hi, can i get a tip on creating a positive income in my games?

[Journier]

i keep trying and trying to get myself a positive income but if i go to war and i need military my income will drop from like +10 to +5 then to -1 then down and down till i sign a peace agreement :/...

i had my science rate at 50% up until like 40 turns ago then i put it down to 40% to stop myself from going bankrupt :/

Any help is appreciated.



i have a courthouse built in most every city along with a marketplace and the such..

[asleepathewheel]

What Government are you in? It sounds like republic or Democracy, which are of course the best for the economy but drag during war time. Democracy is much worse. The longer you're in war, the more people become unhappy. Your governors are taking care of the dirty work, switching laborers into entertainers, so that's why you are seeing the results indirectly, when your income is slowly draining.

Also if you are in Democracy, you support zero units per city, so each additional unit sucks up another gold per turn. so if 15 cities are pumping out units, your income will drop quickly

to combat this, I would either a) consider switching to a war-time government, i.e. communism, despotism or monarchy where this is less of a problem. These govs. also support some units without gold, can't recall off the top of my head how much support per city, and also war weariness is less of a factor.

or b) if war weariness is the larger problem, wait till you can blitz your opponent and force them to beg for peace within a few turns. Or wait for them to declare war on you. I think the AI is more likely to continue fighting until most of their offensive units are destroyed, or if you have commited atrocities or betrayals etc.


Was this helpful. I'm sure there are other tactics I'm forgetting.

you might also check this thread: war weariness

there may be other helpful threads that I'm overlooking

[Journier]

was very helpful.

i switched back to despotism and gain a little better econ and i could put my science back to 50% :/

Is only my second game and this one im just playing to get into the modern ages to see what everything is like.

I think ill start another game and try some better managing :/

thanks

[asleepathewheel]

No problem

WW does take some getting used to, especially if you've played the previous games. Good luck on future games.

[SpencerH]

Trying to explain the ins and outs of money in CIV would be a long post. Heres a few points.

Build stuff that increases income such as roads, markets, and banks.
down your costs such as the size of your army (govt dependent) and dont build buildings that you dont need.
Trade with the AI civs.

I never have my science at 50% in civ3. Why bother? Trade for techs instead.

[Capt Dizle]

spencer is right run at 100% cash and buy stuff, can't lose, game broke better to not play but suit yurself

[asleepathewheel]

well, the 100% tax will work for a while, but then how are you supposed to get wonders if you rely on getting techs from the other civs? They will beat you to them most of the time, unless you have some really productive cities. you will be continually behind miiltarily as well. I usually buy techs in the ancient age, but then in the middle ages, I ramp up the science and can get a few tech lead, even with the new patch, which helps out with new units.

"game broke"

Mine works fine, maybe you should try reinstalling?

[Ãœber KruX]

if your a warmonger like myself, communism is a blessing. corruption is near abolished when you get an extensive courthouse array, you can support a huge military for near nothing, and you can whip the snot out of your (or your enemies) citizens to rush buy all those ICBMs you want

[Ãœber KruX]

also, TRADE does a lot. even if you're in ANARCHY trading will give you money. always see how high a civ will go for some of your gems, or whatever. late game you can get upwards of 70 gold for some uranium, if you're willing to sell.

also find a small civ and befriend it rather than crush it. use your power to stifel it's growth / advancement, and make it buy techs off you and sell it your old resources (horses, iron, etc). then kill them

[The Thinker]

How big is your empire? Under Civ 3 rules a marketplace and a courthouse can cost you a lot more than they earn if they are too far from your capital.

Rik

[Arrian]

Journier:

A few tips on setting up a strong economy.

1) roads on all squares you are using
2) marketplaces (currency) and later, banks
3) libraries and later, universities
4) republic and later, democracy
5) trading with the AI. The AI will pay you for resources and/or techs.
6) the Colossus.
7) Adam Smiths
8) Wall Street
9) Copernicus, Newton, SETI

Setting up a viable republic early on requires access to three luxuries. Get more if you can. Expand aggressively. I assume you are playing one of the easier levels? That gives you advantages over the AI. The only things you want to build in the very early game are warriors and settlers. Grab the good city sites and get those luxuries. Then, when there is no land that's worth building on anymore (no more luxury or strategic resource sites open, or everything is too far away - too much corruption), concentrate on building up large, productive cities. Marketplaces are key, because they not only increase your tax revenue by 50%, they increase the happiness factor of luxury resources, once you have three or more:

1st and 2nd luxuries = 1 happy face each
3rd and 4th luxuries = 2 each
5th and 6th = 3 each
7th and 8th = 4 each

Nice, huh? Luxuries are the key to the game, in my opinion.

So get yourself into republic (by the way, I strongly suggest you play a religious civ, so you have no anarchy and cheap temples & cathedrals). Once you can keep your people happy, work on your economy - libraries, markets, etc. Libraries and universities don't help out your money situation directly, but they do indirectly. They increase your science output, which means you can maintain a lower science rate but still get discoveries in the same amount of time. The same is true of marketplaces and banks in the reverse. They aid science indirectly, because you can afford a higher science rate.

-Arrian

[Journier]

THANKS!!

thanks guys big help. i restarted in a new game.

I heard about the religious things before so i went with egypt. They have the gayest Unique unit arrgh... makes me mad.. I didnt find out how bad the war chariot was until i massed about 15 of them to kill The Romans in the south of my continent. 3 war chariots in an Hero's army barely kill a legionary... thats gay..

So i went along with the war for 300 years starting from like 100 ad-400ad.

Then i grabbed an iron mine finally and i massed pumped swordmen like a mad man. I had 15 cities pumping swordsmen while my capital and my biggest producers were building all the wonders.

Im at like hrrrm... umm what year... 1000 ad now. Ive had 3 wars with rome and now they are down to 4 cities. Now greece in the north are trying to get on my nerves.. they keep going into my land with troops. So i plan on taking them out.. with my new pikeman upgraded units.


Best thing about this game is im running monarchy since like 100ad or something and ive had positive cash flow of like 20+ gold a turn even with a 50 unit army or more :") right now my army numbers in at like 67 units.


Oh yea.. last night guys my game screwed up... i had auto save turned on cuz i didnt feel like saving every turn or so.

So i go back to an auto save for the last turn and the save is messed up...
The game gives me some kind of Error Loading game save. .
All 5 of the auto saves are like that....

But i made a manual save at around 900 bc and that loads fine.... its weird..


any help on that??

and thanks guys i went from being annoyed by the game to actually having fun Its alot better to be able to have a war on a civ for more then 10 turns before going into the negative cash flow :/

[Arrian]

Sounds like you're a bit of a militarist. Ok, then, Monarchy may well be better for you than republic/democracy, at least for a while. You won't get rich, but your army won't bankrupt you either.

-Arrian

[Journier]

yea the monarchy thing suits me very well.

Ill probably try something less militaristic.. but after playing Civ 2 for so long and having a crappy AI that would declare war and never ally with u or help u, u sorta get used to being all military

But im starting to notice in Civ 3 things are a little dif. like the AI definate improvements there. It will actually ally with u and help fight a war which i think is sweet


anyone have an answer to my auto save problem?

[Willem]

Originally posted by Journier
was very helpful.

i switched back to despotism and gain a little better econ and i could put my science back to 50% :/

Is only my second game and this one im just playing to get into the modern ages to see what everything is like.

I think ill start another game and try some better managing :/

thanks

One thing to keep in mind, you shouldn't just set a specific rate for your Science then forget about it. Quite often, especially in the early game, jacking up your research spending will have no effect on the amount of time it will take to discover a tech. You should get into the habit of making minor adjustments here and there, especially since the cost of a tech changes as more civs discover it. If you have your science set at 50%, you might find that putting it down to 40% will give you the tech in the same amount of time, but give you lots more money for your treasury.