How to balance +Economy Buildings with +Population Buildings

Markets give 15% increase in income, so unless you have 7 Farms it wont be greater than placing a farm, after 7 Farms a Stock Market would be 105% of a Farm, and you wont have to wait for the Population to fill up.

I think a good rule of thumb would be to place enough farms for growth, then place +eco buildings until your Population is full, then just upgrade the Economy Buildings into farms as they are needed

I disagree. A farm tile means you will require a multimedia tile to maintain the morale of that planet. I believe the balance is about 3 entertainment for every 2 farms (with no extra morale abilities/resources). Further to that, the last building in the run of entertainment adds an array of bonuses - including some morale. Someone did write an analysis a week or so ago.... but I dont bother minmaxing stuff like this so I mostly skim read it. It was basically down to PQ and each PQ band (eg. PQ14-18) had an optimal number of farms to achieve maximum economic income. You still need markets in each scenario.

Any farm I build is paired with two entertainment buildings; an enhanced farm square bumps it to three or four entertainments. PQ9+ I might drop a farm + two entertainments, PQ15+ I might do two farms + four entertainments. Except on a single (large) planet I might designate as economy, I go with a single economy building per farm set. Works well once you get past the first 9months and the initial colony populations start rising.

Holy multiple farms batman!

I have never built more than 2 farms on any planet and that was a high PQ planet with no bonus farm squares and I usually don't have but one entertainment building per planet. Once in a blue moon I might have to build 2 on a PQ 20+ planet.

If you build 3-4 entertainments and more than one maybe two farms where do you build factories, labs, embassies, special projects, trade goods etc.

A planet with 17 billion population and one bonus farm produces as much tax income as a planet with 5 farms and the same population. All that multiple farms do is get you there a little faster and give you many more moral problems to deal with.

Not knocking your strategy, just saying....

Holy multiple farms batman!

I've been wondering about the effect of multiple farms on population growth as well. I usually build no farms at first because the planet's capitol provides for the taxpayers until the population = N mt/wk of food. ( 1 bln pop per each mt of food). But if the population grows in parallel to the # of farms, rather than serially, then that may be a good way to boost your initial pop growth.

For instance, let's say each farm supports 1b pop. In parallel, 2 farms would grow 2 b pop simultaneously. Whereas, in serial, the first farm would grow 1b, then when it maxed out, farm #2 would start growing the 2nd billion.

Can anyone confirm/deny how farms work?

Thanks.

Me i just normally go for the following: -

Set focus to Social....

PQ+10 Spaceport
Factory
Market Center
Factory
Entertain Network
(reset focus to cover all)
Research
All other tiles to Market Centers

As the game progresses i will substitute some of the Market Centers with other builds if req'd. However i never build more than one farm and never ever build a farm on your home world as the morale implications are frightening!!

There are many ways of maximizing your planets and to be honest its just a trial and error thing for most of us. We try things differently each time until we are happy with the way the planet 'feels'.

Oh and lastly i never build Embassies on any 'core' worlds, only on the 'rim' worlds next to other AI's

DG

Farms only increase the population cap, it does not change the population growth. Frankly, its a good idea to have at least 1 farm on all PQ 12+. I sometimes put a farm on PQ9-11 depending on the bonus tiles. High Taxes + High Population = $$$

As I understand it farms do nothing until the population reaches the food limit. On the homeworld that is 10 billion, every other planet it is 5 billion. The basic farm supports 4 billion and goes up with better tech. I only build farms when population approaches the food limit. The rule of thumb is one entertainment building per farm. Most worlds do fine with one farm and 9 billion max pop. Only large money planets (class 8 or better, hopefully a lot better) will get multiple farms.

My games don't last long enough for population to reach epic levels. They go off to fight in transports. 10 billion is an exceptionally large pop to me. Peaceful players may have different ideas.

Two useful tips: set the tax slider low early so approval is 100% for the pop bonus. This early population boost will help a lot and cost only a few credits. Use colony ships or troop transports so that each colony gets to 1 billion as soon as feasible. Planets with under 1 billion have much less population growth (a percentage instead of the fixed number).

Thanks for everyone's input. That helps clear things up. Of course, I'm only on my 2nd or 3rd game so it's all trial and error for me presently.

Don't forget the Stock Exchange provides 10% moral in addition to the economic bonus, so a high PQ planet loaded with Stock Exchanges might only need one or no vitual reality centers!

Don't forget a high population reduces the effect of +morale. So that 10% is more like 1% on a capped population planet. That is why global trade goods, race bonuses and morale buildings are so necessary for those really high population planets.

Personally I find 1 PQ 18+ planet and go 3 factories, 3 farms, 3 entertainment, and the rest marketplaces and my econ capital. If I find I still need cash I research a farm tech or two. My taxes are usually pretty high, but if you have ultra spices + harmony crystals you should be fine. If the PQ is even higher I'll stick an extra farm or two in. Generally I need 1 entertainment per farm though. I can't get away with less no matter what.

factory
if(pq >= 9) factory
if(pq >= 10) factory
if(pq >= 11) starport
lab
lab
market
farm
entertainment
embassy
if(pq >= 12) fill the rest with labs

and I always use the best bonus tile available for a given improvement

Remember also, population is not only for the purpose of tax revenue, it feeds the invasion forces. If you are going for a military victory, then one or more farms on PQ 10+ planets is good--this way you get the full tax revenue of, say a 7B population, and keep feeding the transports with the population growth over 10 turns or so.

This way you build a transport every 10 turns, and every 10 turns your pop increases by 1 Bil---exactly enough to feed to the transport.

Having a 10-15 Bil population on your largest planets also allows you to rush buy transports and surge your attack forces near the end game. My last game I had 4 transports ready on a 14 Bil pop planet, sent them on their way and my economy barely felt a ripple as the population quickly regrew itself.

I also value highly the morale resources--this lets me build up populations and tax revenue. I normally keep taxes at 49% and morale between 90-100%.

In all the games I've played, I've only built two farms on a planet once. That was when I ended up with a monsterous PQ 30 planet. It took 6 virtual reality centers to get approval in the green at 80% taxes and 25B population (IIRC). I always run 15B population with approval buildings and 80% taxes. If I conquer a homeworld with a 10B base population, I might run 20B if it has unusually high PQ or a couple approval bonus tiles. So, my feeling is that higher taxes and lower populations are best for maximizing economic output. I'm sure that's debatable. Lower taxes and higher populations may work just as well or better. I haven't tried it myself so I don't know for sure. I think the main reason I always go the 80% tax route is that it keeps you from going bankrupt early in the game. Once I'm on it, I just stay on it.

In economic terms, it's better to build 1 farm than use that tile for a stockmarket. You should find later on in the game when you have a morale resource and/or researched the morale tree that you can set your taxes at 80% if you like without a morale problem.

If you intend to put half a dozen or more stockmarkets down, it's worth going for two farms.

The way income is worked out means the square root of the population counts, not actual population. Therefore 100bil is roughly 3 times better than 10 bil, in terms of income.

Also, the morale modifier is a steep gradient, reaching a point of -260% morale at 26billion, when population stops affecting morale.

Stock Markets > Farms. High population planets are NOT suitable for tax farming, but they are good for soldiers.

I usually put a farm on every world of PQ8 or above. As well as income, a high population provides protection against invasion, and of course the population to invade with.

Also I think people over-emphasise the importance of having morale at 100%. I think if your *overall* morale is at 100%, then your taxes are too low - raise them until morale dips to 95% or so, then work on improving the planets with less than 100%. At overall 100%, most of your planets will be producing much less income than they're capable of for the sake of a relatively few under-developed/overpopulated ones.

Don't forget that you can always build over farms with other buildings later, they're not a permanent commitment. Excess population can always be warehoused in cheap colony ships or transports - also useful for ferrying to new colonies or conquests to quickly bolster a colony and protect against counter invasion.

I like to have my taxes at the 79% cap. And don't forget, 100% morale has double growth, so it's always worth having.

just think of your population as planetary hitpoints

AFAIK, you don't get any bonus for having your overall morale at 100%, only for individual planetary morale ratings. So if it's a case of either having 20 planets at 100% morale, with a tax rating of 59%, or 19 at 100% and 1 at 70% morale, with a tax rating of 69%, the second case is obviously better, even if it lowers your overall rating to 97%. If one planet has a situation such that it can't sustain its morale level at its current population level, then surely the last thing you want it is for its population to grow more quickly!

In short, don't let a few under-developed/over-populated planets drag down your revenue just to see a "100%" in your overall morale rating.

I like to have my taxes at the 79% cap. And don't forget, 100% morale has double growth, so it's always worth having.

The cap is 80%. I shudder to think of all that income you've been wasting!