Empire maintenance question

**SleepySteve** · November 17, 2015, 09:59 AM

Hey guys I've noticed something about Empire maintenance that is of interest. When I played as Egypt I was able to keep Empire maintenance at near 0% via the traits generals and nobles can get. Now when I play as a barbarian faction I choose the same traits, which have the same values. The issue I am experiencing is the barbs seem to get a .03% reduction or some other very reduced value, vs. the -3% reduction in maintenance it says they get etc etc. Is this by design or is this some kind of error? As the Iceni with like 11 settlements under my control I have -25% empire maintenance, and my Getae campaign was the same.

**Samir** · November 18, 2015, 09:42 AM

you just aint that good with money I suppose when you cant read write and use sheep and goats as a currency

**SleepySteve** · November 18, 2015, 02:07 PM

Haha I suppose so. It's just strange that the values are the same for the traits but it has such a negligible impact. Maybe I'm missing something; it doesn't seem like anyone knows.

**Augustusng** · November 18, 2015, 02:20 PM

Don't think I've encountered this myself. Last time I played a barbarian faction (Nervii), those traits seemed to work fine. There was a big income drop whenever one of my governors died, since I had given them the traits to reduce empire maintenance. It's easier to see the effects in the mid-late game, when the empire maintenance starts building up.

**dahooscarl** · November 19, 2015, 06:22 PM

Yeah after your imperium is a bit higher that empire maintenance gets to be a real pain unless your prepared. I wasn't. And had to quit an overextended Roman campaign with 63% maintenance costs.

**lordkaiser310** · November 21, 2015, 01:54 PM

Hey there, I've been experiencing the same problem and it happens with any faction I play: the '3%' empire maintenance trait only reduces it by 0.2% or 0.1% immediately after choosing it. Here are some screenshots from a pure DEI (no submods) VH Baktria campaign:

Spoiler Alert, click show to read:

Is it maybe down to the difficulty? It is just quite annoying, as it makes this trait not really viable (and prevents one from controlling their empire maintenance!). Many thanks, and any help would be very much appreciated!

**Dresden** · November 21, 2015, 02:07 PM

I think that is because it literally is reducing it by 3% of the amount, not subtracting 3% from the total. Either that, or there are other calculations involved in that specific effect.

**zonks40** · November 21, 2015, 02:16 PM

From what I have gathered, the 2% deduction from the skill bonus does not make your empire tax drop from 7.6% to 5.6%.
It seems that the 2% comes off the amount of tax you are paying, say 700 empire tax per turn is reduced by 14, I could be wrong, but I come across this a year ago and figured this is just how it was.