How do I see what I'm spending money on?

[MichaelJ007]

This is from a game that I abandoned (losing badly ). Just to be clear what I was referring to.

DW2 Economy.png (180.06 KiB) Viewed 322 times

State Annual Expenses
Everything ==> Black hole. All good.
Would prefer that Ship building was a distinct line item.
Would prefer that retrofitting was a distinct line item.
Assumption is that ship building and retrofitting is rolled into Maintenance. I am not so sure.
Would prefer that research spending (initiation costs) was a distinct line item.
Would prefer that crash research funding was a distinct line item.

State Annual Bonus Income:
Resource trading is from foreign and independent traders? No indication that it includes private economy spending.
Fuel Sales is from foreign and independent traders? No indication that it includes private economy spending.
Trade bonuses is from commerce centres?

Private Economy Annual Expenses:
Ship Maintenance --> Black hole. All good.
Private Fuel --> ??????
Private Ship Building - not clear that it includes retrofitting.

Also: Sometimes I have a splash of income (like 300k, or 1M) in a single event. I ASSUME its the private economy splurging on ship building or retrofits when I complete specific techs, like construction techs, however this is NEVER reflected on the statements above. This reinforces my view that private spending on retrofits is NOT reflected anywhere here.

LAYOUT AND FORMATTING
I don't see the need to split Annual Income and Annual Bonus Income. Just list all sources of income in a single statement, with line items for Colony Taxes, Private Ship Building, Private Retrofits, Fuel Sales, Tourism, etc.
Have a single total annual income at the bottom.

For private sector expenses I would do the following:
- Maintenance expenses set colour to red = black hole.
- Private expenses that serve as income for the state can be colour coded GREEN (Taxes, Tourism, ship building, etc).


CASHFLOW CALCULATION
If you do want to show the CASH FLOW, then you have to distinguish better between discretionary and non-discretionary spends. For e.g. All the maintenance items are non discretionary, Investment into growth and research is non-discretionary. Fuel is non-discretionary.

However, Facility Building is a discretionary spend. Ship Building is a discretionary spend. Gifts are a discretionary spend. Retrofitting is a discretionary spend (even when automated) because you can control ship designs. Initiating and crashing research is a discretionary spend.

Tribute (protection) is arguable, but I would classify it as a discretionary spend (since it has to be agreed to).

[maggiecow]

This is from a game that I abandoned (losing badly ). Just to be clear what I was referring to.

State Annual Expenses
Everything ==> Black hole. All good.
Would prefer that Ship building was a distinct line item.
Would prefer that retrofitting was a distinct line item.
Assumption is that ship building and retrofitting is rolled into Maintenance. I am not so sure.
Would prefer that research spending (initiation costs) was a distinct line item.
Would prefer that crash research funding was a distinct line item.

State Annual Bonus Income:
Resource trading is from foreign and independent traders? No indication that it includes private economy spending.
Fuel Sales is from foreign and independent traders? No indication that it includes private economy spending.
Trade bonuses is from commerce centres?

Private Economy Annual Expenses:
Ship Maintenance --> Black hole. All good.
Private Fuel --> ??????
Private Ship Building - not clear that it includes retrofitting.

Also: Sometimes I have a splash of income (like 300k, or 1M) in a single event. I ASSUME its the private economy splurging on ship building or retrofits when I complete specific techs, like construction techs, however this is NEVER reflected on the statements above. This reinforces my view that private spending on retrofits is NOT reflected anywhere here.

LAYOUT AND FORMATTING
I don't see the need to split Annual Income and Annual Bonus Income. Just list all sources of income in a single statement, with line items for Colony Taxes, Private Ship Building, Private Retrofits, Fuel Sales, Tourism, etc.
Have a single total annual income at the bottom.

For private sector expenses I would do the following:
- Maintenance expenses set colour to red = black hole.
- Private expenses that serve as income for the state can be colour coded GREEN (Taxes, Tourism, ship building, etc).


CASHFLOW CALCULATION
If you do want to show the CASH FLOW, then you have to distinguish better between discretionary and non-discretionary spends. For e.g. All the maintenance items are non discretionary, Investment into growth and research is non-discretionary. Fuel is non-discretionary.

However, Facility Building is a discretionary spend. Ship Building is a discretionary spend. Gifts are a discretionary spend. Retrofitting is a discretionary spend (even when automated) because you can control ship designs. Initiating and crashing research is a discretionary spend.

Tribute (protection) is arguable, but I would classify it as a discretionary spend (since it has to be agreed to).

Fantastic post, put far more cogently than I could manage. Here's hoping we get that! Make it a checkbox if they think new players will get overwhelmed. Simple ledger vs advanced ledger.

The sad thing is 90% of players, perhaps more, will barely look at the financial screens in favour of tinkering with tax rates. ie doing something instead of studying something to see why you need to do something.