Hello. I have played a bit over 100 hours since the 26th, one of the things I am struggling the most to grasp is economic growth.
Whenever I get a country like US under my control the economy instantly start to shrink and very fast, about 1 Trillion every 4 years. That while keeping full 3 dots for economy on all CP and a administration 25 concilour advising.
How in hell I see other players with economies growing? What am I doing wrong that my economies only shrink?
Questions about economy
Re: Questions about economy
It's not about how many pips you have on economy, its how many investment points get invested in economy. So some things to do would be to reduce other spending, stabilize the country and undeploy any armies you have deployed.
Re: Questions about economy
So, is it a better idea to nurse the economy while fixing issues with the country, or to just slam the gas on whatever the problems are so you can full focus the economy later on?
Re: Questions about economy
It seems some of the nations are scripted to have population decline (either that or it's related to how developed the nation already is).
To counter that, you need to invest in economy.
In order to invest, you need to have investment points which in turn requires peaceful condition and being unburdened by armies and navies.
You also need to avoid climate change effects. You get that from welfare + tech effects. The need for extra welfare further increases the need for investment base, which goes back to peace + small military.
In order to have small military, try to have a few large nations as opposed to a super large one + a few small ones after you unlock claims techs. That way, all nations are easy to maintain control and peace. You have in total more points to invest into welfare points (in contrast to economy points which is proportional to population size if I understand correctly). And more to the point, that's how you can concentrate the military burden on one of the nations. For example, Japan in particular start of being able to field 3 armies and 2 navies. (The last army isn't useful.) With sufficient tech, Japan can do most of the fighting you need until relatively late game. Most of your other large nations can be spared of military burden.
The flip side of some nations having population decline is ofc some regions having population boon on top of already large population. So it helps to eventually invest in those developing regions. They give outsized return mid game.
Later on, with more tech, I dial up the welfare and reduce the eco.
Undecided on knowledge. For countries with flawed democracy it is possibly worthwhile. Otherwise, it is rather difficult to push up research point per control cost against cap. With that difficulty, and against the general ease of getting research from space until alien come knocking, I don't think knowledge should be prioritized. Even on democracies it's questionable. Once you combine nations, they lose all government points anyway. (Which is a bit questionable in terms of narrative design)
To counter that, you need to invest in economy.
In order to invest, you need to have investment points which in turn requires peaceful condition and being unburdened by armies and navies.
You also need to avoid climate change effects. You get that from welfare + tech effects. The need for extra welfare further increases the need for investment base, which goes back to peace + small military.
In order to have small military, try to have a few large nations as opposed to a super large one + a few small ones after you unlock claims techs. That way, all nations are easy to maintain control and peace. You have in total more points to invest into welfare points (in contrast to economy points which is proportional to population size if I understand correctly). And more to the point, that's how you can concentrate the military burden on one of the nations. For example, Japan in particular start of being able to field 3 armies and 2 navies. (The last army isn't useful.) With sufficient tech, Japan can do most of the fighting you need until relatively late game. Most of your other large nations can be spared of military burden.
The flip side of some nations having population decline is ofc some regions having population boon on top of already large population. So it helps to eventually invest in those developing regions. They give outsized return mid game.
I full on eco early + mil tech early on. Only equatorial countries are responsible for boosts and that's only very early game anyway.So, is it a better idea to nurse the economy while fixing issues with the country, or to just slam the gas on whatever the problems are so you can full focus the economy later on?
Later on, with more tech, I dial up the welfare and reduce the eco.
Undecided on knowledge. For countries with flawed democracy it is possibly worthwhile. Otherwise, it is rather difficult to push up research point per control cost against cap. With that difficulty, and against the general ease of getting research from space until alien come knocking, I don't think knowledge should be prioritized. Even on democracies it's questionable. Once you combine nations, they lose all government points anyway. (Which is a bit questionable in terms of narrative design)
Re: Questions about economy
So effectively, focus on getting the countries stable and economical first, with those near the equator giving boost for your early space entry. How do you do this exactly? With many small nations I feel like it will overly strain your councilors and lack the CP cap efficiency of the bigger nations like the USA or China. Is it a choice of sacrificing the early game?
Re: Questions about economy
I don't think USA is optimal for early game at all. At best just good among equals. As for China, scheming early control on China can be fun but probably far from optimal. (You have to build your council around it.) In any case, neither are truly early game. You will be controlling other countries while you work on either USA or China or whichever other combo you feel like (which, again, is not going to be somehow worse than USA. No such thing!)
Early on, you need 1) good research per control cost; 2) boost + some MC.
The best research countries have ~2 research per control cost and they are, primarily: Canada, Australia, Afganistan (yep, you read it right).
As long as you maintain public support, Canada is large and difficult for AI to seize control/incite unrest on due to high democracy and cohesion. Similarly but to a lesser extent Australia. But Austria can expand soon after early game. And mid game, both can be absorbed into UK and then EU.
Afganistan will stay independent for a long time but it's cheap to control. It is unique in having much higher research per control cost ratio than 2. The nuisance is mainly inefficient use of Protect Interests. Though early game AI won't bother wrestling control of Afgan from you.
As you see, there is no big country in the list. Not even Japan. Japan starts of difficult to wrestle control over. It's not really early game. Though of course Japan is worth keeping an eye on. For it has the most efficient army navy (can have 2+2) and miltech (onward to robotic) situation.
For boost + MC, you need Singapore, Israel, Kazakstan. Again, no big countries. Later on, some Caliphate countries can turn out decent for boost. But you only need boost very early on. Later on, you need a stockpile for periods where you need to upgrade mining modules and are under alien attack. And that's about it. Stockpile, by definition, does not require expanding monthly boost income.
All these countries have good funding so maintenance of hab modules wont be an issue.
Singapore in particular has such good funding and boost combo, I wouldn't even mind leaving it independent for the rest of game. (Without that, the fact that you are somewhat forced to leave it independent would be a downside.)
Another thing is I haven't listed a long list of countries. So 1) you can still control whatever other country combo you feel like, unless you want China, for which you likely have to sacrifice early admin point and thus control capacity; and you shouldn't have issue with USA cuz by the time you can control USA you should have gained enough agent XP for the admin points; & 2) it's not difficult to defend them. With decent public support, AI factions won't even bother. I don't even Protect Interests on any of my CPs until like mid game where I control the whole Eastern Europe under Eurasia. (And obviously the typical Eurasian nations.)
Early on, you need 1) good research per control cost; 2) boost + some MC.
The best research countries have ~2 research per control cost and they are, primarily: Canada, Australia, Afganistan (yep, you read it right).
As long as you maintain public support, Canada is large and difficult for AI to seize control/incite unrest on due to high democracy and cohesion. Similarly but to a lesser extent Australia. But Austria can expand soon after early game. And mid game, both can be absorbed into UK and then EU.
Afganistan will stay independent for a long time but it's cheap to control. It is unique in having much higher research per control cost ratio than 2. The nuisance is mainly inefficient use of Protect Interests. Though early game AI won't bother wrestling control of Afgan from you.
As you see, there is no big country in the list. Not even Japan. Japan starts of difficult to wrestle control over. It's not really early game. Though of course Japan is worth keeping an eye on. For it has the most efficient army navy (can have 2+2) and miltech (onward to robotic) situation.
For boost + MC, you need Singapore, Israel, Kazakstan. Again, no big countries. Later on, some Caliphate countries can turn out decent for boost. But you only need boost very early on. Later on, you need a stockpile for periods where you need to upgrade mining modules and are under alien attack. And that's about it. Stockpile, by definition, does not require expanding monthly boost income.
All these countries have good funding so maintenance of hab modules wont be an issue.
Singapore in particular has such good funding and boost combo, I wouldn't even mind leaving it independent for the rest of game. (Without that, the fact that you are somewhat forced to leave it independent would be a downside.)
Another thing is I haven't listed a long list of countries. So 1) you can still control whatever other country combo you feel like, unless you want China, for which you likely have to sacrifice early admin point and thus control capacity; and you shouldn't have issue with USA cuz by the time you can control USA you should have gained enough agent XP for the admin points; & 2) it's not difficult to defend them. With decent public support, AI factions won't even bother. I don't even Protect Interests on any of my CPs until like mid game where I control the whole Eastern Europe under Eurasia. (And obviously the typical Eurasian nations.)
Re: Questions about economy
This is so counter to everything else I have read and experienced. I usually take china or USA relatively quickly so I can control the flow of research and hold off on space until I am ready to grab the things I want as soon as they are available. I know that IP is better in small nations but, you suffer so hard in research from the abysmal research/cp of the smaller places. I suppose Im not very familiar with this strategy at all. What is your answer when the other factions take things like the USA or China relatively early, making them ever more difficult to take and arming them with a couple of the most powerful militaries in the game? How do you not completely stall out on research due to poor CP efficiency and lack of a good advise target? So many questions.
Re: Questions about economy
I started a new game to verify what you are saying and Canada does get CLOSE to 2 research per CP, but isn't there and the other two aren't even close.
Meanwhile the USA is sitting with almost 3/CP. Maybe it takes time for these others but in that time the USA can spike WAY higher and with it being a single location it's easier to maintain with councilors.
I'm really curious as to how you are making this work for long term planning. Do you just abandon these after the early game and settle into a bigger nation for military benefits? Do you just take these and a handful of those able to federate? I am missing something in this strategy I feel because it seems wild and prone to fall off almost instantly, while also lacking early game presence outside of putting boots on the moon and MAYBE mars. Lack of income for orgs. Lack of councilors due to babysitting a dozen countries. How does this work?
Meanwhile the USA is sitting with almost 3/CP. Maybe it takes time for these others but in that time the USA can spike WAY higher and with it being a single location it's easier to maintain with councilors.
I'm really curious as to how you are making this work for long term planning. Do you just abandon these after the early game and settle into a bigger nation for military benefits? Do you just take these and a handful of those able to federate? I am missing something in this strategy I feel because it seems wild and prone to fall off almost instantly, while also lacking early game presence outside of putting boots on the moon and MAYBE mars. Lack of income for orgs. Lack of councilors due to babysitting a dozen countries. How does this work?