Economy Micromanagement and You

from Stardock Forums
My apologies if these are repeats. I'm an efficiency nut - half my time in GalCiv is spent in the domestic policy screen playing with the sliders, and I've been wondering about a few things that I can't seem to definitively conclude on.

#1] Is there a built-in 'specialization' penalty for having your Military/Social/Research sliders unequal? If so, is it significant?

#2] Is there a built-in 'sudden focus change' penalty for radically changing your M/S/R sliders at once? If so, does it decrease over time?

#3] Is there a built-in 'reasonable tax rate' bonus for having your Tax Rate set to a low percentage? ie, are the percentage points from 1-33% each worth more BC than from 66-99%?

#4] Is there an 'indecisive tax rate' penalty for jiggling your Tax Rate around too frequently? ie., is morale and/or income negatively affected if you adjust your rate each and every turn to maintain precisely 100 morale without excess on your planets?

#5] Is there a 'large industry' bonus for having your Government Spending slider at a lower percentage than 100%? ie., if your society's factories and power plants are not being taxed at their fullest, is there a larger return on investment? Or is the greatest efficiency always derived from leaving your spending at full if your economy can afford it?


If the above are in place, and in place well, then I'm happy. If not, could they serve as an efficiency bonus to those who plan for the longer term, while reducing the necessity for micromanagement at higher difficulty levels, while still rewarding those who truly want to tinker often with the sliders the reward of short-term gain, but to a lesser extent than at present?
381 views 7 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
1): No. You will notice that your overall spending level tends to be lower when you distribute your income more evently though. This is just an artifact of how GalCiv's numerical calculations all round down and does not represent a coded penalty to production though.

2): No.

3): The sweet spot for tax rates can vary greatly depending on the situation, and there is no hard coded value for optimal tax rate. You'll just have to fiddle with the tax slider until you find a point that suits your taste. It's important to realize that what may be the best tax level in the short turn may not be the best level over the long run. It takes a while for population to grow after a tax cut after all. As a rule of thumb, I would suggest that you set your tax rate at the short run sweet spot if you need cash, and slowly lower your tax rates if you have any left overs to boost long term growth.

4): No, not beyond the normal effects of morale (e.g. population loss when low).

5): No. The closest thing to resemble this would be the diminishing returns of production when they reach extremely high levels, but this shouldn't be of much concern unless you are stacking starbase bonuses.
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
My take on tax rates. Above 50 is bad. 55 or 60 if you are desperate for cash and cannot/will not cut spending. That range will cost you pop growth, and higher than 60 is like inviting people to leave (or revolt if the population cannot adjust itself fast enough). 40% is a good sustainable rate where revenue is fair and population can be kept in check. 35% is about the magic line where BC gained per x taxpayers changes from making decent money on the taxpayers you got to losing money on a horde of underpaying people. 30% gets some nice population, but costs a bit of revenue. 25% is like going around shouting "Tax cuts! Tax cuts! Live it up a bit." Anything 20 or lower is practically government sponsored orgies: breed all you want and not pay for it. My typical long term tax rate is 50 at the beginning and lowers toward 40 at the endgame. Of course, I tend to take at least a little morale boosting support from a political party or advantage points, so without any morale boosting supplements at all one might run into a bit of trouble in the beginning part of the game while running at 50, so cut down a bit if necessary.
Offworld Trading Company
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
I would like to see the diminishing returns on production for rates above say 70% at least. That would be more realistic. But it's still a great game.
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
Speaking to 4): I do believe it's been confirmed that frequent adjustments of ones tax rate has an overall negative effect on morale. That is, if you frequently adjust the rate up and down, eventually you will have to push it lower and lower to reach the same morale level.

Difficult to confirm in-game, but I'm near certain I read a reply from Frogboy to that effect.
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
I agree with Mr. Lucky. I remember reading something from Frogboy or some other official-type person saying that if you are constatly changing your tax rate around your morale will be hurt. This is to prevent people from dropping their tax rate just before elections and then raising it again just afterward. I've no idea how often is "too often" to adjust the rate, or if there is some sort of threshold that is safe.
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
I have seen no evidence of a hard coded penalty to frequent tax changes. The natural interaction of morale and population already imposes a limit on the effectiveness of tax adjustments. If you hike up your taxes too fast, your planets won't have enough time to shed population and may end up rebelling. If you drop taxes too much, you end up wasting potential income since morale is capped at 100% and you can't go higher than that.
Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top
Za H,

I agree that that I haven't seen any evidence of a 'tax fiddler' penalty. I can only say that I distinctly recall Frogboy posting that there was such a thing. :notsure: