[eMod] Takao21 Tax Mod

Something needs to be done in order to justify the tax slider's existence, currently there is rarely any point ever having it anywhere but Low (except very occasionally, usually early game, where you have enough money from other sources such as starting gold or selling items and can survive on None).

I'm not convinced your numbers are perfect but I do agree it needs work.

Good Morning

I have not yet tried the following system, but most certainly plan to try your attempt at the tax system as well as mine before coming to any conclusive descisions. All I do know is that the current system is flawed....and stays at 40% tax all game, every game.

Name            TaxRate           Unrest

Free Spirited      10%             16%
Low                   20%             19%
Normal              30%             24%
High                  50%             40%
Brutal                70%             64%
Oppressive         90%             96%

My numbers are based on the formula:

y = (x^2)/100

which results in a quadratic curve meaning that the higher your linear tax rate becomes, the steeper the slope becomes for unrest penalty. My thoughts were to have the unrest values a little higher than the norm, but this can always be changed by reducing each unrest by the same value (exmple: 5%) if it does turn out to be too difficult or squeeze the AI too much.

Since the game (and thereby AI) generally expect 40% tax as the norm, I'm hoping my 30% or 50% options make it difficult to choose where you want to have your tax sit, only granting you some better rates once you get your unrest under control, and only allowing you to switch back again if you've placed a focus on reducing unrest.

Like I said....haven't tried it yet, but definately plan to.

@GFireflyE

I like that curve.

But the way you have the bottom 2... with only 3% difference between Free Spirited and Low I don't think you'd ever use Free Spirited.  

Yeah, that was one of my initial concerns, but since I never tried it out, I couldn't speak to it yet...

In order to address this, it might be prudent to linearize the curve on the low end.

The result could be as follows:

Name            TaxRate           Unrest             Difference

Free Spirited      10%             8%                   
Low                   20%             16%                16 - 8 = 8
Normal              30%             24%                24 - 16 = 8
High                  50%             40%                40 - 24 = 16
Brutal                70%             64%                64 - 40 = 24
Oppressive         90%             96%                96 - 64 = 32

In this example, the difference of 'next' - 'previous' is always 8% greater than the one before with the exception of the first two are are linear.

I'm a little uncertain as to the unrest penalty in this example. I think it's too low at the bottom end of the curve and thus will be too tempting to just leave it low and play around tax. Since the cap still must be 100% unrest, perhaps the difference needs to be compressed (example 6%):

Name            TaxRate           Unrest             Difference

Free Spirited      10%             6%                   
Low                   20%             12%                12 - 6 = 6
Normal              30%             24%                24 - 12 = 12
High                  50%             42%                42 - 24 = 18
Brutal                70%             66%                66 - 42 = 24
Oppressive         90%             96%                96 - 66 = 30

 However, as I was playing with this, I just felt that the top end of the curve was too steep, resulting in never wanting to go near those upper level unrest penalties. In addition, the more you compress the curve, the easier it is to just stay at the bottom and work your way around gaining gilder.

This also bears the assuptions that the game (and AI) expects in some fashion for the bottom to be in the 10% realm and the ceiling to be in the 98% realm.

K...back from trip. Now I have the game in front of me.

After some serious delibertation, I believe I will be trying out this one:

Name            TaxRate           Unrest             Difference

Free Spirited      10%             8%                   
Low                   20%             16%                16 - 8 = 8
Normal              30%             24%                24 - 16 = 8
High                  50%             40%                40 - 24 = 16
Brutal                70%             64%                64 - 40 = 24
Oppressive         90%             96%                96 - 64 = 32

Reasons for this are as follows. Currently in the game, you set to Low/40%tax/22%unrest for the entire game. Presumably the new method should fall within this range so that the AI doesn't get screwed up and so that the player is still able to build his economy under the underlying priniciples and existing balance in the game. You can choose being Normal/30%tax/24%unrest (which is worse than the original by a shy margin) or High/50%tax/40%unrest which is quite a bit more difficult to achieve. I think in the end this will make for a more difficult game resulting in less gold.

What I'm worried about is how the AI will handle it. Do they set priorities dependant on specific tax settings? Does the AI know how to toggle through different tax settings and choose the best one?

Good Morning again

So, I've been playing with the tax settings above, started two games now, and in both cases it appears like the AI is unable to get off the ground. Is there a default level that all AI plays at? (what I am thinking is that there is and it is a 'Low' where as in the original, 'low' is 40% tax and in mine it's only 20% tax so the result is that the AI is being stagnated.) Am I correct with this assumption?