How does Inflation Work?

[TriMiro]

I tried searching Apolyton, but I could not find information on how the inflation works in the game. The re was one thread from 2005, but it does not give the exact dynamics.

The frustrating thing about the game is that it can make the difference between victory and loss and yet there seems to be no clear way to control it.

I am playing with the Celts (spiritual/charismatic) on standard map Pangea. I had space to expand initially and I found 7 cities. The initial maintenance was bad and I had to drop the science bar to 10%, but I was building plenty of cottages and soon I got back up to 80 - 90. My mistake was that I did not have good military, so the Ottomans (my only immediate neighbor) attacked and I had some hard time holding them back. Then Aztecs attacked, then the Mongols attacked then Hanibal attacked. For the pat couple of hundred turn I have been fighting with some short stops (and I never attacked anybody ). Eventually I had infantry vs. Hanibal's Cavalry and I moved on the offense but all my people said they did not want this war anymore, so I had to go for peace . It has been more then 20 turns of peace right now and my cost due to inflation is between 500 - 600 gold per turn. The science bar is at 50 just to cover that and I can barely keep up with the science. If it was not for that, I would have made a space ship already, I do have enormous production. Now they have the UN and since all except me and the Chinese are vassals to Hanibal he would probably win (I don't even qualify to be the head of UN ).

If I had any idea how to keep the inflation bellow 100%, I would have invented all the techs and build the spaceship and gotten out of that dump, but no. Right now I really have no options. I have the army to invade Hanibal and maybe even do enough damage to him to cut his chances of winning, but the war is going to kill the happiness (yes even when they declare war on me and when they would not go for peace my people get mad at me). So I don't think I can win a long war. The other option is to find the UN and destroy the city, then go for the spaceship (provided I have any commerce left for research due to the inflation).

So could anyone please explain to me how inflation works and how to keep it in check (either that or give me a link to a thread so I can read).

[Solver]

On a basic level, you just don't control it. Inflation increases with difficulty as the game progresses. It's intended to alleviate the snowball effect. You can't control it in any way.

[Slade Wilson]

Until there is some way to control inflation it should be removed its a arbitrary penalty to slow things down

[TriMiro]

Maybe I am whining too much, but it does not seem like a fair concept. My empire is small, I am fighting only defensively and it cuts my economy by half. I understand it hampers people that overdevelop, but if anything I am underdeveloped. There should be some indirect method to control it, it is not just a number generated by the random number generator. How is inflation determined?

I played a game with similar settings with the Persians, I was fighting left and right and at the end I controlled about 40% of the map (with 60% of the population). The inflation was not 173%. The way I understand the "snow ball effect" is that the more one conquers, the more powerful one gets, until one gets too powerful. This makes the game unbalanced towards war fighting vs. peaceful development. So a small empire only defending should have less inflation then a large empire bend on conquest, yet it does not seem to work that way.

I lost this game, but I need to understand this so I do not loose another the same way.

[Solver]

I really don't think inflation is ever crippling. In my experience, if you're going strong, it won't stop you by itself. If you're weak anyway, you'd still be weak even without inflation.

As you say yourself - your empire is underdeveloped. That's the problem, in all likelihood.

[Slade Wilson]

Inflation is much better in paradox style games Actually involves strategy

[jbp26]

Originally posted by Solver
I really don't think inflation is ever crippling. In my experience, if you're going strong, it won't stop you by itself. If you're weak anyway, you'd still be weak even without inflation.

i've never been crippled by inflation in a single game. i never even notice it. your empire should be growing constantly; even if you only have a few cities, it should still be growing upwards.

[rah]

Agreed, you can't totally ignore infrastructure. If you've taken care of business, it shouldn't be a problem. If you have tons of cities, even running at 40% science should be enough to out tech most. And those that you aren't still out teching should be your next target.

[snoopy369]

Inflation is a percent multiplier times your total costs for units, units out of city, civic upkeep, and city upkeep. The way to control it ...

... is to lower those four numbers

If you have trouble with inflation:
1. Increase the gold you generate - build more cottages, get a Wall Street Supercity (maximum commerce focus, wall street, market, grocer, bank, for 300% gold output), etc.
2. Play as Organized civs. That really helps when the inflation hits 200%.
3. Make sure you have courthouses everywhere, and a FP in a logical place for maximum reduction in costs. It helps if your empire has two centers with radius out from them.
4. Fix your civics to either reduce upkeep or reduce military costs.

If none of those work, you can change the inflation amount in the XML; but you probably shouldn't be doing that, because it's not an unreasonable thing (unless you're playing with corporations and aren't using solver's patch; if you are, then get solver's patch).

[TriMiro]

According to Solver, inflation exists in the game to add additional drag on expanding empires (that is how I understand the snow ball effect), yet the only way to deal with inflation is to expand. That is a contradiction and what am I missing?

I have Cort Houses and FP and Banks and Marketplaces and everything. The empire is only 7 cities (plus two conquered but I just got them about 30 turns ago). If inflation is there to only slow expansion, then why is it so high for a small empire like mine.

I have 186% inflation, which results in 500 or so additional gold in expense and it has been in that range for at least 100 turns. If the inflation was only 50%, then over 100 turns that would come up to another 30,000 or so points towards research. That is enough to give me all the techs that I need to complete the spaceship.

I understand that inflation is a number that multiplies to all my other cost and adds extra expense to my empire, yet how is that number determined? Is it random (that should not be the case) or if it is not random, what is the formula that determines it?

Also, can the inflation go down or just up?

I have posted one of the saves if anyone is interested (it is a few turns before the completion of the UN). Suppose one just tries to build a small size empire and not go around and fight everybody, what should one do that is different from what I am doing?

[TriMiro]

I had a problem posting the save, hopefully this works.

[Slade Wilson]

Some funny quotes from civfanatics on subject

Inflation increases over time, and there is little you can do to affect it. It's a fudge factor put in for balance reasons, for which "inflation" is just a convienient name. It has nothing to do with real life inflation.

Inflation is when you have to spend money to buy a game and then its expansion pack to get a "finished" product.

How is it caused?

Insert mouth into balloon --> blow outwards.

[sprudl]

I took a quick look at your save. Inflation is not the problem, your city size and corporations are.

All your core cities have 18+ pop, too many polluting buildings and not enough food to support themselves. You basically need Sid's Sushi and Environmentalism to avoid starvation. That's an expensive way of living.

Corporation costs are 130 gold, that's more than 1/3rd of your pre-inflation expenses. Switching to Free Market would reduce that to about 80. State property will eliminate it completely. Both will get you a positive cash flow but your population will starve. You'd need to replace towns by farms.

Spreading Buddhism would have helped too. A shrine + Wall Street + bank/grocer/market is a great source of income.

I'm guessing you spent too much resources on building perfect cities with every building. You do not need industrial plants, coal plants and other nasty stuff in every city. Hammers not spent on buildings can be diverted to units. If you have a weak military they will come after you. Brennus' charismatic trait and the Celtic dun are a good start for an "elite" army with a lot of promotions. And then use that to expand

Once you have more but smaller cities you can focus on perfecting a few for wonders/space ship parts/gold/science/... Smaller cities can keep producing units to maintain a strong army. At the end of a space race game those small cities can switch to gold production and give an additional boost to your economy.

[TriMiro]

Thanks for the input sprudl!

I guess I did not need the industrial parks, but I did need the rest of the buildings. IMHO one of the most important aspects of the military is the production and the number of units one can build per turn. That is why I got the Coal Plants, but I guess in BTS they produce way more pollution than before. I did get the power in all cities wonder and that did help a little.

I never had such problems when I was playing with the Persians, I guess I simply had all the health resources. So it kind of comes down to conquer it all to get all the resources.

Back to my whining, does anyone know the formula for inflation or is it a random number.

[Solver]

Inflation increases at a constant rate with time, and also increases depending on the size of your empire, I believe that's cities + units.