Advanced questions and answers

[OzoneGrif_slith]

Hi everybody. With a friend we made a short study over DW tonight and I've had a few questions. The rules have changed in Universe, sometimes the Galactopedia is wrong or incomplete, and some things are hard to make sense of.


Here are the things we understood, please fix if wrong :

-> Colony growth is affected by taxes, the seven Essential strategic resources (Steel, Lead, Carbon Fiber, Polymer, Silicon, Hydrogen, Caslon), with a bonus for low populations (<500M), and some facilities

-> Happiness doesn't affect growth
What is happiness purpose? Is it only to fight rebellions and tax evasion? Why is happiness so easy to keep high?

Edit: Actually it does affect growth indirectly (but not the number on the planet info). A happy planet attracts migrants, and migrants are somehow a growth.

-> Development is calculated from Population (10%/100M, up to 50%), Luxury resources (5% up to 50%), Super Luxury resources (30% if at least one present, not cumulative), some facilities (not cumulative? up to 40%?), and ruins

-> Strategic value is 10% of population x Development
But sometimes the numbers are off. How is Strategic value calculated exactly ?

-> GDP is calculated from strategic value (about 20% of it) - corruption - tax evasion - (Planet quality on the scale 50%=0 100%=1)
But sometimes the numbers are off. How is GDP calculated exactly ?

-> Planet size only affects the maximum population

-> Planet's quality only affects the maximum population and GDP

-> Resources became infinite in DWU
In previous versions they had a limited stock on planets, it seems to have been removed. Does it mean resources will only disappear and appear from random events?

-> Ships prices are x10.5 the price of all resources

-> Ships maintenance is about x3 the price of all resources
What happens if the price of a resource suddenly rises? Does the ship's maintenance rise with it in real time, or if it a fixed price at construction?

-> Free Trade Agreement gives a growing bonus up to 20% on all trade
But what does the amount of trade on the diplomacy screen means exactly? What is the temporal unit? Why won't that number fall to zero when I'm at war with that empire (after waiting four years for the test)? Is trade visible on the Empire summary? And more generally, how does trade works? because I've seen foreign resources being stockpiled on my worlds, sometimes by enemy races.

Edit: Answer is here => tm.asp?m=3619659

-> Mutal Protection Pact and Protectorates gives a growing trade bonus up to 30%


If you are still reading this, thank you
I will love you if you can lift these mysteries.

[Bingeling]

That was a load in things I can play perfectly fine having no clue about

Happiness gives you room to tax, at least. Tax is a negative happiness modifier.

I can not remember limited resources on planets. Maybe it was so a long time ago.

Trade information is well hidden, there is the trade number, the relationship bonus from trade, and the bonus trade income. I wish there was some info about trade beyond what is there.

As for trade during war, it could be that trade is averaged over some period, and if so it could take a long war for it to become zero.

[Osito]

Your question about why is it so easy to keep happiness so high is a good one. I often have a 100% tax rate on well developed planets, and have high happiness to. That feels somewhat counter-intuitive. I mean, 100% taxes means the population is paid nothing. I think it would be better if happiness was reduced on a different scale as tax increases - perhaps an exponential scale is needed.

So far as your other points are concerned, there was nothing that stood out and left me thinking "that's wrong", but I don't necessarily know you're definitely right.

Osito

[Spacecadet]

I'll hit a few of these:


I believe Colony growth is essentially affected by Happiness.

Happiness is affected by Taxes, Medical, Recreation, Planer Facilities, Ruins, Leaders, Government, Population, and Development (could be a few I missed).

The Development is affected by the resources available to the planet, and certain resource/Race combos have bonuses.


I don't believe resource storage has become infinite, but I do believe it has been raised.


Ship prices and maintenance are dependent on the cost of the resources.
As resource prices change, so will these two values - though there is a "smoothing" effect so prices aren't jumping all over the place.


The Trade number on the Diplomacy screen I believe is the annual trade bonus (Credits).
If you are at war with an Empire, I don't think you're going to have a FTA.
The other Empire stockpiles you see are actually what you are trading with that Empire, they just haven't arrived to pick it up yet (their Private ships will do that, not yours).

[OzoneGrif_slith]

Thank you all for your answers.

That was a load in things I can play perfectly fine having no clue about

I just love to understand what's going on. When I played EU IV for the first time, I made all the calculations to understand everything in the game, and after a few hours, everything made sense. DW is being harder to figure out because we just miss some info.

As for trade during war, it could be that trade is averaged over some period, and if so it could take a long war for it to become zero.

I though that too, but after the fourth year I had a trade rise... which shouldn't be possible if it was an average.

Your question about why is it so easy to keep happiness so high is a good one.

Yes happiness isn't a challenge right now. I would love to see my population get unhappy when my starport is under attack, or after bombardments... If the population is feeling unsafe and unhappy, it could turn to the enemy or rise, making it even harder to defend your planet. I know the game can turn a population, it just needs better happiness mechanisms.

I believe Colony growth is essentially affected by Happiness.

I did many tests using the editor, and changing happiness didn't change the growth rate at all. Or am I missing something?

I don't believe resource storage has become infinite, but I do believe it has been raised.

I based that statement on the editor. The stock of resource on a planet is gone. Only remains the percentage.

As resource prices change, so will these two values - though there is a "smoothing" effect so prices aren't jumping all over the place.
The Trade number on the Diplomacy screen I believe is the annual trade bonus (Credits).
The other Empire stockpiles you see are actually what you are trading with that Empire, they just haven't arrived to pick it up yet (their Private ships will do that, not yours).

Cool, that's good to know. Anyone can confirm that?

If you are at war with an Empire, I don't think you're going to have a FTA.

It should be that way yes but So far Trade is still a mystery. When at war, trade shouldn't occur at all. Freighters should be destroyed. Or maybe some still manage to pass through the enemy lines?

[Spacecadet]

The Happiness value change sometimes takes a while to kick in, but it's been some time since I've dug into this.

The % on resources is the richness of the deposit, not how much there is.

The Trade number on the Diplomacy screen is the only portion of the Trade statement that I'm not 100% on.
I recall Elliot mentioning the smoothing on one of the Test releases, so I'm pretty sure about that one.

Another thing about Trade is you'll generally have some trade even with Empires you don't like, the FTA & MDP are bonuses above and beyond that.
Trade Embargos should stop trade to the affected Empire, but it can sometimes be ignored.
If you have the Embargo and a planet Blockaded, then that planet is very unlikely to see any incoming resources.

[elanaagain]

What is the "dense energy bank' that you get when you send a ship into be reverse engineered, (scrap at a yard)?

[OzoneGrif_slith]

What is the "dense energy bank' that you get when you send a ship into be reverse engineered, (scrap at a yard)?

You claimed an advanced ship and sent it to your spaceport to be analysed. It gave you a science boost in the "Dense energy bank" technology.
It's a shield improvement technology (Deucalios Shield, aka "Intensified Shield Strength").

[elanaagain]

Thanks OzoneGrif for dark energy help - I was confused. Thank you ... about the '100% tax" item: I don't think of it as 100% of all the money in that colony - but rather as 100% (the max) of tax settings allowable / permitted by species + government type.

[Spacecadet]

I think there is some confusion on the Taxes.

The highest possible Tax rate is 50%, and is most easily seen in the Colonies Screen.

The 100% figure you're seeing in regards to Taxes is the compliance rate (% that are actually paying and not protesting).

The Music Note is the Culture/Development level of the Colony, which impacts the Sphere of Influence size (Colored Territory on Galaxy Map).

[Osito]

ORIGINAL: Spacecadet

I think there is some confusion on the Taxes.

The highest possible Tax rate is 50%, and is most easily seen in the Colonies Screen.

The 100% figure you're seeing in regards to Taxes is the compliance rate (% that are actually paying and not protesting).

The Music Note is the Culture/Development level of the Colony, which impacts the Sphere of Influence size (Colored Territory on Galaxy Map).

I'm clearly missing something here. As far as I can tell, I can set taxes at 100% and they show up as 100% in the colony screen and in the selection box in the bottom left. Compliance is shown separately.

[Spacecadet]

ORIGINAL: Osito

ORIGINAL: Spacecadet

I think there is some confusion on the Taxes.

The highest possible Tax rate is 50%, and is most easily seen in the Colonies Screen.

The 100% figure you're seeing in regards to Taxes is the compliance rate (% that are actually paying and not protesting).

The Music Note is the Culture/Development level of the Colony, which impacts the Sphere of Influence size (Colored Territory on Galaxy Map).

I'm clearly missing something here. As far as I can tell, I can set taxes at 100% and they show up as 100% in the colony screen and in the selection box in the bottom left. Compliance is shown separately.

Let's take a quick look :




Can you increase Taxes beyond this in this Screen?
You shouldn't be able too.

Are we looking at something different, maybe that's the confusion?

[Raap]

I can set taxes to 100% too.

Maybe the max is decided by government type?

[Osito]

Yeah but:

[Spacecadet]

ORIGINAL: Raap

I can set taxes to 100% too.

Maybe the max is decided by government type?

What type Government are you using, I'll jump in game an check it real quick?

[Osito]

It's democracy.

[Raap]

It works for democracy and pirate empire(no government) for me at least. I checked the government file, but can't find anything that specifically mentions max tax rate. Works for technocracy too.

[Spacecadet]

Wow, good find.

I can do that in Way of Ancients too - pretty sure it's a bug, should be capped at 50%.

[Raap]

Which Empire/Government type could you not increase it above 50% with?

[Osito]

It was certainly possible to set it at 100% in democracy's in Shadows, as I did that in a game just before Universe came out. I was thinking at the time that it was a bit silly, because I had 100% taxes and 40% approval. I'm wondering now whether it is a bug that crept in at some time, because I'm not certain that I always used to be able to set it at 100% (but I can't remember for sure).