What makes an individual planet lose money?

Sometimes, when I'm looking at the Civ manager screen, I'll see that a few planets are losing money.  How can I fix this?  Does this mean that too many things are in the build queue?

 

Thanks.

8,551 views 6 replies
Reply #1 Top

More likely it means one or more of the following is true:

-Too many labs and/or factories are built (maintenance)
-Too many labs and/or factories are funded
-Too low population on the planet to break even

The money you spend building things does factor in as well, but as you're only building one at a time, the sheer number of things you have in the build queue is absolutely irrelevant (until they're built and maintenance kicks in).  Further, most of the time, at least early on, you're not building things fast enough to be running at much of a deficit, although it is admittedly a deficit.

Honestly, though, I don't worry about breaking even on a planetary basis, so long as I can manage it on a civ-wide basis.

Reply #2 Top

There are two types of costs: Building upkeep and production.

Building upkeep is obvious and does not need further explanation.


There are three production categories: Military production, social production and research. A planet has a certain production capability and which percentage of this capability gets filled depends on how the sliders on the economy screen are set up and also to your planet's production focus.

The important thing is that unused production capability does not cost you anything. So if you are not building anything on your planet, the social and military production capability on that planet is wasted.

Note that if you are not building and social improvements, unspent social production goes to military production if you are currently building a ship. But the other way around does not hold.

 

The income displayed in the civ manager is per-turn, the actual length of the production queues has nothing to do with it, only if there's anything building or not.

Reply #3 Top

You could and maybe should build more economic buildings on those planets.

Reply #4 Top

I notice that you say "a few".  Unless you're at the begining of the game and only have "a few" more planets, this means that overall your empire's economic health is probably sound.

Brian

Reply #5 Top

A few planets *SHOULD* be bleeding money like mad.  Your tech and manufacturing capitals, for instance.   That is not a problem, that is good gameplay.

Reply #6 Top

Quoting tetleytea, reply 5
A few planets *SHOULD* be bleeding money like mad.  Your tech and manufacturing capitals, for instance.   That is not a problem, that is good gameplay.

 

Ohh...ok.  It's usually maybe, 3 out of 15 planets.  maybe that IS normal.