mine/farm calculations wrong in the guides

[Paul02721]

i've been a long time reader but never posted before and i was going over the economics guides and i noticed something strange about the pyoff schedules for farms and mines.

One of the main things you have to remember when figuring payback is that you MUST include the years it takes to actually build the farms/mine (NOTE: you do not get the income from them the year they finish building. You start getting income the following year. I double-checked this in the game). Therefore if you have a province that has 1000 florins (base) from farming (on highest taxes) and you decide to build 20% farms (which will give a return of 200 florins) then it will take 2 years for the farms to be built plus 3 years @ 200 per year for a total of 5 years to payback your 600 florin investment.
All of my calculations are based upon Very High taxes.

I did a spreadsheet in Excel to figure out which should be built and in what order.

Here are the actual breakeven points for farms going by 100s for every farm upgrade. All years have been rounded UP because even if it is 11.1 years for payoff it still won’t be paid off until the 12th year.

Base xxxxxxxxx 20% xxxxxxx 40% xxxxxxx 60% xxxxxxxx 80%

100 xxxxxxxxx 32 xxxxxxxxx 54 xxxxxxxxx 81 xxxxxxxxx 133
200 xxxxxxxxx 17 xxxxxxxxx 29 xxxxxxxxx 44 xxxxxxxxx 71
300 xxxxxxxxx 12 xxxxxxxxx 21 xxxxxxxxx 31 xxxxxxxxx 50
400 xxxxxxxxx 10 xxxxxxxxx 17 xxxxxxxxx 25 xxxxxxxxx 40
500 xxxxxxxxx 8 xxxxxxxxx 14 xxxxxxxxx 21 xxxxxxxxx 33
600 xxxxxxxxx 7 xxxxxxxxx 13 xxxxxxxxx 19 xxxxxxxxx 29
700 xxxxxxxxx 7 xxxxxxxxx 12 xxxxxxxxx 17 xxxxxxxxx 26
800 xxxxxxxxx 6 xxxxxxxxx 11 xxxxxxxxx 16 xxxxxxxxx 24
900 xxxxxxxxx 6 xxxxxxxxx 10 xxxxxxxxx 15 xxxxxxxxx 22
1000 xxxxxxxxx 5 xxxxxxxxx 9 xxxxxxxxx 14 xxxxxxxxx 21

If you are playing GA goals and you want the most income you can from farming when the game ends then you could build every province up to 80% though 133 years to pay off on a farm is way too long if you are playing Domination.

Mines are standard. Payback for a mine is 12 years and mine complexes are 22 years.


If a province is making less than 300 florins then build the mines before upgrading to 20%.
If a province is making exactly 300 then you have your choice between mines or farms being as the payoff date is the same.
If it is making more than 300 florins then do the 20% upgrade first.

For 40% farms the magic florin number is base 630 or since there will be already a 20% farm on it the number you are looking for is 756.

For 60% farms the magic florin number is base 1260 or since there will be already a 40% farm on it the number you are looking for is 1764.

For 80% farms the magic florin number is larger than any province can produce. (it’s actually 3130 florins base/5008 upgraded LOL)

Comparing mine complexes and farm upgrades the numbers are:
For 20% farms if the output is less than 150 florins build complex 1st, 150 or more then build the 20% farms.
For 40% farms it’s 280 base/336 after 20% upgrade.
For 60% farms it’s 470 base/658 after 40% upgrade.
For 80% farms it’s 900 base/1440 after 60% upgrade.


By the way, if anyone wants a copy of my spreadsheet I’ll send it to them.

Paul

[KukriKhan]

Hello Paul02721, welcome to the Org I see you come bearing presents.

Thanks for the input. I'll make sure that info gets scrutinized soon. Cost/benefit analyses are (of course) major factors in the strategic part of the game(s).

If you don't mind, please send your spreadsheet to me jim@jimcee.com .