How do you get money?

[springel]

I started my second game since release, and after the opening, building mines, factories and farms, and deploying two infantry brigades, my cashflow is seriously negative.

I raised income tax a bit, lowered salaries, but I am still at 90 income and 160 expenses, while the game assist suggests I raise my worker salaries.

Where to find money to expand?

[Maerchen]

You get good credits when you trade off the surplus of rare metals. In many games it is vital to buy the recycling plant from the capital, costs 500cr. But rare metals sell for 6-15 cr. each and you dig them up fast.

And funny that you mention it, if you raise income tax and lower wages, you will get lower income from tax. Vic recently capped income tax at 80%, as you get your wages back practically when you pay $wages and have a high tax.

I had a worker union event in one of my cities, I pay like 35 cr per worker, no the initial 5. I thought it would kill my finances, but my tax is high enough to equal that out a bit and the mood bonus for the workers is nice.

[springel]

ORIGINAL: Maerchen

You get good credits when you trade off the surplus of rare metals. In many games it is vital to buy the recycling plant from the capital, costs 500cr. But rare metals sell for 6-15 cr. each and you dig them up fast.

I have sold quite a lot of those rare metals, but the market is not stable. Last turn they were worth less than 2, and sometimes nobody wants to buy any of them. There was also some find of 1000 cr, that got me through some turns without noticing my structural deficit.

The money economy feels like an enigma to me.

[Maerchen]

Sharing is caring:

I always go into the zone orders first. Public funding needs to be 15 from turn 10 on, worker wages 5 is ok. Public funding enables the city to build private stuff like police, schools, light industry and at 15+ cr., it gives a happiness mod of 1. I cut recruit bonus to 0.

Selling stuff: I do it in big batches, the market recovers quickly after one sale than repeated sales of only 10.

To up the taxes, you need an interior council director soon.

Interior director 101:
I set him to taxation 30% prio until my taxes are high enough. I put tarriffs on 1%, so he does an admin roll and trains it. Tariffs are a miracle for me in this game, I play them and then my major partner goes mad. [:)]

I put human resources on 40% prio as I want good personnel. Last game I won I started with an interior council only. The guy was cap IV and gave me supermen.Like III the worst.

The last prio would be for bonus and retirement strat cards. I put that at 29% and raise that after taxes are fixed.


Your interior director is doing the big throws for you. Like hiring One-Punch-Man or Rincewind, that difference. Order of Merit needs to get played on him before he gets assigned interior director as he cannot play strat cards on himself. I'll explain.

His main stat is intelligence, as he plays a lot of adminstration rolls to produce cards. And because he plays cards like Grand Convention, Governor Convention, Wargames, Bureaucratic Push, he is the one guy who hands out XP and relation boosts like candy on christmas for all your leaders and himself.
But: he needs Charisma, because his gamechanger is Mission Impossible, a strategem that costs 50PP(!!!) but is a leadership roll that has a 150 difficulty and generates 2 [&o] Fate Points [&o] on success, 1 on a failed attempt and 4 FP on a critical success. You sure want that, don't you?
All the leader strats are played by him, too, like Bonus, Official Gift, etc. and they are leadership rolls, training him for Mission impossible. He also gets you rid of crappy folk like that stupid guy who is diametrally opposed to your government ethics via retirement cards.

For selling stuff: You get a refund from trade from your SHQ commander, he does the trade rolls, so he needs IQ and the trade skill up.

Hope that helps.

[springel]

Thanks. I am a bit less worried about that 'urgent issues' warning in the reports about my negative cashflow. Selling stuff must be considered a structural income, and for several turns now there has been enough money.

The budget game is a whole dimension in itself, and I have still to acquire a good scheme in my head where I will get what.
This game certainly requires a couple of starts to learn all the basics.

[springel]

So I reuse this thread for my next elementary question: when the design counsel asked what new design to work on, there is also the option to keep doing what they were doing. How can I know what they were doing?

[Soar_Slitherine]

If you pick that option, the BP allocated to model design goes towards discovery instead until you next pick a model to design.

EDIT: Clarity.

[Maerchen]

ORIGINAL: Soar_Slitherine

If you pick that option, the BP allocated to model design goes towards discovery instead until you next pick a model to design.

EDIT: Clarity.

I also want to emphasize that putting 100% into model design seems a good idea but it isn't. Allocating 1% research and 99% design lets your model direx do 2 dice rolls instead of one, training him better. You can look up the dice rolls & used skills in his skill log.

[springel]

ORIGINAL: Maerchen

ORIGINAL: Soar_Slitherine

If you pick that option, the BP allocated to model design goes towards discovery instead until you next pick a model to design.

EDIT: Clarity.

I also want to emphasize that putting 100% into model design seems a good idea but it isn't. Allocating 1% research and 99% design lets your model direx do 2 dice rolls instead of one, training him better. You can look up the dice rolls & used skills in his skill log.

Very nice to know. A bit gamy though. Maybe Vic should also add that second skill roll at 0%, that would make things more smooth and less dependent on specialized knowledge.

In the mean time I discovered that the current design model is shown in the dashboard report.

I also want to add that meanwhile I am swimming in money.

My next worry is my promise to reach civilization level 4, but I am staying on 3.8 for a while now. How can I push my civilization level up? I build everything I can in my capital, play QOL stratagems, invite freemen, but all that is just wild guesswork.

[Maerchen]

I am always happy when my factions genererate Zoo or Commercial Project, one comes at mind 50, the other at meritocracy 40 into availability. Both cost only 5 PP and can be played 3x on each city , enhancing QoL, education and entertainment points.