricter limitations to minimum prerequisites the game operated under at time of development (128 MB Ram, 450 MHz processor).

 

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World market buys everything it is offered, the only thing it does is alter the price based on supply and demand and what the base price are. If you conquer the world and sell your artilleries you can see WM buys them for £0.50 a piece because there is no demand. Grain, tea etc. would sell higher because your POPs buy them. edit: (I got a weird feeling I didn't get this POP part right.)
However it only sells those goods which are sold to it, that's why its hard to get machine parts. So essentially you are right, it works like a middleman.

In the ledger you can only see governments imports, like raw materials for factories to keep them running or small arms and canned food when bought few divisions. It doesn't add POPs purchases, which I guess is a major part of any non-self-sufficient nations imports even if it doesn't directly go from their coffer.
A nation with all of its POPs on coal and iron mines and steel factories could show that it has no imports at all but in this situation the POPs have to buy everything from the WM so they can't be taxed for much without demotion, hunger and militancy and in result the nation could be in net deficit. Though if it has good enough industry they might be doing so much money with the goods from factories that POPs can afford anything.

IIRC if you create goods what your POPs like to consume, they buy it from you first before WM, so the money stays in your country.

 

[Meanmanturbo]

Been playing around a bit with Supreme Ruler 2020 lately, now if they could borow that economic model...though the effects of inflation and labour shortages are anoying to say the least...Anyone else who played it and have any input on how sutible that system (with more kinds of factories of course!) would be for a 19th century game?

 

[SeedSnatcher]

If you conquer the world and sell your artilleries you can see WM buys them for £0.50 a piece because there is no demand. Grain, tea etc. would sell higher because your POPs buy them. edit: (I got a weird feeling I didn't get this POP part right.)

Well if you really conquered the world, as in there are no countries left, then every good you produce would theoretically drop to about £.50 each, because your POPs buy directly from you. Other countries and their POPs will buy your goods off the world market.

 

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If you conquer the world, demand from POPs shouldn't change (as in they wont want anymore of a good before or after). However, as POPs dont seem to pay tarrifs on anything you produce (I think!) they will be able to buy more goods. This means that the prices should increase for those goods which the POPs can now buy as demand is higher (before they couldnt as they were not able to buy them). However, I am pretty sure POPs always buy from the ether. So the price of goods on the world market will be domestic prices (as your goods still get sold there) if you have conquered the world.

Basically, here is how I see it

you sell everything to world market (whether anyone wants to buy it or not, its like a being who with endless money and a huge appatite for 19th century goods).
POPs buy goods using world market prices
POPs take their goods from some endless supply of goods (which the player doesnt see)
POPs dont pay tarrifs if you produce the goods (regardless of whether you produce enough to cover their demand, as they get the good from the endless supply).
Prices are therefore set by the demand of POPs and nations, and the supply of goods (which is total supply, as POPs buy goods from endless supply and not world market. All your goods get sold onto world market).

But as OHgamer said, it is probably best not to look to closely at this. Victoria is still great game regardless of its economic drawbacks. It was all about making it simple yet fun.