Tax buildings

[rory o'kane]

I've noticed a lot of chat on the forums about players not using the tax buildings at all...
If I recall correctly, I think I argued originally that we should make the tax building tree start off with relatively large hit to public order/law, and some increase in revenue (but not much), because the first step on the tree usually means soldiers rounding things up and taking stuff. As you go up the tree, the penalties should get smaller, not larger, as more organised taxation systems are introduced as the province is increasingly integrated into your empire. , and the revenue should go UP, as the process becomes more streamlined and less corrupt - i.e. more money is going into the central treasury, and not into the pockets of tax farmers/governors, so that overall the tree is well worth developing along with the city, and in the long run generates profit.
Ideas, concerns, expectations?

[tone]

Ideas, concerns, expectations?

someone's been doing some GP training?

[rory o'kane]

someone's been doing some GP training?

Someone has had that phrase drummed into him for the last three years.

[Oberbefehlshaber]

I've noticed a lot of chat on the forums about players not using the tax buildings at all...
If I recall correctly, I think I argued originally that we should make the tax building tree start off with relatively large hit to public order/law, and some increase in revenue (but not much), because the first step on the tree usually means soldiers rounding things up and taking stuff. As you go up the tree, the penalties should get smaller, not larger, as more organised taxation systems are introduced as the province is increasingly integrated into your empire. , and the revenue should go UP, as the process becomes more streamlined and less corrupt - i.e. more money is going into the central treasury, and not into the pockets of tax farmers/governors, so that overall the tree is well worth developing along with the city, and in the long run generates profit.
Ideas, concerns, expectations?

That makes sense.

[Ybbon]

Well I have to admit I was one who never develops them because I incorrectly thought that the hit was higher the more you taxed, it makes sense to make more money with less penalty the more efficient you become at collecting them.

[dvk901]

I considered this, Rory, when you first proposed it, but let me explain why I didn't do it.

1. Uniqueness. The many buildings in RS2 are meant to offer uniqueness and specificity to various cities, and also revenue options. I never intended that anyone would build ALL of them everywhere, but more specifically, that things would get built where it made the most sense, and as needed. So if someone chooses not to build tax buildings...that's fine. It is an option.

2. Emotional, shall we say. If I put a building in here that offers LESS benefit as you build the more expensive buildings, people will most surely complain that they are getting shafted by the upper tree buildings (even if it isn't necessarily true).
We can explain and explain, but in the end the perdeption will be "I'm getting less for more", and people will just stop at the first building.

3. The first building.....is a big problem, if it offers the greatest advantage. Why build any more if they offer less? The happiness penalty could be made great, and made less as you go up the tree, but it's very hard to make a city unhappy enough to matter anyway. So you're just back at 'building one', and no one will build beyond it. Why would they?

[rory o'kane]

With regards to point numbers two and three, I was suggesting that the subsequent buildings give GREATER amounts of revenue for ever decreasing unhappiness penalties, so the player is going to get more, not less as they go up the tree - it's a one-off cost for an increase in revenue for every turn of the game after it's finished.
Personally, I think the taxation systems should be tied to (i.e. made pre-requisites of) certain more "important" buildings (such as certain civic amenities like temples and aqueducts), at least for the "civilised" factions, because frankly there's no way a province is going to get all the benefits of empire if it isn't integrated into the empire's taxation system to start contributing wealth via taxes to the central government.