Jul 20th 2014, 16:09:53
Hi Celphi, the game is fine. Any respectable casher will tell you that a good casher will eventually get res/bus to 176%-178% before stocking starts.
And any respectable farmer will get their Agri to 238%, AND res/bus to 170-172%, meaning the farmer will eventually buy more tech points.
Likewise, a Commie will get to 156% Indy, and also bus/res to 170-172%. Of course the Indy tech has a higher priority as it is the main production tech, but that bus/res techs are really important, as well, at 170-172%, the indy typically has positive income until the last 300-400 turns of the reset. If the indy is making +$2m per turn, compared to another one making -$4 a turn, that is a $6m difference over 400 turns, or 2.4b, which is easily about 10m NW difference. (Numbers here closer to those found on Primary, instead of Express).
But the game isn't about who buys more tech points, it's about maximizing the output of your own country, buying the tech costs money, but the result is that over the remainder turns of the reset, the returns are larger than the cost of buying said tech. The tech itself gives 2 NW per tech point, which is another factor that some players ignore, and this needs to be accounted for.
For example, let's say I calculate that to buy 300k more tech points, I need to spend 600m dollars. In return, the extra tech only yields me 500m extra cash back over the rest of the reset. You can claim it is a loss and the tech isn't worth buying. I'll tell you right away that tech is worth buying, because the net effect is "you used 100m dollars to buy 600k NW, that is $166/NW, far cheaper than any unit that you will ever buy from any market, public or private. And it is 600k NW that doesn't cost any food or cash upkeep. And it is 600m dollars less stockpile you need to stock in cash or food form, so it is 600m dollars that doesn't decay or depreciate with market prices.
You cannot logically compare a farmer against a casher, in the manner you did, and assume that both countries should logically have only the same amount of tech points, because their production parameters are different.
And any respectable farmer will get their Agri to 238%, AND res/bus to 170-172%, meaning the farmer will eventually buy more tech points.
Likewise, a Commie will get to 156% Indy, and also bus/res to 170-172%. Of course the Indy tech has a higher priority as it is the main production tech, but that bus/res techs are really important, as well, at 170-172%, the indy typically has positive income until the last 300-400 turns of the reset. If the indy is making +$2m per turn, compared to another one making -$4 a turn, that is a $6m difference over 400 turns, or 2.4b, which is easily about 10m NW difference. (Numbers here closer to those found on Primary, instead of Express).
But the game isn't about who buys more tech points, it's about maximizing the output of your own country, buying the tech costs money, but the result is that over the remainder turns of the reset, the returns are larger than the cost of buying said tech. The tech itself gives 2 NW per tech point, which is another factor that some players ignore, and this needs to be accounted for.
For example, let's say I calculate that to buy 300k more tech points, I need to spend 600m dollars. In return, the extra tech only yields me 500m extra cash back over the rest of the reset. You can claim it is a loss and the tech isn't worth buying. I'll tell you right away that tech is worth buying, because the net effect is "you used 100m dollars to buy 600k NW, that is $166/NW, far cheaper than any unit that you will ever buy from any market, public or private. And it is 600k NW that doesn't cost any food or cash upkeep. And it is 600m dollars less stockpile you need to stock in cash or food form, so it is 600m dollars that doesn't decay or depreciate with market prices.
You cannot logically compare a farmer against a casher, in the manner you did, and assume that both countries should logically have only the same amount of tech points, because their production parameters are different.