Best way to make money?

[SpazzyPixel]

I find myself running out of money very often in the game. Is there a way to reduce expenses/make money? I'd like to stop going bankrupt and clearly I am missing something here

I tried raising taxes to ~ 12% and adding 2 tax collectors but it still doesn't appear to be enough

[Silvi the Bun]

Trade, gold mines, if available, and tax collector offices built where your rich-houses are remain the best sources of money; I haven't had issues with money running out in general, following just those. Not importing things you can produce is a big one. Sometimes you can import raw goods so you can sell the products as well, which can be quite lucrative.

Rising taxes is a great way to make your city a poverty ghost town btw, people don't move in to places with high taxes usually.

[Sky]

Trade asap...its the best...unless you got gold mines.

[Sikey]

The main source of income in the game, in addition to collecting taxes, is the balance of level import / export products. Make what you can and buy what you need. Just like in real life)

[DirewolfTH]

Open your trade advisor screen first thing and see what's exportable. Do that asap.

In some maps with limited farming space, if I can export beer I'll fill the whole thing with barley and import the cheap food instead.

[tinyterror]

LOL I made it thru Timna on only gold mining and taxes. At start of game I opened trade routes to sell copper, gems and weapons but forgot to tell game how much to sell. Just as I hit 2000 population I needed about 7 Kingdom rating to win and I noticed a trader enter the map and just keep on walking not bothering to buy any copper. I'm thinking....hmmm that ain't right...fixed it, got some money for tributes and finished the game.

[Telariust]

(a question that each player asks)
How much can taxes be raised and wages lowered?
(without lowering the mood of the inhabitants)

under conditions:
- tax coverage over 90% (+0); 100%(+2)
- Unemployment less than 10% (+0);
- residents have Food (+1);
- there is the Goddess Bast (+2?);
Optimal, Tax 17% (-5) and Salary 38 Db (+5);

Here, the numbers in brackets are the impact per month on mood Immigration.
For example, Tax 9%(-0), Salary 30 Db(+0);
Salary 38 (+5) or 9999 (+5) are equal in mood, so don't pay more than 38 Db;
In the absence of Bast, the Tax is optimally 15% (or 13%), because Unemployment spikes will spoil the mood.

If you have a Bast Oracle Hathor (+5?), you can raise Taxes to 21..28%.
Raise Taxes by 2% until the mood swing starts.
Due to the inertia of the mood, it is possible to temporarily (half a year .. a year) raise Taxes to 100%.

If there is Ra-Oracle-Mountain, then you can lower the Salary.
For example, Taxes 0% and Salary 20 Db
(without lowering the mood of the inhabitants)

[Trixi]

First:
gold mines. Place your palace near those mines. They're are a very reliable income. gold mines are awesome for building a city, since trade takes a good while until it starts.

try to maximum your export. Very valuable goods to export: Copper & Papyrus. If you have some reed gatherer Pyprus. Like 1 reed gatherer can server like 5-6 papyrus industries.

also look out for trade routes, sometimes it's worth to import raw material and then export the produced good again. (again Papyrus has the most profit). sidenote importing Gems and exporting Jewelry usually isn't worth it. This exporting is a lot easier in the new game, than in the previous, as every trader has a capacity for 1600 for each good it trades. So you can import and export the full need of a city. In the old game, i never exported stones, as those are relatively low value. With the new game you can do that, However there you have to counteract wages.

also if you worship Ptah, try to keep the storages for pottery, good, jewelry, gemstone, flax and linen seperated and do 100% and if you trade make sure there are 100 of a good left. Like if you have 2 storage yards, set the export to above 3300 instead of 3200, so the storage keeps a bit occupied. Ptah will bless you and fill that storage up. You could even import like 100 Jewelries and than let ptah fill it up and sell the extra 3100 jewelries.

[monsieurJean85]

Originally posted by Trixi:

First:
gold mines. Place your palace near those mines. They're are a very reliable income. gold mines are awesome for building a city, since trade takes a good while until it starts.

try to maximum your export. Very valuable goods to export: Copper & Papyrus. If you have some reed gatherer Pyprus. Like 1 reed gatherer can server like 5-6 papyrus industries.

also look out for trade routes, sometimes it's worth to import raw material and then export the produced good again. (again Papyrus has the most profit). sidenote importing Gems and exporting Jewelry usually isn't worth it. This exporting is a lot easier in the new game, than in the previous, as every trader has a capacity for 1600 for each good it trades. So you can import and export the full need of a city. In the old game, i never exported stones, as those are relatively low value. With the new game you can do that, However there you have to counteract wages.

also if you worship Ptah, try to keep the storages for pottery, good, jewelry, gemstone, flax and linen seperated and do 100% and if you trade make sure there are 100 of a good left. Like if you have 2 storage yards, set the export to above 3300 instead of 3200, so the storage keeps a bit occupied. Ptah will bless you and fill that storage up. You could even import like 100 Jewelries and than let ptah fill it up and sell the extra 3100 jewelries.

Wood, if available, and exportable, can also generate massive amounts of money very fast. The resource gathering works the same way as reeds, but unlike reeds, wood can be sold at a high price without having to refine it. As a result, wood tends to trivialize Oasis-based missions, which almost always have it available.

[monsieurJean85]

Also, A general tip to reduce expenses:

In the beginning, only build as much as you need to get your first source of stable income (usually trade) going. This includes the housing for the workers and the services associated with it.

It's very easy, especially if you're coming from the original game, where you could still hold on with 5000+ deben of debt as long as you kept your Kingdom rating up, to make big plans for a giant cash-making industry right at the start, then overextend and end up hitting that fatal -5000 mark before you have the chance to recover your expenses.

[cafween]

whenever you start a map, before even building housing, figure out what you will be able to import/export, and what you have in your production tab. I try to build up industries that don't require me to import anything FIRST. Get those exports up and running. Once you aren't in the negative with those, then try importing raw materials, exporting goods. Don't build too quick, and don't build all your industry before you build temples/shrines or the gods get mad.

[Elder Gamer]

Where is the trade advisor?? Is that the overseer for Commerce? I have lots stockpiled and imports exceed exports. I don't see where I can adjust exports.

[Mazrim]

Originally posted by Elder Gamer:

Where is the trade advisor?? Is that the overseer for Commerce? I have lots stockpiled and imports exceed exports. I don't see where I can adjust exports.

World map is on the left to open trade routes and to adjust what levels there is a trade symbol shortcut on storage yards.

[Elder Gamer]

Thanks for the reply.
World map is greyed out. I am playing the Nekhen scenario so maybe it doesn't activate until later??

[The_Pastmaster]

Originally posted by Elder Gamer:

Thanks for the reply.
World map is greyed out. I am playing the Nekhen scenario so maybe it doesn't activate until later??

Yeah, the campaign gradually introduced concepts to you as it goes on.