Help : can someone explain me how research focus / economic stimulus / cultural festival work now ?

There have been tons of threads about the economy and the huge micromanagement involved in order to run a competitive empire.

Sure... you can just shift your whole empire using the empire wide focusing slider but that is very inefficient.

I hope they eventually realize that the focusing slider for individual planets need to go and planet management could be done directly on the planet view with setting the social versus military slider or directly on the shipyard for every planet that sponsor it.

If they remove the possibility of individually focus every planet they would cut off the head of the snake as far as micromanagement is concerned. Most planets would now need long term planning using the improvements built on them as the individual focusing tool. The empire focusing wheel would set a more major empire focus depending on the overall circumstances.

In my opinion this would create a more immersive enjoyment of the game as you can focus your attention on the empire instead of on individual planets and min/max their output to run them as efficient as possible.

nope not stupid.  X focus changed from converting your excess manufacturing into X (re/$/cult).  Now it just adds a flat 5%  Not really sure why they did it except that many thought the old system was too complicated.  I think it was a little overpowered now i think it is underwhelming,  should be bumped to 10%. 

This isn't entirely correct. The projects add [ceil(m*s*P/10)]*0.05 to the multiplier for the desired output type, where P is the planet's base production, m is the fraction directed towards manufacturing, s is the fraction of manufacturing directed towards social production, and ceil(X) is the function which returns the smallest integer N such that N > X.

In practice, this probably does mean that you're only going to get at most a 5% bonus out of the project because it's not worth sacrificing enough production to get a higher bonus out of it. After all, you have to sacrifice some fraction m of the planet's production to get the bonus; if all the other production on the planet goes to the output type corresponding to the project you chose, then you need (1 - m)*P*(1 + b + B(m)) to be greater than P*(1 + b ) in order to get any benefit out of the project, where b is the bonus to the production type you wanted without including the project bonus.

This means that in order to gain a benefit from the project, if you have a base bonus of b*100% to the output type you want and you can get a bonus of (b + B )*100% to that output type by sacrificing x*100% production to manufacturing, then you will only benefit from the project if the base bonus b is less than

bmax = [(B / x) - x - 1]*100%

For culture, this isn't the case since the base cultural production isn't affected by the manufacturing fraction, but for research and wealth production this matters. If B = 0.05 and x = 0.01, bmax = 395%.

HUH  Now I`m Confused! 

I is just simpler to say that in 99% of all cases (or more) you are better of using the slider to focus on research or wealth than using the projects. It basically mean these projects are pointless and only serve to confuse the average player who don't care for the math behind it.

I still vote for getting rid of being able to manipulate the production focus on individual planets and we don't need to have these stupid conversations, not to mention reduction of micromanagement (especially on larger maps)...  

It is simple.  The slider distributes the main body of your production.  When you don't have any improvements to build, the projects give some fraction of your leftover social production back.  Each project gives it back to you as beakers, culture, or credits according to your choice.  It is not meant to be an efficient mechanism, just a way of keeping you from wasting all your hammers.  Avoid it when possible.  The exception may be birth subsidies, but you should read other opinions on that.

You can do math and make it more complex, but that is the easiest rule of thumb I have found.  Avoid it when possible.  If you feel forced to min/max it planet by planet, then you need to accept that as part of your personality that others may not share.  Otherwise, be as clever as you feel the need for.

The big question is... WHY is there TWO mechanics that do the SAME thing... one just is better than the other but in some edge rare cases it is the reverse. Why have players bother about this at all?!?

well the only reason to use what the OP is talking about is you get a Idle planet and have to do something with it so one of those option has to be pick.

it`s crazy to destroy something and rebuilt it just to keep the game going

Yeah, I gotta say it's pretty easy to settle with the new version.  I wasn't a big fan of sliders to begin with, take this well-salted.  For the most part, if I'm managing planets on my current Immense game, the projects they use are going to depend on the state of the world, and the state of the war (when applicable).  The projects I assign are half "Stop Showing Up As Idle Colony" and half specific goal. If I want a research planet, I arrange that with its topography.  If I want a non-research planet to research, I'll lob it into a Research Project to help cutting the next corner.

If sliders showed up on a planet view in the main strategy map, I'd probably just neglect them, and the only universal one I used was to turn off research after I finished researching. 

Why do you have to pick something... you don't... you just slide the focus from 100% production to 100% science or wealth... you waste no production what so ever since you gain MORE science or wealth that way in 99.9% of all cases. 

That is why the slider mechanic has to go... it is just very unintuitive to the average player. (my opinion anyway)

It's not *so* complicated. But it's really non-ergonomic. Usuability is shit.

On big map, with 40 or 50 planets...

... with old system, I put all slider on production and projects (research or monney, most of time). If I start building a ship, it automagically take a part of the production to build it. Simple.

... with the new system, I have to put the slider 100% on research, or 100% on monney. If I start buiding a new ship, it does... nothing. Because production is 0%. So I have to manually set each planet on production, build my ships, and then go again on all sliders and re-set the sliders on research or monney.

It's... a little bit crazy, it can be a source of errors (by forgetting a planet), boring, and... I don't understand the goal of this mecanism. Planet specialisation is a Good Thing. But this un-intuitive system make the game boring. The old system was far better.

If the devs don't understand what I try to say, try a game in difficult mode on a immense map, you will see

Yes... my main argument has always been how much it increases micromanagement (read repetitive boring tasks) which never is a good thing!

Again... remove the individual planetary focusing wheels and keep the projects is my solution to it.

The empire wide focusing tool can stay, this one do not increase micromanagement and can be quite fun and interesting to use.

Please no. A thousand times no. Not with the way economy works in GC III.  Each planet is dependent on its own resources for building things instead of tapping into the empire wide resource/tax base.  This means it can be critical to make sure some planets are more focused on production than, say, research.  If each planet acted like every other (ala GC II [mostly]) when it came to build rate regardless of the population on the planet, then, maybe.  But as it is, some planets will "grow" far faster than others unless I start mucking about some sort of control on a planet per planet basis.

The wheel may need an overhaul (I'm agnostic on that), but ripping it out altogether would be a terribly bad idea.  Not unless the entire economic system is completely and radically changed.

Well, that is just my opinion in the matter.

You can still focus on one area more than another by the buildings you choose to put on that world. Since the AI have been pretty weak I have tried a few games where I never touched the slider for individual words other than social/military spending and that worked very well and was much less micro intense.

There is always the projects and money that can refocus worlds or help them develop. I don't see how the individual focus of planets really is necessary.

It's mostly necessary for solo worlds tiles and tiles away from anything else that you still want to sponsor a shipyard with.  Say I have a planet in the middle of nowhere that only has five or seven usable tiles before tile improvements come in (and even then, until the Ultra-Terraformer, a one or two tile difference means not much at all).  If one is going to want that planet to have any sort of reasonable production, being able to play with the wheel is very helpful.

Now if one shoots up the population, it isn't quite as necessary. Though then other concerns come into play with the tweaking of the approval system (especially on larger maps). Or if someone has a lot of lower-cost specialization techs.  But in the early game and in the early-mid game, I've found that having the option to play with the wheel is a godsend. Sure, by the time the mid game is fully underway (when one has lots of avenues to increase population/production or make it more efficient), maybe not so much.  But for the first 100 to 150 turns?  For me and my playstyle at least, it's vital as an option.

I'd like to see quick buttons by planets to max out 1 area of production. Something like this:

@kinsoa

This will certainly not help you, but...

I completely disagree.  It is actually very intuitive, and it amazes me that anyone would have difficulty understanding the option to use it.  Having this control does not mean that you have to use it to min max everything.  I can say that I almost never min-max to the level the OP is talking about, and never have any issues with the game at any difficulty. Leave the slider at 50% and you don't have to worry about it.  The fact that there is the option and you don't use it doesn't mean you have to remove the option for those that actually do use it.

Quoting Martimus, reply 18

Quoting JorgenCAB,

reply 10

Quoting Nastytang,

reply 8

well the only reason to use what the OP is talking about is you get a Idle planet and have to do something with it so one of those option has to be pick.

it`s crazy to destroy something and rebuilt it just to keep the game going

 

Why do you have to pick something... you don't... you just slide the focus from 100% production to 100% science or wealth... you waste no production what so ever since you gain MORE science or wealth that way in 99.9% of all cases. 

 

That is why the slider mechanic has to go... it is just very unintuitive to the average player. (my opinion anyway)

 

I completely disagree.  It is actually very intuitive, and it amazes me that anyone would have difficulty understanding the option to use it.  Having this control does not mean that you have to use it to min max everything.  I can say that I almost never min-max to the level the OP is talking about, and never have any issues with the game at any difficulty. Leave the slider at 50% and you don't have to worry about it.  The fact that there is the option and you don't use it doesn't mean you have to remove the option for those that actually do use it.

End of Martimus's quote

I agree with you.. I usually "role-play" in my games and put all kinds of restrictions on my game play to cater to a certain style... but I'm knowingly making things more difficult.

The problem is that this mechanic is only there for min/max micromanagement and it is not even necessary as you said, then why have it in the first place. Only so some players can boast how good scores they can get by making the game into an accounting contest?

This.

The old system (with working focus/project) was redondant with the slider, but was functionnal. The problem was that a planet with 1000 production and null research was able to research only by converting production, almost without any research facilities, wich was illogical (and then BAD).

Everyone could be happy with a trick : project should not just compute the bonus from production, but from the same formula used in the slider, plus the current "about 5% more add from production total". Then everyone will be ok.

This means, if you focus the slider 100% on production and start a research project, the bonus will be as if the slider is 100% on research, plus a (little 5%) part of the production added to the research total. Same for wealth.

So it will minimised the micromanagement problem, be almost exactly the same as the devs intend by using the slider (being able to specialized a planet, wich is GOOD), and add a (minimal) production bonus to the planet.

Do I miss something ?