Assistance with Economic Strategy?

Trade
Research as far as you can into the trade techs and build trade modules for all your economy starbases. As long as it doesn't crowd into someone else's territory, build more economy starbases with trade modules along your trade routes. Trust me, that alone can build up the treasury. Do enough of this and you won't have to tax your people at all.

Population = tax
Put one (and only one) farm on most of your planets, along with a morale/approval building. 1/1 ratio
Research farming and xeno entertainment techs at the same rate, so that one doesn't get ahead of the other.

1 basic farm + entertainment network
1 xeno farm + multimedia
1 whateverishigherthanxeno farm + extreme stadium
1 advanced farm + zero G statdium or virtual reality or frictionless clothes

That keeps your population growing without making them unhappy. Do NOT build a farm on the farming bonus tiles, because that makes the population grow too fast You'd have to build two approval buildings for every one of those, maybe three.

Star Republic/Democracy/Federation
Empire --> Republic = 25% production and economic boost
Republic --> Democracy = Another 25% boost
Democracy --> Federation = Another 25% boost

I had previously avoided researching governments because I wanted total control. I will try that.

How reliable is trade? If an AI decides to declare war, then my economy could be significantly damaged. Likewise if I decide to declare war. I have typically concentrated on trade only with ethically-aligned races. Mostly, I like to be evil...

Don't forget to set aside larger worlds deep inside your territory that (aside from the initial factories, 1 farm, and 1 or 2 morale buildings) you fill completely to the brim with economic buildings (stock exchanges). These worlds will feed the rest of your empire with money.

As for trade, I don't rely on it very much as well, but if you have a stable military force, trade with a minor race, and try to protect it if they are getting slaughtered by somewhat. This is the only sure way to make money trading. Frankly, I use trade to keep the AI happy with me, so I don't really bother with it. Besides, minor races are hard to keep alive, unless they are stuck deep in the corner of your empire.

I dissagree with 1 basic farm per planet, the only exception is 20+ planets, i had a population of 29,000 and was making 500+ bc per turn on that planet alone with tax rate near 40%

That post really sums most of it up. I'd add that econ buildings built on high population worlds give you quite a boost, and that econ/morale resources in space are king. If you can grab a couple of those, you'll have more money than you know what to do with.

-Dewar

I use to not focus a lot on trade. That was before 1.1 Now it bridges the gaps to get my production capacity back to 100% while my tax base is growing. Adding econ starbases along trade routes to get more cash. Mining the crap out of resources both morale and econ to boost the cash flow.

Getting the bonus to pop growth is a good pick now, haven't tested it much but cutting out the time (or reducing it ) to get planet's max pop is beneficial.

dissagree with 1 basic farm per planet, the only exception is 20+ planets, i had a population of 29,000 and was making 500+ bc per turn on that planet alone with tax rate near 40%

Tax on population is a very deep diminishing return curve, so higher farm is actually bad in terms of economic ability. 2-3 farms means 4-6 morale buildings at least (depending on tax rate). By sticking to 1 farm and 2 morale, you could go to 69% tax, and fill the other slots with stock exchanges, which gives 30% economic boost per slot. Adding further population is only good for the added influence that it provides. Troops you can make by regularly shipping them out into spaceborn transports when the planet fill up.

I would say make your civ econ bonus heavy with some morale bonus. That will give you more money to stay in the game while you figure out what you need to change. Most of my games now I just don't know what to do with money there is too much of it!

so higher farm is actually bad in terms of economic ability.

Sorry, this is totally wrong! Diminishing returns, yes, but not "bad". Morale is not hard to keep up because the negative modifier due to population is capped at -80% which occurs at about 24-25 billion - every population increase after that point is just extra tax payers / troops / influence with no morale implications.

So I have many planets in my current game with maxed out populations, and only 2-3 VR Centres on each - the rest of the tiles going to Stock Markets gives me a surplus income per turn of a little over 100,000bc (fairly advanced game, into the sixth year, 49% tax, 100% approval across the board).

For optimum economic performance, I think building a one to one ratio of farms to stock markets is best, but I really don't need the extra cash that gives.

I begin to go for Sensors techs, and build one or two anomalies-graber (cargo-hull, survey pod, two engines and a lot of range thing). anomalie-bonus aid well.

After that, i try to have a maximum of improvement techs (factory, research, morale and economy first. Farms after).

I try to have a little fleet. Not big because i use all my hammers for colony and constructor ship (Morale ressources are the better, but i grab all i can find).

I have four strategies : planets -11, planets 12-15, planets 16-20, planets 20+

On planets -11, it's one farm, one factory, perhaps one morale building, and research. No fancy (starport, defenses...).

On planets 12-15, two factories, two farms, two or three morale, one culture, research. Defense (soldiers) if front line, starport maybe, a bank.

On planets 16-20, three factories, farms et morale, two culture (three in front line), research, starport, maybe defense, starport, two or three banks.

On planets 20+ : Specialized planets : Lot of factories+starport+hyperion thing, lot of bank/research/culture and a capital, etc.

I never defend with fleets (bad implementation, or create new improvement for enhance defense fleet) : Better 3 fleets with 3 ship each and good engines than one ship on nine planets...

Trade is always good. Make friends and a lot of bc.

Military and economic bases near 20+ planets and clusters. It's really good and worth the price.

I never pay if an AI bark after me. I build ships. I'm the "touch me one time, die one time" type.

I don't go for weapons before the first AI bark : With enhanced improvements, i can search first weapons in one or two week, and AI never attack immediately.

Thanks guys. I'm going to modify my race's abilities and try to put some of this advice into action!

Sorry, this is totally wrong! Diminishing returns, yes, but not "bad". Morale is not hard to keep up because the negative modifier due to population is capped at -80% which occurs at about 24-25 billion - every population increase after that point is just extra tax payers / troops / influence with no morale implications. So I have many planets in my current game with maxed out populations, and only 2-3 VR Centres on each - the rest of the tiles going to Stock Markets gives me a surplus income per turn of a little over 100,000bc (fairly advanced game, into the sixth year, 49% tax, 100% approval across the board). For optimum economic performance, I think building a one to one ratio of farms to stock markets is best, but I really don't need the extra cash that gives.

I did say that it was bad only in an economic standpoint... so why is that wrong? I'm not sure how else to clarify that, but if you still don't believe me, make a save game. Then go to that planet write down the income amount and then buy-upgrade all those farms and VR centers into stock exchanges (since you have the extra cash) so that you only have 1 farm left and 2 VR centers. Then crank up your tax to 69%, and hit the turn button. Check the planet's income now that it has the correct amount of people.

Seriously, it's just a matter of basic math. One farm and an initial colony gives you 13B, add another max farm only gets you to 21B, but requires 2 more morale buildings. The population raised about 60%, assuming that it is a linear growth, (which it isn't, in fact 13B - 21B gives you about 20% more), with that 3 slot, you could have raised your economic production by 90% with 3 stock exchanges. Even worse, by going the over 25B method, you almost can never go to 69% tax, unless you use a 6-7 VR center setup, so you end up using a much lesser tax rate. You do realize that the difference between 69% versus 49% is another 40+% on top of that right?

As for the troops argument, I'll say it again, you can fill transports and sit them in space when your planets nears full. I never ever have to worry about losing tax payers when I invade people, ever. To me, invading planets is like another good 13B tax payers per planet, because I've had way too many sitting in space doing nothing. Even the tiny class 3 planets, I could buy a farm and 2 VR centers, and shove 13B people on to them. They don't grow, and don't build anything, but they sure like giving me free cash.

The only thing that you lose with this strategy is the influence bonus from massive population, and yes, if you want to go for influence victory go right ahead for your 25B+ worlds. But as I said, from an economic standpoint, anything more than 1 farm is a bad deal. Besides, conquering by influence has lost all its charm past the 3rd game. If you thought it was easy before, now it is a cakewalk.

if you're having problem enonomically, put points into morale and economy. More morale = higehr taxes. I was able to run at 100% with 60% tax and still keep my approval in the mid-80s (i had 20% morale ability and 1 morale resource).

You should also try to tech to stock market early on (but not too early) they give amazing bonuses to economy, morale AND influence. Hoever, they're prtty expenisve, so don't be to eager or it'll take you forever to build them. Those techs ae also pretty cheap.

I tend to devote two or three high-class worlds (my capital being one because it naturally has a pop-cap of 10) towards being money planets. I tend to get Xeno Farming and nothing better than that, and I build 2 Xeno Farms on these worlds. After that, it's just about building entertainment and money buildings. I tend to max-out the econ building tech tree modestly early (possibly after the chest-thumping phase where I yoke my tech advantage and murder someone's foolish troops handily), so it's pretty reasonable to do that.

In long games, I find that worlds that I considered unreasonable as econ planets become more reasonable. Not just because I'm neutral and therefore get all Terraform techs (effectively), but also because it's easier to maintain morale on a world in the mid-to-late game than the early game. Stock Markets give a small morale bonus, and your higher-end morale buildings give an even bigger moral bonus. If you've got loads of money already, you can convert a world quickly (to the extent that the population can grow) into a money planet.

And once you have money, you don't need anything else. Manufacturing can be purchased, as can upgrades. I might try a game where it's just about maxing out money (and tech), and using that to purchase production directly. It may cost more, but it happens faster, thus allowing me to react much more rapidly.

Oh, one more thing. Production/research can be aided by starbases: economy (except through trade, but I consider that a waste of time for the most part) can't. So devoting huge numbers of tiles to factories has its disadvantages, compared to putting a +50% production starbase nearby. You still have to pay for the extra production, but you're in the money, so to speak.

Something I have noticed is to be careful not to build too many factories. Remember, they cost you credits every turn, even if their not doing squat. I try to build at least one Econ. center for every factory I construct to offset the increased budget cost. As far as pop. growth goes, one VR/MM center is sufficient per farm (w/o tile impro.). So most of my planets look like this (PQ 12-17):

2-3 Factories
1 Starport
2-3 Reasearch labs
3 Econ. centers
1 farm
1 VR center
1 Ebassy/Cult.Cent

It's a good Idea on large planets that you locate early to leave a tile or two open so that you can throw a project or whatever later , which will go much quicker on a fully developed planet.

If you have a huge planet (19 +) , by all means.. go ahead and add a extra farm and VR. With all the proper econ and stuff, you get plenty of hard working TAX PAYING citizen to help swell the coffers of your treasury . In fact, I usually use the small stuff (PQ 5-9) to set up a farm, vr center, econ. cent , maybe a lab or Factory. They continue to "grow" your economy, with out drawing much in the way of resources.

One note on leaving a tile open on a planet for putting a project down later..
It does not cost anything to delete a tile improvement.
So instead of leaving an empty spot, use up all your improvements and delete them to put others as the game progress or just upgrade.
No need to have an empty tile at all

I really dont think u should put a farm on anything below 9PQ , its worthless, low PQ planets have low pop caps.

You do realize that the difference between 69% versus 49% is another 40+% on top of that right?

Sure do - but if my setup is making me over 100,000bcs a turn anyway, why would I want to? That weekly return proves that using extensive farms is a viable economic strategy, in just the same way that using extensive stock markets is.

You'll notice I agreed that more stock markets will give a higher economic return - so I am not disputing the math, I just disagreed with the statement that said more farms was bad in terms of economic ability, when it clearly is not - it's just a different strategy that can be used very effectively to build a monster economy, and if you do find yourself on the wrong end of a planetary invasion.... I know which population figure I'd prefer to have

economic starbases dont actualy earn you money either they give you more production ability half of which you have to pay for. great for makeing factory world better but not for earning you money. population the economic resource and the marketing chain of improvements are the only way you can earn enough to support your empire (you can demand tribute or find it but thats not very reliable) generaly i just build 2 or 3 stock markets on all the worlds that have a reasonable amount of space except for the capitals (tech. econ. ect.) and then have one or two worlds that i place them on almost all the spaces this gets about 1500 a turn after i stop the social spending. of course i play gigantic galaxies with abundant everything so i get a lot of worlds to play with.

I used to have the same problem. What i did was cut down on factories and labs(usually this) and use the freed up tiles to build markets(I have same amount of markets and factories on the big worlds). If you lack the econ techs you can always trade for them(I usually do this instead of reseraching the advanced market/stockmarket techs). I don't think you should rely on trade too much. It kills your econ if you go to war often. Econ race and party bonuses also help.

There is, of course, at least one other way to make scads of cash, but it's distasteful to many, and understandably so: tech trading.

Here's how this works. You take a 60% racial diplomatic bonus, run the Populist party government (+20% diplomacy) and start early with the diplomatic techs. You encounter a species with some tech you don't have. You buy it, then sell it to everybody else who can afford it. The selling price is rarely ever as high as what you pay initially, but after selling to five or six different opponents, your profits will be immense. Repeat for every tech you can buy. Check relations often and look for newly-discovered techs to buy and distribute.

This tends to create a climate of calm equilibrium across the galaxy, as most species will be roughly on par technologically. Under conditions like that, it's incredibly easy to find other uses for a massive diplomatic advantage. Yes, it is cheesier than Wensleydale at an Abba convention, but it works. Until 1.1 when users start checking the "no tech trading" box en masse.

(edit: typos damn it)

the one thing to watch out for with tech trading...don't trade away your diplomatic techs! You want to keep the advantage. Also, I try not to trade in research techs, so that I can wind up being king of the hill for both research and diplomacy. If you're going for a peaceful victory, try to get economic and research treaties from every race (do this early, before they start making treaties with each other).

With regards to economic star bases, they will help your economy if you've got a few trade routes and you upgrade them to give you a bonus from trade -the production bonuses will cause you to pay more for your increased production, so you should consider your economy before doing that. You can get it to the point where you lower taxes to 0, and still be making a decent amount of money from trade. If you do eliminate taxes, I think econ buildings become useless...so that frees up space for other buildings.

Based on what I'm seeing, it looks to me like economic starbases actually give more free production than just half. I think what's going on is, you've also got other free production, such as from racial picks or from purple starbases. The economic starbase multiplies your paid production and charges you for half of that; and also multiplies your free production and doesn't charge you for anything. According to the planet screen, I have some planets only actually paying for 60% of their total production.

Heck no, I would NEVER turn factories into markets for planets within an econ starbase's radius. I'll take 1 unit of free production over 1bc of money any day.

I trade as much as I can.

My worlds usually have only one or two economic boosting ressources.

I also make sure all my star bases have the trade modules.

To maintain a good trade, you just need to find a good aliance partner and that gallactic privateer.

I can't say I really do trade due to my war like nature.

However, I've found that if you put atleast 1 farm with the needed morale support on every planet you should keep in the red. Now you may not be making 100,000 and change every week, but it's enough to build a war machine and keep it going.

I"m going to have to try overloading planets with farms now. Heck I have to try to get over 100k a week. That would be absurd.