Perfect mod with a catch? :(

[YourStepDad]

Well, my mind has been pretty blown with RS, until I have tried non roman factions, specifically the Scythians.

The amount of money I receive is absolutely and utterly ridiculous. I get over 30 000 during just three turns of idleness. I tried both the 0 and 1 turn campaigns, and this is pretty gamebreaking in both.

Is there something I am not seeing? Yes, the enemy is thankfully quite formidable, as I imagine they have just as much money, but the economy is still useless. I feel like I'm having infinite funds, and the economy that I usually enjoy a lot is nullified. I can't play like this. Help.

Is there a submod or something you advise me to do? Scythians bathe in money, is it the same for other factions?

I was told the economy in RS works differently, but I am just not convinced, since most units are cheap to recruit, save for some elite cavalry, and even they are too easy to upkeep.

[Greymane]

Well, my mind has been pretty blown with RS, until I have tried non roman factions, specifically the Scythians.

The amount of money I receive is absolutely and utterly ridiculous. I get over 30 000 during just three turns of idleness. I tried both the 0 and 1 turn campaigns, and this is pretty gamebreaking in both.

Is there something I am not seeing? Yes, the enemy is thankfully quite formidable, as I imagine they have just as much money, but the economy is still useless. I feel like I'm having infinite funds, and the economy that I usually enjoy a lot is nullified. I can't play like this. Help.

Is there a submod or something you advise me to do? Scythians bathe in money, is it the same for other factions?

I was told the economy in RS works differently, but I am just not convinced, since most units are cheap to recruit, save for some elite cavalry, and even they are too easy to upkeep.

Did you remember to activate the script everytime? Money is by no means tight in RSII, but I've never been swimming in it. I found that you always have just enough, but investing in big buildings would mean that some other settlements would be without activity.
Other question: are you playing on very hard difficulty? It's bugged.
Both things can mess up your economy pretty badly.

[YourStepDad]

Indeed, I was playing on very hard.

I did activate the script every time however, fairly sure of that. I'll try hard then, fingers crossed. Thanks for your advice. How exactly is it bugged though?

Also, which campaign should I play as the Scythians? I've noticed some difference in buildings and general traits I start out with. I prefer the idea of 1 turn campaigns by far.

[Greymane]

Indeed, I was playing on very hard.

I did activate the script every time however, fairly sure of that. I'll try hard then, fingers crossed. Thanks for your advice. How exactly is it bugged though?

Also, which campaign should I play as the Scythians? I've noticed some difference in buildings and general traits I start out with. I prefer the idea of 1 turn campaigns by far.

Well, the player gets all the bonuses (cash) that the AI also gets (on very hard, that is), making your game much easier. That is a Rome vanilla bug by the way. Hard difficulty is the hardest viable (and the most balanced and fun) for RSII.
To answer your second question: I would go with 1-turn. 0-turn will just have you fight stack after stack of enemies. The differences you mention are probably oversights as well as stuff implemented to make 0-turn viable (talking finances here).
Not running the script messes up your game in wholly different ways however, glad to hear you are so sure.

[YourStepDad]

I'm very disappointed to report that there is no difference at all on hard difficulty. I think this is the way it's meant to be. Similar income on both 0 and 1 turn campaigns.

Ah well, I'll stick to playing Romans then, and hope this gets looked at eventually. Thanks for your help again.

[YourStepDad]

Reinstalling now, let's hope you're right.

Thanks in any case.

[Greymane]

Maybe your definition of way too much income is different from mine then, but I never played Sarmatia, so I don't know. I have played Seleucia, Egypt, Macedon and Belgians and I've found the economy to be pretty good (not gone far in my Belgian campaign yet). As the Seleucids I've conquered Egypt, most of Anatolia and a big part of Greece. As Macedon I've taken the whole of Greece and the whole of Italy. In both games I thought the economy was pretty balanced.
I might try Sarmatia sometime (never played with horselords in RSII because I always found horses too weak) and I will let you know. Maybe DVK can shed some light on this in the meantime.

[Alavaria]

It's intended. You'd be surprised what happens when you start to grow more than just a little (as pretty much every player faction does)

[Greymane]

It's intended. You'd be surprised what happens when you start to grow more than just a little (as pretty much every player faction does)

Of course, thanks! and rofl at your sig (+rep)
@YourStepDad:
To clarify, your capital has a tax bonus of a couple hundred percent (not sure how much). It's the only city that has that bonus, so indeed: the bigger you grow, the more difficult to keep your economy strong because of corruption and army upkeep and stuff like that. You will have to invest in economic buildings more as your empire and your armies grow, but indeed small empires (like Sarmatia) don't have those problems yet.

[Alavaria]

@YourStepDad:
To clarify, your capital has a tax bonus of a couple hundred percent (not sure how much). It's the only city that has that bonus, so indeed: the bigger you grow, the more difficult to keep your economy strong because of corruption and army upkeep and stuff like that. You will have to invest in economic buildings more as your empire and your armies grow, but indeed small empires (like Sarmatia) don't have those problems yet.

Looking at Sparte, 1400%

The AI's Pella? 4800%

Of course, thanks! and rofl at your sig (+rep)

Funny you mention it in this thread. One of the balancing things was "how much will let Carthage player fight Rome AI, but not roflstomp Rome" with Hannibal's stack that starts in Italy.

In the course of doing this back before RSII was released, I had like 10 consecutive sub-10turn sackings of Roma. So much Roman massacre. Not that it was just blitz, but it was a massively upgraded and bonused troop production area, and also had their treasury. Whacking all that got me some cash, and enough population to push Carthage far above Huge City status.

[YourStepDad]

Is there a way to remove this capital tax bonus completely?

[Alavaria]

Sure, nerf it in the EDB. Of course that screws up the balance to where if you're small you can pay for like two generals and five units of milita, but ...

You can also make sure the AI has nigh-infinite money by editing the EDB as well.

[YourStepDad]

Sure, I wouldn't mind something like that.

Granted, the AI would need some toning down for it to work, but how would I proceed changing all that? I never fiddled with EDB before.

[High Fist]

You might wanna play on a bit more in the campaign before you start fiddling with stuff. balances out fairly quickly.

[dvk901]

The economy in RS2, as some have said, is a bit different than other mods. Yes, when you are sitting at 'home' doing nothing your income is quite high. Each faction has a 'home' bonus based on an AOI....or Area of Influence...where they get more bonuses and more income. Each faction also has a large tax bonus in its most important city...usually the capital, but some may have a couple cities that give this bonus.

However, once you start to expand, and leave your home areas, bonuses disappear, and those areas become more of a burden on your empire. Still, for all the time we spent on testing, it may not be perfect. There is an easy way to correct this. Depending on which campaign you are playing, go into that campaign...ie, Play_Scythia, Play_one_turn, etc....and find the file in the 'data' folder called 'export_descr_buildings.txt'.

Open the file and do a search for: small_wealth_player.

You'll come to a section with this in it:

taxable_income_bonus bonus 800 requires factions { romans_scipii, } and hidden_resource area7 and hidden_resource r6
population_growth_bonus bonus 2 requires factions { romans_scipii, } and hidden_resource area7 and hidden_resource r6

The 'romans_scipii' are actually the faction 'Scythia'. The '800' is the base tax bonus in their capital. You can lower this number incrementally to whatever you like to reduce income.

That's in the Play_One_Turn folder.

If you play the 0-turn campaign (Play_Scythia), you find this in EDB.txt:

taxable_income_bonus bonus 3600 requires factions { scythia, } and hidden_resource area10 and hidden_resource r9

Under the 'small_wealth' building (different from 1-turn). Reduce the number as you see fit, and income will be less.

[YourStepDad]

Thanks a ton. This really helps.

[YourStepDad]

Apologies on two posts in a row, but I would like to ask another thing; In my 1 turn campaign, I can't see quotes on loading screens. Instead it says "RS 2.6. Turn 1 campaign" or something along those lines. Is this how it's supposed to be? No biggie, but I kinda miss my quotes.

[Greymane]

Apologies on two posts in a row, but I would like to ask another thing; In my 1 turn campaign, I can't see quotes on loading screens. Instead it says "RS 2.6. Turn 1 campaign" or something along those lines. Is this how it's supposed to be? No biggie, but I kinda miss my quotes.

Unfortunately, that is normal. The list of quotes somehow caused a lot of CTD's, so the RSII team removed all of them but one, the 'RS 2.6...' in the case of the 1-turn campaigns. If you played Rome, you would have noticed that quote about the eagle standard always popping up.

[YourStepDad]

Alright, good to know, as long as it's not a problem exclusive to my game.

[the man, the myth, the legend]

you're gonna regret it if you nerfed your scythia campaign economy. Phalanxes, horsearchers, falxmen, oh man. good luck.