I'm winning, but I go broke...

Don't rush buy. Especially don't rush buy on one of the 'buy now pay later' schemes. Just like in real life, that's going to screw you in the long run...

Build more economic and population buildings, and concentrate on those tech trees. A good rule of thumb is one farm per entertainment network or so. Don't build too many farms or you'll get a morale problem. Be cautious with building farms on their bonus tiles for the same reasons. Don't bother with farms on low quality planets at all.

Setting up trade routes doesn't hurt either.

The advice the last poster gave was spot on.

Stock markets are your friend. Every other econ building is basically worthless. So when you start researching that tree, which should be fairly early in the game, go all the way to the stock markets. They give an econ boost, as well as influence and morale.

Just to build on what moosetek13 said, find a high quality planet 15 or higher,put one farm on it a couple of entertainment centres and use all but one tile for stock markets..the spare tile you left out should be for an economic capitol..i did this and one of my planets generates 538 credits on a class 26 planet..hope it helps

and remember to mine those economic resources...

I'd like to add that for the 1 farm to 1 entertainment to work, you need to upgrade the relevant technology up near enough the same time otherwise you have too much in 1 area. I think for every farm upgrade you make, you need 2 entainment upgrade to even out the morale problems.

Economy starbases are fantastic. A huge populate planet, built as an economy capital, surrounded by fours economy starbases brings you lots. Especially if that planets is used for trading too as the trade lines will beneifit from the starbases.

I don't think economic starbases actually increase the amount of money you make, do they?

yeah, try to get at least get part-way up the econ tree and get better econ buildings started before you have to reduce production % for the crunch... and try to keep morale up above 75%, so your people don't slow down their breeding, even if it means you need to reduce production even further.

when the crunch gets really bad and you can't even keep the 75%morale, at least try to keep it above 50%! the farms and entertainment centers advice is key, as you need to breed up taxpayers, without suffering morale problems from the higher population that would depress the birthrate.

if you find a big farming bonus tile, go ahead and build a farm on it! don't be afraid: just make sure you zone an extra entertainment center. and to make the world an economic powerhouse, zone maybe 4 tiles for econ buildings... don't even bother with any research buildings on that planet, if you get short on tiles.

once you get out of the bad part of the crunch, and can keep 75% morale, switch to Republic. of course, if you didn't start researching towards it before the crunch, it will take a long time to get it... make sure you're at least close to it (and stock markets!) by the time the crunch hits.

as for the econ starbases, only half of the bonus they give needs to be payed for, so they make the money that you do spend go further... in this case, hopefully into building stock markets!

The money thing was one of the hardest things for me to figure out.

First set taxes very low to start so approval is 100% for about the first 20 turns. This boost in population will give a player a much bigger tax base later. The cost is only a few credits per turn early. Think carefully about what you rush buy. I try to keep about 2000 credits as a reserve to run a deficit every turn and pay for invasions (or tribute) later.

Next, get planets to one billion pop as soon as possible. Lower than that and they don't get their full pop growth, so 500 million per colony ship. With the boost from 100% approval, it should be easy enough to get through the expansion phase.

The first morale tech is one of the best in the game as far as money goes. That and other morale techs and buildings let a player raise taxes while keeping approval high. Remember that 100% approval, and 75% approval are the bonus levels.

Money planets, big planets with lots of pop, a couple of factories, lots of money and approval buildings and farms can fund the entire empire. Usually 15 size or better is desired, however, even smallish planets can provide money if set up to do so.

Trade, better government (Republic on up) all help. As do racial bonuses, political party (Federalist) also help a great deal. Other parties with production or research bonuses actually hurt the money flow as they have to be paid for.

I don't think economic starbases actually increase the amount of money you make, do they?

That was my understanding as well. Am I wrong?

Easiest way to get money is to dump points into the Morale attribute (max points). Then put one happyness factor per planet. Keep the support at about 40-45%, and jack up the taxes. With my game utilizing that strategy, I'm making 1500/week while my closest competitor is 102/week. If you can do that, loans don't matter (though stay away from them as a general rule, I've done it with this build, but only because I can REALY afford it).

General good strategy is to build about two of everything (or more if you have a good enough planet). Then of course use the little PQ 4 planets for research mines, and have a few manufacturing planets.

Only with Trade modules and trade routes AFAIK

Economic starbases increase production and research, so they can actually cost a player money. There are freighter modules that boost income from freighters as they move through the area. There are also economic resources (green) that do boost income. Morale resources (yellow) are almost as valuable because they allow a player to raise the tax rate and still have high morale.

If you go broke, you aren't winning FYI

I agree with the economic research.... Go all the way up early in the game. I never run out of money with stock markets, farm and entertainment building combo. It still leaves room on most planets for other buildings. I stay away from cultural buildings as I build enough stiock markets to make up for the influence.

Don't forget to adjust your sliders that will also help your economy. On small maps I, usually, by the 9th or 10th turn I am making 400 to 500 with taxes at 39% per turn. So I never run out of money, by end game I am over 2000bc per turn with no problem.

You're building more production and research than you have the economy to support.

Two main tips:

1) Get morale to 100%. If habitable planets are going to be fairly limited (say you expect to end up with 15 or so) then the earlier suggestion by a poster to reduce the tax rate in the first 10-20 turns is OK. If the colonization phase is going to be long, it is better to get morale up by building entertainment centers on every planet instead. This way you keep the 100% morale even after you put the tax rate up. During colonization I have the tax rate at 59%, but you can go to 69% if you're colonizing only high quality planets or you have a racial morale bonus. Build 4 entertainment networks on every planet if you do this (enough to maintain 100% morale up to 5B and beyond)

2) Factories and research labs cost money to maintain even when they're not being used. So don't build them until you can afford to run them. (Actually, you'll find that your economy starts to grow really quickly so you can actually start buildling a little BEFORE you can afford to run them...you'll get better at judging this with practice) On the other hand, financial buildings (built, not bought!) will pay for themselves in less than 10 turns on a planet with a reasonable population (2B+). Build them whenever you're waiting for your economy to grow enough to support more production. You can always upgrade them to factories or research labs later.

Well, I've just won my first game in GalCiv. It was diplomatic, but only after I had to wipe out two factions. anyways, I couldn't have done itn without your help. Thanks to all of you!

Well...

Try to rush-research to Stock Markets. Im experimenting with Technologists and +20% research and some others with a custom race, its going well... except I find myself in the same situation as you, or rather, my economy is so slow that I eventually get bored and want more events... sigh.

Anyway, Stock Markets are your big boy friend.

I don't think economic starbases actually increase the amount of money you make, do they?

Wow, wow, what? You're kidding right? Of course economic resources increase the amount of money you make.  

Wow, wow, what? You're kidding right? Of course economic resources increase the amount of money you make.

Economic *resources* do, economic *starbases* do not. (Well, they can do with trade modules, but it's not a significant increase unless you put loads of work into trade)

You doNOT need 100% moral, 75% moral gives one a population growth, while producing more taxes to support more building or more military.

Putting effort into trade not only helps with your economy, but by picking your trading partner(s), you can turn them into allies.


Building economic starbases improves production on the planets in the radius, and you only pay for 50% of the cost of that increase in production, so in the long run the starbases does improve the overall economy.

Focusing your economic sliders also can greatly change ones ability to support an empire.

You doNOT need 100% moral, 75% moral gives one a population growth, while producing more taxes to support more building or more military.

You don't *need* 100% morale, but going for it on every planet in the early game will in the long run make you more money than lower morale plus higher tax rate...at least it did when I first posted on this thread (I admit I'm sad enough to have run this through spreadsheets!)

The lower bonus to population growth doesn't compensate.

This is all pre 1.31. Following the nerfing of morale buildings, I seriously doubt you'll be *financially* better off gunning for 100% morale any more because you'll either have to build a ridiculous number of morale buildings, or have a horribly low tax rate.

Agreed on economic starbases. They don't increase the money you *make* (much) though as I said, just what you can do with it. The exception would be an excellent trading setup all emanating from one planet in much the same, or even identical, direction. Even there, it can take quite a while for the trade boosts to equal the constructor costs putting them in place.

all this advice is good, but there is something else you can do to earn a little money.trade with a minor race. what you do is give them a planet as far out as you can, but still able to bring reinforcements quickly. then you build a string of starbases on the edge of the map. i try to have one main trade planet in a corner. all of my freighters use this planet as their origon. that makes it easier to defend trade routes and planets. you build a backbone of military starbases (mainly to increase ship speed)and a bunch of economy starbases (to boost trade route value) all they way from your main trade planet to the minor race planet. MAKE SURE TO OVERLAP THE STARBASES SO THAT THEIR RANGES COVER EACH OTHER. THAT IS REALLY IMPORTANT. so if you build a military base, make sure it covers the economy bases on either side. that way defending ships are alway in a military area when defending an economy base.

then put a ring of ships around that world to protect them if they are at war. as long as you are at peace with the aggressor, and there are no gaps in your blockade, the race will not cross your blockade. you may have to open it up every now and then to allow minor race ships to come and go.

this takes a long time to build, but i have got my minor racr trade profit up to almost 3000bc a month. you just have to keep killing trade routes and start a new one. eventually you will really start raking in the money. and you still get to beat the snot out of all of the major races. plus your other ships can use this starbase backbone to cross a gigantic galaxy in just a few turns. we're talking super highway.

you CANT go broke on small map. he's obviously speaking of large maps

(well, in thery you could go broke on small maps if you play really insanly badly... that would deserve its own medal)

all that talk about economic research is a bit pointless too. if you're at that point, you obviously didn't get broke, did you ? the usual problem is starting up... it's easy to get broke... just colonize every planet on sight and build factories and research centers like a maniac... you WILL run out of money and face a -1000bc/turn at maximum taxe rate (80% ?) with all planet having negative pop growth... sweet ... a dead end...

****Here is what the usual problem is***

At 33% a 5 billion planet give you 17bc and cost you 12bc just for colony maintenance plus extra for production and research. there is also a bug that cause the social production to be charged even when building nothing (at least was there in 1.2, couldn't figure if its fixed yet... didn't seem to be)

It's a no brainer that it's very easy to get broke, since the population of a starting colony is very low. with a single colony module (typical fast speed colony, the standard model come with 2 module, if you take one out and put more drive you outrun the competition) ... so I was saying, if you start with a full colony module, it takes 20 turn to reach 1 billion, after which the optimal growth is .25/turn (max morale) it's still another delay before you reach 5b. in fact you need a farm, and usually somewhere above 8b to reach break-even on most colony, from population alone

your problem is obviously morale

here is some data that can help you

planet quality affect morale (a lot)
>> colonize big planets first, the small ones never get big, if you surround them and the enemy colonize they will get absorbed. especially true for all those size 5 planet

exception: colonizing a full sector give an influence bonus. so if there are only two planets in a sector, it may be worth to colonize it to strengthen your influence. also, you don't want your size 37 (yes, 37) planet to be surrounded by enemy planets and rebel against you ...

morality affect both morale and planet quality !!!
neutral race get a big morale bonus, that tech (morality) also give you access to the crystal achievement (trade goods) which give a +20 moral on all your planets
neutral races also get all upgrade tiles availlable immedialetly.... see... I wasn't kidding... size 37 planet indeed

>> morality is an early research target, but after you got some speed drive research done


racial habilities:
planet quality: +20% - this is more important than max morale bonus !
there are tons of morale ressources out there, tons of morale galactic achievements, and as stated before, planet quality DOES GENERATE A MORALE BONUS... a multiplicative one in fact, if you check the formulas
moarale bonus: the 2 remaining points give you +25
political part: your choice, a +10 morale is availlable, I prefer +20 economic, but I might try different next time... just because morale is so critical early on

money and population growth:
morale at 100% give you 2x the pop growth
using transport to ferry population from high pop planet to low pop planet will both raise morale and help pop growth. remember the 20 turn to reach 1 billion... you can make this 20 turn go down to zero with transports. it also allow you to build colonies with very few peoples (250m ? or even less... so you don't shrink your planets) while using transport for the actual population transport

greed: don't be greedy !
I mean two things.
don't go full research on production/research/commerce/etc right away.
the basic facilities are ultra cheap and ultra fast to build. try to finish your colonisation and planet setup first. that way planet are unproductive... but hey ! production cost money... so this is a bessing ! it allow you to build a setup that look like this

starport (buy, it's only 152bc)
3 factory (nice number, more for capitals and military starport)
1 farm
1 entertainment
3 commerce
1 embassy (+% accross the galaxy.... nice... get some tourism, big influence, absorb planets)

if you're in a thought spot, setup the worst planets like this:
1 starport
1 farm
1 entertainment

once you're all set with that and the economy goes right, research production first, followed up by trade and then research. don'tt worry you get 1-2 years before the badies look at you - after that it's time for the big diplomatic squeeze

early on (before all that production/rsearch/trade thingy), all research should
be geared toward speed: ship drives, miniaturization, logistic/range.
your goal is to spread and strengthen pockets of your civilisations through the galaxy. target the really big planet first.

How do you target those big planets?
you DONT build colony ships early on.
you DONT colonize the planet next door.

instead you start with the custom race, remove the hyperdrive tech (2 turn to research at 100%) and add sensors. buy some factory (cheap) while you build so really fast custom designed survey ship. you will have a fleet of scouts, you will find the planets first, you will grab all the anomalies for big $$$ and big %%%.

here is the secret: you build colonies when you find those planets. now they will grow, you will transport peoples there. you CAN upgrade at any time your scout (survey) ship to get faster drives OR you can upgrade them and turn them into transport or colonies (very cheap) and back to scout if needed. or turn them into deadly vulture and kill enemy constructors/colonies/freghter/etc or even turn them into contructor (lol that's a dirty trick ! but very realistic... why engineer couldn't do that, hey ?)

speed speed speed.... $$$$

those are some good points. i do most of them, but never really thought about it. i always colonize the best planets first. also, the gradual step up for research is a good point. i will hold off on morale and factory research simply because of the reason that the newer ones take so much longer. when i go all out on moral buildings, i end up in trouble. that also gives you time to research trade and diplomacy techs to keep the other races from wanting to kill you.