Struggling with the economy

[StormRangerX]

I've been playing the campaign on the base difficulty and it's been really kicking my ass. For a while I thought I was figuring out what I was doing and making a decent profit, then as I continued to grow and started getting into artisan pops, my maintenance costs just skyrocketed and I had a 1k+ deficit. I kinda started to bring it back down but then all of a sudden a beer festival started which from the looks of it completely altered my productivity and worker requirements, so now I'm over 5k in profits and have a complete excess of workers. I'm still not really sure what was causing my deficit in the first place and now I'm pretty stressed that once the festival ends my workplaces are going to be wildly understaffed and my deficit is gonna come back with a vengeance. How exactly am I meant to be consistently profitable?

[ElPrezCBF]

Originally posted by StormRangerX:

Yeah looks like there's a lot more complicated stuff going on that the campaign "tutorial" stuff really doesn't cover. Things are making a lot more sense now that I can see the statistics of supply and demand.

There are many mechanics but the basics aren't hard to get and that's often all you need to get a decent economy running unless you get caught up in a massive war or something. Basically, you need to ensure all your pop needs are FULLY met at all times or they'll start to leave and pull down your income. Consumption escalates with each pop tier but each alternate tier also no longer consumes necessities needed by the preceding alternate tier, e.g. artisans don't consume work clothes. Knowing this allows you to avoid overbuilding certain production facilities and therefore unnecessary upkeep.

2 other things also worth keeping in mind:
1. Also avoid overbuilding by noting production ratios (time needed to produce when mousing over each building icon) e.g. 1 clay pit can provide for 2 brick factories.
2. Occasionally check your trade screen to see how long it takes for your ships to transport goods between islands. Let's say you're not producing sausages on an island and transporting them instead from another. Your blue sausage consumption bar for the island is 2, which I understand to mean 2 are consumed every minute. If transporting sausages from the production island takes 5 minutes, that means you need to transport at least 10 sausages to meet the island's needs while also considering the other island's sausage needs (you can set a minimum warehouse level for any item). Build production facilities accordingly with this in mind.

Never underestimate the importance of sound resource management. By setting up proper trade routes, planning which islands should specialize in producing what and just making slight adjustments, I was able to quickly recover from a sausage deficit on my main island to push my income from about +100 to over +2000 very quickly. That said, it's often better to avoid a deficit to begin with but I was too lazy to check my main island frequently once I expanded into other regions.

[Whispdragoon62]

Originally posted by ElPrezCBF:

Originally posted by StormRangerX:

Yeah looks like there's a lot more complicated stuff going on that the campaign "tutorial" stuff really doesn't cover. Things are making a lot more sense now that I can see the statistics of supply and demand.

There are many mechanics but the basics aren't hard to get and that's often all you need to get a decent economy running unless you get caught up in a massive war or something. Basically, you need to ensure all your pop needs are FULLY met at all times or they'll start to leave and pull down your income. Consumption escalates with each pop tier but each alternate tier also no longer consumes necessities needed by the preceding alternate tier, e.g. artisans don't consume work clothes. Knowing this allows you to avoid overbuilding certain production facilities and therefore unnecessary upkeep.

2 other things also worth keeping in mind:
1. Also avoid overbuilding by noting production ratios (time needed to produce when mousing over each building icon) e.g. 1 clay pit can provide for 2 brick factories.
2. Occasionally check your trade screen to see how long it takes for your ships to transport goods between islands. Let's say you're not producing sausages on an island and transporting them instead from another. Your blue sausage consumption bar for the island is 2, which I understand to mean 2 are consumed every minute. If transporting sausages from the production island takes 5 minutes, that means you need to transport at least 10 sausages to meet the island's needs while also considering the other island's sausage needs (you can set a minimum warehouse level for any item). Build production facilities accordingly with this in mind.

Never underestimate the importance of sound resource management. By setting up proper trade routes, planning which islands should specialize in producing what and just making slight adjustments, I was able to quickly recover from a sausage deficit on my main island to push my income from about +100 to over +2000 very quickly. That said, it's often better to avoid a deficit to begin with but I was too lazy to check my main island frequently once I expanded into other regions.

#Greatsausageshortageof1800 #nevertakesausageforgranted

[Rosefall]

Originally posted by StormRangerX:

Thanks for the advice. Haven't been having that problem with Beryl yet but as for pops, I thought things were going well but its like as soon as I began expanding more and converting workers into artisans my maintenance costs went way up after like the first window factory.

The biggest error youo can make is making a new production chain too early. For exemple, you don't need to do Iron before artisan, just buy the iron from Archie (the iroon chain is very very expensive). Also, always take a look to the production panel to not "overproduce" (if you do, you will have issues immediatly). Another exemple ; let's take the bread chain : you don't need the complete chain right away (2 farms, 1 floor mill and 2 bakeries), just do light at the beginning (1 farm, 1 floor mill, 1 bakery), and adjust this later.

Last tip, you can increase the productivity of certain goods using the population happiness, do it :) I always do +50% on either costly or space-eater productions (potatoes, shnapps, pigs, clothes...) without any issues. Try to stay above the 10 happiness average mark.

[ElPrezCBF]

It's possible to do the iron chain before artisans while having a decent economy (around +500) if you have set up 2 other islands with beer provided to at least your main island and the other 2 have all/most of their worker needs met. Setting up beer is itself expensive but the income you get from providing beer to each new residence is huge. As long as you watch your production bars to ensure they're not overtaken by consumption, you can upgrade your peasants to (drunk lol) workers almost at will to keep your income positive.

[Rosefall]

To know if a production chain is worth it, it's pretty simple. Add up the maintenance cost of each building you need for the chain. Get the +income value per house you will get with the specific good.

Divide the first by the second, the result is the number of houses of the concerned tier you need for the chain to be beneficial. A lot of people don't know that, and start making very expensive goods before reaching the total number of houses needed to be somewhat profitable.

For exemple, with fake / wrong numbers :
Let's say making BEER cost you a total maintenance of 400 (sum of the maintenance of the 3 buildings).
Let's say giving BEER to your workers gives you +12 per house.
Just do 400 / 12 = 33.3. So you need at least 34 houses of workers for the production chain to be profitable. Again, numbers are wrong, use the in-game numbers.

So don't try to do some productions chains BEFORE they get profitable. So much people go for very expensive stuff, mostly at the start of the engineers phase, and go bankroute. The funny thing is the pocketwatch production, you need at least 80+ engineers houses before you can earn money with them, so be aware. Also, if you follow this very simple rule, luxury goods are not even needed in the game to get a positive income (beer, shnapps, and so on, are just an added bonus).

[ElPrezCBF]

I hate micromanaging costs to that extent. Basically, just play the game the way it suits you. The general rule is to keep your pops well supplied and focus beer on your main island early on instead of all islands immediately and you should be fine.

[Dead&Divine]

Remember every building has an upkeep cost. Make sure you’re not overproducing. You can press control+q to see your production vs demand. I find that helped me a lot to get into the 20k plus revenue per min

[BigChinJinn]

It's taken a couple of games for me but I find selling Shooners early game helps offset the early game slog of barely profiting/bankruptcy looming. Just try to expand your inhabitants along with any new production chains you start, put down a furnace and steel mill? Add a few more blocks of residents and upgrade a couple you have around. Once you get to the new world and are able to, sell the base airship, they sell for 600k a pop and you'll be a millionaire in no time. You can do that until you balance everything out and just keep ballin. Much love

[Whispdragoon62]

Please help my economy is starving!

Supplying goods: $4000 income
Ships-of-the-line: -$16,000

What do I do to fix it!?!?

[Dead&Divine]

Originally posted by Whispdragoon62:

Please help my economy is starving!

Supplying goods: $4000 income
Ships-of-the-line: -$16,000

What do I do to fix it!?!?

In this game, population = money. As long as you can provide all of their needs and keep them happy. Each resident has to buy their goods, in turn making you $. Press control+q to see supply versus market demand. Also check your market to see that you have enough goods to sell to your residents, basically the more people you have paying for their needs or wants makes you money. Ships of line are not necessary unless you really want to kill pirates but it’s easier to pay them off on the diplomacy tab. I would scrap the ships until you can afford having them. Once you hit engineers you should be able to hit like 20k revenue as long as you have all of their needs fulfilled.

[Tankfriend]

Originally posted by Whispdragoon62:

Please help my economy is starving!

Supplying goods: $4000 income
Ships-of-the-line: -$16,000

What do I do to fix it!?!?

Well, you have obviously expanded your fleet too far so your economy can no longer afford it.
Either you increase your income, or you get rid of your ships. You can lose them in combat, or you can move them to Archibald Blake's harbor and sell them.