ERE's Economic Powerhouse trait is overpowered!

[Aeratus]

The ERE's faction trait "Economic Powerhouse" (5% interest each turn) is the most unbalanced game element I've seen so far and I think it's blatantly overpowered. If you can save enough, it basically balloons your treasure to absurd levels. The Sassanid's puppet state bonus income is good in the beginning, but cannot reach the escape velocity of the ERE's bonus.

For example, I'm at 420 AD (VH) and I already have over 1 million profit per turn! I tried building a lot of armies and churches, but I only reached 67k expenditure per turn, which is a drop in the bucket compared to the income.

[xjlxking]

Yes we all know this

my campaign too, I think every turn I make 6 million a turn. The idea behind this is that you should never have that much money in the treasury. It's called exploiting

[Telenil]

The income you gain from that trait should probably have a hard cap. Even reducing the % wouldn't prevent the exploit.

[wulfgar610]

Amazing, in the real world we have a limit to debt and interest. We get a GFC or Great Depression! Historically the largest treasury surplus the Eastern Empire reached was about 7.5 million solidi just prior to the reign of Justinian, a tad under annual revenue of 7 million solidi reached at the end of the reign of Theodosius II.

[pratolano]

That's nuts, haha. I can't wait to play as the ERE and build up the treasury like that. My Roman Empire in Rome II is also rapidly approaching a "money is meaningless" state, but not anywhere near that level!

[myaku]

I haven't bought Attila yet (waiting for PC upgrade because I don't want to play on low lol), but it reminds me of the Rampart faction from fantasy turn-based strategy game Heroes of Might and Magic III. That faction could build a Dwarven treasury which would pay 10% interest on gold held at the end of the week, for example if you had 5000 gold on Day 7, you'd get 500 + normal income on the following Day 1. It was absolutely overkill on Large or Extra Large maps, especially if a player captured multiple Rampart towns and built a Dwarven treasury in each one.

But it was a bad building on small or medium maps that played quickly. Obviously, in Attila you don't choose map size lol

Interest = easy exploits in games

Inflation would be too complicated for this game's economic system's scope (just imagine troop and building costs changing every turn :S), while invisible hard caps could break immersion and ruin people's plans. I agree, it's just a bad mechanic. A bigger static bonus to trade or something would have been better.

[Ritterlichvon86]

They amassed enough treasury in Constantinople that it could finance its armies and mercenaries and merchant fleets for 700 years, when during the latter period they didn't even have enough land nor labour to sustain a competitive economy. Playing against ERE in MPC means you must apply constant pressure on the enemy.

I see how an uncapped treasury can lead to exploits in SP. Solution is simple for CA to implement: Treasury cap of 100000 for all factions. Corruption will not tackle it.