In Beta 4 ship maintenance was increased, so if you had a fairly large military (especially if it was a 'build now' navy lol) then a ton of money was going down the drain there.

I have a Troop ship that holds 3billion population, speed (10 post bonuses, I forget which engines) and no life support and it costs 16bc a turn. I'm currently getting ready to have a large war vs the Yor and have 44 of these things loaded up and ready to go. I have a timer for the war to start, it's my economy bleeding money away as I'm also trying to support a decent offensive and defensive navy.

What I do at the very start of my recent games is to disband the miner ship and try to get that population growth technologie, then follows the Trade. I have not many colonies before I start building freighters, most of the time the only starport is idle, just to save every piece of penny.

I am finding this new economy system challangering,but much too tough for AIs. before I start building my own fleets, there are always races already knocked out.(once even when I have 5+ tradering routes with him)

Creativity bug is not a bug.

Your scientists can still be creative, get a flash of inspiration, even if you aren't funding them.

Well, federalists doesn't give you starting cash. Yes, 0 is less than 100. On the other hand, Federalists will effect how much money you make. You make 20% more from taxes, which will matter more the higher tax rate you support.



The Economy has been tweaked to be less forgiving of sloppy ship management (or put in the reverse, to promote ship micromangement). I also quite like the change. I expect enough people will whine that it will not stay that way, especially because.....



The AI is not adjusting well, so actually if you just wait for AIs to crash and are opportunistic about when/where you pop off your transports in some ways the game has gotten easier. Overall it has led to less ships in the galaxy... which I like for both gameplay and performance based reasons. Less ships and my game runs better when I play on my laptop (which doesn't have the best hardware)... and less ships also makes every victory and defeat feel that much more important. Every fight matters!



While those three wonders look impressive, thats the entire Thalan attack right there, blown in the first three turns. They can do almost nothing else for a long, long time. Send transports to conquer them at your leisure.

~ Wyndstar

This doesn't add much, but I like the new economic system. More challenging is a good thing. Quite frankly, ships were far too cheap before and economies probably should not be able to run at 100% all of the time.

Lord Zarth,

Okay, if it's not a bug, then why does creativity seem to kick in more frequently when no research is happening?

I took a previous autosave for a spin, set all spending to zero, and just clicked away to see what would happen - within about seven turns I got another creativity provided breakthrough.

I'm willing to accept that I have simply gotten lucky on this particular game, but it just feels funny to me.

Maybe I just feel so beat up over the Econ situation that I gaze warily upon any gifts from TofA heaven.

Cheers,

Scanner28

To be fair, if I was fired from a lab job, and then later discovered a cure for cancer in my basement lab, I'd definitely demand some serious 9-figure sums of money before I spilled the beans on that.

The first few go rounds with the new economy were eye opening and painful... I spent many a turn learning to curse all over again. As much as I disliked it at first, it's really the way the game should have been from the beginning. All ships have crews and need food and fuel and parts and septic service and whatever else... that all this should magically happen for free just because the ship doesn't fight is silly at best.

I will say Freighters need a break. Either the maintenance has to go down or the trade route worth has to go up...

The only way you could counter the expense of maintenance is if you required ships to go to a space station or planet to resupply, even though it should still cost you something. That would make for a fairly constant amount credit wise, and would also introduce the supply limit for ships. Supply modules and techs would effectively control range, and when your supplies were low you'd have to head for the nearest friendly... Would make a whole bunch of new treaty options too...

I can say that some of the maintenance costs seem a little on the steep side. Once the editors are online I plan on making a starbase/ship module that lowers the maintenance a little for each level. It'll never be completely free, but as an empire progresses you have to assume they'd get better at resupplying themselves.

It's taken alot of getting used to, but my strategies have changed, and I can generate some decent coin once everything gets rolling. It just needs to be tweaked a little.

As to the creative scientists, it changes every game. Some games my science guys are tripping over new discoveries and sometimes I hired a bunch of accountants who never discover a thing. Reloading does not seem to effect this, and it falls under the same randomization as getting good tiles on the homeworld or that magic p20 planet in the system right next to your start location... I like that it's not the same every game and that some games my guys are just really smart.

That is a good point, although I don't think that the scientists are government scientists, per se. (I certainly hope not) I seem to understand that the government (us) is subsidizing, or hopefully just giving tax breaks, or perhaps funding these scientists. They are still working even when you ain't a-funding them, just on different work.

On to a different observation - Has anyone else noticed influence drop to zero on a UP council vote or afterwards?

I'm thinking this might be a bug. It only happened to me once early in this game. After wining a vote against the Thalans, I went to trade with the minor races and the Thalans and realized that the Thalans had no influence to spare. I didn't think much of it until I realized my influence was also reduced to zero when engaging the minor races in trade during that same round. The effect lasted only a couple of rounds and so far everything has been normal.

Cheers,

Scanner28

IPs are indeed your UP votes. They're spent each time a vote comes up, and accumulate each turn in between based on your current influence levels. Trading them is like buying and selling votes.

Cool. I never realized I was spending them at each vote of the UP Council.
I used to be a much more observant player. Maybe those few extra turns did hurt me.

Cheers,

Scanner28