Mystery of economy score

from GalCiv2 Forums

I would be the first to say that score in GalCiv doesn't really matter to me. The Metaverse isn't really my cup of tea and I don't believe it ever will be. That said, looking at my last endgame summary, I saw something in the economy scores that leaves me baffled.

The Altarians, my ally, had an "average monthly income" of - 215 bc per month with an average tax rate of 59%. I had an average monthly income of 253 bc/month with an average tax rate of 43%. The Altarians' final economic score was 10195 (the highest of any race). Mine was 8558. I can't figure out any possible reason why, when they were averaging 400 bc/month less then me with a much higher tax rate then me (or anyone else), they had the best economy score in the game. Does anyone have a guess as to the reason for this?

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Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Your economy score is simply the accumulated total of all income earned each turn over the course of the game divided in some manner by the turn number squared.

What you're looking at is average net income which is income earned minus expenses averaged over the course of the game. Clearly these are two different things.

Basically what you spend your money on doesn't count for your economy score, if perhaps you buy ships with your cash then that money can be used to increase your military score but otherwise it's only how much you earn and when you earn it that determines your economy score. Early income is worth far more than later income.

This is pretty much the same with all score. Your tech score is merely how much you've spent on research and when you spent it. How many techs you researched or traded for or captured means nothing.

Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

The EconScore is *solely* based on your SumOfTotalIncome - which is a value that *cannot* be in the negative. The expenses you have are not taken into account.

However, in this example you state

The Altarians, my ally, had an "average monthly income" of - 215 bc

clearly the expenses have been calculated in, and this is misleading. The only conclusion that could be drawn from this is that the Altarians were much more willing to spend money as you, or, were bunkrupt at some point, like when you loose some planets and find yourself in the situation to lack the funds to upkeep your still existing Military. Still, this is very vague now from me spoken, generally most of these end-screen statistics can be savely ignored.

What is much more telling is the "Stats"-section in the 'Foreign Policy'-section. Of course it won't give you scores, but will tell you hard numbers to the first 4 'Timeline'-curves, onto which the EndScore is based.

Another thing is that *most* of the Econ-score is derived from taxes. Given a high difficulty-level the AI will have a fair economic-bonus which makes him eligible for a higher Econ-score even if his taxes are way lower than yours.

Basically that's one of the reasons why it is so hard to get an Econ-treaty in suicidal.

Siege of Centauri
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Hmm. So most of those details in the end-game summary are just there for you to know and not because they relate to the score?

The only conclusion that could be drawn from this is that the Altarians were much more willing to spend money as you, or, were bunkrupt at some point, like when you loose some planets and find yourself in the situation to lack the funds to upkeep your still existing Military.

Yeah, the Altarians were bankrupt a lot. I suspect that they were definitely buying many ships, at least.

Early income is worth far more than later income.

That would explain it... I battled insolvency for quite some time during the colony rush, while none of the AI races (except maybe the Terrans) did.

Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top

Quoting qrtxian, reply 3
Hmm. So most of those details in the end-game summary are just there for you to know and not because they relate to the score?

Correct.  All of them, actually.

Techs researched, techs stolen, longest tech, most productive research colony: irrelevant.
Ships defeated, ships lost, most powerful ship, soldiers killed in battle: irrelevant.
Net income, most profitable month, leases owed, average tax rate: irrelevant.
Most populous planet, happiest planet, average approval, most influential planet: irrelevant.

Research: Gross research (NOT research spending, due to bonus production being half free).
Military: Military might.  Determined via Attack + Defense + (HP / 4), per ship, times a known modifier, depreciates based on number of ships (actually number of ships plus one).
Economy: Gross income.
Social: Total civ population.