New prototype:

http://www.silverlemur.com/work/ir-prototype.zip

- interface completely redone

- workers allocation system (each factory/mine/farm sets up wages and population change jobs over time; there is no migration between provinces yet)

Production of resources is half broken in this version, ignore.

What's gonna be the goal of the game ?

Standard of living mechanic

I was thinking, the Anno1xxx/Caesar/Pharaoch "tiers of people that require more advanced goods" does not fit with the rest of the mechanics so well, yet I like the concept. So I thought, how about a button to increase "Standard of living" (consumption of goods) for all your population?

At the beginning people require just food and almost nothing more, when you increase/upgrade the standard of living they start (gradually, not like suddenly 100% population require fancy sugar) demand/consume more/different goods. It affects all your population, but the classes (peasants/labourers/clerks) are considered separately (so peasants will basicly need almost nothing for the whole game while higher classes would require more and more luxuries; therefore if your country has mainly peasants and high standard of living they still would be consuming a modest/low amount of fancy stuff since mostly higher classes consume it). You can also decrease the standard of living (but the population will be unhappy).

Why the player would want to increase standard of living:

- it positively affect taxes, boosts research, boosts efficiency per worker, boosts growth rate and immigration

- some stuff might be simply locked until you reach a certain level of standard of living

- the population will have "expected level of standard of living" which increases over time, you need to meet it or face riots

If you are not able to deliver the goods it decreases the happiness of population (if there is a small shortage (in percentage of needs) the drop would be minimal, so there is no problem with small shortages as long as overall you mostly deliver what you promised).

Questions:

- what you think overall? does it make sense? does it sound fun? do you have a better idea or an idea how to improve it?

- should the standard of living be per province or one per whole country?

- how to "theme/rename" the "increase standard of living" button? it sounds so artificial...

New version of the prototype available (link 2 posts above :D)

I have a problem with money flow, and could use some thoughts/advice.

Overall, the economic system in this game is artifical and it's more like a "state capitalism" since the player owns and controls all factories. It's on purpose (I exchanged here realism for fun) and I accept it will have some drawbacks. Now, how to make it work...

* population go to factories and get jobs there, the factory automaticly adjust the wages (range from $1.00 to $9.00) to maximize the output (if not enough workers it increases wages, if too many it decreases), population is drawn to factories that have the highest wages (that's the only purpose of the wages mechanic)

* population pay tax each turn (fixed $5.00)

* most likely the population will also pay for consumed goods (Standard of living mechanic topic), since this make balancing it easier (no other reasons)

Important thing, the money comes out of the air. The population is not accumulating the money they earned in jobs (these money just disappear) and when they pay taxes (or "pay" for consumed goods) this money also comes out of nowhere.

The problem is twofold:

1) in a long run all factories end up setting up $1.00 wages (if there is a slightest unemployment)

2) the money flow is chaotic, the player is either earning tons of money or losing tons of money

Put all the money the workers earn into the unregulated sector, then tax it ? (by % )

You are a genius powerneg :) That solves half the problems.

So, population is taxed by % of wages (so it's not chaotic anymore). I also modified wages so they depend not only on factory needs but also on the unemployment rate in the province (with 0 unemployment the wages will not fall below $5.00 and only at severe 50%+ these fall to $1.00).

OK, it works, but it's a bit rough (also the player has always negative income since wages would always exceed taxes (since taxes are % of wages), at least without export). I wonder how to refine it...

Especially, I wonder about the consumption mechanic. Should population pay for the goods (to the player)? Or just keep these free (much simplier I suppose)?

Actually that's a good question.

What's the point if people are either unemployed/farmer or worker? I mean is there a way for player to "lose" beside extreme underutilization?

The player's goal, or at least a high priority during the game must be to keep/make the people happy.
Give the player access to the country 's money printer, aka the player has unlimited money.

But the rest sounds good (keeping people happy, setting up prices levels, population wealth per province). Just if we can use these ideas without unlimited money...

What's the point if people are either unemployed/farmer or worker? I mean is there a way for player to "lose" beside extreme underutilization?