Domestic mgmnt problems...

[morb]

how does the game figure out the amount of income and expenses a colony makes/has? There are no resources to manage for each individual planet, so how are these number figured out? I have a planet with x population and a rating of 14, its in a solar system right next to my home, yet it has the highest "upkeep" costs, the lowest income and the lowest moral. a planet 2 squares away in enemy controlled terretory that i just colonized has the same exact planet rating, but brings in 3 times more cash, has virtually no expenses AND has better moral. and i don't even have any improvements on either one of these colonies. how can a colony with no improvements built be having such high upkeep? I'm not spending on propaganda either.

i can understand moral partly being based on overpopulation, but then, how do you control population growth???

am i just missing something or does this game leave you to the whim of your domestic AI?

[Ellestar]

Can you upload a save (and write setor number for these planets in your post with save). Also, tell your version please.

You can see some formulas in my 'Useful Information' tread http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...hreadid=85148.

Planet with PQ14 an less has an upkeep cost of 5 by itself. (patch 1.03)

You don't need to control pop growth (i think you wanted to tell 'limit pop growth') - it almost stops then morale reachs 54 (number from patch 1.03) More details in my tread

[Harry Seldon]

You can also try going to the planet screen and click the details button. It will show you everything built on the planet and how much it costs. I've noticed morale is influenced by the economic state of the planet so you may want to try removing some of the more expensive improvements.

[bonscott]

Also, get a Soil Enhancement build ASAP as a PQ 15 planet will be a ton more productive and won't cost you life support costs. Put in a Habitat Improvement as well and it will raise the PQ to 16 or 17 (depending on other bonuses you might have).

Higher the PQ, the higher the morale is, the larger the population can be before they get upset (thus dropping morale) and the economy will be larger and stronger as well as produciton will be up.

So get that PQ up!

[morb]

oh, i left this out. i did do soil enrichment (to get PQ of 14) on the one planet with the high upkeep. it was originally a PQ 13 planet. but nowhere did i see any mention of habitat upkeep in any of the game screens. all the upkeep is just lumped together. there was no warning of this when i told my colonists to settle on that PQ 13 planet of habitat upkeep either.

what's a good planet for habitat then? PQ 15 you say? does the habitat upkeep drop with soil enhancements? because i didn't see change from 13 to 14. the other PQ 14 planet is a natural 14, didn't get to build soil enhancement yet. but it's upkeep is 1 as opposed to 8 or 9 for the soil enhanced PQ 14 planet.

i still would like to get an idea of how income is generated/calculated. what are the base things (not modifiers or % bonuses) is the income based on?

i like the concept of the game, but i think its little things like this that you have to find out through trial/error/frustration that will spoil GC for me.

[bonscott]

PQ 15 is the absolute minimum quality planet you want to settle. This is talked about in the manual as well. Have you gone to the web site at www.galciv.com ? There are several walkthroughs and more info then you could every want on the game.

I'll settle a PQ14 if nearby planets are rare or I want to increase my overall production capacity early as you can get them to 16 quite easily. PQ13 and under should really never be settled unless for military or stratigic reasons.

I find very often by the end of the mid-game I end up destroying those original PQ14 planets because they are such a huge drain on my economy and morale is hard to keeep up because their PQ is so low (usually 16, but with high pop that is bad). Basically I make more money without them, but they are good for the early and mid game.

Habitat maint. was introduced in one of the latest patches so if you aren't on the latest you may not be seeing this. Basically any planet under PQ15 costs money per turn to help make "habitable". The worst the PQ of the planet, the more it costs. Think of Mars. To colonize Mars would take huge dome cities so that people could breath. Under PQ 15 and this is what you need for the colony to survive until you improve the PQ to at least 15 at which time the atmosphere is breathable and so on.

[Boris Godunov]

I think we should have more control over our planet improvements, like in Civ where you can see each city improvement and sell it off if you need to. THe ability to tweak planets in this regard would be very cool. Another option would be a "mothball" one, where ships and buildings could be laid up temporarily, and therefore their upkeep costs would be reduced or eliminated. Then, once you've gotten to a point where you want it again, you can just pay a lump sum to reactivate it without having to wait for a new one to be constructed.

[The Templar]

Originally posted by Boris Godunov
I think we should have more control over our planet improvements, like in Civ where you can see each city improvement and sell it off if you need to. THe ability to tweak planets in this regard would be very cool. Another option would be a "mothball" one, where ships and buildings could be laid up temporarily, and therefore their upkeep costs would be reduced or eliminated. Then, once you've gotten to a point where you want it again, you can just pay a lump sum to reactivate it without having to wait for a new one to be constructed.

SE4 had the mothball option for ships. Good way to keep a large fleet in reserve.

[bonscott]

Originally posted by Boris Godunov
I think we should have more control over our planet improvements, like in Civ where you can see each city improvement and sell it off if you need to.

I may be misunderstanding but you can do this right now. Go into the details screen of the planet in question and you can highlight a project and "cancel" it which will make it disappear. Not the same as selling it, but you can scrap a project quite easily this way.

[Boris Godunov]

bonscott, that's only while constructing it. I'm talking about after a project is completed. During a recession, I'd like to be able to mothball active improvements so they don't cost upkeep. It would be a handy way of managing the economy a little better.

[bonscott]

Originally posted by Boris Godunov
bonscott, that's only while constructing it. I'm talking about after a project is completed. During a recession, I'd like to be able to mothball active improvements so they don't cost upkeep. It would be a handy way of managing the economy a little better.

That's what I'm talking about.

For example. I take over a Drengin planet. I pull up the planet screen. I click details button. On the left side is a list of all completed projects on that planet. I can click any that I want to get info on AND there is a cancel button which will remove the project from the planet. Thus losing it's goodies as well as it's upkeep cost.

I do this with every planet I take over as well as my own if I need to trim the budget. The canceled projects will now become available to build again in the social queue so if your current governor has them in queue you need to adjust for that as well.

[Boris Godunov]

I had no idea about the details thing...thanks! Was that added in a patch?

That's not the same as mothballing, though. Mothballing would not require disbanding the project, but rather just stopping it's function, ending upkeep costs (or reducing them to minimal). Then, when one wanted the project back in operation, one would just pay a lump sum to de-mothball it. No having to rebuild it.

[bonscott]

The details screen has always been there for me, but then I bought the game the week it came out and patched it to 1.01 right away so not sure if it was in the retail version or not.

[Kuciwalker]

It was in the original version. I still haven't patched.

[The Templar]

Originally posted by Boris Godunov
That's not the same as mothballing, though. Mothballing would not require disbanding the project, but rather just stopping it's function, ending upkeep costs (or reducing them to minimal). Then, when one wanted the project back in operation, one would just pay a lump sum to de-mothball it. No having to rebuild it.

And the unlike civ, scrapping a project doesn't pay anything.