Seeking economic strategy advice

[mastrude]

I am an experienced player of the earlier Anno games, but with 2070 I've had problems, seemingly no matter how carefully I play. In 2070 I’ve played twice now on the same map and in each case, when I started to develop a tech island I started losing money. I’m thinking that maybe the tech civilization is inherently a money loser, and that you need a larger community of ecos to support the loss. Can anyone tell me whether this is true?

Another question relates to population class levels. In previous games when you had build the infrastructure to support classes 3 and 4 population, adding population provided more income. Your economy became much more vulnerable, with production problems escalating much more quickly, but adding a class 3 pop provided overall more revenue than a class 1 or 2. Is this still true?

So should I build as large an eco population as possible, and raise the population level as high as possible, before adding the tech community? That’s the overall question of economic strategy in the game.

[Alice]

normally,you will need at least 2k balance to support you to unlock tech faction. on eco tier3,2k balance need at least 140 houses, or you keep building tier1 houses on other islands.
usually i unlock tech after tier4, after settling the camera route,i got credits and balance,this will support me to buy carbon for futher tech developments.

[Alice]

tech requires enormous amount of credits and material, it is vulnerable to unlock tech within 1000balance, a lab cost 5000 10carbons, as ecos, buy carbons from devi is the best option. or i can unlock tyc after tier4.
normally, i reach tier4 in1.30-1.50hrs,if i play with keto, i will buy carbons and needs to unlock researchers to build 7firebirds,after that,i wont supply tech people until keto is defeated.

[Eternal Wait]

In previous games it was easy to make positive balance from taxes. In 2070 class 1 and 2 populations do not pay you much so it is better to start trading as early as possible. Find the nearest NPC and start a ship route to sell the extra products in your warehouse. In previous games doing this will make the ship take the entire product in your warehouse and sell it and the population will go mad needing that product. Now, you can set a minimum limit in the warehouse (say 25 tons for example) this amount will not be loaded into ships. This makes the ship pick anything over 25 tons and sell it.

I usually start by having 6 Fishery and 6 Tea. Create my first route and name it “Money” and start selling fish and tea to the nearest NPC. As I progress I will over produce Communicators and start selling them. This usually covers lots of expenses.

Higher class population still pay you more this is noticeable when you reach class 3 and 4 and they pay you more when you satisfy their needs.

I think the economic strategy here is to think about trading and not just rely on population taxes at least in the early game.

[FluffyNo3]

The Techs don't start to make you money until you reach Geniuses

[mastrude]

These are all good points. Thank you very much, the three of you!

If I understand what you guys said, then these are true:

- Techs are money-losers until genius level. You have to be ready to subsidize them for a long time with a big eco (or tycoon) base.

- Eco levels 3 and 4 are worth developing, financially, even though they make your economy more vulnerable to events.

- I should trade. I was reluctant to start doing this because it’s work to tell how much it really costs to manufacture goods. After all, if you’re taking a loss on each unit sold, you can’t “make up the deficit on volume”. :) In previous games I think some goods sold at a net loss, like tools.

- If I understand you, even fish are profitable to sell. I gather communicators are more profitable. Has anyone analyzed the margin of profit on each type of goods?

- Is there a way to play the NPCs to get the best price for goods? Is there a way to use politics to raise margins? Are “duties” worthwhile?

[FluffyNo3]

I cannot stress enough how awesome selling off your excess top tier goods are. NPC's will give you tonnes of money for them
Duties are not worth while, there are far better items you can put in your warehouse

[FluffyNo3]

Watch this guy's videos on Anno 2070. He is very good at the game, witty and explains very well how to play well and make lots of money. I highly recommend anyone who plays this game to watch his videos https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCJzNlOaBUctnBpVxdvkZpyw

[Thimple ThighMan]

I should trade. I was reluctant to start doing this because it’s work to tell how much it really costs to manufacture goods. After all, if you’re taking a loss on each unit sold, you can’t “make up the deficit on volume”. :) In previous games I think some goods sold at a net loss, like tools.

I feel that those calculators that work out some sort of net loss/profit for production chains are not very useful in the long run.

If you already have a production chain up and running anyway, then any excess you can sell is gravy. Just make sure not to leave yourself short by setting the sell slider appropriately.

Whilst techs don't generate the most tax income, their goods make great trade items, such as Functional Food, Energy Drinks, Exoskeltons, Bionic Suits etc.

[Eggy]

Early on in my tech strategy Functional Food is my goto. I sometimes have an extra island building excess food just to sell. Socket lots of the +25% production items and you are good to go. Its even better if you have the blue science guy on your map as he buys it all and for more cash than everyone else. Put a crappy small boat on a circular trade route going round and round.

Techs also allow you to build labs. If you have the shares functionality enabled then these can help increase income too. An island with stacks of stuff researched/built and sat in the warehouse earns more income.

[Thimple ThighMan]

Eventually, Techs become more or less essential in a long continuous game for their labs and the ability to refresh your coal, iron, limestone etc. resources.

Yes, you can buy new coal / iron or whatever drill bits / plows from NPCs, but it's a lottery as to what they have, and every click to change items gets progressively more expensive to do. Not very useful if you only have a few thousand credits! :)