What causes income to plummet?

**Tony Furze** · 06-16-2006, 09:43

I ve conquered a pretty large slice of the campaign map as the Spanish (only on easy).

Basically I ve avoided fiddling around with the Pope by Crusading.Now there s no one left to Crusade against. The Italians are being a pain spoiling for a fight. I sank a few of their ships to free up trade and got excommunicated for "unChristian behaviour".

Before that my income dropped-a big drop each turn. It was in the 100 000s and now is -(minus)1000 and something.

How could I have stopped it? Why is it happening?

**Matty** · 06-16-2006, 10:15

sounds like your trade has collapsed - on the campaign map press the 'v' key and the areas of sea will show up green (you have access), yellow (you have no boats) or red (you are blocked by an enemy fleet). You must have green between trading nations to enable trade.

**naut** · 06-16-2006, 10:20

Yes, most likely a trade collapse. Or you have conquered provinces that your were trading with.

**Vlad The Impala** · 06-16-2006, 10:23

Or you've built up a HUGE army in the meantime. I also don't think that your income can be in the 100,000s, or am I wrong there? o_O

**naut** · 06-16-2006, 10:33

Humm, yes a bit large. I mean you can get 15,000 from Sicily alone but I've never heard/seen 100,000 before!

**Ludens** · 06-16-2006, 12:22

If you are using auto-tax it could also have been caused by a drop in loyalty. This in turn can be caused by a drop excomunitcation, a drop in influence, ship lines being cut or by hitting the 60%-province mark.

**Tony Furze** · 06-16-2006, 17:13

Thanks,all.

Income in 1279: 129 777 florins.
I just targeted provinces with three trade goods with a Crusade (eg Tripoli,Kazar,Egypt,Constantinople) and immediately built a port and trader and began upgrading from there.

By 1357 I was down to - 13057 florins!!!

Big rise;big fall.

**Banquo's Ghost** · 06-16-2006, 19:51

Another possible explanation given your dates is the effect of the Black Death.

I can't speak for others, or whether it is actually coded, but I have always seen a big fall in income around the mid 14th century.

Maybe it's just my imagination, but all the peasants dying off has quite an effect!

**Ironside** · 06-17-2006, 08:10

Originally Posted by Banquo's Ghost

Another possible explanation given your dates is the effect of the Black Death.

I can't speak for others, or whether it is actually coded, but I have always seen a big fall in income around the mid 14th century.

Maybe it's just my imagination, but all the peasants dying off has quite an effect!

The Black Death does have a clear effect on the farming income and it's not the only event that has it. I'm not sure about the percentages and how long it takes to return the income to normal though.

**naut** · 06-17-2006, 08:27

Originally Posted by Banquo's Ghost

Another possible explanation given your dates is the effect of the Black Death.

I can't speak for others, or whether it is actually coded, but I have always seen a big fall in income around the mid 14th century.

Maybe it's just my imagination, but all the peasants dying off has quite an effect!

I usually end my campaigns by then. Wow, thats something I've learnt which is in the game.

**Banquo's Ghost** · 06-17-2006, 09:10

Originally Posted by Rythmic

I usually end my campaigns by then. Wow, thats something I've learnt which is in the game.

Apart from my first campaign, I usually play GA and try to limit expansion to encourage powerful rivals throughout the game. Since I also tend to rely on farming income more than trade (I use the XL mod a lot these days) I guess I notice the Black Death more.