* maintenance on ships getting high as my fleet gets big

Easily possible, check your expense sheet.

* loss of taxes as population gets put on invasion transports

Also very possible, and one of the main problems I face (since I play with few planets).

* sudden added cost of colony maintenance when I conquer planets

This combined witht eh loss of tax revenue from those who died to take the planet can quickly add up.

* is there some kind of war weariness a la civ that could be dragging me down?

No there isn't.

Also, check the UP resolutions, is there a penalty for civilizations at war (usually 5 or 10%)?

Keep in mind that you also have more money going into your military spending. When at peace you may only have a few planets building ships but when you go to war every available planet starts producing

Also your economy can take a hit when you start producing ships at shipyards. If you have loads of shipyards or a shaky economy don't try to produce ships in massive scale, or not at all.

when you go to war every available planet starts producing

AFAIK, this doesn't happen automatically, but it does seem a very likley player response to AI attacks. It took me quite a few games before I began to ask myself "do I really need to build ships on this planet right now?"

I like having starports on any PQ10 or better world, but you can save money and/or micromanagement time if you let go of the notion that every starport should always be building ships.

Finances is probably the single biggest threat to your empire in this game. You really have to plan ahead.

Look at the game 'chess' where planning ahead is what it's all about, well chess is nothing compared to the planning ahead needed for finances in this game.

By the time you feel the effects of poor financial planning in your game... it's all over, your screwed! The economy will invert itself and spiral down and there aint nothing you can do except sit back and wait to be conquored.

So you think you have a nice fleet? not for long, finances are comming mmmwmwwaaahh

My econ suffers also, so I:

1. Don't start a war unless I've built up an ample "war chest" of funds. If most of my planets are at max pop (and they usually are) I'll raise taxes - temporarily - and maximize my treasury as best I can prior to attacking.

of course, so far I've managed to select when I want to go to war.

This has also got me thinking twice about conquering minor planets nearby or within my influence; not only can they trade me tech for a good portion of the game, but in wartime, if I can't trade with any major power, I can still trade with them!

2. Have a fleet of freighters ready and new routes mapped out to avoid battlezones. Not always possible given logistics (not the tech, the galactic powers layout) and if the power(s) you face are aligned.

3. Spy out the enemy's galactic resource mining ops, especially the green ones that cough up cash. Once you're at war, have a constructor ready, destroy them, claim them, and guard them. Even if you make peace later,they remain yours (unless demanded during peace negotiations - unlikely) and you're in even better shape financially.

4. In wartime or peace, use the Civilization manager screen to view stats for all your colonies, and see which ones are not producing the good $$$. Adjust their improvements (such as adding trade buildings) or production focus to try to get better cash flow from them. This screen is handy for viewing approval percentages all at once, too, as well as what each colony is producing.

Of course, if you're the type that likes "theme" planets, like a planet full of just Factories, you'll either have to devote a planet to trade, or at least distribute the financial load amongst other colonies so they'll make up for your producer one.

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One question I'll pose is: which, if any, planetary "special" squares benefit from placing a trade building on them? Is it the Cultural one?

Hi folks, I'm new to the game (just finished my fourth or fifth time through). I've noticed that my economy tends to go into a tailspin during wartime, usually crashing me to zero spending at exactly the worst time. Any suggestions on how to avoid this? I'm not entirely sure what the problem is. Some possibilities that have occured to me: * maintenance on ships getting high as my fleet gets big * loss of taxes as population gets put on invasion transports * sudden added cost of colony maintenance when I conquer planets * is there some kind of war weariness a la civ that could be dragging me down? Thanks for any advice.

The only 'costs' that doesn't show up in the Domestic Tab is the population losses, population moved to transports, and the cost of absorbing the AI's colonies. I find the last two run your income into the ground, mainly because I end up moving 10-20% of my population onto transports just before a war and I don't run a race with /any/ Econ bonuses so every colony I take is negative until I rebuild the buildings. Take 20 planets in a week and suddenly, I've got 1000 BC or more added to my maintenance with less than half of that in income. After a month, I'll be going from positive 1500 BC or so to -3000. And that's not even counting population losses, just colony maintence =0

Wartime expences can be devastating, no doubt about that. There are things you can do to counter each of your concerns.

1>* maintenance on ships getting high as my fleet gets big 2>* loss of taxes as population gets put on invasion transports 3>* sudden added cost of colony maintenance when I conquer planets

1> Watch out for excessive defenders. During peace time, of course you want some ships orbiting, as the bump you get in attack value can avert a war (until your ready). IMO a good design for this purpose is your fodder ships. These are weapon only stat boosters that have the same speed as the capital ships. I like the tiny hull for this purpose. Enough room for 2 engines and enough weapons to keep it on the front line when you fleet them. Added bonus is they are easily replaced by the planet your pulling them off of. If you can, make them slightly more expensive than your primary constructor design (war time switch-overs made easy effective).

2> Plan you wars. I make two transport designs. One is a tiny hull hopper (1 adv trp, rest engines) and one 3-4k carrier. Use these together when invading. Prior to starting a war, make sure you have at least half of the ships you will need already built, filled, and NOT in orbit (OWP: off world population). This is so your initial thrust does not decimate your empire population.
2b> Of course this tactic assumes you have paid attention to your approval rating. (I dissent, 2 VRCs per farm is a minimum, 3 if the farm is on a bonus.) Any continued problems with morale can be dealt with using carriers. The extra VRC allows much better growth and taxes.

3> In conjunction with 2b, this will have minimal impact, as you re-plan the lay of the land on your new planets.

If your economy is still suffering after your initial military production switches, as the minor producers complete their constructor/fodder, shut down military and switch to tech. Even if your going from 80MP to 5RP. Spread that drop out amongst a number of planets and the savings add up. With the industrial capacity slider being your guide, manage the increases back to 100% capacity as your able to shut down the minors. Shutting down a major MP producer can provide additional cusion while you deal with the minors. The other reason for MP shut down is ANYTHING on the SP build list.

I also second the suggestions here. Everyone takes an econ hit during wartime, but it is possible to minimize it. I usually try to plan my wars right down to the new influence borders I expect to use. Extensive spying on the planets you intend to take not only reveals planetary defenders, but also planetary spending. New planetary spendings should never come as a surprise to your economy.

The Aphrodesiac Trade Good also helps immensely, allowing you to regrow your tax base quickly after decimation from war.

If you're spending too much, it's absoutely not a problem to simply cut back the spending. Demolish or retool buildings and planets that are giving you problems. Keep production planets near the front, econ centers in the back. You can always buy ships from low manufacturing planets. Losing your economic base during war can be devastating.

Im playing a game now which realy shows the economic stress in wartime.

I went from making over +5000bc a turn to -1000bc a turn after war was declared before anything had even happened yet!

I lost all my trade due to a big AI alliance (five races). but trade was only accounting for 3000bc before the war anyway, so i still don't know where the other 3000bc dissapeared to?

I've found that the single bigest hit to economy during wartime is change in spending. If the Social and Military Production is idle on a planet, little of the revenue being produced is being spent and maintenance is static. When you change that planet to build something, some portion of the revenue is spent wich lowers how much is going into the coffers.

Galen

I don't usually take a big hit during war. I've gone all game being at war and didn't really care. What will wreck your economy, though, is if you're making massive invasions and you haven't researched all the soldiering techs. That'll burn population like mad.

True, so when most of my newly conquored planets finished building stock markets, why did my income still not bounce back?? Those new stock market planets weren't even building ships, and had between 14 and 20 billion citizens!



good advice, i usually send transports to all my planets just as a matter of course. then as soon as any planet reaches 20 billion, i launch it and send it to a rally point where it then sits and waits for a future war.