Quietus' Rome: Total War Guide

[Quietus]

III. ECONOMICS

1. Introduction
2. Maintenance
3. Taxation
4. Farms
5. Trade
6. Mining
7. Misc. Factors (Rebels, Governors, Trade Rights etc...)

A. Introduction: Each turn, incomes and costs are calculated.

Sources of Incomes

• Continuous income: Trade, Taxes, Farming, Mining
• Negotiated income: Tributes, Single Payment.

Sources of Costs:

• Continuous costs: Governor, Military and Agent wages, Games & Corruption.
• Negotiated costs: Tributes, Bribes, Single Payment.

B. Maintenance: Costs and upkeep.

Wages & Military Upkeep –Wages and Upkeep are based on your settlement population ratio vs. the total population.

Example:
Settlement A has 10% of the total population, then
Settlement A pays 10% of aggregate governor wages, and
Settlement A pays 10% of total agent wages, also
Settlement A pays 10% of total army upkeep.

This refutes a popular misconception that taking in a new city reduces income. The game simply re-distributes the costs. The income pie is bigger but the distribution of cost is different. Adding a new settlement ALWAYS result in an increase of income.

Example:
You have 10 provinces. The costs will be distributed 10 ways.
You have 11 provinces. The costs will be distributed 11 ways.
However, the cost is constant, since you've only added a city.

Entertainment Buildings –gladiatorial games and races can be staged Yearly, Monthly, or Daily. Only the base yearly games differ in happiness effect/public order bonus:

Base Public Order Bonus:

• Arena = +5%;
• Amphitheater = +10%;
• Colisseum = +15%

Example:
Arena:

• Yearly Games – No upkeep incurred. Effect = + 5% public order (Base).
• Monthly Games – 400 denari per turn upkeep. Effect = Base + 20% public order
• Daily Games – 400 denari per turn upkeep. Effect = Base + 30% public order.

C. Taxation:

Taxation – (Big thx to therother for plotting ALL those numbers for the linear graphs just to get the equations).

There are four (4) Tax Levels: Each depending on the population (and Game setting difficulty).
where P = Population #, and T = Tax
* the first Tax Level comprise of three subset tax levels. (thx to Zhuge for this). To make the table simple, it is combined to a single level.

The Difficulty Level Adjustment factors are multiplied to the Normal Tax value depending on what difficulty you are playing.

These set of linear discoveries by therother is another reason why it is important to occupy instead of exterminate. Not only do more people mean more taxes, but more people meant higher tax levels as well.

D. Farming –

Farming Income –Farming income is based on farming levels, e.g. Land clearance, Communal farming, Crop rotation, Irrigation, Latifundia and Harvest (Poor to Excellent).

Upgrades depend on the harvests, which can vary from turn to turn:
Poor Harvest = + 64-65 denari when upgraded.
Average Harvest = + 68 denari when upgraded.
Excellent Harvest = +73-74 denari when upgraded

Upgrading: (see above).
Level 0 (Base farming value) – Depends on Settlement and Harvests.
Level 1 ( Land clearance) – Depends on Harvests.
Level 2 ( Communal farming) – Depends on Harvests
Level 3 (Crop Rotation) – Depends on Harvests
Level 4 ( Irrigation) – Depends on Harvests
Level 5 (Latifundia) – Depends on Harvest

Only the base values differ in each province.

Devastation – is deducted based on damaged farming area (tile). Each tile damaged is equal to 10% of farming income. Thus, the more tiles damaged the more income is deducted. Devastation is caused by enemy armies sitting on a tile for at least 2 turns. More tests are need to quantify how long they last and peripheral tile damages incurred after more than 2-turn devastation.

Example:
Settlement A farming income = 100 denari
Devastation Value = 40 denari
Tiles devastated = 40 denari (1 tile devastated/10% of 100 denari) = 40 denari(1 tile/10 denari) = 4 tiles devasted

E. Trade:

Trading Income –Trading income is divided into three parts: Land Export/Import, Sea Imports and Sea Exports. They are affected by different factors such as number of natural resources, trade buildings, road types, port type, governor traits and retinues, blockades, and rebels sitting along your routes.

Land Export/Import – It is lumped into one inseparable income. Thus it is difficult to harness specific equations for this.

Roads – Roads ONLY affect the land trade of the settlement from where it originated. Roads neither affect Sea Exports or Imports.


Land trade bonus affects only the originating city where it was constructed. Land and Sea Export trade can also be disrupted (see Economics>Rebels/Bandits/Brigands).

(In my test, only 3 of 5 got the increase, the two lowest values didn’t increase. There maybe a) a distance limit how far a highway upgrade is effective (the two farthers didn’t get a boost) or b) only a fraction of the land trades get a boost (3 of the 5 were the highest values). Neither sea exports nor imports were affected by the upgrade. Currently, I’m leaning towards choice a).)

Sea Trade –Sea trade is divided into 2 parts: Sea Exports and Sea Imports.

Sea Imports – Sea import income is ALWAYS 20% of the exporter income.

Example:
Settlement A has a 100 denari export income for exporting to Settlement B;
Settlement B gets 20 denari Sea Import income as a result.

This is regardless of roads, trade buildings, ports, governors or any other factors that are involved in the trade. There can be possible limits to this relationship (see Sea Import Routes).

Sea Exports –The exact equation to figure out its value is still unknown. However, they are obviously affected by trade buildings.

Ports – The types of port can affect your Sea Export income, not Sea Importation income. Each port corresponds to a number of routes. Each route correspond to a provinces involved in a trade.

• Fishing Village: 0 Trade route (but can receive imports).
• Port: 1 Trade route
• Shipwright: 2 Trade routes
• Dockyard: 3 Trade routes.

Sea Exports Routes – You can see them by which directions the trade ships are moving. Trades are automatically picked by the computer, depending how many export routes are available.

Factors:

• Distance between trading cities. No exact values have been determines thus far.
• The Population of exporting cities. More population mean more export income.

Sea Import Routes – You can see them by which directions the trade ships are moving. There are instances that Sea Import income isn’t being reported, despite a Sea Export to that settlement is being reported in another town. Thus, there may be some cap that limits how much can be imported by a town. Unlike, sea exports where the number of routes are determined by port type, this is not so in sea imports. More tests will be needed.

Trade Buildings – You need to progressively build them to increase trade. There will be a base trade value even without a trader.

In lower values, it is hard to pinpoint a good narrow range due to unexplained fluctuations when doing tests on small incomes (see Trade Fluctuations). Every turn, while building, I check all the individual trade incomes of the test settlements. A tiny, 1 denari fluctuations can actually alter a good percentage when testing for Level 1 & 2 upgrades since not all incomes concurrently fluctuate. Thus, so far, these are the values I come up with using Roman trade buildings:

• Level 0 (Base trade value)
• Level 1 (Trader) – Land based trades increase by 8.1% (see Trade Fluctuations)
• Level 2 (Market) – Land based trades increase by 8.0% (see Trade Fluctuations)
  
• Level 3 (Forum) – Land based trades get a ~ 8.2% increase from Market.
• Level 4 (Great Forum) – Land based trades get +7.5-7.8%;
• Level 5 (Curia) – Land based based trades get +5.4-5.6%

• Level 0 Base (Base Trade Value)
• Level 1 (Trader) – Sea Exports increase of
• Level 2 (Market) – Sea Export increase of
• Level 3 (Forum) – Sea Export increase of
• Level 4 (Great Forum) – Sea Exports increase of +7.9%
• Level 5 (Curia) – Sea Exports increase of +5.5-5.8%

I’ve done retests and the levels still vary. However, the general increase is around same range..

Damaged Trade Buildings – Damaged trade buildings will lose its effect until the building is repaired completely.

F. Mining:

Mining – Mining is lucrative in that you can earn from these twice: a) from the mining gold or silver itself and b) from trading the silver or gold that is being mined.

Silver Mine = 200 denari per turn.
Silver Mine +1 = 350 denari per turn.
Gold Mine = 300 denari per turn.
Gold Mine +1 = 525 denari per turn.

Mining +1 increases mining income by an additional 75%. Mining upgrade does not increase trade in any way. You can get governor traits that increase mining income.

Mining Retinues – Settlements with mines must have Mining bonus retinues. A Mining Engineer gives an extra 25% bonus.

G. Miscellaneous Factors:there are other factors that affect your general income.

Negotiated Incomes – These are incomes that derive from negotiations with other factions. (see Strategic Map>Selling Maps, >Protectorates, >Tributes).

Rebels/Bandits/Brigands – Rebels will frequently pop-up in your territory along your trade routes.

Effects of Rebels on trades:

• Reduces land trade of the affected route from 1/3 to ½ to 2/3 (33%-50%-67%). From observations, the closer the Rebels are to the affected settlement, the higher their effect. Rebels must be sitting atop a road to affect the land trade.
• Reduces Sea Exports by 1/3 (33.3%). Unlike land trades, Rebels DO NOT have to be on the road to affect income; they simply have to be within the territory of the affected settlement.

Need more tests:

• If cities share the same roads, only a single land route (with the highest trade value) is affected.
• land trades on simple roads are not disrupted even if it is connected to a highway originating from a trading partner.

Governors – Governors affect trade income by virtue of retinues or traits. The effect can be negative or positive.

Trade Rights – trade rights increase Sea Export income by 50% when trading with the particular faction. Your trading partner will also get a 50% Sea Export increase which translate to a corresponding Sea Import increase to you (since Sea Import = 20%Sea Export; see Sea Imports). Land trade increases by 3 fold (300%). It is possible that different variables can change this percentage.

Corruption – is the leading income cutter in the game. This is due to the fact that it is omniscient with relation to increasing distance to capital.

The farther the settlement is from the capital, the higher your percentage of corruption relative to the settlement’s income. There is also a grace distance where there are no corruption penalties. You can observe this where your Capital’s neighbor doesn’t incur any corruption penalties. (Thx to therother for all of these).

From therother’s linear graph data: (note grace distance of ~16 tiles w/o corruption;and ~68% seem to be the ceiling where the percentage will not go any higher).

Law buildings also reduce corruption penalties. (Thx to Soulflame for this idea). Via tests, their canceling effect appears to be 1:1 linear to that of corruption, thus 10% law will knock off 10% corruption.

More specifically, the amount of corruption reduced is based on (0.3 x Gross Income) for every tier of Law Temple you construct in your settlement, where Gross Income = sum of all income of your settlement before costs are deducted.(Thx to Zhuge for this equation).

In Zhuge’s Example:

Settlement A has Gross Income = 1300 denari and Corruption value = 338 denari. If you construct a level 1 Law Temple,

0.3 x Gross income = Corruption penalty (in denari) removed per level of Law Temple.
0.3 x 1300 denari = 39 denari. Thus,

Initial Corruption value – Corruption penalty removed = Resultant Corruption value
338 denarie – 39 denari = 299 denari.

Building a Level 2 Law Temple decreases corruption by another 39 denari and so on.

Learning Centers –Academies can bestow your Governor retinues or traits that factor in your income. Lists of retinues and traits will be forthcoming.

Trade Fluctuations – There is an inherent, unavoidable phenomenon in RTW where trade incomes can rise by increments of 1 denari for no reason at all. I suspect, every time the computer calculates a trade value, it gets rounded up. Not every values rise simultaneously though and in rare occasions, trade actually diminishes by 1 denari. In other rare occasions, it can rise by 2 denari for no visible reason at all.

Blockades – because the AI never seem to blockade ports it is difficult to assess. I may have to buy a port that is being blockade to find out. I will look for an appropriate situation.(find blockade penalty).

Blinking Icons – Blinking icons are limited to pre-patched games and has been fixed by CA.