INFLATION - how it workes in Civ4 ?

Orion66

Master of Orion
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Feb 9, 2003
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Hello

I don't understand how inflation works in Civ4.
Can anyone explain this to me please?
 
They needed a factor to ensure that the cost of maintaining your civ increases as the game goes on. This 'fudge' factor was named inflation, and is basically outside your control. It mainly depends on the number and size of cities you have, and how late in the game it is. It will almost invariably increase steadily over the course of the game, though it is generally a fairly minor expense compared to the rest of your economy.

There have been numerous arguments about how it should be possible to control inflation based on real life, but bear in mind inflation is just a convenient and meaningless name to apply to a balancing factor.
 
What does it affect? Cost of building/units? I thought these are fixed although more advance units simply cost more. I think tech as well is fixed?
 
It doesn't so much change the cost of buildings/units as add a percentage on top of your maintenance.

Minor point: Advanced units cost exactly the same amount to maintain as ancient ones in Civ 4.
 
Can anybody expand on the following?

In game:
- goto the Financial advisor screen (F2 or click $ icon)
- mouse over Inflation to see the current % and current amount calculation

Inflation is affected by game speed (Marathon, Epic, Normal, Quick) and difficulty level (Settler, Chieftain, Warlord, Noble, ..., Diety).

See directory:
- C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Assets\XML\GameInfo
Files:
- CIV4GameSpeedInfo.xml
- CIV4HandicapInfo.xml
Parameters:
- iInflationOffset
- iInflationPercent
- iAIInflationPercent

Presumably the GameSpeed variations are simply attempting to adjust to the change in number of turns so that inflation rate changes at about the same "date" by about the same amount independent of game "speed."

Presumably the HandicapInfo variations are attempting to gradually shift advantage from human player to AI as the difficulty increases. We see the "impact" (not the rate because that changes over time in game) of Inflation for the AI players starts at "100%" or "worst" for Settler and decreases by 10% for each level. At the same time, the "impact" for human players starts at "60%" or "3/5 of worst" for Settler and increases to 100% or "worst" by Monarch and stays at 100% through to Diety.

I do not know exactly when (in game) Inflation rises above 0% (ie gold starts being taken away from you) or how rapidly it increases at time progresses; however, it should be trivial to modify the values of iInflationOffset, iInflationPercent, and iAIInflationPercent to your preference. For example, try making iInflationOffset a huge number so it never rises above 0% throught the whole game or change iAIInflationPercent to 0 and iInflationPercent to 1000% and iInflationOffset to 0 to make your finances extremely hard to manage. NOTE: DO NOT CHANGE THE CONTENTS OF FILES IN

C:\Program Files\Firaxis Games\Sid Meier's Civilization 4\Assets\XML\GameInfo

but rather follow use the MOD directories as described elsewhere in the Forums, Wiki's, etc. where it explains the proper way to modify the game.

Is it sufficient to say: "CIV 4 Inflation forces us to manage our finances and continue to grow our commerce throughout the full duration of the game?"
 
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