Basic things to do about sluggish economy

[stevehoos]

I need some advice from someone who knows about adjustments that would help boost the AI economy and the player economy as well. Not that I want the mod easier, I just want more money for everyone.I guess I could start by making more free upkeep slots for the AI and player?

[Maestro Ugo]

I need some advice from someone who knows about adjustments that would help boost the AI economy and the player economy as well. Not that I want the mod easier, I just want more money for everyone.I guess I could start by making more free upkeep slots for the AI and player?

If you want stronger economy for both the player and the AI the easiest thing to do would be to increase the amount of king's purse - it's currently at 3500. This is the money pumped into the economy at the start of every turn. This is easily modified by editing descr_strat.txt file. Every faction has it's own value, so you need to change them all if you want higher values all-round.

Second thing would be to reduce the effects of corruption - do this by lowering the factor name="SIF_CORRUPTION" in the descr_settlement_mechanics.xml file.

[mattttb]

if you go into export_descr_buildings.txt you can edit the trade bonuses that trade buildings give you, making it actually worth the cost of building them.

[stevehoos]

Thanks guys I will try those

[Swad]

For those that prefer not to modify the files, I would suggest that you focus on growth buildings first and foremost. Most of the economic buildings in this game and in the unmodified version of Medieval 2 are not economically feasible in most cases. There are regions where economic buildings like the grain exchange and markets will recover their construction costs within a reasonable amount of time (below 30-40 turns would be my general limit), but in most cases these buildings are merely money sinks that will likely never recoup the costs before the halfway mark is over for the 500+ turns of this mod.

Building farms and population boosting buildings is always a good idea. The more people you have, the more people that you are taxing, and the faster they multiply the better. Bonus points here given that tax payers don't stop growing until they reach an incredibly high limit. Do note however, that this is a slow process and should only be embarked upon if you have some money on hand.

Most of your income will then come from trade. Diplomacy is extremely important in this game, and as such, you will need provinces with a population large enough to construct buildings that can produce diplomats. The standard rules for seeking trade partnerships apply. Do not sign trade agreements with factions that you plan on fighting soon for example. As Isengard, I do not intend to go to war with Gondor for example, even though I occasionally antagonize Rohan and punish them to attacking my few cities. As such, try to attain trade agreements with far away nations whenever possible.

Your reputation is important and you need to maintain it. You can increase your economy by warfare, but since we're on the topic of money shortages, I'm going to assume that this translates into a shortage in military power as well.

Another source of money will be mines. These tend to recoup their costs within 10 or so turns. They are also not subjected to trade relations being cancelled. These really are the best sources of income if you can get it. This goes without saying as it should be pretty evident: If you are able to take provinces, make sure you aim for the ones with mines in them.

I can't say which provinces are going to generate money for you, but I can tell you that most of the provinces in the Isengard region are not profitable in the least. Those 600 units of money isn't the least bit worth that grain exchange.