having trouble with economy

Don't build all the buildings.

Build morale raising buildings as needed only.
Build defense buildings only if needed.
Always build economic enhancement buildings.

Form trade routes. These are a major source of income.
Do not colonise sub PQ15 planets (they will seldom ever bring in money)
Keep tax rates somewhere between 30 and 50%. (keep moral between 75 and 100%)

Hope these help.

Paul.

~SDC~

And, when appropriate, sell your techs to the AIs for large amounts of money.

~SDC~

jab, here is a venerable old Strategy Guide. Although written for 1.05, there are lots of goodies here:
http://www.orionsector.com/pages/galciv/downloads/The_Unofficial_GalCiv_Strategy_Guide_v1_0.pdf

These are all great suggestions by excellent players. Paul, great to see you posting again.

Also don't build up your military unless you intend to use it. Paying maintenance on ships that sit and collect dust is expensive.

As per the above you have to minimize costs (buildings, ships, leases) and maximize income (early trade routes, sell tech to AI on lower levels and trade tech for tech at all levels, build up population by having high morale so you get pop bonues - double growth at 100% morale). If you are lucky, wonders like Gal Stock exchange and the Evil equivalent (Life Force) help. Green economic resouces help too if you have the constructors and bc to develop them.

Good luck.

About planets under 15 , I colonize them and use my Pq bonus plus planet enhancers to bring them up to atlest 17 or 18, so should I still colonize those. Also My miltary is only defense ships used to keep my miltary rating up and so I'm not attacked by everyone else.

The planet question is up for grabs. Different folks play different ways.

PQ 14 and up have no maintenance fee so grab them first. Save the 14 until last because the AI usually wait a long time to grab those.

For PQ 10 to 13, I only grab those when I need the range extension because you pay 5 bc/ turn maint. You can build those up but even with improvements they drag my morale down so I have to cut spending to maintain 100% morale (and the pop bonus that goes with 100% morale).

With lower quality planets I am constantly trying to get morale up although I admit they are nice for constructors and for filling up combat transports. In a "combat strategy" I might be more willing to go for lower quality planets but not in a "diplo strategy" because it just slows the game.

Remember it is the quality of planets and not the quantity. So it is up to you whether you mess with anything less than 14. As more of us begin playing with logistics that 5 bc / turn might look pretty cheap on PQ 10-13 for range extension on big maps.

I find that morale boosting buildings are a must have for every planet. Higher morale means I can tax MORE and get more cash. Hmmm, now that I think about it though, there isnt much sense in building a morale booster on a planet if its not the planet that has the lowest morale. Its always your lowest morale planet that dictates you highest tax setting.

As for under PQ 15 planets.. I always take the PQ 14's after I have exhausted all the PQ15+ planets I can get to. I colonize the PQ 12-13 planets eventualy as well. Usualy in a second wave of colonization in the mid game when I can afford the maintenance cost.

Rob

Another consideration: pq 14s I usually grab, occasionally grab early for production bonus during the planet rush to produce colony ships, and then sell in mid-game when I seek to keep my morale up for pop bonus. Especially useful are systems with two or even three pq 14's, which with only a few turns can be cranked; with hard social spending they can become 17s (or better). Those star systems, with a few billion pop each, make VERY handy trades to the I-league, cos they pay huge sums of money for them and are almost always willing to trade every tech/trade good they have for them. Other minors work almost as well. If you have the pq+ trait, they'll sell even better as they'll be 18+. This strategy has netted some very nice cash to win the wonder/tg races, as well as funding wars.

For example, at one point I had the Alexians paying me something like 500+ tribute per turn for maybe 100 turns for a stack of tech I gave them. About 3 turns after I made the trade, they were attacked by Yor (or maybe Drengin, don't remember). Of course, with their economy devastated by the mortgage note, they had no chance. To save them (to save me) I simply traded the planet to them (for maybe 40 bc for 200 turns which was all they had), which was well defended in my territory, so they could continue paying me off. 50,000 or so bc is certainly not a bad trade for a few pq 14s...

I thought that the pop bonus is per planet. A 50% planet should not hurt your other 100% planets, right?

yep the pop bonus is per planet and I think you get a few production bonuses as well but I'm not too sure about this

I am sure that moral has an effect on production: when playing with tax rate, I found that a planet with 50% morale was less productive than with 54%