why is building so expensive?

[zoleeeee28]

Hi

I started as a small nation, my balance is at about 7-800+, but when i add just one building to build, am at -2.5k a week, and it lasts 40-50 weeks to finish. Which means one building costs about 100-125k, and my credit limit is at about 300k, so basically building 3 buildings brings my nation almost close to bankruptcy.
How is it possible to improve the economy like that?
i need to wait then literally years until i can build one more building. Why is that so unrealistic? Or am i doing something wrong?

[DireStrait727]

make sure you build up cheaper. you can do that in investing in tooling workshops, wood camps etc. so the raw materials are cheaper.
and there is the investment pool. have an eye on that. if you have a lot of pounds in that pool build something the pool will pay for (hover over to see what it is, propably mines and workshops)

[teron]

Building costs are split between two things: Labour which you are always paying for, and the materials used in the construction which is based on the market prices of the materials.

So if you are wood frame buildings, and wood and cloth are expensive goods you want to build up your wood and cloth industries.
Alternatively, if you have a ton of cotton plantations but not yet researched cotton gin, do that since it increases your cloth production.
Or if you have tools available, flip any logging camps from the basic PM to saw mills. Since it will take the output from 30 --> 60 at the cost of 5 tools per logging camp. Plus give you capitalists.

Building will get cheaper once you get off traditionalism due to the investment pool since then aristocrat and capitalists will contribute money to it based on laws. Which can then be used to fund construction of different buildings based on the law types.

[Dray Prescot]

Look at what are the most expensive goods being used in construction projects (by using the tooltip, and lower the price of those goods by increasing your supply of those goods. Once you make the very early changeover to Iron Frame buildings, Iron and (soft) Lumber are normally your cost drivers for construction, so build more Iron Mines and Logging Camps. A lot depends on Trade with your neighboring countries, for the supply/price of those goods. Maybe your Trade partners are driving up the price of construction materials.

Are you using Tariffs and Consumption Taxes to raise income? More income means you can build faster.

Next learn how to use the Investment Pool by increasing the amounts being contributed to it. In your case probably by Aristocrats or Landowners.

Finally try playing a larger country that can support larger and faster growth.
Sweden in the 1st Tutorial, is a good choice to learn how the economy and construction sector work, as well as basic trade. Sweden starts with an extra Construction Sector to support a build capacity of 10, so it takes 15 weeks to build one basic rural building. Sweden can support building 1 or 2 more Construction Sectors to push the rate up to 15 (takes 10 weeks to build one basic building) or 20 (takes 7 1/2 weeks to build one basic building).

The tutorial tasks for Sweden are designed to help you learn how to play the economic side of the game.

You also need to look at what Laws, particuarly Economic Laws you are using and learn how to use the various Interest Groups to your best advantage.

[kgkong]

I don't build construction sectors as small nations until I have an economy that can support the overhead to run the construction sectors.
With cheap goods I'm paying 1.55k with relatively okay priced goods, it's 2.2k and with expensive goods it's 3 to 4k per construction level.

The whole "spam construction sector strategy" doesn't work anywhere like it does for larger nations because you 1) lack the resources and 2) lack the economic backbone.

So without anything increasing the GDP, who would really think it's a good idea to build a stack of construction sectors when your base starting income is 300? Gotta have a way to pay for this stuff before you do it or else you're spiralling into permanent bankruptcy.

[Supply Slut]

In addition to what others have said, if your nation is that small you might also consider what it is your building. Different buildings have different construction costs (they all use the same resources to be constructed but have different base construction costs).

A plantation or logging camp is going to cost 150 construction points. A mine is going to run twice that at 300. And finally a workshop/factory is going to run you 450 construction points or more, depending on exactly what you build.

For this reason it often makes sense to build some agricultural and resource buildings first - you can build 2 plantations and a logging camp in the time and for the cost of 1 factory building. So you’re employing far more people, more quickly that way, and for less money. Those employed there will then contribute to your tax base - thus allowing you to shoulder more construction expenses going forward. If you can also at the same time reduce the cost of your construction goods, this will happen even faster, to the point where you may end up adding another construction sector.

Let’s say you are using the basic construction method. You need wood and fabric to be cheap. Build a logging camp, then either a cotton plantation or livestock farm (cotton produces more fabric, but livestock is fine too). For 300 construction you now built out supply of your important construction goods, hopefully helping push their price down. At the same time you employed thousands of your population who will now have a higher standard of living and pay a lot more taxes.

[D34DLY]

make weaker countries into puppets (do not "conquer state"). This will supply a steady income.

when France or Britain join a war on the opposing side, get war reparations on them. If you win (which can be done playing small countries), you get a lot of income for 5 years.

[Wilfer88]

It really depend of what country you chose. The game will not hold your hand. You need to know what you have and what you want. More than only knowing maths, you need to know economy of nations. You need to invest to grow.
Its mostly about getting iron and wood as many of here say. If you cant do that, then build what can be sold on a market at a profit so you can trade for iron and wood.

[Dray Prescot]

Even building just 1 Construction Sector, will make a big difference in building times when you are very small.
Have you tried playing Sweden? It is only 4 States, with another 3 in Norway under a personal Union with Sweden's King.
It is a lot easier to learn with Sweden than a really small country. It has a long list of tasks to guide you through the early stages of the game. It is close enough to trade easily with the major European Countries, but out of the line of the possible Wars.

[shiggies713]

Haiti is a great nation to learn how to balance this. Do things wrong it might be 1860 before you can afford a single construction site, do things right and you can afford an iron one 5 weeks into a game.

[kgkong]

Originally posted by shiggies713:

Haiti is a great nation to learn how to balance this. Do things wrong it might be 1860 before you can afford a single construction site, do things right and you can afford an iron one 5 weeks into a game.

I can do it in 5 years but not 5 weeks XD

[Supply Slut]

Originally posted by KingGorillaKong:

Originally posted by shiggies713:

Haiti is a great nation to learn how to balance this. Do things wrong it might be 1860 before you can afford a single construction site, do things right and you can afford an iron one 5 weeks into a game.

I can do it in 5 years but not 5 weeks XD

Just join Britain as a protectorate - bam, you can do iron building sector, might be running a deficit but it’s usually worth it for a bit.

[zoleeeee28]

Thanks for the answers, actually i have built a logging camp, but since it didn't produce enough at first (still need to figure out why), i started to import wood, so my monthly building cost has reduced a lot. I am trying to produce tools also, actually now focusing on tools, wood and iron to accelerate the building process and make it cheaper (fortunately i have iron mines) I will also try to focus on the investment pool too, which is currently about 50 a week lol
There are still too many products i need to import (mostly to make the most important goods for the pops cheaper, so their living standards rate started to grow), so my next goal is to build up an industry based on the resources i have within my country. Am playing with Oman actually. Since in Vicky 2 Portugal always attacked me and captured Zanzibar, i started to improve my relation with them. I need also to research the law and political system of the game, since there is a mess in my head right now lol

I played my first game with Sweden, I have opened a topic for it with the title "result of the first game", it didn’t go that well lol

[teron]

Originally posted by zoleeeee28:

Thanks for the answers, actually i have built a logging camp, but since it didn't produce enough at first (still need to figure out why), i started to import wood, so my monthly building cost has reduced a lot.

Buildings take a bit to scale up by hiring people. So it can take a few weeks to get up to speed. Worse if it is a low literacy state that lacks pops qualified for the ownership positions (aristocrats and capitalists).

Keep in mind if you are not to use some of those tools for sawmills, since that will drastically increase your wood output and give you more capitalists.

[zoleeeee28]

Looks like this game is over again, actually i was playing Oman. Everything went well, i improved the economy slowly, when suddenly something happened, and i got shortage of many goods, my balance went from +5k to -13k, many trade routes have been cancelled, GDP has been decreased by 70%. i had no idea, what happened so suddenly. Then i have seen the event, that Zanzibar has gained independence, i could not do anything against it, it was my capital region actually :(

[shiggies713]

Originally posted by Supply Slut:

Originally posted by KingGorillaKong:

I can do it in 5 years but not 5 weeks XD

Just join Britain as a protectorate - bam, you can do iron building sector, might be running a deficit but it’s usually worth it for a bit.

yup, actually if you risk it and cancel payments to France as soon as GB accepts protectorate, then switch all ports to non cargo to save extra money and spam hardwood lumber mills and food factories you won't even be in a deficit for long. I can usually even put taxes down to normal and be fine.

I've done that and France never declared war one time, another time they did but had no fleets in the caribbean so i won anyways, but occasionally France will just come stomp you and theres nothing you can do. One time Russia joined France and USA joined me and GB and it turned into ww1 in 1840 lol, and i actually defeated a Russian naval invasion and then invaded alaska myself lmao.