What is money spent on?

[hjaco]

Just curious. What are you using your hard earned money on? I am especially curious about the exploration money found early in the game?

Getting a few Scouts off the ramp is a prime priority at start.

Rushing immigrants quickly gets expensive and makes cross production in churches/cathedrals inefficient early on.

Sure the odd Galleon seems a good first bet with all those privateers around

And some artillery for settlement protection seems to be a good investment - they are also usable in WoI.

I usually buy some specialized colonists early on if they don't appear on the docs (Lumberjack, Carpenter, Pioneer, Statesman etc.).

Is it worthwhile investing in rushing buildings?

[DDover]

I generally go for one scout early - and then use that money to buy a few quick specialized units that fit my needs based on the game (Silver Miner if I have Silver, Tobacconist if I have tobacco, etc...). I only do the Galleon if I quickly see that I'm going to have a large number of treasures coming my way (more than 5 or 6).

[Unimatrix11]

I play with ancient ruins off...

I use the money for all kinds of stuff, rushing buildings included. But usually hold too much cash, if i have a big income...

[Dale]

I get three scouts running ASAP even if I equip non-scouts to be one (first XP point or indian training makes them scouts).

On a huge map, on conquistador I'll generally score about 10-15 treasures. I buy soldiers and cannons with my cash.

[Hermann the Lombard]

Originally posted by Unimatrix11 I use the money for all kinds of stuff, rushing buildings included. But usually hold too much cash, if i have a big income...

Perhaps this is another RTFM question, but I'm playing under the assumption that having a big bankroll just begs for big cash demands from The Big Cheese back home. "You want 1600? What's the Dutch phrase for 'Stuff it'?"

[snoopy369]

Yep, it does... But in vanilla (unpatched) there's no reason to accept those demands, so ...

[Ijuin]

The lack of penalty for refusing does make it a stupid move to hand over the money.

[Krill]

Depends on if the money you get early helps you expand enough...

...oh wait, it pays more to not expand. Another stupid game decision.

[snoopy369]

Do you actually have the game yet, Krill? Otherwise you should probably stop saying things that sound silly.

Regardless of what's been said by others, it absolutely pays to expand at least even money, even in the original released (non-patchmodded) game, if you are intelligent about things.

[wodan11]

Originally posted by snoopy369
Do you actually have the game yet, Krill? Otherwise you should probably stop saying things that sound silly.

QFT

Sorry, I couldn't help myself.

[Krill]

So the argument against my knowledge of the game is that I don't own the game C'mon Snoopy, you can do better than that.

[snoopy369]

If you don't own the game, you don't know what the game balance is like; you are relying on other peoples' opinions, which makes your opinion worthless to me. I'll take the opinions you are using for themselves.

[hjaco]

Thanx for opinions - well apart form a current dogfight which spoils this thread a bit

Sending out 2 to 4 scouts depending on map site is a must in my opinion. The sooner the better especially in a multiplayer game.

Rushing buildings would seem to be a good investment early on because it more or less doubles the production output of your colonists and you can place more colonists. Sure experts do the same but buying those are also expensive and slows down organic emmigration.

So far I rush churches, lumber mills and production facilities.
Educational facilities may be necessary if no nearby natives train farmers and fishermen.

No one else rushing buildings?

[Krill]

Originally posted by snoopy369
If you don't own the game, you don't know what the game balance is like; you are relying on other peoples' opinions, which makes your opinion worthless to me. I'll take the opinions you are using for themselves.

FYI I do own the game, I like the economic model, I just think that other than that it is an incredably limited game that is barely worth the amount I paid for it, and the only thing that will make it into a good game is the modders such as yoursleves and Dale fixing it.

[armyjournalist]

I don't go much for rushing buildings early on since most of them are pretty cheap to build the old fashioned way.

Buying specialists is a great way to get your colonies self-sufficient early on, get some carpenters/lumberjacks, ore miners, blacksmiths and gunsmiths. Veteran soldiers seem to be pretty much a waste to buy after the first couple since the cost goes up with each one, and if you follow my advice with the ore miners/blacksmiths, you'll have plenty of tools to crank out artillery and guns.

Warships are also pretty much a waste of money in my experience. I usually buy one privateer, which seems to be all you need to raid the European merchant vessels, unless the other european powers actually develop a navy (in which case it wouldn't hurt to buy other warships since it takes so many tools/guns to build them)

Later on in the game there isn't much you need to spend money on, which is good because the tax rate will start eating you. Keeping money to train your colonists is good; also buy horses since it's way cheaper to buy them than to "build" them.

BTW Krill, modders rely on detailed input from players to find imbalances, and also have their own opinions for what they want changed and don't want changed --they're the ones doing the work. There's plenty of posts already up showing how you can modify your own game to suit your tastes

P.S. Don't take it personally--Snoopy can be kinda snarky...trust me, I know