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Increasing Income
In most games, the deity has established the parameters of the game in such a way that countries will not be overflowing with cash. The outcome of this is you will find yourself pinched for money to spend on various items, from technology to standing military, to happiness production. This can be a very difficult reality to face. While this article does not intend on exploring how you balance conflicting demands on your income, it will attempt to show you ways in which you can increase your income.
Make More Civilians
Obvious, right? It should be. Civilians are the mainstay of your income. Don't be satisfied with your population levels until every sector is at or above max safe civs. Keep that population breeding! If a sector is over max safe civs, and there are sectors well below max safe civs, move those civs!
Produce More UWs
This is an often overlooked area of income. No, UWs don't produce a LOT of income, but they do produce some. In a 'typical' setup, 1000 uncompensated workers will generate $1.78 in income per ETU. For a 60 ETU game, this will mean $106.80 per update. If your country has 60,000 UWs, that means $6408 in additional income each update.
Don't ignore UW growth, especially early on in the game. UWs take a long time to grow, but their benefits are numerous. See the "Understanding UWs" article for more information.
Make More Bars
Ok that seems obvious right? Well, it should be. But, too many countries ignore the dust that is sitting in less gold content sectors, passing by potential income that could make a significant difference in their countries. A mature, well developed nation should have almost no gold content in the ground. You should have mined it already and gotten the dust into banks for income production. Try doing a 'reso * ?gold<20&gold>0'. In a country of 200 sectors, it is not unusual to find enough dust to produce another two to three hundred more bars in this manner. Yeah, it's a pain having to temporarily shut down sectors to get their gold out, but it is worth it in the long run. See "Mining Depletable Resources" for some useful information about this.
Also, don't overlook the dust production of mountains. Some games have gold content in the mountains. If you get max safe civs and max safe UWs into those sectors, you can produce a trickle of gold that can also make a difference.
Build Bridges
"What???" you say? Yep. I said build bridges. In a typical game, it costs $2000 to build a bridge. But, with max safe civs and max safe UWs, that bridge can pay for itself in less than four updates. After that, it's all gravy. Ten bridges, with max safe civs and max safe UWs will produce about $6000 an update. This is especially valuable in games where EASY_BRIDGES is enabled. See the version report of the game you are in to see if it is enabled (see 'info version').
Use Tradeships
Not often seen in Empire anymore these days, tradeships can be an exceptional source of income. It takes time to build, nav, and defend them but they are very worth it. See the 'version' report and see if tradeships are enabled. If they are, use them!
Reduce Standing Military
Reserves cost money, but are significantly cheaper than active military. If you have too many soldiers on active duty, demobilize some (see 'info demob'). Their demobilization will pay for itself at the next update, and thereafter the reduction in active military adds to your bottom line. (see 'Military Reserves' in the Empire Encyclopedia)
Sell Things on the Market
Sometimes, though rarely in this day and age of Empire, the market is enabled (see 'info market'). You can sell things on that market and make a tidy profit. However, it is usually not a strong source of income, and you can't depend on it coming at the right time either.
Examples of a Strained Budget
The following budget shows a mature, well developed nation's budget. This nation was under significant financial stress and was trying to identify areas of improvement on their budget (the nation in question was Spam from Ice World IV).
The last column on the right of the first budget report was added by hand and does not appear in a normal budget report. It represents the percentage of the total budget that line of expense represents. Note that the country has a well developed population of UWs.
Sector Type Abbr Production Priority Cost % defense plant d 35 guns 1110 0.58% shell industry i 1526 shells 4833 2.51% technical center t 22 tech 44898 23.35% library/school l 910 edu 8190 4.26% refinery % 2847 petrol 301 0.16% enlistment center e 1331 mil 3993 2.08% Unit building L 11 units 5845 3.04% Unit maintenance A 76 units 3702 1.93% Ship building S 3 ships 373 0.19% Ship maintenance M 180 ships 5832 3.03% Plane building P 14 planes 3241 1.69% Plane maintenance N 226 planes 20671 10.75% Sector building 10 sct(s) 1115 0.58% Military payroll 10193 mil, 3335 res 52634 27.38% Capital maintenance 1 capital 60 0.03% Total expenses....................................................156798 Income from taxes 202245 civs, 174201 uws +82596 43.15% Income from venture capital 6150 goods +60591 31.52% Income from bars 4088 bars +49056 25.52% Total income.....................................................+192243 Balance forward 8709 Estimated delta +35445 Estimated new treasury.............................................44154
Note:
For reference, here's the same country's budget from a week before:
Sector Type Abbr Production Priority Cost defense plant d 34 guns 1110 shell industry i 1311 shells 4197 technical center t 22 tech 42754 library/school l 900 edu 8100 bank b 120 bars 1200 refinery % 1876 petrol 200 enlistment center e 1716 mil 5148 Unit building L 10 units 6345 Unit maintenance A 61 units 3049 Ship building S 1 ship 120 Ship maintenance M 190 ships 6367 Plane building P 18 planes 4617 Plane maintenance N 180 planes 18392 Sector building 4 sct(s) 500 Military payroll 9145 mil, 2449 res 46954 Capital maintenance 1 capital 60 Total expenses....................................................149113 Income from taxes 192590 civs, 118136 uws +76481 Income from venture capital 5540 goods +58071 Income from bars 3928 bars +47136 Total income.....................................................+181688 Balance forward 13430 Estimated delta +32575 Estimated new treasury.............................................46005
Notes:
Economics
Notes