It's the Economy Stupid!

All buildings are social, all spaceships are military. If no buildings get built, the left-over social production gets added to military production. The other way around it does not happen.
Each point in production costs some BC, depending on many things (for example bonus production from starbases is cheaper afaik). Using the spending slider on the domestic screen, you decide how much BC to spend. I don't know what 100% corresponds to, but generally the spending slider should be at 100% unless you're in urgend need of BC.

The sliders below for military, social and research control how much of the spent BC go into each category.

Using focus, you can focus production on the planet screen to a selected category. Open up a planet's screen and click either the military, social or research buttons (where the hammers are). Notice how some production from the other categories gets moved to the selected one.

This system has one drawback: If you both have factories and research labs, it's impossible for both of them to operate at full capacity at the same time. (Try setting sliders to 100% social + 100% research at the same time, won't work, that'd be 200% spending). Some advanced strategies used to compete on the highest difficulty levels involve building only one type of production building with a matching 100% slider and then using focus production to produce the other stuff. But for the start, don't worry about this.

Now about the economy:

As expenses you have maintenance and spending. Most buildings cost maintenance, that's a fixed cost you cannot influence (other than destroying buildings). The other one is spending. Remember that each point of production costs BC? If you build many factories, you can produce military/social stuff very fast, but at the same time you'll spend lots on BC on the production itself.

On the other side there's income. Basically there are three categories: Taxes, Trade and Tourism.

Taxes come from population. The more population, the more tax. However, it's not linear. For each planet, the formula is something like this as far as I understand (minus some constant factors): tax = squareroot(population)*taxrate
So usually it's best not to build more than one farm on each planet (exception: Planets with a capital city, they can already host 12B population by default), otherwise morale will suffer and you need morale enhancing buildings. Less population and more Stock Markets are sometimes better.
In addition, more population causes less happieness, likewise higher taxrates makes ppl less happy. Economic buildings (Trade centers, stock markets and so on) give a percentage bonus on the tax output on the planet they get built on.

Trade comes from other races. Build freighters and send them to a planet controlled by an AI player. The further away, the more profitable the route will be. You can further enhance trade outcome by building economic starbases and equipping them with trade modules. (If you have the required techs)

Tourism income comes from influence. Every planet's population generates some tourism which gets summed up in a global pool. Each player gets some of this depending on how much of the galaxy is under their influence.

The selection and customization of your race has a huge impact on how much micromanagement you have to do to keep your economy stable. If you got lots of economy problems, try the Altarians with maxed Economy and Morale abilities and Federalist political party.

Hope this helps...

'Social' means 'scoial projects' or 'planet improvement', it tells you how much effort is been put into building tile improvements.
'Military' mean 'Military production', this tells you how much effort is been put into building ships.
'Research' is pritty basic, it shows how much effort this world is putting into your empires research.

your economy is basicly you empire treasurey. your current stock pile will apear in the lower-left corner, if it is green it means that you empire is earning more money than it is spending, if it is yellow then your spending more money than you are earning.

you can edit this in you 'empire manager', it is located on the bottom taskbar.
your empires income depends on how high your taxes are and how many trade routes you have. the higher the taxes are the more money you will get but if it's too high then your citizens will start to hate you an they are more likely to revolt.

it explain this in the users manual and as you can see mastering economy is very difficult. but you get the hang of it after about 2 games.

Thanks alot guys, this'll certainly help get me a grip on the thing.

Unfortunately I didn't get a manual with the game, just the disk.

There should be a .pdf manual on the disc.

One thing that's important to realize is that morale buildings improve morale based on 'base' morale, that is, the morale of the planet after the population modifier alters its total value. For the most part, in Dark Avatar, even approaching 20 billion citizens on a planet will buckle the planet's approval rating, depending on the number of morale resources and your overall racial +morale ability.

The economy is your enemy in this game!

you need to be proactive and plan ahead or it will force you to loose the game.

true, how very true... if you dont plan ahead then you reach the point of total economical collaps.

"if you dont plan ahead then you reach the point of total economical collaps."

A good example of this is when you research a new factory or xeno lab tech. Your planets, by default, will automatically start upgrading to them. They have both higher maintenance and higher production. As was pointed out above, higher production means higher spending. So Just by researching that one tech you can take a balanced economy and send it deep into the red.

Best to think about how you are going to pay for all that increased production before you acquire it. Or disable the auto upgrades.

another thing, keep your peoples happiness above 60%! any lower and you run the risks of:
People Revolting and joining an enemys empire
lowered productivity
etc...

I'm playing as the Yor at the moment, so I think I can get away with running things in the mid to high fifties approval wise, plus I got a growth modifier as their racial characteristic.

So far it looks like all I have to do is build motly market places (and a few factories) and I'm all set. At some point hopefully before I meet other imperialists, I'll have to found another industrial core besides my capital.

trade is also a good source of income to.
trade with the minor races coz they are a reliable trade partner coz they know one fowl move an their history.

Conversely, it can be your best friend. A robust economy can help to make up for deficiencies in your gameplay. In other words, sometimes you can buy your way out of trouble. For example: You have been busy building up your empire. Your economy is great, research is going fine, and you are building improvements like crazy. The galaxy is relatively peaceful, so no need to spend money on your military. Unfortunately, the Altarians have designs on one of your prime worlds. The signs were there, but you missed them. They launch an invasion fleet, you move to defend, but, D'OH! no ships. No problem. You have that fat bank account, so you can rush build a fleet, engage, and slap the tattoos right off of their faces.

You may notice at some point in the game that some race or other is about to complete work on a certain galactic achievement (one that only one single race may own) that you really want/need. Again, no problem. Buy it outright. Very expensive, but if you have the BC, you can do it.

In a nutshell; money makes the world(s) go around. With it, you have a chance in any situation that the game gives you. Without it...you're doomed. Remember- the AI plays by the same rules as you do, and BC is just as important to it as to you. If you can find a way to tank it's economy, the game is yours.

Your approval rating is tied (most importantly) to your population growth. A 100% rating will double your growth. This is vital in the early game. Population=BC, so the faster you breed, the more cash you will have on hand. Also, and perhaps even more importantly, you will have more population to colonize other worlds. One hotdog stand will make you a little money. Two will make you twice as much. 500 will pay for your own island.

Welcome to the forums. Good luck, and good gaming.

Agreed Mistralok, the economy is your best friend. Nothing is more than invading a puny PQ 2 planet only have a brand-new huge-hull class ship in orbit the very next turn

Yes, the Romans learned that lesson the hard way. They would be pushed out of a village, they would reply in force, and that force would be cut down with screaming death. All these years later, it still amazes me that the people who brought indoor plumbing to the world couldn't learn a simple lesson- don't screw with the Deutsche folk.

"...Remember- the AI plays by the same rules as you do..."

No they dont, if you play on higher levels the Ai will get the upper hand.

Yes, at levels above 'tough' the AI gets certain bonuses. This is done in order to offset the human player's ability to react swiftly to situations. The AI tends to be more pragmatic.

they get an economy bonus

The AI will get the upper hand??? NO. They have advantages but if the AI gets the upper hand it's because you were outplayed, many players defeat 9 civ's on suicidal within 6 to 7 years.



Captain Obvious everybody! Well, nearly.....

Exactly! Except I can do it in fewer years.

The AI gets tremendous bonuses on Suicidal, but it still plays by the exact same rules (except for tech trading). Learn how to use and abuse those rules and you can pick it apart in no time.

Well said Neilo. I would agree with Purge, the number of years is a function of your skill and map size. Ctrl-Ning aside, once you get to the top difficulty levels, luck ceases to be a factor. You need to know what you want, and figure out how to get there.

Good luck all. I'm out again.

*Poofs*

I can hear you snickering Purge, kinds sounds like Mutley from Wacky Racers

Jokes aside, would the average time be around 7 years? Not including the upper echelon of players, like the two geniuses above who can destroy the AI at will, most games (gig, abundant all) seem to take around this long. Me, i can do 9 civs gig, abundant all on painful (my highest victory level, shame it was not an MV game) in 9 years, and like Wyndstar said, luck was not a factor, just my level of play.

Never did the AI have the "upper hand", nor did they in the majority of Purges' and Wyndstar's games, i assume. So you see LostHero you are quite off the mark, you experiences do not represent everyone else's. The AI will be advantaged but will not have the "upper hand" as a default.

(thinking) Now if i can just steal Purge's last 5 scores and add them to my own.....

Y'know what is scary about top level players?

Seeing Wyndstar's scores, reading his strategy analyses and AAR's and wheels within wheels...then think about facing this guy IN COURT! Ooofh!

drrider

What has everyone got againest me these days. i was merely point out the facts.

although i have to admit wyndstars scores are freaken me out. he must have been one of the first players on the metaverse. Wyndstar! how long have you been playing?

I've been accused of sounding like Mutley in written conversations before!

I've been fiddling with a "zero to hero" strategy (at least that's what I call it in my mind). I've been running with no military ships a good 9-12 months past the time frame when the AI builds it's first one. The AI thinks it winning, it has more planets, but...
No military ships
One month later a handful of ships, still not even close to weakest AI
Two months later 5X the leading AI and the game is effectively over...

You can have the 136k huge abundant all, nine AIs, three years. Ugh, that game was killing my patience! First big DA game, and the AI was on equal footing with me for the first war.

LostHero,

We tend to be a bunch of nitpicks about using careful terminology. It sometimes matters a lot. This particular case is one of them. In most strategy games advanced AIs simply receive extra forces and units from thin air. It's why the distinction of "only" bonuses matters, it implies that the AI is NOT getting free stuff from the ether and you can play accordingly.

Try not to let us get you down!

It's nothing personal, but what you want to say and what you you have said may be two very different things.

And nothing written here which you consider "against you" is close to the wrath you would incur if you stray to far.

This means you Evil! Also nice to see your partner in crime is back...Good to see Wheel is alive and well!



Yea and if he is as ruthless in court as he is to the AI, he will be back far sooner than a couple of months!