Please help me

This post should really go in the strategy forum, but that forum is dead, so I post here.

I just got this game three days ago, and there are two parts of the game mechanics that have me baffled. I have searched the internet for two days for answers to my two burning questions:

(1) Aside from the spend rate and existing improvements, what determines how much industry and research a planet produces? It doesn't seem to be population, morale, planet quality or time since colonization.

(2) Similar to the first question, aside from the tax rate, what determines how much income each planet produces? Again, the four factors mentioned earlier don't seem to affect this.

Those are the two most important things that I feel I have to know in order to play this game intelligently. Also, less importantly, how important is population and how do I increase it. I am a veteran of Civilization and MOO where manpower is of the utmost imporance, but is it in GalCiv?

Thanks in advance.
169 views 4 replies
Reply #1 Top
1. The amount of research or industry a planet can produce is affected by both the amount and type of improvement put on that planet, and by the spending sliders located below the Tax and Government Spending sliders.

The spending sliders tell how much is spent in Military, Social, and Research. (This is an empire-side spending plan)

The improvements you put on each individual planet affect that planet only.

2. Income is produced through tax and trade. In the beginning of the game it is solely through tax, as you research up to trade you can then begin building freighters and sending them to other empires' planets. (HINT: Get your trade routes started as quickly as you can to begin the economic growth of your empire). As time passes in the game your trade income will rise dramatically, eventually surpassing your tax income. NOTE: revenue also comes in from trade routes that alien races initiate with you.

As to the importance of population, it ties in with morale. If you pull up the planet list (I think it is the third button from the left on the bottom of the main screen), you can change the heading you want to look at by using the arrows at the top of the column on the right side of the screen. One of those headings is morale. Morale is important because it affects the growth of your population. In addition, if you allow your morale to drop below 50% the citizens will begin to grow discontent. If you ignore this long enough you run the risk of that planet revolting and joining another empire or starting one of their own. In addition, if your morale (Empire wide) drops low enough, your "Party" will lose the next election (This means all those nice extra bonuses you got to choose at the beginning of the game are lost in your empire until your party is re-elected).

So what affects morale? A. Tax rate, B. Planet quality, C. Planetary population, and D. Planetary improvements. Bottom line is your people want to have their cake and eat it too. Let me explain...

A. Just as in real life, If you lower taxes, morale (happiness) will increase. You'll have to monitor morale and spending pretty closely in the early stages of the game.

B.-D. Everyone wants to live on the nicest planet possible, but they don't want it to be overcrowded. That's why we have these nice improvements for them, to raise morale while the population grows. Peace Phoenix once posted a scale showing the maximum poulation allowable by planet quality (PQ) on an unimproved planet to keep the morale at 100% (PP can you link it?). Basically what this means is that each planets PQ has some bearing on how much population it can support without any drop in morale. These effects are countered by adding morale enhancing improvements, and PQ enhanching improvements.

I hope this helps on your specific questions. BTW, check out the "Empires" forum, I learned a TON from my empire and wish I had joined it sooner. Lots of additional fun to be had when you join an empire. Anyway, head over to the empires forum and feel free to browse the various threads there. Find out about the different groups and see if one of them is a good fit for you. Happy gaming!!!

For Honor and Justice!
Reply #2 Top
Thank you for responding, but unfortunately you haven't given me the answer I was looking for. Let me illustrate with an example. I have three planets, none of which have any imporovements on them whatsoever; my tax rate is 54%, my spend rate is 50%, my ratios are 33%, 33%, and 34%. My party is Federalist.

Earth:
PQ:19
POP:2150
Morale:20
Income:4bc
Military-2; Social-3; Research-3

Alpha Centauri V:
PQ:15
POP:432
Morale:42
Income:8bc
Military-2; Social-2; Research-2

Polaris I:
PQ:18
POP:1188
Morale:38
Income:16bc
Military-2; Social-3; Research-3

So now my question is - why are the PLANETERY incomes and productions different? What is the determining factor? Income especially has me baffled. If population determines the income, shouldn't Earth have the largest one? If its morale, shouldn't Alpha Centauri V? If planet quality, why not Earth? If its a combination of all of them, then it still doesn't make sense - sure Earth has low morale, but it has the largest population and best planet quality.

This is what has me confused. I know that improvements increase production, but why, with even no improvements, are the productions on different planets different?

And another thing - how come that when I change my ratios my total expeditures also change? Shouldn't the ratios determine how my net total expenditures are allocated? Or is that just because of rounding errors?
Reply #3 Top
After viewing your above notes, I would reccomend that you lower taxes. I consider anything less than 70% morale to be a serious warning that needs IMMEDIATE attention.

My general rule of thumb is to start the game at 100% military spending, 100% government spending, and the highest tax rate I can that will keep morale at 100%. Doing this, I can crank out 1 colony ship every 2 turns. After colonizing 3 to 7 planets, depending on the map conditions, (Or more accurately stated, after MAKING 3 to 7 colony ships), I switch to 15% military spending, 20% social spending, and 65% research spending.

Planetary productions vary from planet to planet ( I think) because of population. I have seen that usually my most "productive" planets tend to be my most populated planets. ( believe that this is because there are more workers, and because my most populated planets are my highest PQ planets).

Did I get off topic there, or did that help?
Reply #4 Top
This post should really go in the strategy forum, but that forum is dead
End of quote

Nope, the strategy forum isn't dead, it is just asleep: it is just waiting for someone to post something. Especially newbie posts since Galciv veteran have no longer strategy questions to posts.

Peace Phoenix once posted a scale showing the maximum poulation allowable by planet quality (PQ) on an unimproved planet to keep the morale at 100% (PP can you link it?).
End of quote
I haven't posted a such thing. But I have posted here http://www.galciv.com/forum.asp?BID=GS&id=155077#186188 (post #15) a table for knowing the pop level at which the 100% morale is no longer needed for max growth.

(1) Aside from the spend rate and existing improvements, what determines how much industry and research a planet produces? It doesn't seem to be population, morale, planet quality or time since colonization.
End of quote

Wrong: population, morale, PQ have an impact on production. To experiment this:
- land 100 Millions colonist on planet with PQ ranging from 15 to 20, with 100% morale on this planet. You will see some small difference (sure, it will be something like 1 or 2 BC in production)
- Have an overall morale of 100%, everything spend on military (with 100 spending) then raise progressively the taxes (with planets displayed on the righ with the lep of F2 key). You will see that the production experience some fall with the decrease of morale
- Look the PQ of Earth (with 1 000 Millions colonist at the beginning of the game) and the associated production and try to land 100 Millions colonists o na planet that have the same PQ than Earth. The production will be smaller


(2) Similar to the first question, aside from the tax rate, what determines how much income each planet produces? Again, the four factors mentioned earlier don't seem to affect this.
End of quote

PQ, population and moral. If morale drop below 25%, you will experience a severe loss in income

I am a veteran of Civilization and MOO where manpower is of the utmost imporance, but is it in GalCiv
End of quote

It is the same in Galciv: manpower is very very important. And if you look at the link I have given, you will see that 100% morale is absolutely critical for population : the production is at a maximmun, as well as the growth rate.

Now, lets look at you planet:
Earth:
PQ:19
POP:2150
Morale:20
Income:4bc
Military-2; Social-3; Research-3
End of quote

The problem is the 20 morale: it costs you income (you income should be near 15 with a such planet), some production and pop growth (in this case you have negative growth, meaning you are loosing people)

Alpha Centauri V:
PQ:15
POP:432
Morale:42
Income:8bc
Military-2; Social-2; Research-2
End of quote

Situation a bit better than Earth (morale greater than 25%) but not good for population growth

Polaris I:
PQ:18
POP:1188
Morale:38
Income:16bc
Military-2; Social-3; Research-3
End of quote

As the moarle is the same than Alpha centauri V, you see than PQ and population help a lot to see the difference in income.

As a rule of thumb at the beginning:
- have always 100% overall morale (you can use the propangage slider located in the "details" of the planetary screen to improve on a specific planet if it allow to raise taxes sliders and gain moare BC than you are spending with propaganda). This will allow to experience a maximal growth. So set the taxe to the maximum tha allow 100% morale
- set the spending rate at 100% at the beginning: you have 1000 BC in treasury, and there are best spend with deficit than with rushbuying projects. To forget to adjust it later to avoid a negative treasury (if the treasury falls below -500BC, spending stops)
- don't use split spending at the beginning: population is the key, so you need to produce fastly colony ships to claims yellow stars before the AI. With 100% morale, 100% spending rate and 100% military spending, you will be able to produce colony ships on Earth every 3 turns

And another thing - how come that when I change my ratios my total expeditures also change? Shouldn't the ratios determine how my net total expenditures are allocated? Or is that just because of rounding errors?
End of quote

It is rounding IF split spending is the only thing you change.


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