The Death of Morale Buildings

Alright. Well, I'm sure many of you are brilliant players who could leave me in the dust, so congratulations if you have a better strategy. However, I recently finally figured out how to work through the entire economy model thanks to work by Mumblefratz and Iztok. Going through the numbers it seemed like morale buildings just weren't worth it, so I thought I would play a game without morale buildings as the Krynn and see how I did.

I'm still not done, but the game is going GREAT. I am at around March of 2228 with 40ish colonies on a small map. My empire morale is already over +250%, and there is still one morale resource I haven't managed to capture. Every world is set for a population of 20 (6+7+7) or 19 (12+7), and my tax rate is at 69%. I'm raking in the money, and my approval is just over 60% empire wide thanks to higher morale on my 19b planets and my homeworld. This is just ancedotal evidence however, and I was thinking about it while at work today. The numbers for morale buildings just don't add up.

From a broad theoretical level, of course, morale buildings already have a problem. With low population numbers, they are very useful but unneccessary, so why build them? With higher population numbers you want them, but they are much less useful and every single one takes a tile. In theory I suppose they would be good in a middle ground situation, with a medium population taking up one tile.

But then I broke down the numbers. Thing is, every stock market that you can place is the same as a 2.5% increase in your tax rate. So, to justify a morale building you need the tax rate penalty for a 3% increase to be smaller than the bonus a single morale building provides. And THEN I started to go through the numbers in my head.

Say you run at a 79% tax rate. This is a penalty of -122. But to increase to an 82% tax rate jumps you to around a -158. That means I need to make up 36 points in morale on one tile to justify a morale building. Even a VR center can't do this for populations over 9b.

So you say, they are worthwhile for lower tax rates. Really? OK, say I run at a 69% tax rate. To jump up three percent to a 72% tax rate I need to get 15 points out of a morale building. And look, at 20b a VR center provides a 16% bonus, so building two farms and one morale building lets me set a 72% rate and make more money than two farms, a SM and a 69% tax rate.

But look closer at the numbers. Why are you at a 69% tax rate? Assuming (and I am making this assumption) you can get a native morale bonus of 100%, when are you ever at lower than a 79% rate? At 13b with no morale structures you are operating at 58ish percent morale with a 79% rate. All you need is to be over 40%, cranking up your morale for one week for government votes and offensive war declarations. At 16b you are at 43% with no morale buildings and a 79% rate. Still pretty good, and you are avoiding any possible revolts. Only at 17b and higher does it start to become necessary to move off of the 79% rate, and even then only by a point or two per billion population. And at 17b-20b, two morale buildings will easily take you from a 69% to a 79% tax rate. This is about the only scenario (i.e. range of 17b-20b) where morale buildings work, because you are trading +5% net bonus from two stock markets for +10% net bonus by being able to increase empire wide morale to 79%.

And morale bonus tiles don't help, because you can't set a seperate tax rate for each planet. Unless EVERY colony in my empire had a morale improvement tile, I can't figure that in to what my average planet uses. This is especially true if you are planning on managing 300+ colonies in your game. Micromanagement has to take a back seat at that level, even if you lose (a little) effectiveness. Or I suppose maybe you have endless amounts of time, I don't.

All this means is that overall empire morale bonus dictates population size much more than planet design and morale buildings. Currently, I would probably shoot for just 13b with no morale buildings with Yor, Torians, Terrans, Korx, Thalans and Custom races, 16b with no morale buildings for Drath, Drengin, Altarian, Arcean, Iconian and Korath, and 18b-20b with Krynn. And... it works! I'm testing it now, which was what my opening story was all about.

I still will always research the entertainment line, and early try to get to Zero G, because that gives you an empire bonus of +25, and ultra spices (so +40) and gravity accelerators. But after crunching the numbers I'm not going to be playing with morale buildings anymore. They don't have enough effect, and they take precious tiles, better used on stock markets. Or better used on anything that will actually have an impact on your empire's performance. I had just always used them, because if "felt" right, like I should. The numbers don't lie, however.

Just my choice. Please, no angry emails/responses about how ignorant I am and how your strategy that includes morale buildings is so obviously superior. Play how you like. I'm just describing how I am playing from now on.