Can't make my productions numbers add up, help!

from GalCiv2 Forums

I've been trying to understand how the mechanics work in this game, and whenever I think I have it figured out, I find something that totally disproves my theory.

 

Right now, the problem is that my planets' production is much lower than it should be.  As a simple example, I have a planet that has the following:

 

Civilization Capital:  +24 mp  +24 tp

Traditional Factory on +700% Manufacturing bonus:  +4 mp +28 mp

 

At the bottom of the summary screen, it says that I have:

24tp

56 mp

 

This is good.  This makes sense.  Those numbers add up.

 

The thing is, my planet doesn't actually produce these amounts.  With 100% spending turned on, my planet is actually making:

Military: 19 (colony ship, if it matters)

Social: 21 (research lab)

Research: 7

 

I don't get it.  My factories are only churning out 19+21=40 mp, and my labs are only making 7 tp.  So, even at 100% spending, I'm only running my factories at ~71% capacity and my labs at a horrible 29%!  How do I actually use all of my capacity?  What does 100% spending even mean if it doesn't mean "100% spending"?

 

The problem isn't that I don't have enough money.  I have tons!  I could run my planet at the full 24 tp and 56 mp for almost 100 turns!  How can I make my planet actually spend that money?

Messing with the Military/Social/Research sliders only makes things more confusing.  If I set all spending to military, I get 56 mp in military, which makes sense.  If I set all spending to research, I get 24 tp, which makes sense.  How do I get 24 tp AND 56 mp at the same time? 

5,292 views 6 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top

I don't get it.  My factories are only churning out 19+21=40 mp, and my labs are only making 7 tp.  So, even at 100% spending, I'm only running my factories at ~71% capacity and my labs at a horrible 29%!  How do I actually use all of my capacity?  What does 100% spending even mean if it doesn't mean "100% spending"?
End of quote

 

I'm going to take a stab at this, even though I've only played a little of the game. 71 and 29 add up to 100. In the military/social/science sliders, each represents a percentage of total output. So with the figures provided above, I'll assume the science was set at 29%, while social and military added up to 71%. That is at 100% spending. The fact production and science are in different unit measurements doesn't mean both are at their max amount with 100% spending. The percentage of their total is determined by the mil/soc/sci percentages. When the mil was set to 100%, naturally mil should be 56 and the others 0. Since your production max is 56. Same if soc were at 100% and the others were at 0. Since science is in a different unit, and your science max is 24, with spending at 100% and using 100% sci, the most you will get is 24. Since it's all going to science, the social and mil will have to be 0. The mil/soc and sci use different figures and the percentage of total production is subtracted from these separate figures. Mil/soc percentages are only of the 56 figure, while science percentages are only of the 24 figure. If you were doing 1/3 mil, 1/3 soc & 1/3 sci at 100% spending, you should have 18.7 (1/3 of 56) mil, 18.7 (1/3 of 56) soc and 8 (1/3 of 24) sci.

 

You cant have both 56 mil/soc and 24 sci at the same time, unless you could figure out a way to have 100% science at the same time you have mil/social adding up to 100%.

Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Thanks for the answer.  I had the M/S/R sliders all equal to each other, and the numbers all make sense in that context.

Ugh.  I really don't like that mechanic, enough that it I am soured on the game.  It isn't fun to build things only to find out that you can't use them.  It also doesn't make sense.  Why can't I fund all of my infrastructure to capacity if I have the money?   Governments fully fund multiple projects all the time!  You can't even say it's because of a limited labor pool, because population never is a factor in how much stuff a planet can produce.

I had been building specialist worlds, but now I see that is a horribly inefficient way to play.  My research world will always be working at some fraction of its capacity, unless I turn of all industry spending everywhere in my empire.  Contrawise, my industry planets will always be a shadow of their potential unless I stop all research everywhere.

I appreciate the help, but this is the last in a long line of confusing and unintuitive design decisions I've discovered, and I think moving on to other things.

 

Ashes of the Singularity II
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

FWIW, you're far from alone in this sentiment.

It's possible to be somewhat more efficient by using the "Focus" feature, which allows you to convert a quarter of a planet's research output to production or vice-versa.  Click on the little button next to the relevant number on the planet screen, or on the number in the civilization manager.  This is the basis for the "all labs" or "all factories" strategies that you can find if you read around.  Essentially, either keep your research level at 100%, build no factories, and divert focus to social/military production when needed, or you keep your research level at 0%, build no labs, and divert focus to research as needed.

How your scientists construct buildings, or your construction workers produce scientific breakthroughs is left deliberately vague, but it does allow you to run your economy at full capacity.  I usually run all-labs, and try to keep enough of a budget surplus to fast-buy the production items I need.

Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Thanks for the tips.  I might try that.  It sounds like a pile of micromanagement though, and one of the selling points for me was that Gal Civ did away with tedious micromanagement.

Is there a mod or something that does away with these arbitrary limits? I'd rather not have to manually buy every single upgrade on every single planet.

Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Is there a mod or something that does away with these arbitrary limits?
End of quote

I'm pretty sure the answer is no.  For one thing, changing a basic mechanic like this would require the AIs to be rewritten.

Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Not a fan of that mechanic either.  Basically, what I do, is keep Research at 50%, and then adjust the social and military sliders accordingly.  That way, I just pretend that every building only produces half of what's stated.  Not perfect, but at least it gives me the feeling that each buildings is performing at capacity, where I assume that it's capacity is half of what's stated.