Ah I get what you mean now. That would require changing the calculation itself though which I cannot do. I suppose I could 'refund' the amount determined by the original formula and then apply the new formula but the AI is still going to use the old formula in it's calculations. It might also mess up the financial advisor and city screen.
The refund (exactly 1 or 2 hammers) wouldn't ever make a substantial difference to strategic calculations, so it doesn't matter if the AI doesn't know about it. But yes, I hear that you're saying that it's nontrivial to implement ... I'll mull over it and see if I can't come up with another idea. Can you point me to the place where the calculations are made?
Yes it now scales with gamespeed, at the same rate as most other factors of game speed (number of turns in particular):
[TABLE="head;width=100px"]Gamespeed|Scaling
Quick|50%
Normal|100%
Epic|150%
Saga|200%
Marathon|250%
Odyssey|300%[/TABLE]
Thanks for these numbers --- is there a Civilopedia article on gamespeed?
This reminds me of something else that I realised last night. The interest that Financial civilizations get also scales with gamespeed --- it's only paid out every 6 turns on Odyssey. (I presume that this scaling ensures that it it once per turn for Quick.) However, I think that the reasoning leading to scaling with gamespeed is actually not appropriate for the interest, as no other financial transactions scale with gamespeed. A gold-for-resources trade is paid every turn. The commerce generated by working tiles is calculated every turn. Even the effect of `inflation' (whatever that means ... would be nice to eliminate this kludge) is calculated every turn.
To illustrate the result: To maximise the benefit of this bonus, the player should maintain a minimum balance in their treasury. In the Ancient Era, where the cap is 10 gold per `turn', and the interest rate is 1%, that means having a minimum balance of 1000 gold. The result of that 1000 gold is the player's budget is strengthened by 10 gold per `turn'. However, on Odyssey speed, that becomes in practice 10 gold every 6 turns, which is a very poor investment: 0.17% (and this rate doesn't increase with the different caps that arise as the Eras progress). This is just not worth the lost opportunity cost: Hold 1000 gold in the treasury so as to generate less than 2 gold per turn income. The Financial trait becomes very weak, and is possibly actually a hindrance. The reason that it's not fair is that all other income and expenses are calculated per turn, and don't scale with gamespeed.
Whilst on the topic, a side effect of the mechanism of the caps is that they lead to a one-dimensional strategy. There simply isn't any alternative to maintaining that minimum balance (if the returns outweigh the lost opportunity costs!). Perhaps the caps could be better removed altogether? The 1% interest earnt fairly represents a fair return on lost opportunity cost (it's money not spent on technologies, upgrades, etcetera), and doesn't having a large treasury attract the unwanted attention of one's stronger competitors? Yes, it might lead to exploits, but I'd like to be able to demonstrate that. Could you point me to the place where the caps are implemented?
