Economy tips? And dealing with pirates

[zenkmander]

So I'm playing as a Human Republic. Prewarp and Early Warp went well, I built my economy up nicely, but now I think I expanded too much. I have 7 colonies, only 3 of which are producing decent taxes. I have lots of strategic and luxury resources, as well as at least a small spaceport on every colony (probably a bad idea in retrospect). All colonies have a quality of at least 70%.

Unfortunately my economy is crashing. I've been scrapping mining stations that I no longer need (like 50% lead etc), but I don't even know if I pay for their upkeep or the private sector does. I've also downgraded my spaceports and defense bases so maintenance is less (still pretty high though).

I have 3 free trade agreements but only seem to get about 1k in trade income. I've had several resort bases for a while but haven't been getting any tourism income; and I just now read in another thread that they need a passenger compartment, so now I'm waiting for those to retrofit.

My military is fairly small, and I can't really cut back on it due to pirates. It seems lately that they've all focused on me, coming with 6-8 ships to raid my colonies and damage my bases. I quit paying them early on, and every time they attack they get more angry with me for destroying their ships (I'm guessing their mood will cause even more attacks). I'm hesitant to focus my military on their bases, as my colony defenses won't really hold off those big offenses they've been throwing. And even if I did focus my military, it looks like I don't have nearly enough firepower to take out their bases, without losing most of my ships in the process (and thus costing more money to reinforce).

I've also been training up some intelligence agents in sabotage to try and destroy the pirate bases that way, but it obviously takes a lot longer than sending a fleet.

What are my options at this point? Will scrapping mining stations lower my upkeep or the private sector's? Should I go all-out and kamikaze the pirate bases? Should I continue crippling my bases to save on maintenance? Any help is appreciated, I only have $40k left!

[elanaagain]

Without seeing your financial display, its impossible to make solid suggestions. First, raise tax rate on home planet? Perhaps scrap a few star bases at lesser colonies (to centralize your resources, and replace them with a defense base? Redesign / upgrade design of private ships (cargo transports, etc.) thus forcing the private sector to pay you for upgrading their ships?

[zenkmander]

Well that's embarrassing, I was able to make a relatively quick recovery by raising taxes to the point where citizen opinion was neutral instead of happy.

Pirates are still a major problem though. Now that I'm getting rich there are even more of them targeting me. It's going to be a slow war of attrition!

Thanks Elanagain

[Canute0]

but now I think I expanded too much. I have 7 colonies, only 3 of which are producing decent taxes.

Until you discover an abandon colony or invade/colonize an independed colony, your main Tax income is your Homeworld.
Don't forget to add Medical and Recreation modules to your Space port, these increase the happyness of the colony, this means you can raise the Tax.

but I don't even know if I pay for their upkeep or the private sector does.

Thats the good news, the private sector pay for the upkeep, you just pay the build cost.

and I just now read in another thread that they need a passenger compartment, so now I'm waiting for those to retrofit.

In this case it is better to scrap the base, and them them rebuild. Btw. i like to add Long range scanners to Resort bases, since they are at mosttimes at abandon spots.

Pirates:
Until you are able to destroy them you should pay them for protection. But you should cancel the protection after they left your system.
Since you don't fight the pirates, you don't need much military ships, build exploration ships instead. Maybe you can find some abandon strong ship at this way or when you play with the original events, you can find a shipyard and repair some ship with construction ships.
When you got a strong fleet from your own tech, or 1-2 ancient strong ship you should take care of the pirates.
Destroy their raiding fleet first, then go for their bases.
If you capture their ships, you can salvage them, and get a research bonus if you are still behind the pirates tech.

[Atts]

Persoanallu, I find the easiest tactic, once you've got the normal warp and colony techs out of the way is to foxus in getting a Wonder built on my homeworld, usually the bakuras shipywards and Rusan Technology Institute, thus increading the colony devlopment to 150+, this combined with a small number of troops, which munch on your starting credits like all hell seems to work for me.

Mining stations are paid for by the private sector. You pay the installation and they pay the upkeep. Too many resort bases is pointless in the early game as you've only got a small population that will actually want to go to them, I stick with one till i hit about 7-8 billion people, they cost a fortune to maintain.

Also, no need to have a space port on all colonies, only larger colonies, say 1000k + really need them. If you position 1-3 troops on the planet it prevents most pirate raids from succedding, sure it's annoying to get attack message when your freighters are running cscared, but it saves the maintenance of def bases or space ports.

EDIT: Be careful with the troops, 1-3 is usually the same cost maintinence of a def base, this works primarily with colonies that take too long to build their own defenses.