Trade vs Technicians

[Acoasma]

Boring Intro

Greetings Space Merchants, Emperors, Seekers of the true faith and genocidal warlords (well actually not, you don't care about trade anyways).

I was pretty hyped by the last couple Dev Diarys. Some really interesting additions and - even more importantly - balance changes are always something that gets me pumped. While I, as probably the vast majority of the player base, do not believe, that Stellaris needs to be perfectly balanced in a way RTS, MOBAs, or other competitive games have to be, I certainly do think that at least a baseline of balance should be achieved, so that every option you have is actually viable and you do not actively sabotage yourself when pursuing it. (sorry for the long-ass sentence. I am german, please forgive me.)

I do like the direction PDX is taking in buffing underused civics and adding more variable tradition trees. While some of the changes might be debatable (Technocracy *cough*), my main takeaway is, that the introduction of the custodian team to take care of existing content might probably be one of the best things, that has ever happened to this game and I hope I am not too early with that assessment.

Anyway, one specific change caught my eye. The mercantile tradition tree. "Oh boy! There is some really good stuff in there", I thought. +1 base trade value for clerks, 20% trade value and ofc 1 merchant for every commercial zone. The last one really got me going and I immediately started theory-crafting some necrophage-shadow-council-merchant empire planning to go with mercantile into the new supremacy tree to just stack as much ruler output as I could while spamming commercial zones. BRILLIANT! ... at least that's what I thought until I got hit with the harsh reality that pop output modifiers do not apply for trade value. What a shame!
That got me thinking. I always knew that trade wasn't really worth it and even with the recent buffs to clerks they were still absolute trash or were they? Time to find out!


Numbers, so many Numbers...but What do they mean?

To get a better understanding of how trade compares to the credits produced by generators we first need to look at all the potential modifiers and ofc the base value of the jobs. I tried to list every possible modifier that I could find, but I am sure I missed some. PLEASE let me know what needs to be added in that case!
Listed below are all those modifiers and the sum of everything you can get, basically the absolute try-hard min-max best case you can achieve with each of those approaches. I didn't include repeatables, because that, well...would make the number infinite, but we will keep that in mind for later. I also disregarded amenities for now, as they are only really important, if you are below the threshold and are also not affected by all the bonuses, so their output becomes more and more negligible the more bonuses you stack. I also disregarded stability bonuses. As they both apply for technician jobs as well as clerks/merchants it shouldn't have too much of an impact. On one hand, they scale better off of the higher base value of technicians, but generally, trade-focused economies tend to have higher stability due to all the amenities. In the end, I figured it would probably be close enough and after all, I don't want to write an academic paper here, but rather get a better understanding of how technicians and clerks/merchants compare to each other and if the new tradition tree will be enough to make trade somewhat competitive.


GENERATOR
Base: 6
Energy Nexus +2 base
+60% eco techs (not inclucding repeatables)
+5% Synthetic Thought Patterns (tech)
+50% Capacity subsidies (edict)
+15% Hegemony at lvl4
+10% Industrial development at lvl4 (galactic resolution)
+15% Ingenious (trait)
+25% Generator World (planet designation)
+5%/(10% if slave) Workplace Motivators (tradition, domination tree)
+10%/(20% if slave) extended shifts (edict)
+10% fanatic Authoritarian (ethic)
+2% per govorner level
+10% ironfist (governor trait, if slave)
+5% Crystal Focus (empire modifier)
+5% enhanced Solar Power (empire modifire)
+5% Anthem of Aurora (empire modifier)

Σ = 250% (synth/nanite governor bonus noit included


TRADE
Base: Clerk 4
Trickle Up economics +1 base to clerks (mercantile traditions)

+25% Thrifty (trait)
+20% Fanatic Xenophile (ethic)
+10% Free Traders (civic, mega corp only)
+10% Investor (ruler trait)
+10% mercantile diplomatic stance
+20% Galactic Stock Exchange (building)
+20% Urban World (planet designation)
+5% Import/Export Agenda
+25% Galactic Commerce Resolution at lvl 5
+10% enclave trader (Governor trait)

Mercantile Traditions tree (not implemented yet)
+1 merchant for commercial zones
+10% Marketplace of better ideas
+10% finisher

Trade League
+20%/30%(if president) Trade League at level 5
+50% Trade league trade policy
Σ = 255 %


OBSERVATIONS

Stand Out Modifiers Generator:
+2 base prod from energy nexus (tech)
+60% Eco Techs
+50% Capacity subsidies (edict)

output per technician 28c


Stand Out Modifiers Trade:

Mercantile Traditions
Trickle Up economics +1 base to clerks
+1 merchant for commercial zones
+20%

Trade League
+50% trade policy
+20%/30%(if president) Trade League at level 5

output per clerk 17,75c
output per merchant 42,6c
avg output with 3:1 clerk/merchant ratio 24c


First of all, we can clearly see that technicians in this best-case scenario are far more productive than clerks as they produce roughly 64% more resources per pop. We also can see that the bonus percentage is nearly equal, but due to the higher base value of technician jobs, it just scales better and makes them increasingly more effective.
On the other hand, it also is the case, that merchants are again roughly 65% better than technicians, due to their higher base value, which makes sense as we are comparing a worker against a ruler job here. With the new perk, that gives access to way more merchant jobs than you would usually have, I assume that you might realistically be able to achieve a clerk to merchant ratio of 3:1, as right now you will rarely hit the planet pop cap. with that ratio, your avg output per pop is actually fairly close to the output of technicians. Considering the fact, that clerks and merchants also produce amenities this feels like a fairly equal production value, which is nice and I honestly didn't expect to be the case. Ofc we also have to keep in mind, that repeatable are not included here and will inevitably lead to technician jobs out scaling any trade mid to late game.

Secondly, we can also see that the largest bonuses for trade are locked behind traditions, while the most important bonuses for technicians are locked behind technologies and you also have to use an edict slot, which I think is a nice design choice as it gives variety.

Mechanical Differences
After this basic analysis of the relevant modifiers and the comparison of the productivity of both options, we can now have a look into the mechanics of both systems and the investments that go along with either having a production or a trade focussed economy. I will not include any numbers here, as it is rather hard to quantify how big the investment you have to make exactly is, but I do believe, that outlining the principles will be enough to come to a conclusion here. I almost feel as if I can spare this part out, because it is so obvious, so I will cut it short.

If you want to focus your economy on technicians then you simply research the relevant eco techs, which doesn't come with big opportunity cost, as it is in the physics tree which tends to have the least important techs overall. then you enact the capacity subsidies, plop down an energy nexus on your designated generator world and you are set. that's really all you have to do to be somewhat efficient, everything else surely is nice to have, but not even close to the impact this simple setup will have. Of course this comes with the "downside" of having to have a planet with let's say 6+ energy deposits (preferably more), but in the vast majority of cases that isn't an issue. To make things even more convenient a lot of the minor worker output bonuses also apply to your mineral and food output as well.

If you want to focus your empire on trade, however, there is a little more to take into account. First of all to gain access to the most powerful bonuses you need to complete 1 Tradition tree and then either find some spacefaring merchants that wanted to found a trade league and let you in, which is a big gamble and happens rarely or you have to pick either the merchant guilds civic or be a megacorp, open up another tradition and found one yourself.
As shown above, you also will need to build quite a few commercial zones to get access to enough merchant jobs to compete with technicians, costing you valuable building slots (you know those things, where you usually build labs).
But things don't stop here. After you put in all the effort to make your trade economy somewhat competitive all this trade value needs to be collected, meaning you either need starbases on top of your trade centers or at least in the proximity of them and build some trade hubs on them. Last but not least all the trade value then needs to find its way to your capital and thereby needs to be protected. You either lineup starbases all along the way, build a ♥♥♥♥♥♥♥ of gateways (and pray your CPU can handle it), or set a few pirate hunter fleets on patrol. Oh yeah and even if you managed to do all this, your eco will also be A LOT more susceptible to attacks, as even minor systems taken by the enemy can easily cut off trade routes and leaving you in a big deficit.

Don't get me wrong, I think all of those mechanics for trade make sense and I personally think they are immersive, but it is undeniable waaaaay more effort to properly set up a proper trade economy.


Conclusion
Even with the new mercantile tradition, which is a decent buff imo, trade is still underpowered. As shown trade, under ideal circumstances, can somewhat keep up with regular energy production via technicians, however, the Investment you have to make for it is a lot higher. You have to carefully pick your civics and traits at the start, commit to it via tradition trees, which has a very high opportunity cost imo and also somewhat lock yourself in a diplomatic playstyle with the needed trade league to keep up and even with all this set up you only barely break even in terms of productivity at least until repeatables kick in at which point you have no chance to compete with technicians anymore.
Overall I do like the mechanics surrounding trade and I believe that it makes sense, that it is a demanding task to set up a flourishing, intergalactic trade empire compared to simply harvesting energy. However, I do not think the payoff is actually worth all the hassle. Considering the whole setup you need to make it happen trade should be more profitable than technicians if done right. As I see it technicians should be the low effort, reliable way to gather energy credits, while trade should be a high investment, high risk, high reward play. As it stands now this is not the case and if you don't have access to a trade league you might as well not even bother with trade (as most people do right now)

Suggestions
I don't think there is too much to be fixed, as the mechanics themselves are fine imo, just the numbers don't add up in the way they should. I personally would only make 2 small changes.

1st trade needs to be affected by pop output modifiers (I want my necrophage-shadow-council-merchant empire pdx pleeeease)

2nd to remain viable in the later stages of the game there need to be repeatable technologies for trade, that probably should be in the society research. probably haveing 1-2 base technologies followed by a 5% trade value repeatable. the exact numbers are up for debate, but this would be an easy fix to add exactly the modifiers needed to make trade actually worthwhile. if it is just some percentage modifier or another +1 base trade value for clerks, I don't know and I have written enough now to leave it to someone else to figure that out.

[HappySack]

Ok

[Danny]

I would also like to point out that clerks also produce their own amenities.
And even half enough left over to support atleast one other pop.
While if you focuss techjobs you also need to provide them with amenities, which also cost you resources.
And a quarter of your trade value can be turned into consumergoods or unity.

[yuzhonglu]

In summary, and yes I read through your paragraphs, clerks still suck.

[CrUsHeR]

Clerk jobs are filler jobs, think like students who work in a bar before becoming a rocket scientist.

Only reason to have these jobs, is so that your specialist jobs don't constantly shift around when you build new jobs. Example as Void Dwellers you have no clerks in your capital, every time you build a research lab then 1-2 administrators or entertainers become researchers. Giving you negative admin cap or amenities.

But besides the clerk jobs you already get from city districts, you normally have no interest in having these at any point.


The alternative to producing energy from generator districts is to play a Megacorp, stack all the trade bonuses, form a Trade League, and skip the production of energy, consumer goods and unity altogether. Energy is coming in large amounts from branch offices, and cutting down your production chains means you have half your population free to work as metallurgists and researchers.

The performance is at least as good or better than regular empires, but you depend 100% on a friendly ally early in the game, and more targets for branch offices.

Another thing people tend to forget, is that all pops generate trade, based on their living standards. With the Trade League bonus you have more CGs than you'll ever need without even producing it, so giving everyone Utopian living standards makes the thing pay for itself.

[HugsAndSnuggles]

Originally posted by Acoasma:

+25% Thrifty (trait)

This is a separate multiplier, so the result would be:

Originally posted by Acoasma:

Σ = 3.3 *1.25 = 4.125 = 312.5%
this results in ~20.6 clerk output with these modifiers

This still leaves out price of amenities, which is required for proper efficiency comparison: not like technicians gets those for free (and if stability is supposed to be high, it should be more than 1 per free pop), decreasing their potential output (and if neither are slaves, this also adds CG to the mix).

[Sabaithal]

Nice testing. Though I think technicians are supposed to be better at generating energy compared to clerks, mainly because thats the only thing they can do.

Clerks however generate trade, which can be converted into pure energy, but it also has other uses as well. It makes sense for it not to be as powerful as techs, or nobody would ever bother with technicians.

[SoloQuieroJugarDeChill]

Ok, I'll be frank, i skimmed through the text, it was way too much.

The tradition change is nice, but they are taking away from some to give to anothers, and they are nerfing some straight into the "never ever pick" category (i e: domination), so it's probably the worst way they could go about that.


The problem with trade value, in my opinion, is that you simply never have enough pops to be worth working those jobs. If the whole empire cap wasn't a thing, then maybe yeah.

You can still sort of role-play and get away with trade, up to a certain point.

Buy yeah. Those clerks could be in a generator world making way more, or in an industry world, or in a mining world, etc.

If amenities weren't also mostly useless in a surplus, then maybe they would be less bad.

But they could never be equal to technicians because then why would you need two categories in the first place.