Money down the Drain!

[ImKyleJames]

I have played 2 very fun campaigns in DLV 5.4 Fun, yes, but done no. I was forced, both times, to retire. Now that's not a problem, I dont mind losing, but something kept bugging me.

I was playing as Flanders (god help me ) and was doing fine till the Dark Ages came around and lost everything but Palma (my crusades launchpad and den for crusaders on the way back). I was happy, content, gonna go and do a few invasions once I got ready but thing is.. I was losing 10k a turn, easy. All I had was 1 city, 2 free garrisons and 2 generals. I got a gift from the pope and nobles in 2 consecutive turns and I thought I was SO READY TO LIVE ON MY ISLAND! Thing is.. 2 turns later and without spending Anything, it was gone. From there on out, no matter how many turns went by I couldn't get my money past 2k to build my next building. The ONLY thing I can think of is that there was this one general, my 2nd one, trapped in upper france. Trapped? Well could only move on the road and that bastard wouldn't die. Well, one general up in france, trapped by lack of supplies.. does he cost, alone, 10k a turn!? Or more? All I know is 30k dissapeared for seemingly no reason and there was nothing I could to, 20 turns later, to get above 3k to build my next building. I was playing on VH/VH, might be why. Same thing with Hungary. I got in debt doing an attack on a rebel city. Went in debt like 20k. So, working back up it says I make 4k a turn, sweet!!! Well, actually, every turn I gained about 400 toward my debt. UGH?? No units were outside my cities.. the heck is wrong? A blackhole in my vault?

Note, I was making 2k kings purse and 1800 a turn for tributes so that's about 4k a turn with slight tax and farms and those two. Still.. I was making more than i was losing, big time, but still not making anything. Any way the full costs of things would show on my financial report? invisible charges, of 10k or more, kinda stinks!

[gubbs]

Finance can be a pain. All you have to do is edit the settings though ..
I find toning down the cost of armies in the field slightly, and the rather ott expense adjustments for growing settlements helps.

DLV is all about finding your balance .. if you don't like it, tweak it a bit.

Also, just a tip, but playing on V/H campaign means the AI will spawn huge armies much faster than you are able to.

I play on Hard/Hard without garrison script and find it much more realistic.

[Furin]

The funny thing is once you have some developed cities you get more money than you can possibly spend due to the new buildings. Venice alone (the city) can make up to 30.000 florins and more with developed infrastructure and a civ general. I find it hard to avoid becoming super rich at some point in a campaign.

Perhaps it is possible to change the player treasury effecting factors in a way that the hit to the treasury is smaller in earlier turns than in later ones. Or perhaps instead of taking away fixed amounts of money as now, deducting a percentage of the players treasury (if treasury is positive). And if your treasury is negative it automatically triggers the moneylender event and if you don't accept your generals will get bad traits (hungry, poor, rebellous, badly equipped, whatever).

[Tilarium]

Finance can be a pain. All you have to do is edit the settings though ..
I find toning down the cost of armies in the field slightly, and the rather ott expense adjustments for growing settlements helps.

Which file is this? They money situation is annoying for me to, not as bad as the OP, but enough. Cut the costs to have armies in the field, agents in the field, and to seige a settlement...

[ImKyleJames]

Thanks for the input guys, it puts it all in perspective. Gubbs, I'll try H/VH tonight and see how the world feels, also about not having a garrison, I do like it and all, but without it you're guananteed to take like Cairo and whatnot without a fight every time.

Furin, ya I like the idea, what sorts of settings do you use for your game? I'd like to emulate them a bit if you have some cool things handy.

[Furin]

I haven't changed anything moneywise in my campaign script (yet ) but I will post my ideas in the devs suggestion section. Seeing all people terribly busy with ongoing projects (and tons of them) I wouldn't expect a quick change though.

[Sammich]

Is there no chance of simply listing the expenses? Maybe in a popup window like those @#$@! royal hunt messages I get 3 of per turn. I dont mind paying for my units but not knowing where $1000s goes every turn makes it hard to plan a strategy. Am I going to be flush with cash or am I going to be in the red? As things are now my strategy planning begins as soon as I see how much $ I have that round instead of planning 4 or 5 turns ahead like I should be.
Any input on this is appreciated. I do not mean to complain but this mod is so good except for a couple nagging things, your treasury disappearing without a trace being one of them. Upset nobles earning bad traits due to your disappearing treasury is the icing on the cake though. Insult to injury

Cheers

[Rex Inanimatus]

There must be some hidden costs even with all units and generals stacked in city or castle and no diplomats or other characters it still burns 600 a turn, does anyone know why?

[Xtiaan72]

Spies and Priests have a small cost associated with them as well. That cost also goes up when you are on enemy territory.

[Rex Inanimatus]

Spies and Priests have a small cost associated with them as well. That cost also goes up when you are on enemy territory.

That is well known but i took a test drive with no characters [spies dips etc.] and never seen no money taken. Always at least 400 . My big suspect is generals in a castle [not in a fort] or even worse you pay two times the wages of your generals. Can someone of the scripters confirm this?

[Furin]

You guys are forgetting one feature here, which is also described in the faqs, the growth balance script is taking away money from the player for each settlement based on it's development level by default.

For example: (i have made some code bold for easier viewing)

monitor_event SettlementTurnEnd FactionIsLocal
        and SettlementType city
        and SettlementBuildingExists = wooden_pallisade
    console_command add_money -100
    end_monitor
    monitor_event SettlementTurnEnd FactionIsLocal
        and SettlementType city
        and SettlementBuildingExists = wooden_wall
    console_command add_money -200
    end_monitor
    monitor_event SettlementTurnEnd FactionIsLocal
        and SettlementType city
        and SettlementBuildingExists = stone_wall
    console_command add_money -400
    end_monitor

So if you want to change that you can adjust it in your campaign script file, located in the consecutive campaign folder (imperial, no garrison , vanilla)
You should take into consideration though that every change you make does take away from the basic concept of DLV though, being harder than the vanilla game and more challenging.

Edit: One way to see what costs you have right now, is saving your game, then gifting all your money to a faction, then hit end turn and you will see exactly how much you go into negative. then you can reload and act accordingly. Granted that isn't a very handy method but it works...

[Xtiaan72]

The money scripts don't really bother me, I think they are needed especially for experienced players.

[ImKyleJames]

Right on Rex, I too love the difficulty but while having only 1 city, two generals and 2 free garrisons, I lost 10k a turn, I know that. It's like.. the game gave me that bonus, the 20k and was like oooo crap no we can't let him have that, so we'll take it away. I went like 40 turns just to make sure, and yes, with just palma and those 2 generals I never made it above 3k.

[Rex Inanimatus]

Right on Rex, I too love the difficulty but while having only 1 city, two generals and 2 free garrisons, I lost 10k a turn, I know that. It's like.. the game gave me that bonus, the 20k and was like oooo crap no we can't let him have that, so we'll take it away. I went like 40 turns just to make sure, and yes, with just palma and those 2 generals I never made it above 3k.

unfortunately we're still in the dark about the debets, though since i played a lot of campaigns just go for the debths. Almost every turn you end with red figures something positive happens...