~Fix'n the Money Script~

[Danzifuge]

Can anyone direct me to the lines of script i should edit/delete in order to remove the awful weight of debt that the game starts the human player in. This weight is slowly eased over time, but seems to serve no purpose. If i do nothing to help this debt situation, it still just magically disappers after a year or so. What's the point in having this effect in the game anyway? It's like you start the game in anarchy. Conquering cities, just makes the whole process take longer as you get to rule more cities that are losing you -2000/turn initially. And then I have to garrison 3-4 units to keep the city happy while at the same time I'm unable to replace these units (because I'm already -8000 in debt the 2nd or 3rd turn) to take on the onslaught of the uber-rich ai. I hate the idea that I can't build anything for the first year or so, because I just have to wait out this idiotic debt process.

EDIT: after coming to find out there is no line of script for this... i pose a new question: Does anyone have any advice on what buildings/strategies are key to survival in this game?

[LorDBulA]

Can anyone direct me to the lines of script i should edit/delete in order to remove the awful weight of debt that the game starts the human player in.

There is no such thing.

Most factions starts with standing army that your economy cant sustain.
You have 2 choices. Disband most of your troops to much your army size to your economy or use your army to expand to boost up your economy.

Check out Financial scroll. It will tell you how much money you are earning and how much you are spending ( also on military ).

If your spendings are bigger then your earnings then your treasury will get smaller and smaller every turn. After you hit 0 mark your spending will be financed by dept.

This is just how economy works.

[d'Arthez]

There is no faction that starts in debt. You can end up in debt, as a result of not disbanding huge parts of your army. To give an example: Lusotannan have 1.5 stack combined, and only 1 city). It would be vanilla to expect that one city would make enough money to field those stacks. The alternative would be to start without the military in its entirity. I can't see how that is more exciting or even realistic.

Conquered cities don't lose you money. Don't rely on what the game displays to make that judgment. They may cost you more than the garrison (unlikely at the start of the game), but they bring taxes and trade.

Just don't sit on your stacks. Use them or disband them. Unless you are playing with the Seleukids, I can't even possibly see how you would need to use 3 or 4 units to garrison a conquered city.

Easiest way to "solve" your needs for money is simply use the add_money cheat.

[Danzifuge]

a couple of things.

i don't start out in debt, but it doesnt take but one or two turns and i will be. ive tried 3 different factions so far (epirus, macedon, getai) and they all start with -600 to -2000 income for cities. its not until i am in debt, that theses number starts to drop. so what? does the game help you out when you're in debt? and if i get back out of debt (because the game's helping me), i'm assuming the help will stop and i get a chance to build one or two economic buildings and bam i'm back in debt. sounds like fun. all the while, i havent had the money to rebuild my military, so even though i've won three consecutive battles, i get demolished by an enemy who obviously gets more money assistance than me because he still looks pretty healthy. am i getting this right?

so far, everyones been telling me the same thing: disband my army and build up economy or conquer. i'll be honest, i havent tried the first option yet. because the two factions i'm interested in playing, epirus and macedon, are at war with everybody around them. so this just isn't conceivable. how exactly conquest is supposed to help me, i don't understand either, when every city i conquer only nets me a whopping -2000. yippee.

sorry if i repeat myself. sorry if i sound bitchy. but i really was looking forward to this mod but i'm starting to think my only option is to mod a more financially suitable infrastructure so most of the factions don't start out headed for the shitter. and i know next to nothing about modding. too bad rome total realism still isnt updated to 1.5 yet.

[Tellos Athenaios]

Relax: take some advice when you get it.

Here's something: if you are not into naval warfare yet, you might consider disbanding every fleet you have (usually enough for 2k less expenses per turn) ? And cities don't lose you income: the rather retarded RTW way of displaying is that of 'relative' income. I.e.: a city has a size X and therefore is expected to pay one in X minai of all your expenses. So the big cities get to pay for nearly half your empire pretty quick. New cities can be enslaved/exterminated to get some cash flow quickly too...

And another thing: Epeiros starts with Elephants. Nice looking animals and all that, but not really good for your coffers. Avoid building up stuff if you don't want to abandon your army early on: you can only afford one way of expanding at a time. (Therefore making it nearly impossible to keep on steamrollering every single faction on the map as oppossed to Vanilla RTW...)

[mcantu]

danzifuge,

as a point of reference, i'm currently in a Getai campaign in EB 1.x and it took me about 30 years to get out of debt at the beginning. At one point I was -40000. I am currently 40 years in and am +43000...

[woad&fangs]

As has been said, you have two options.

1. disband army and turtle until you can afford an army.

2. take your starting armies and attack the nearest settlement or two then disband army down to garrison levels.

I always chose option number 1 when I started playing EB because I was a hardcore turtler. That got boring very quickly but then I chose to play with the epeirotes. They were obviously geared for 1 thing and 1 thing only. To march around Greece and Italy slaughtering everything in their path. I escaped debt pretty quickly by following three easy steps.

1. take your army from Taras and invade Arpi. Destroy everything in those two cities, disband your army in italy, and wait for the Romans to conquer them.

2. Disband your navy. It's expensive and rather useless now that you've abandoned the italian front.

3. Take Phyrros and his elephants to the nearest Makedonian city and attack it that same turn. The Makedonian royal tombs in Pella give you a lot of money if you want to destroy those. You can now disband your ellies or if your like me you can set them near the enemy and learn the hard way that most EB units have javelins.

That was my first "succesful" campaign with EB.

[Danzifuge]

@tellos
i really didnt want to enslave/exterminate my enemies (just the ones on the battlefield), but i guess i have to. i figured that option would reduce public order even more than usual and require me to station more troops and build up more public order buildings, reducing my income further.
@woad.
isn't that kind of a drastic strategy for epirus? i really thought i could hang on to the cities i have, instead of selling off all buildings and abandoning italy. if i do use this strategy, can i manage to maintain a campagin in macedon and build up my infrastructure at the same time? probably not, but just curious. this game's economic buildings cost a heck of a lot and do very little (in the beginning, at least). i'll try your strategy and let you know, as it is better than facing the romans early on. i was feeling pretty good having kicked the macedonians up and down the coast and then the romans totally kicked my ass in taras with their heavy infantry and heavy cavalry loaded armies.