Economy model is hard to figure out :(

[Janster01]

After some hassle I got a copy, and delved down into making Norway my superpower

Well..cough..

on Normal difficulty I conquered the entire region easily enough, I had some units that simply kicked ass, and killed around 1000 units loosing about 20. Methinks infantry CV whatsits name unit might be a -tad- overpowered though, It simply chewed through the enemy, tanks, planes et al.

However, playing Norway solo, just building, despite making the country self sufficient, investing into efficiency , and following tons of advice on these boards, the land was not making money whatsoever.

I mean, it had a HUGE petroleums industry, but industrial goods and commercial goods simply didn't make profit, the efficiency slider, which I may add, is probably downright useless, made no diffrence other than to run me bankrupt.

Also research didn't get anywhere despite few projects and tons of r&d stations....

I don't seem to figure out where to pull or push, and honestly anything I did including trying to use the ministers resulted in no change whatsoever.

Results, I could get 500mill in tax + a very unstable trade at around 300 mill and that would keep the 800+ mill boat somewhat afloat..

Having been an old paradox fan, I think this game is similar to Victoria, where I suffered the same problem with no good indicators on cause and effect :(

Janster

[Legend]

If I understood your post correctly you were spending heavily in research at the same time as saying you couldn't earn money...? Is this correct? You can't spend on everything and you can't spend heavily on many things or you'll have no money. There are other threads with some particular suggestions on what to try with your economy. It is a balancing act between DAR, treasury, spending, construction etc... I could suggest running the game and don't touch anything much for a bit... then start to adjust things... bit by bit until you get the hang of how much to adjust things. Were you also constantly buiding military units at the same time?

As for the overpowered unit I'm sure Chris will take a look at it and see if it's balanced.

[Janster01]

Hey, no, all my results to fund research ended with bankruptsy, I restarted the 'scandinavian countries' campaign 23423 times trying diffrent tricks, not a single one of my strategies did anything but produce a very very marginal budget surplus.

I then cut military to the bones, r&d was given none or little funding, I funded social as they were recommended in a few cases and not in some other, did not change a thing.

As for military construction, you can say my infantry CV units(norwegian start with em) I scrapped the ENTIRE army, and build 20 of these, then killed 1000 units with them

grouped in 5's they killed a tank in seconds

btw thanks for answering, I feel this game lacks a 'generic' how to for highly developed countries, the 'panama' scenario doesn't work at all for Norway.

Anyway I think, when you cut army to zip, r&d to zip, basically your running on a barebones economy and STILL i can't make a profit, production costs will eat up any profit regardless of what I do.

I have what I think is a basic understanding of the game, and its mechiancs, but I'm starting to question the logic behind wether highly developed countries should have so high production costs they can't produce profit.

Janster

btw, thanks for answering, I think this game lacks a 'how-to for developed countries' cause the 'panama' scenario doesn't work for Norway.

[Legend]

Some countries will have trouble after the great depression before the year 2010...

I'll take a look and see how I can make some money... and check out those units too.

[Janster01]

thanks!!

I was worried that Norway may be stuck in a 'bad economy' loop, which they really can't get out of, a bit sad really if so, and even more puzzling because with their petroleum production they should really be filthy rich, like they are now

[isupreme]

Having been an old paradox fan, I think this game is similar to Victoria, where I suffered the same problem with no good indicators on cause and effect :(

yep. Thank goodness for a helpful forum !

for what its worth my suggestion is:
1. negotiate free trade and more with every country at very begining.
2. run military on barebones including closing useless bases and some useless units.
3. Keep research at recommended, moving it some at times to help you thru a money flow issue.
4. dont spend money on efficiency unless you need more of the product.
5. tax at 60 70 % unless you need to do otherwise some reason. You can tax higher !

[haenkie]

I owuld usggest tax at 50% keeps your peopel happy increases your GDP, that means more tax money can be earned and your DAR is higher which emans your peopel will buy more.

But keep it lsow paced!! tahts key, rushing stuff, building all at once, yeah a neg cashflow will be there in seconds.

i dont know about the free trade. But settting military training etc slider at 0 saves loads of money. Set research at recommended highly paid jobs, higher GNP, more income for you.
SLowly increasing the amoutn spend in research will give you a very high GNP, laods of cash and a very happy population (tkobo figured this out!!)

[tkobo]

Yes , it is hard to figure out.
I think it should be.
I personally am very happy with the fact that even after all the playtime i have and all ive learned about the games economy,that i know there is still more for me to learn.

I find that the biggest obstacle to creating a positive cash flow is production costs.
This always seems to be the number 1 or 2 highest expense.

Fortunately you can lower it by raising domestic prices ,which increases your income AND lowers your peoples needs at the same time.
AND by putting money into efficiency which lowers the cost of production AND increases amount produced at the same time.

BY raising domestic prices AND increasing efficiency you can greatly lower your producion expense, which goes along way in creating a positive cash flow economy.

I dont reccomend trying to create an economy based on research growth until you have first made your economy very positive cash flow AND saved up a large treasury.

[Janster01]

Yes, but there is no way to easily reduce production cost in a developed country, the efficiency slider makes the produce cost way to much , and only gives a short time gain towards cost, basically it made me able to sell the produce with a 10% profit, which is way way way less than what it cost IF you include the efficiency slider :(

It not being factored into the cost has made the slider useless in many ways.

Anyway, all your advice is nice, but I tried it all tbh.

And I belive, when you cut military to 0%, and you cut research to 0% you should be ATLEAST able to make a positive budget!!!

However, in my case that was not it, only with the help of exports did I manage to gain money eversoslowly...

Thus I belive that mayhaps developed countries should have hi-tech production available in some ways or superior factories atleast

Janster

[tkobo]

Did you maximize domestic prices ?

That always works for me.

[Janster01]

I squeezed them until they screamed (ie spammed me with domestic prices warnings )

hmm it is curious, I was self sufficient in ALL departments and sold with high domestic prices, yet it didn't work..

Heck, reducing social budget to 0, only made the budget balance :(

Janster

[tkobo]

Didnt it lower needs so that some of your factories were now not needed also ?

[Janster01]

Yes, and I closed/scrapped factories en masse as they were not needed, however, this in turn reduced domestic demand it seemed..

Janster

[tkobo]

Sounds like your doing it right.

Check your private messages,maybe i can help.

[tkobo]

Sorry, only half-awake here.

You didnt zero your infrastructure spending did you ?

That would be a bad thing.