Economy needs a boost

[Star Ranger]

I've played several games now and its clear the economy needs a boost. There should not be so much "desperation" on trying to make ends meet with the economy. I've found with medium maps - once your empire gets to be 7 or more stars economy takes a bigger bite of your effort. Around 12 stars and you almost can't declare war without haivng all your planets well developed.

Also - what is missing is the benefit of trade missions - what benefot to they give your economy and how much long term benefit.

[kafka]

I don't think so, boosting the economy would probably break the game balance on the strategic layer and make the game way too easy (an boring in the long run like SE5). I think, you just have to understand the game mechanics - which are in my exes well balanced. It is challenging to keep your economy running, as it should be

[Terminus]

I thought the point of the trade mission was that it gave the owner of the planet tax and customs revenue. Of course, they also let the owner of the mission spy on the planet, so I normally don't bother with them.

[Janster]

Economy is fine, its those races with unrest penalties, they just can't hack it, my Klugs do very well financially...and they are calm to boot

[Zakhal]

Its not that hard really. Just dont build everything everywhere and dont play humans.

[killroyishere]

Economy schomonomy play the game and pass it around 99 games of Armada on the wall. Hrmmm thas not Armada on the wall looks more like Ameretta? (hic)

[Titanwarrior89]

My eonomy is fine. Ive got plus 8k and enough coming in playing the humans. If I was the devs I wouldn't go changing anything yet.

[Aroddo]

Try the Hoon Yoon race if you have problems with the economy.
Their bonuses make them very resistant to riots, so you can crank up taxes to max for most of the time.
Turn some planets into low-tax "Breeding Pits" and use shuttles to populate your heavily taxed, slow-growth colonies.

This strategy works exceedingly well for the HoonYoon.

[Terminus]

I have no problem with my economy as Humans.

[Terminus]

A good tip is to not build everything everywhere. Not every planet needs a shipyard, for one thing.

[Erik Rutins]

You have to choose your colonies more carefully as Humans and plan your building to keep income up and unrest down. As you develop better terraforming/atmosphere technologies, you can colonize other planets and still keep things running well. I think that the concerns express by the original poster about the economy are more an issue of needing a bit more practice than a real game problem. I also had trouble in my first couple of games, but after more experience with the game I have had no issues keeping my economy running well.

[Janster]

Yes, if you don't build mines beyond the first stages and don't expand beyond 10 planets, your fine...most likely...

[Titanwarrior89]

I agree. Be selective where you build shipyards.

ORIGINAL: Terminus

A good tip is to not build everything everywhere. Not every planet needs a shipyard, for one thing.

[Erik Rutins]

ORIGINAL: Janster
Yes, if you don't build mines beyond the first stages and don't expand beyond 10 planets, your fine...most likely...

You can certainly build larger mines and have more planets. You might consider "mining planets" though and you could also put more security, entertainment and a larger garrison there than usual to keep the miners happier. [;)]

[Aroddo]

ORIGINAL: Titanwarrior89

I agree. Be selective where you build shipyards.

ORIGINAL: Terminus

A good tip is to not build everything everywhere. Not every planet needs a shipyard, for one thing.

What they say. Specialize.

Read that to see how to take colony specialization to it's extremes: tm.asp?m=2304122

[Flaviusx]

The only way I can manage the human economy is to avoid building mines. Mines send them into unrest way too easily. With humans, you really come to value systems with asteroids and oort clouds, because those can be developed without penalty. As I've said elsewhere, I don't like the humans much in this game and consider them a hard mode race.
 
Trade is huge. I've had some empires bringing in over 5000 credits a turn from that, which is no joke. A trade mission to a high pop world can bring in up to 150 credits net each turn, even after paying custom duties. The key here is to make sure you send trade missions to such worlds. 30 pop seems to be about the break even point where revenue covers duty, and after that it is all profit. In 10 turns or less you will pay off the initial 1000 credit investment and it's all gravy after that.
 
What's harder is convincing the AI to establish missions in your own worlds. They don't seem to be very aggressive about establishing trade missions with you. If you can get them to do it, make sure it's on a colony where you can afford to spare the space for the mission. (Poor worlds are great for this.)
 
If you want races with easier economics, look for those without unrest penalties, with the bureaucracy bonus, or the Crylons (who get a 20% mining income bonus). The Crylons and Walden are strong on economics. The Walden, in fact, are in my opinion the best race in the game in the larger maps, but they don't lend themselves to an extermination playstyle due to the VP penalty they incur from killing pop. Once they get assimilation techs they can blitzrieg like crazy, however, and absorb enemy empires.  

[Aroddo]

currently playing the AROM, who have the same unrest modificator as the humans. it's still an early game but i manage by building only the level 1 mine (and asteroid/comet mines). higher level mines can only be maintained on planets with a good environment, else unrest ensues.

[Star Ranger]

I've been playing on normal and easy mode and still having money issues - I've been able to figure out avoiding bankruptcy - but other races have it way too easy to have larger empires and not have economic issues.

I'd recommend lowering the rebellion penalty for Humans and increasing the base economy for an empire - you shouldn't have to have trade missions to keep your economy afloat.

[Flaviusx]

I don't spam trade missions to "keep my economy afloat." I spam them to make big bucks. Several thousand credits a turn in trade revenue does wonders for your economy.
 
Star Ranger, try the other races out, I think you're judging the game solely on the basis of its worst race. There's a lot of variety in this game, and out of 12 races only two of them are lemons.

[Iceman]

ORIGINAL: Flaviusx
Trade is huge. I've had some empires bringing in over 5000 credits a turn from that, which is no joke. A trade mission to a high pop world can bring in up to 150 credits net each turn, even after paying custom duties. The key here is to make sure you send trade missions to such worlds. 30 pop seems to be about the break even point where revenue covers duty, and after that it is all profit. In 10 turns or less you will pay off the initial 1000 credit investment and it's all gravy after that.

Last time I checked, trade missions would give you $3.5 per pop in the target system. They're only usefull in large pop systems of course, but then again, you don't want those worlds spied on - and so shouldn't the AI.