Great economy boost - Metsuke

[Gulatr]

This is somthing I discoverd late in my campaign as the Shimazu:

Metsuke are your secret police but they also can give you a very large bonus to the tax income from your province!

At first I thought that they only help with public order, and they do, but when I looked at the province details I was very surprised to find out that they also help raise extra tax income!

This gives you the option to use them as a sort of Governor\Yakuza Lord that make the city pay you even more tribute.

Depending on the city wealth, and the Rank and skills of the Metsuke agent, In richer cities they can help you raise as much as 500+ each season!

Am I the only one that found this feature late?

[pretorian]

No, me too. Yesterday when I played Tokugawa I discovered it. And it`s true. Metsuke gives You a lot boost to your economy. I like it very much.

[Coolguy]

Is that +500 in calculated town wealth or in actual collected taxes?

[Jack-El]

Am I the only one that found this feature late?

Probably not the only one. I didn't notice it for a while myself.

Specifically it's a 5% improvement per "oversee settlement" star. You can see it alongside all the other bonuses if you hover the mouse over the tax rate on the city management panel.

[Gulatr]

What the Metsuke raise is the %of tax per season, so 30%+ tax minus the Tax penalty of about 15%-20% was worth about 500 in pure income, I should mention that it was a province with 5000+ income (Hizen), and the Metsuke there had 5-6 in skill for overseeing a settlment.

Also your Metsuke, and any other agent, will recive 1 xp point for each season they are in a settlment.

Just look at the Province Details screen to see how much your Metsuke is helping the economy.

[Gaizokubanou]

BTW Metsuke does give 5% tax bonus per skill towards administering towns... but at the same time higher your tax rate goes, higher the administration cost penalty goes up, so 5 star Metsuke doesn't give 25% more tax in the end. With the penalty invovled the net result gets bit lower than that.

[Slaists]

BTW Metsuke does give 5% tax bonus per skill towards administering towns... but at the same time higher your tax rate goes, higher the administration cost penalty goes up, so 5 star Metsuke doesn't give 25% more tax in the end. With the penalty invovled the net result gets bit lower than that.

well, isn't the admin cost tied to the number of provinces you have? that would imply, metsuke has nothing to do with admin cost and provides you the 25% more tax

[Gaizokubanou]

well, isn't the admin cost tied to the number of provinces you have? that would imply, metsuke has nothing to do with admin cost and provides you the 25% more tax

I tested it before by moving Metsuke in and out of a province with no other change.

Without Mestuke the administration penalty was around 7%, with metsuke it was around 15.8%. It's not a Metsuke based penalty, but it's one that rises with any increase in your tax collection %.

[Slaists]

I tested it before by moving Metsuke in and out of a province with no other change.

Without Mestuke the administration penalty was around 7%, with metsuke it was around 15.8%. It's not a Metsuke based penalty, but it's one that rises with any increase in your tax collection %.

I guess, they have changed it. In the Empire, admin cost was tied to the size of the empire. I do not see much logic in the Shogun approach if that is what you say it is. It's like, "if you collect MORE in taxes you actually do not collect as much as you thought you'd collect"

[-iceblade^]

I guess, they have changed it. In the Empire, admin cost was tied to the size of the empire. I do not see much logic in the Shogun approach if that is what you say it is. It's like, "if you collect MORE in taxes you actually do not collect as much as you thought you'd collect"

I think it's because the peasants and merchants don't want to pay the tax :p

[Slaists]

I think it's because the peasants and merchants don't want to pay the tax :p

a more straight-forward way would have been just to give us a reduced tax increase... or, maybe there is a way to lower those admin costs separately (through some traits or techs).

[Gulatr]

I think it's because the peasants and merchants don't want to pay the tax :p

So people did not want to pay their taxes back then?!

Good thing that in our modern era things are diferent


On a more serius note, administration costs money, you need to pay to all the people involved in the beurocratic mechanizm.

This penalty is also helping to restrain the player from steam rolling to fast.

[Noif de Bodemloze]

Interesting. I should try this

[Breeze]

When you bring up the secret police do you ever bother to research that it just seems that I find it to be pretty easy to control new settlements and dont see the need with so many other things to get.

[MisterV]

Wow, thanks for the tip. I thought they weren't useful at all. With all my markets I can have a lot of bonuses this way.

[goldier]

Basically the penalty is a fixed percentage. So if your current tax rate is 25% and your administration cost is 20%, you would have a penalty of 5% and your net tax rate would be 20%. If you add a 5 star metsuke he would boost your tax rate by 25%. This is a typical metsuke if you have a province which gives you +2 metsuke exp when you recruit him and put 2/2 into magistrate. Your tax rate goes up to 50% but your penalty would still be 20% of that, so 10%. Your net tax rate would then be 40%, an increase of 20 % in absolute terms: 20% => 40%.

So for the same numbers on a 3500 wealth city. Initially your tax income would be 3500 * (0,25*0,8) = 700. Afterwards, 3500 * (0,5*0,8) = 1400. An increase of 700 tax income per turn. A big difference, one which to keep in mind.

[Osbot]

I've never really looked into this, but does the magistrate apply that XP bonus to all metsukes recruited in your lands or only in that province and if it is the latter, I was under the impression you can only recruit as many metsukes in one province as there are market building upgrades. Doesn't that make it more difficult to get all your metsukes 5 stars?

[goldier]

I've never really looked into this, but does the magistrate apply that XP bonus to all metsukes recruited in your lands or only in that province and if it is the latter, I was under the impression you can only recruit as many metsukes in one province as there are market building upgrades. Doesn't that make it more difficult to get all your metsukes 5 stars?

It works like the following:

You're allowed to recruit a maximum of 5 metsuke in total, which means you need to have 5 markets or higher buildings in 5 different provinces.

Upgrading a market to a higher level doesn't not provide additional metsuke.

The school building line which provides a bonus to metsuke when recruited is only applied to metsuke recruited in that province.

You are only allowed to recruit one metsuke per province per turn. So in order to benefit from the exp bonus from a province you need 5 turns to recruit one metsuke at a time from that province, that way you get the bonus.

Note: A fresh 2-3 star metsuke doesn't not get any retainers right away, while a metsuke who got 2-3 star through normal level up will already have a retainer.

[MisterV]

Just a quick follow-up question: do metsuke gain xp as they stay and oversee the provinces? It's a bit late I know, but I've recruited them around 1573, and I'm wondering if there will be some tangible bonus from them before the game ends.

[August]

Just a quick follow-up question: do metsuke gain xp as they stay and oversee the provinces? It's a bit late I know, but I've recruited them around 1573, and I'm wondering if there will be some tangible bonus from them before the game ends.

Yes quite significant, in fact. I had shoved a couple in a town, while I was finishing taking whole Japan(to reduce micromanagement of holding all territories). They leveled quite fast, I was surprised. Though it might be dependent on the town level. Not sure.