How do you fight inflation?

[Zophos]

Originally posted by _BuRjaCi_
Can anyone dig up the source code which deals with inflation?
I would realy apreciate that, sice I like to understan the "guts" of the games I play.

The formula is pretty simple. In the XML files, you'll find two inflation-related entries for each speed. There is also one for the difficulty level. The inflation percentage for turn N of the game is:

InfPct = (N + InflationOffset) * (SpeedInflationPercent/100) * (HandicapInflationPercent/100)

For instance, for Epic speed, the offset is -160 and the percent is 20. So, at Monarch+ (HandicapInflationPercent=100), you'll have zero inflation through turn 164 (thanks to integer math), then it'll increase 1% every five turns thereafter (to 100% at the end of the game).

Note that the AI gets a substantial discount on this rate, also specified in the XML for handicap levels.

The source (from the WL SDK, CvPlayer.cpp:5604):

int CvPlayer::calculateInflationRate()
{
	int iTurns;
	int iRate;

	iTurns = ((GC.getGameINLINE().getGameTurn() + GC.getGameINLINE().getElapsedGameTurns()) / 2);
	iTurns += GC.getGameSpeedInfo(GC.getGameINLINE().getGameSpeedType()).getInflationOffset();

	if (iTurns < 0)
	{
		return 0;
	}

	iRate = iTurns;

	iRate *= GC.getGameSpeedInfo(GC.getGameINLINE().getGameSpeedType()).getInflationPercent();
	iRate /= 100;

	iRate *= GC.getHandicapInfo(getHandicapType()).getInflationPercent();
	iRate /= 100;

	if (!isHuman() && !isBarbarian())
	{
		iRate *= GC.getHandicapInfo(GC.getGameINLINE().getHandicapType()).getAIInflationPercent();
		iRate /= 100;

		iRate *= max(0, ((GC.getHandicapInfo(GC.getGameINLINE().getHandicapType()).getAIPerEraModifier() * getCurrentEra()) + 100));
		iRate /= 100;
	}

	FAssert(iRate >= 0);

	return iRate;
}

[Diadem]

What a messy code. I hope the rest of the game is better written.

Why does it use both iRate and iTurns? There's absolutely no point.

Why does it apply both human *and* AI inflation bonusses to the AI? That's just confusing and weird.

Anyway, it is pretty straightforward. Inflation is zero for a specific number of turns, then rises linearly to 100%, assuming no difficulty modifiers.