City Assets now correctly producing private credits when selling oil and metals

[Cassini]

It has been about 4 months since I played this; went ahead and installed Oceania and gave it a 'whirl'.

The initial install of Oceania was predictable, but when I installed the 20 Q patch, the city assets appear to have been modified in how their private production is being handled.

The private oil and metal production is actually being sold at 'market prices'. Prior to 20 Q, the private credit production (shown on the asset card) for each private asset was about all it produced (excluding the public 'cut') - it was so bad that I deliberately built public assets on the map resource and then mothballed them to prevent the AI from using the available private credits to build private mining assets. This change has resulted in a BONANZA of credits rolling into to private coffers of each zone. Prior to this patch, it would take 10-20 rounds for a zone to save up enough credits to purchase an assets - under 20 Q it only takes about 3 rounds if there is a single private oil or metal asset functioning. With more assets, the zones can create a new private assets every round or two. This has RADICALLY altered how development is paced - it is more like the Beta from a few years ago...

In addition, every time a zone builds a new assets, it appears that some sort of 'kickback' is being generated by the sales tax rate - generating credits there for the player. It is almost as if the 'traders' are 'selling' the asset to the zone to be built and a sales tax is being collected in the process. As long as the city is incorporated and has a sales tax in effect, this 'kickback' is being generated.

Now (20 Q), credit management for the player is no longer an issue. Prior to this patch, I had to constantly keep on playing the banker fate card or the 1000 credit fate card to keep things from going 'into the red'. NOT NOW!!

Another thing that has changed, is the resource prices offered and purchased by the 'traders'. The spread between selling and buying price has DRAMATICALLY decreased. It is as if a complete rework of the market mechanism has again been performed. With the original install of Oceania (but prior to 20 Q), the spread between buying and selling price ran between 5 and 7 times - now it is between 1.5 and 2 times for most things. Selling Prices (for the player) in 20 Q have not collapsed like they did in the initial install version of Oceania.

I'm not sure if what I'm seeing is a fluke, or deliberate design decision; but the changes have RADICALLY altered the economics of the game.

[Thrake]

It's working like that for a while now. I still think it's odd because because the resources are taxed by income tax which means that government can syphon more from income tax but gets to tax sales too.

[Soar_Slitherine]

As an alternative to selling to the traders, the private economy can also use items it produces for luxury consumption, boosting happiness and free folk immigration, and can do so in large amounts. Some change in this behavior might account for how many credits they are producing from sales.

[Cassini]

Somewhere between the initial release of Oceania and 20 Q, was a significant reworking of the economy. Whereas before I had to constantly play every 1000 credit or banker fate card to keep the public economy going, I'm now literally floating in credits. Before I would assign maybe 10 credits to a new zone or defeated minor (to facilitate development), I can now slam 100 credits into each and not even worry about going into deficit territory. I'm sitting on a balance of about 6000 credits at round 35 or so and the surplus just keeps on getting larger. I only had to sell food in the first rounds - after that I've let my resource inventory just keep on growing (no need to sell when running a positive credit balance).

When a zone builds a private asset, it also triggers the purchase of 'special' resources (food, water, metal, rare earths) - which are then taxed if a sales tax is in effect. With a 50% sales tax, it works out the the collected tax is about one-quarter the value of the purchased private asset. With the greatly increased amount of private credits flowing into each zone along with the sales tax in effect, there is no longer any situation of 'scarcity' for the public coffers.

The 'traders' margin between buying and selling prices has also SIGNIFICANTLY shrunk. Before the difference between selling and buying price ran about 7x, now it is in the 1.5-2x range. In addition, the prices of resources isn't plummeting after round 15 or so - the prices are staying stabilized so that there isn't the issue of selling prices for food and fuel bottoming out. In short, the economy is no longer an issue that the player has to concern himself with - it produces a surplus AND still allows for greatly enhanced exponential growth of the private economies.

[Starfry]

Not sure if you're playing MP or Ai but I think the reason why you're seeing a change due to a cause and effect of Vic fixing the trade between empires. There's a glut of metal on one of my Oceania games and the prices are very low due to the amount not being traded. Another has a ratio cost of 5 to 1 due to the metal being somewhat plentiful but being traded around which raises the price.

[BlueTemplar]

Great news !

[...]
In addition, every time a zone builds a new assets, it appears that some sort of 'kickback' is being generated by the sales tax rate - generating credits there for the player. It is almost as if the 'traders' are 'selling' the asset to the zone to be built and a sales tax is being collected in the process. As long as the city is incorporated and has a sales tax in effect, this 'kickback' is being generated.
[...]

[...]
When a zone builds a private asset, it also triggers the purchase of 'special' resources (food, water, metal, rare earths) - which are then taxed if a sales tax is in effect. With a 50% sales tax, it works out the the collected tax is about one-quarter the value of the purchased private asset. With the greatly increased amount of private credits flowing into each zone along with the sales tax in effect, there is no longer any situation of 'scarcity' for the public coffers.
[...]

This only makes sense, the money that the private sector spends to build assets has to go *somewhere* !
Since they are using public workers, I expect part of it to go back to the private sector, while also being taxed for that income.
And it should be also sales taxed for the (hidden cost) of items it needs to use to actually build the assets, it has to trade with itself after all to acquire them. EDIT : the non-taxed part of this goes back to the private sector again.
Finally, it should also be sales taxed (more ??) if it does NOT have the (hidden cost) of items to build the assets, to buy from that zone's traders. EDIT : the non-taxed part of this does NOT go back to the private sector again, since the Traders are separate from it in ShEmp.
I'm not sure what happens if the credits earmarked for the cost of a private asset do not match the cost of private salaries + cost to buy items + taxes ??
P.S.: Now to think of it, it's weird that the credit cost to build (or nationalize) private assets is fixed, it has no reason to be !
(A fully fledged private economy has maybe not been fully implemented yet, but we are getting there ! )

[BlueTemplar]

I suspect that one big bug currently is that a bunch of private assets (and some stratagems ?) might be directly creating credits... for instance a private farm says that it directly "produces" private credits (a fraction of which goes to your government's treasury as Service Tax and Income Tax) - this is in *addition* to the private food some of which is indeed sold to traders (earning Income Tax). Why is that farm running a money printing operation ?!
Or is it supposed to represent various non-tracked items and services exchanged for money with traders (who are only partially yours and partially free folk) ? But does that money *actually* come from traders ?

As a reminder, it's the traders that serve as the central bank and who are supposed to be able to print money :

5.3.13.7. TRADER TREASURES AND THE MONETARY
CONSTANT
The Traders also play a role in keeping total Credits in the system close
to the Monetary Constant. Once too many Credits enter the system
compared to total planetary Populace, the Traders will start putting part
of their Credits in Trader Treasures (and thus taking those Credits out of
circulation). Furthermore, they’ll start decreasing the price they are willing
to buy Items for. When too few Credits remain in the system, the Traders
will start scavenging their Trader Treasures (and thus putting more Credits
in circulation).

(No idea about the Maritime Trade Houses ??)

There is (was ?) also (still ?) the issue with the Private Asset "Tax"/"Due" : while it is collected in Incorporated Zones, the private economy does NOT get to keep it in Unincorporated Zones, it's just not produced at all, making Unincorporated Zones less efficient ! (Before other modifiers like private economy bonuses are taken into account)
(A quick fix would be to add something like unincorporatedPrivateFood, which is equal to (due)Food, but which is only produced in Unincorporated Zone private Assets ?)

Meanwhile, looking at the manual I found this :

5.3.13.5. PRIVATE ECONOMY
Any dealings with the Public Economy are done through you directly
buying or selling Items to the Traders through the Trade Window.
However the Private Economy, without your consent, will deal with the
Traders as well.
Notably any Food shortages by either your Population or your Workers (if
you do not have the Food available for them) will be resolved by buying
Food from Traders (if the Credits are available).
The Zone Private Economy will buy other Items from the Traders too and
will do so in the following cases:
§ When the Population spends Credits on Luxury Products & Services
they will buy the Items necessary for them from the Traders.
§ When the Population spends Credits on constructing Private Assets
it will buy the Items necessary for them from the Traders.
§ When the Population actively spends Credits on luring Free Folk to
their City they will buy the Items and services necessary to bribe the
Free Folk from the Traders.
In all these above cases the Credits will be used to buy Items at the current
Sell Price of the Traders. These Items will be considered consumed. The type
of Items being bought by the Private Economy depend on the Tech Level of
the Regime. Up to Tech Level 3 it is mainly Oil, Water and Food. On Tech
Level 4 and 5 it starts to include a sizable chunk of Metal and Rare Metals
as well as more Oil. On Tech Level 6 and higher it also includes Machines,
High-Tech Parts and Radioactives. These Private Economy purchases can
significantly influence the Price points of the different Items.
Note that the Private Economy can also sell excess Food, privately mined
Metals and Oil to the Traders.
Also note that the salaries earned by Workers and Leaders will be spent
in the Private Economy and through the Private Economy (see all the
discussed above) will at some point cycle back to the Traders.

(emphasis mine)
This section didn't exist in the v1.09 | 04.28.2021 version of the manual, so looks like it's indeed new to the V1.2 | 03.23.2023 manual (typo here, pretty sure it's supposed to be V1.20 ?) !