Matrix Games Forums

I thought i had figured out how to run an empire, but i my current game, my money keep bleeding away and i can't find what is causing it. According to the summary i should be making money. I have a positive revenu too, but my bank keep going down for no reason i can discern (i even cancelled all paiment to pirates yet i'm still broke). I also removed all automation so i am the only one spending, but still money is leaking...

Not a lot I can suggest to find missing funds, I usually don't have problems with them after the first set of colonies start taking off.

I've been playing at getting a dictatorship to work, and having some revenue problems myself.

Some suggestions, from my experiences:
Build a resort early -- I've got 2 up in my early game... 4k to maintain the pair, but they are turning a 16k profit (and that's weak for a resort).

Look for (and nab) large independnt colonies (1+bil preferred). These will start as colonies that pay non-zero taxes Even at 100 million (enough to build a colony ship), you don't get much revenue to speak of. How do you find them, without building tons of (maintenance requiring) exlporers? Simple. Grab that escort you start with, and send him from system to system looking for signs of life. Granted, I'm working with the Dahyut, who get a fancy hyperdrive, the point is you don't need an explorer to find colonies and ruins, you can do that by hand with your choice of ship, and of the ships you start with the Escort is not going to be much help against pirates, so feel free to nab him for other duty.

Get a port near another empire (one without those pesky trade sanctions): This is a great revenue earner, as foreign ships will stop by your ports for goods. While your merchants will love this, you get to skim some of the earnings as well (read: In addition to taxing the trade directgly, you get compound rewards over time -- Your merchants get fat -> build bigger merchant fleets -> more revenue to tax internally).

I'd stalled my construction ship (set to manual and left idle) to keep him from spending money I was pouring into colony ships. This move I will admit is questionable.

Until you have revenue in surplus, don't build many ports, and keep your navy to a minimum. Check upkeep costs of vessels you find, if they are cheaper than your own, retire your own ships and use what you find... until you can afford to salvage for tech.
//Torrenal

ORIGINAL: torrenal

Not a lot I can suggest to find missing funds, I usually don't have problems with them after the first set of colonies start taking off.

I'm still in early game in my newest attempt; i have all the races in play (i'm human)... But it's quite hard because all independents have been nabbed early and now finding new potential colonies often involve conquest... Well, not so bad, i do have empire i could not stand and started to snatch off it's worlds.

I've been playing at getting a dictatorship to work, and having some revenue problems myself.

I tend to prefer republic, but the extra maintenance tend to hurt.

Some suggestions, from my experiences:
Build a resort early -- I've got 2 up in my early game... 4k to maintain the pair, but they are turning a 16k profit (and that's weak for a resort).

I seen some people claim resorts are great at getting extra revenu, but i have yet to see mine start paying off. I know where to build them, but seem i'm missing something to make them worthwhile.

Look for (and nab) large independnt colonies (1+bil preferred).

Nah, that part i understood. I know what to colonize first... Must be some left though, my current game has too many competitors, i guess i will have to annex some of them before someone else does.

Get a port near another empire (one without those pesky trade sanctions): This is a great revenue earner, as foreign ships will stop by your ports for goods. While your merchants will love this, you get to skim some of the earnings as well (read: In addition to taxing the trade directgly, you get compound rewards over time -- Your merchants get fat -> build bigger merchant fleets -> more revenue to tax internally).

I tend to build at least a small port at my colonies, that way they grow faster from trade and allow more ships to dock, only build larger ones at well developped colonies or where lots of tradeships show up (most likely the closest colony to a trading empire).

I'd stalled my construction ship (set to manual and left idle) to keep him from spending money I was pouring into colony ships. This move I will admit is questionable.

I guess that must be it, i did queue up construction, as well as letting the ships run on their own. I guess i should turn them off. Strangely, the revenue can be in negative and i still get money in, or the opposite. Too bad there is no log for when civilians buy ships...

Until you have revenue in surplus, don't build many ports, and keep your navy to a minimum. Check upkeep costs of vessels you find, if they are cheaper than your own, retire your own ships and use what you find... until you can afford to salvage for tech.

I know that... Though i tend to retire all ships i find by default, i want the extra techs. I prefer to have my own designs as ships, they tend to perform better than what i find. I also learned to generally refuse requests to build more ships, otherwise i end up with too many of them that just drain away my income. Construction ships are the worst offenders, they cost more in upkeep than to build.

ORIGINAL: Foraven

ORIGINAL: torrenal
I've been playing at getting a dictatorship to work, and having some revenue problems myself.

I tend to prefer republic, but the extra maintenance tend to hurt.

Where I tend to play also, but I've noticed something funny with fleet management and build orders that looks to be tied to government type, so I'm giving the different types a whirl (Techocracy/Mercantile guild -> 1 modest fleet, scattering of other ships... Way of the Ancients -> multiple (large) fleets -- so much so that I must ignore build orders or risk making the game unplayable on large galaxies (my game gets a touch slow and...insistent, once I have 2k+ military ships roaming around) -- Dictatorship -> Only build order I've seen to date has been for 1 construction ship, even when hurting for lack of military ships, haven't grown my navy big enough yet to see if multiple fleets get used (guessing not)).

Get a port near another empire (one without those pesky trade sanctions): This is a great revenue earner, as foreign ships will stop by your ports for goods. While your merchants will love this, you get to skim some of the earnings as well (read: In addition to taxing the trade directgly, you get compound rewards over time -- Your merchants get fat -> build bigger merchant fleets -> more revenue to tax internally).

I tend to build at least a small port at my colonies, that way they grow faster from trade and allow more ships to dock, only build larger ones at well developped colonies or where lots of tradeships show up (most likely the closest colony to a trading empire).

Don't build ports in ANY quantity until income is a sure bet. Your base Small Port has an upkeep around 2k/year. That's 1 colony ship worth of funding per year for every 3 small ports, unless you can be sure the port will be profitable, don't build it...

Bugger, looks like I didn't get the screenshot. Early in my current game (after finding a 1.5 billion pop independent colony) my income took off, but not from my colonies.
My annual colony revenue was ~ 12k, and I had Space Port income in the 20+k bracket, which was interesting as I only had 1 port (I'd started building port #2 about that time, but wound up losing it short of completion in a war that was starting to brew).

Until you have revenue in surplus, don't build many ports, and keep your navy to a minimum. Check upkeep costs of vessels you find, if they are cheaper than your own, retire your own ships and use what you find... until you can afford to salvage for tech.

I know that... Though i tend to retire all ships i find by default, i want the extra techs. I prefer to have my own designs as ships, they tend to perform better than what i find. I also learned to generally refuse requests to build more ships, otherwise i end up with too many of them that just drain away my income. Construction ships are the worst offenders, they cost more in upkeep than to build.

In my previous (failed) effort (bugger all, I'd taken over too many planets by force... the 3 front war when I had no funds for a navy did not go well...) I'd come across a cute dilemma.
Keep my 1k/yr upkeep destroyer (firepower, iirc, was near 40), or retire it and use a ~120 firepower destroyer(?), with a smaller upkeep fee.... Hmm...

One is costs more to keep, one wacks pirates more firmly... which to retire... which to keep and use...
//Torrenal

ORIGINAL: torrenal
Don't build ports in ANY quantity until income is a sure bet. Your base Small Port has an upkeep around 2k/year. That's 1 colony ship worth of funding per year for every 3 small ports, unless you can be sure the port will be profitable, don't build it...

I guess you are right. It did pay of in a previous game because i had a lot of trade going, but in my current one i'm draining away with too much maintenance and most of my potential customers have started trade sanctions on me (seem i pissed off the wrong empire and he his bulling them into sanctions on me).