User:SrBell/Sandbox

[list][list][color=maroon][b][size=160]Official National Economy Guide[/size][/b][/color]

[color=navy][b]Overview and Purpose:[/b][/color]

If you want your nation to grow as quickly as possible (and who wouldn't?), then read through this guide. It will just take a few minutes, and yet it will help your nation immensely.

The purpose of this guide is to teach you the [i] best strategy [/i] for growing your nation. It is [i] not [/i] to teach you how to play the game. If anything in this guide is not clear, you may find some excellent help on playing the game from [url=http://www.cybernations.net/about_topics.asp]The Cyber Nations Help Page[/url] and the [url=http://forums.cybernations.net/index.php?showtopic=22]Cyber Nations FAQ Page[/url]. Or feel free to ask questions in [url=http://www.ttkalliance.com/viewforum.php?f=212]here[/url] and one of your fellow Knights will be happy to help you out.

[color=navy][b]Introduction and Contents:[/b][/color]

The two most important things you can do to optimize growth are to get a good set of trades and to be involved in tech dealing, so this guide will start by discussing these topics. There are also a number of additional smaller things that will be discussed later (most of which are really simple to implement).[list] [*]Overview and Purpose [*]Introduction and Contents [*]Resources & Trading [*]Technology and Tech Dealing [*]Infrastructure and Infra Jumps [*]Land [*]Improvements [*]Environment and Population Happiness [*]My Government Position [*]My Profile [*]Edit My Nation (includes Government, Tax Rate, etc.) [*]Events [*]Military Effects on Economy [*]Donations [*]Wonders [*]Recommended Links[/list]

[color=navy][b]Resources & Trading:[/b][/color]

A nation may offer or be active in up to 4 trade requests at any given time. If you are involved in or have offered 4 trade agreements then you will not be able to submit any new trade offers until you first cancel one of your active trade agreements.You may continue to receive trade requests but if you are already involved in 4 other trade agreements any new trade requests will be placed in ‘Limit Reached’ status until you first cancel one of your 3 active trade agreements. A Harbor (see Nation Improvements) will give you another trade slot.

Try to find trade partners within TTK first (through [url=http://z14.invisionfree.com/Templar_Alliance/index.php?showforum=116]Resource Trades subforum[/url]), but if you can't find them, look to the rest of maroon. You can easily find the trading partners you need with the [url=http://www.cybernations.net/search_advanced_trades.asp]Advanced Trade Finder[/url]. Most people just send out PMs to several nations that appear on the list. Make sure to search only teams with your same color (should be maroon for most of you).

[u]Tips for trading:[/u] - Do not just take the first 4 offers! Think about which resources your nation needs first. To learn what each resource does, check the Cyber Nations help: [url=http://www.cybernations.net/about_topics.asp#Resources_&_Trades]http://www.cybernations.net/about_topics.a...ources_&_Trades[/url] - Do not just try to maximize bonus resources! They are exactly as they sound...bonuses. There are ways to get 8 bonus resources, but it's still not as good as having better core resources with 3-5 bonuses. - Only seek trades within your color. You lose a happiness bonus if you trade outside of maroon.

There are several good trade sets, so you should decide for yourself which trades are best for your nation. If you want some help with the math, there are a couple trade calculators available that you could use:

[url=http://irwinmg.files-upload.com/files/286643/CN_Resource_Calculator_V1_0.xls]Excel Resource Calculator[/url]

[url=http://www.mrfixitonline.com/cyber_nations/resourcecalculator.php]Online Resource Calculator[/url]

If you don't wish to run the numbers yourself, I suggest one of the following two sets. If you don't have any of the resources here, you may be able to swap one (or two) out with what you have - just be sure to note what will happen to the bonus resources in this case.

Agricultural

With Harbor: [Aluminum] [Cattle] [Fish] [Gems] [Iron] [Lumber] [Marble] [Pigs] [Spices] [Sugar] [Water] [Wheat] Bonus Resources: [Fast Food] [ Beer] [Construction] No Harbor: [Aluminum] [Cattle] [Fish] [Gems] [Iron] [Lumber] [Marble] [Sugar] [Water] [Wheat] Bonus Resources: [Construction] [Beer]

Industrial -- With Harbor: [Aluminum] [Cattle] [Coal] [Fish] [Iron] [Lumber] [Marble] [Oil] [Rubber] [Sugar] [Water] [Wheat] Bonus Resources: [Steel] [Automobiles] [Beer] [Construction] [Asphalt] No Harbor: [Aluminum] [Coal] [Fish] [Iron] [Lumber] [Marble] [Oil] [Rubber] [Water] [Wheat] Bonus Resources: [Steel] [Automobiles] [Beer] [Construction] [Asphalt]

[color=navy][b]Technology and Tech Dealing:[/b][/color]

Tech has several benefits, including happiness, military bonuses, and decreasing infrastructure upkeep costs. Happiness benefits: Technology = 0 then happiness = -1 Technology > 0 and .5 and  1 and  3 and  6 and  10 and  15 then happiness = + 5 + (Tech purchased * .02) up to level 200 tech

Military benefits: The more tech you have, the better your battle odds. That's about all I know, right now since this has recently been updated.

Infrastructure upkeep: 2*Tech/(Nation Strength) = Percent off infra upkeep bill, up to max of 10%

[color=red]Everyone should be tech dealing![/color] Basically, the way it works is that small nations buy tech for a relatively cheap price and sell it for much more to larger nations (which is still cheaper than it would cost for them to buy it themselves). Small nations will make huge profits in no time (Think millions within just a few weeks!).

The simplest deal is for a large nation to send you some money (say, for example, $1,000,000). You spend about $750-800k to buy 50 tech, and the rest is yours to keep. Ten days later (this is the soonest two nations can aid between each other), you send 50 tech back to that nation. In this example, you just made $200,000-$250,000 w/ one aid slot being used for 20 days, or at least $10,000/day/aid slot.

A much more efficient way to do this is a longer-term deal. For example, a large nation sends you $3M, and you pay back 50 tech in 10 days, 50 tech in 20 days, and another 50 tech. [color=red]Make sure you do not buy all the tech at once, but save the money for later! Maintain no more than 50 tech at a time or the costs go up a lot! [/color] If it costs you $800k for 50 tech, you just made $600k over 40 days, or at least $15,000/day/slot, so you can see how it is more profitable than the previous example, even at the same base price/tech.

If you use 4 aid slots to always be tech doing tech deals, this would lead to profits of $60k/day. In reality, most Knights are willing to pay much more for tech from a fellow Knight, so you can make much more! For example, if you have several $3M for 100 tech deals (which is a more typical price today), you should make at least $1.4M/30 days/slot, or about $190,000/day!

There are other deals in which a nation can get their tech from you much quicker, but it requires either middlemen or coordination between 4 or more nations, so I'll leave it up to you and the nations with which you are dealing to work these types of deals out.

Every small nation should be selling tech until they make [i]at least[/i] $1,000,000 a day in net income (Income minus Bills).

To find tech dealing partners, check out the [url=http://z14.invisionfree.com/Templar_Alliance/index.php?showforum=115]Tech Trades subforum[/url] in the [url=http://z14.invisionfree.com/Templar_Alliance/index.php?showforum=7]Market[/url] for more information.

Tips:

- Always buy 10 at a time. It's definitely cheaper this way since the costs go up as you have more. - If you are a tech seller, you should never have more than 50 tech. It is MUCH cheaper to buy the first 50 tech than it is with more tech. - When tech dealing, it is most efficient to max out the aid slots...i.e. always deal in increments of 50 tech and $3M when possible.

[color=navy][b]Infrastructure and Infra Jumps:[/b][/color]

Almost all of your money should go towards infrastructure. The number of people in your nation (and therefore the amount of money you make each day) is almost completely dependent on infrastructure. You should generally only buy other things, like land and soldiers when a warning message tells you that you need more.

Tips:

- Always buy 10 at a time. It's definitely cheaper this way since the costs go up as you have more.

Infrastructure Jumps -- The cost to buy and the cost to maintain your infrastructure goes up as you get more, but it's not always linear. There are huge "jumps" in price at certain points, as shown below. What this means to you is that it's actually better to have 999.99 infra than 1000, or even 1100. It is important to save up a bunch of money before making this "jump", so that you can buy a lot of infrastructure at once. The exact amount you need varies based on which jump you have, what your resources are, etc, but a rough swag is that you probably need to buy 100-200 infra to make a major jump efficiently (maybe only about 20-30 for the "minor jumps" as described below).

To calculate more precisely what you need, check out this [url=http://files-upload.com/files/485561/CN_infrajump_calculator.xls]Infrajump Calculator[/url]. I will warn you, however, that it doesn't yet take into consideration the effects of improvements, so it will give you a conservative number (especially for the 2k jump, which probably will tell you you need infinite infra!) Someday, I will update this accordingly, but for now, just try to realize that you may only need enough infra to buy some of the important improvements to be a profitable jump.

If you would prefer to do the math yourself instead of using this handy calculator (some people are just sadistic, I guess!), here is [url=http://z15.invisionfree.com/Cyber_Nations/index.php?showtopic=60043]another guide[/url] that explains the math very well.

As you can see in the following graph, there are major jumps at 1k, 2k, 3k, 4k, 5k, and 8k, as well as minor jumps at 100, 200, 300, 500, and 700.

[img]http://i258.photobucket.com/albums/hh258/irwinmg/InfraGraph.jpg[/img]

[color=navy][b]Land:[/b][/color]

Generally, you don't need to spend much at all on land. I recommend only buying it if you get a message saying that you don't have enough at the top of your "View My Nation" page.

Tips:

- Always buy 20 at a time. It's definitely cheaper this way since the costs go up as you have more.

[color=navy][b]Improvements:[/b][/color]

When you have at least 1000 citizens, you can start purchasing improvements (1 for every 1000 citizens). To learn about what each improvement will do for your nation, check the CN help page: [url=http://www.cybernations.net/about_topics.asp#Improvements]http://www.cybernations.net/about_topics.asp#Improvements[/url]

Here is the best order in which you should buy them. Within a specific tier, the order can vary slightly depending on your nation, so you may want to decide for yourself (a little math helps!)

Tier 1 -  Harbor Tier 2 -  Foreign Ministry (only if you are tech dealing as you should be...otherwise, put after Tier 5) Tier 3 -  5 Factories Tier 4 -  5 Banks, 5 Stadiums (you may want to alternate between these) Tier 5 -  (2 Clinics, then Hospital), (3 Schools, then 2 Universities) Tier 6 -  the last 2 schools Tier 7 -  5 Police Headquarters Tier 8 -  The last 3 clinics Tier 9 -  5 Churches, 5 Intelligence Agencies Tier 10 - Labor Camps (Note the mention below of improvement swapping)

[u]Tips for Improvements:[/u]

- Improvement swapping - when your infra bills reach roughly $500,000, you can replace 5 improvements with 5 Labor Camps, they will decrease your infra bills by about 45%, make sure that you have enough money for 5 days of bills and enough money to re-buy 5 of the improvements you destroyed. 5 days later, pay your bills, destroy your Labor Camps, buy the Improvements you replaced and collect 5 days worth of income. There you go, you saved about $800,000. When you have all the worthwhile improvements, get rid of your Labor Camps to collect and buy them again to pay bills, once every 2 or more days, be careful, you can’t stay more than 2 days without paying bills, otherwise you won’t be able to buy Labor Camps, resulting in loss of money. - [color=red][b]NEVER buy the Guerrilla Camp![/b][/color] This hurts you more than helps you. The Barracks and Border Walls may help a little, but many rulers don't even bother with these either. - If you are not often at war, the Missile Defense and Satellite can be "swapped" in as needed. They are wasting improvement space if you are typically at peace.

[color=navy][b]Environment and Population Happiness:[/b][/color]

Population Happiness is very important because it has a direct effect on income per citizen (each happiness point is worth $2.00 per person, not including effects of modifiers - resources, improvements, and wonders).

The only reason to care about Environment is because it has a direct effect on happiness. Each environment point is worth 0.4 happiness points (which is included in the happiness number already).

To see your happiness and environment numbers, highlight the white space next to the smiley face or stars, respectively, on your nation page.

The best environment you can have is 5 stars or 1.00 points. Don't worry too much about environment though, other than doing the simple things explained in the next couple sections of this guide. As far as I know, there is no max happiness.

In the end, neither environment or happiness by itself is that important...what really matters is the income, so don't try to max these out at the expense of your total income.

[b]Happiness Bonus For Nation Age:[/b] - When your nation reaches a certain age, you get an automatic happiness bonus, which gets a little higher for each milestone. If your nation was created late in the day, your bonus will actually occur one day late. I suggest you usually try to save up a couple days without collecting taxes, and collect on these days. You will get the bonus for all the backtaxes as well as the current day's taxes. The bonuses are at: 1 week 2 week 1 month 2 month 3 month 6 month 1 year

[color=navy][b]My Government Position:[/b][/color]

If your environment is anything less than perfect, setting these options properly can give you a slight improvement, which leads to more income.

Set government positions to the following (some are very counterintuitive):[list] [*]Issue 1: Does not matter [*]Issue 2: Option 2 or 3 if you do not have uranium, Option 1 if you do have uranium [*]Issue 3: Does not matter [*]Issue 4: Does not matter [*]Issue 5: Options 1 or 4 [*]Issue 6: Does not matter [*]Issue 7: Does not matter [*]Issue 8: Does not matter[/list]

[color=navy][b]My profile:[/b][/color]

You might as well check the ad box unless you really hate that sort of thing. It increases your tax interest from 8% (or $5k max) to 12% (or $10k max). The ads are pretty non-invasive.

[color=navy][b]Edit my nation:[/b][/color]

[*]Make sure the Alliance Affiliation says exactly: The Templar Knights

[*]Government: Here's a list of governments in order of how profitable they are (it may vary slight depending on your specific nation, but probably not much). However, sometimes you should listen to what the people want. If the population desires anything above the yellow line, give 'em what they want...these are all good governments. If the population wants anything below the yellow line, screw what they want and pick Monarchy. You only lose 1 Happiness point and the benefits of the Monarchy outweigh this. If you don't want the hassle, keeping your government as Monarchy all the time is not that much worse than this strategy. [list] [*]Monarchy [*]Revolutionary [*]Democracy [*]Capitalist/Republic (exactly the same) [color=purple]- (anything below this line should never be used)[/color] [*]Totalitarian [*]Federal [*]Dictatorship [*]Transitional [*]Communist [*]Anarchy[/list]

[u]DEFCON and Threat levels:[/u] Always keep at 5 (Peacetime Readiness) and Low, respectively, unless you are currently involved in a war (in which case you should reference the Military Guide), or if you are instructed to raise it by your Division Commander, External Preceptor, or Grand Master. There are substantial happiness penalties for changing this to anything other than 5.

[u]Tax rate:[/u] The higher the tax, the more unhappiness the people will have. However, for most nations, it is more profitable to set to 28% anyway. For some nations, other rates will actually generate more income (usually 23% if anything), so you can play around with this to find out for yourself.

[u]Ethnic Group:[/u] Does not matter economically...pick whatever you like!

[u]Religion:[/u] Give the people what they want! If it says on the main page that your people would be happier with something else, you can check the CN Wiki to find out which goverment to choose: [url=http://cybernations.wikia.com/wiki/National_Religion]http://cybernations.wikia.com/wiki/National_Religion[/url]. You can only change this every 3 days, so don't just guess![/list]

[u]War/Peace Preference:[/u] Set to "War is an Option." Again, there are huge happiness penalties otherwise. The only exception would be if you were selected as a Banker nation during an alliance war (would only apply to larger nations).

[color=navy][b]Events:[/b][/color]

As events come up, choose the best one using this algorithm: -Do any of the options reduce your land area? If so, pick the option that does. If not, move on. -Do any of the options reduce your military? If so, choose the option that does. If not, move on. -Do any of the options raise your infra upkeep costs? If so, pick the option that does. If not, move on. -Do any of the options do anything other than decreasing your income (remember that losing a percentage of your citizens loses the same percentage of your income). If so, pick that option. If not, move on. -If all of the options reduce your income (by reducing happiness, citizen income, or citizen count), calculate which option reduces income the least (once again, 1 happiness point = $2 income). When in doubt, you can always come to the CN Technical forum and ask which course of action to take. Be prepared to provide financial data for your nation.

[size=140][b]CONTINUED IN REPLY...[/b][/size][/list]