What does defecit spending do?

[BigThumper]

I can't seem to find any info about how defecit spending is supposed to work in the game. What does it do, exactly?

 

[gdgrimm]

Um, deficit spending means spending more than you're taking in.

Anytime your cash flow is in the red (i.e. -x), you're deficit spending. It's no big deal until you get to the point where you have no money in your treasury. Then you start getting strikes by your units, and they start to disappear and other nasty things. You're not allowed to go into debt in Civ. But you can deficit spend.

 

[Crighton]

in real life its where your nation racks up a debt to paid off over the long term, an issue which only seems to get attention when republicans are in office.

basically in the game it means you need to make more money or cut down on expenses (because it totally blows when you absorb several other civs and didn't raze their cities thus upping your maintanence costs to the point where your entire army goes on strike and the works and then you basically get slaughtered, debt sux)

 

[BigThumper]

No, I'm refering to the message I get after I get access to Free Market. I get a popup that says "Your society can now implement the civic Free Market (Extra trade route in each city; allows deficit spending). Would you like to start a revolution?"

I can't find any other reference to this. Anyone know what it means?

 

[DngrMse]

I'm a little curious about this too, as I can seemingly deficit spend just fine without the civic, (so long as I have sufficient gold in the bank).

 

[_alphaBeta_]

The pop up message asking you whether you want to switch civics is outdated. If you notice, there's no mention of deficit spending within the civic screen itself. This is just a case of this particular window being outdated.

At one time, this must have been one of the things that the civic accomplished. I imagine it allowed you to stay at a high science rate while your treasury went into the red.

In any event, ignore it as it is not part of the game anymore.

 

[Crighton]

ah cool beans thanks

 

[Roibeárd]

I always wondered about this myself, because you can spend more than you're making (by drawing down on reserves) - anytime in the game.

So what you're saying is that this is just a big "typo"? You'd think that's something that would have been fixed in the patch!

- Bob

 

[_alphaBeta_]

I always wondered about this myself, because you can spend more than you're making (by drawing down on reserves) - anytime in the game.

So what you're saying is that this is just a big "typo"? You'd think that's something that would have been fixed in the patch!

- Bob

Yes, it's a typo.

Did you ever notice the police state civic has a different description in the civics screen? If you're running police state is says that it removes all war weariness. If you're running something else and mouseover it, it says that it reduces war weariness by 50%. The latter is the true statement. At some point they changed their mind on how this civic should work, and some old documentation got left behind. This is a similar incident.

 

[Roibeárd]

It just surprises me that something that obvious and easy to fix would slip through testing and subsequent patching. I'm in the software biz myself and spelling, grammar, outdated references etc. are specific line items on our testing plans. I understand how hard it is to track down and reproduce bugs, but this is the easy stuff to find and correct in testing.

Am I being too fussy? There is a huge amount of text data in an application the size of cIV.

 

[gdgrimm]

It just surprises me that something that obvious and easy to fix would slip through testing and subsequent patching. I'm in the software biz myself and spelling, grammar, outdated references etc. are specific line items on our testing plans. I understand how hard it is to track down and reproduce bugs, but this is the easy stuff to find and correct in testing.

Am I being too fussy? There is a huge amount of text data in an application the size of cIV.

In general, I'd agree with you. But honestly, I've never noticed this 'bug' before reading this thread.

I've discovered Free Market probabably 40 times, and never read the message close enough to care.

 

[Yzman]

I always read that, and was always confused about it as well.

 

[petertr2000]

I still dont understand why I cant spend ALL of my income on Science.

Why should I be limited to 100% of tax incomes? I get money from other sources too - like shrines and deals with the AI.

 

[KrikkitTwo]

Those aren't commerce, which is flexible those are Gold, which is not.

If you are making more in Shrine income and trades from the AI then you are spending in maintenance then
1. switch to more expensive civics that boost commerce ie State Property-> Free Market,
2. buy techs from the AI
3. get US and rush build Libraries, etc. in your cities... then build research in your cities
4. make sure you have Scientists as specialists not Merchants

5. build more units-> take more cities= more commerce, less gold


PS I believe that was what deficit spending may have been supposed to allow you to do, actually spend 130% or so on science... with a gold drop off.