Citizen input needed: Budget priortites for May 22 turn chat

[donsig]

Since eyrei is acting president he has asked me to step into the role of acting domestic leader. We have a turn chat scheduled for tonight and the domestic department needs some input in order to allocate our treasury.

The current accounts are: NSD / 100 gold, National / 50 gold

We have 365 gold to allocate for this turn chat.

Our three main priorities seem to me to be: CAP (Cultural Assault Program), FPC (Forbidden Palace Construction) and PUFD (Pikemen Upgrade For Defense).

CAP (sponsored by the Cultural Ministry and Foreign Affairs Depts.) needs funds to rush libraries and temples in our border cities. See the Culural Ministry thread here. How much should be allocated to CAP?

FPC: The Forbidden Palace has been started in Thebes but is currently proceeding at only 4 shields/turn as Thebes has three entertainers. By switching to a market, putting two entertainers to work in the forests and switching one laborer from the flood plains to the irrigated plains the production in Thebes can be boosted to 7 shields/turn while maintaining the same growth. The market would be ready in 14 turns or we could rush it in 7 turns for about 200 gold. Should we allocate funds for rushing a market in Thebes before we build the Forbidden Palace?

PUFD: We currently have 5 musketmen and 44 pikemen to defend our republic. Buying muskets for one unit of pikemen costs 60 gold. How much should we allocate for these upgrades?

Since our trade department has already arranged for the importation of Indian silks we will eliminate our spending on luxuries in favor of bringing in more revenue. By raising the tax rate to 70% we will bring in almost 100 gold per turn giving us about 1000 gold to allocate for the next turn chat (if ten turns are played tonight).

Please post your thoughts on how we should spend our gold and do not feel you must confine yourself to the three programs mentioned above!

 

[eyrei]

Originally posted by donsig
FPC: The Forbidden Palace has been started in Thebes but is currently proceeding at only 4 shields/turn as Thebes has three entertainers. By switching to a market, putting two entertainers to work in the forests and switching one laborer from the flood plains to the irrigated plains the production in Thebes can be boosted to 7 shields/turn while maintaining the same growth. The market would be ready in 14 turns or we could rush it in 7 turns for about 200 gold. Should we allocate funds for rushing a market in Thebes before we build the Forbidden Palace?

The only problem with adding those workers to the forests is that the WLTK day will end, and we will probably have about the same production. It will probably be necessary to rush a market and a temple here if we want this project done anytime soon. With a temple and a market, we will probably only need one entertainer, if that, and Thebes could conceivably produce 7 or 8 shields a turn.

 

[Cyc]

I would think if the marketplace (and other work) can really cut the build time of the FP by 40%, we should move in that direction. I haven't checked your figures, but it sounds good. I also still believe our cities with barracks should start producing muskets.

Edit: Well, I guess with growth it wouldn't be 40%, but it would knock a big chunk out of initial production.

 

[Shaitan]

As the Cultural Assault cornerstone is not yet in place I'd say go for the marketplace rush for the Forbidden Palace construction first. As soon as CAP City (I hope I didn't just name that) is in place rush a library and temple in quick succession, then turn to military upgrades.

 

[eyrei]

Originally posted by Shaitan
As the Cultural Assault cornerstone is not yet in place I'd say go for the marketplace rush for the Forbidden Palace construction first. As soon as CAP City (I hope I didn't just name that) is in place rush a library and temple in quick succession, then turn to military upgrades.

I think we should rush a market and a temple in Thebes first and foremost, and then it can be left alone to build the FP while we allocate money to other initiatives. If we allocated the entire treasury to the FP until the market and temple are done, they can probably be rushed during the next chat.

 

[donsig]

I know little about the effects of WLTKD so input from everyone is needed. If we need a market and a temple which should be done first? Also, I want to lower lux rate to 0% since we now have silk imports. I was hoping this would bring our surplus up to about 100 gold/turn without inhibiting WLTKD.

If we switch to temple now and leave the entertainers in place it will take 14 turns to build the temple or 224 gold to rush it now. At 4 shields/turn the rush price will decline at the rate of 16 gold/turn. Waiting five turns to rush would knock 80 gold off the price tag.

Switching to market now and leaving the entertainers would cost 384 gold to rush right away with the same 16 gold/turn reduction in the price tag for waiting a while.

Suggestions?

 

[eyrei]

Lowering the luxury rate will probably make WLTK days nearly impossible unless a city has a temple, cathedral and marketplace, so I advise against it.

I would suggest immediately rushing the temple, and then rushing the marketplace as soon as the funds are available.

 

[donsig]

As far as I can tell, only Thebes, Pherris and Fox Nest fit the conditions for WLTKD. All others cities are either too small or have at least one unhappy citizen. Lowering the lux rate to 0% leaves Thebes and Pherris in WLTKD but gives Fox Nest two unhappy faces. It also gives us 30 gold per turn more than we're getting now.

Rushing the temple in Thebes now will cost 224 gold. the question now is how much to we spend on the market? It'll cost about 400 gold to rush it right away, putting the total cost of FPC over 600 gold. With the National account at 50 gold and 365 to allocate now we'd be 'borrowing' 200 gold. Should we do this or wait some turn before rushing the market? If so, how many do we wait?

 

[eyrei]

As far as I can tell, only Thebes, Pherris and Fox Nest fit the conditions for WLTKD. All others cities are either too small or have at least one unhappy citizen. Lowering the lux rate to 0% leaves Thebes and Pherris in WLTKD but gives Fox Nest two unhappy faces. It also gives us 30 gold per turn more than we're getting now.

Many of those other cities could be tweaked to start WLTK days by making that one unhappy person an entertainer. I asked the governors to take a look at there provinces and see which cities this would work in. Conceivably, every city of size 6+ could have a WLTK day, and many of these are far enough from the capital that it would make a difference. Many other cities are approaching the requisite population, as well. Reducing the luxury rate may also send some cities into disorder....

Rushing the temple in Thebes now will cost 224 gold. the question now is how much to we spend on the market? It'll cost about 400 gold to rush it right away, putting the total cost of FPC over 600 gold. With the National account at 50 gold and 365 to allocate now we'd be 'borrowing' 200 gold. Should we do this or wait some turn before rushing the market? If so, how many do we wait?

I suggest rushing the temple immediately, and then rushing the marketplace at the beginning of the next turn session. This should be around 10 or 11 turns. At this point, we should have a larger budget to allocate. You should probably put this to a vote. I would not be against using all of our funds to get these two improvements in place ASAP.

 

[donsig]

Re: lowering lux rate

Only Philadelphia would go into civil disorder if we lower the rate and we can prevent that with a one turn entertainer. Its market will be done next turn.

re: WLTKD

I think Eklektikos has already given permission to tweak his cities. We really need the 'tweaking' info at both 10% and 0% lux rate in order to decide which is better.

re: FPC

Thebes is size 8 and set to grow in 38 turns (IIRC). Since we have 5 luxuries a market makes 9 happy faces. So, shouldn't we just rush the market in Thebes and forget about the temple for now?

 

[eyrei]

Originally posted by donsig
Re: lowering lux rate

Only Philadelphia would go into civil disorder if we lower the rate and we can prevent that with a one turn entertainer. Its market will be done next turn.

re: WLTKD

I think Eklektikos has already given permission to tweak his cities. We really need the 'tweaking' info at both 10% and 0% lux rate in order to decide which is better.

re: FPC

Thebes is size 8 and set to grow in 38 turns (IIRC). Since we have 5 luxuries a market makes 9 happy faces. So, shouldn't we just rush the market in Thebes and forget about the temple for now?

Happiness is kind of strange sometimes. We may have like 7 happy citizens and 2 unhappy ones, especially if we lower the lux rate, and after the market. Why don't we try rushing the marketplace first, and then seeing if we need the temple or not.

 

[Padma]

As a citizen, my thought is to rush the marketplace first. If we find we need to rush a temple after, fine.

 

[donsig]

Originally posted by donsig
We have a turn chat scheduled for tonight ...

Hmm...someone just told me today is Tuesday. Turn chat is tomorrow.

 

[Falcon02]

I say the bulk of our treasury should go to continuing to prep Thebes for the FP, with a market at least to improve production with the WLTKD.

 

[Justus II]

As culture minister, I (ack, ack) agree with forgoing the culture assault temporarily to concentrate on the FP project. In my opinion, that is a truly national project and should have top priority, taking the entire budget if needed. I would also go with the Market first, because it should have the biggest impact. Even if it turns out that a temple will still be needed, it should be more produtive in the mean time with a market, and maybe 1 entertainer, putting 6 per turn on the temple will almost complete it by the next turn, or even build on it for 5 turns then rush the remainder out of our current income.