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Amiga Empire by Chris Gray - Economics
Economics are a fairly important part of Amiga Empire. Each country has a
pool of money, which is used for a variety of expenses. Many actions cannot
be performed at all if this pool becomes 0 or negative. At one point in
most games, money becomes the critical resource - growth of the country is
limited by the available funds. Try not to let your money run out, as being
broke can be a severe disadvantage in Empire. The amount of money you have
available is shown by the 'nation' command.
Money is needed for the following activities:
increasing the efficiency of sectors
military expenses incurred by soldiers
utilities costs at capitals, research institutes, technology centers,
radar stations and weather stations
loans to other countries
building ships
building bridge spans
buying things from other countries
Money is earned by:
contracting the production at various sectors (iron mines, gold mines,
harbors, technology centers, research institutes, bridge heads,
shell industries, defense plants, and airports)
interest on gold bars in efficient banks
loans from other countries
sales to other countries
The only long-term stable forms of income are bank interest and contracts.
Your gold bars in banks can be a crucial resource, since they can be
destroyed. The output of mines, etc. is usually needed to keep a continual
stream of production going, since shells, guns, ships, etc. can be used up
quite quickly during a war. There are a few subtle points of these matters
that players will notice as they play. As an example, a bank will not pay
interest on any gold bars it has unless it is at least 60% efficient (this
figure of 60% applies to nearly all aspects of "production"), but raising
the efficienty of a bank requires money. Thus, if you are broke and have no
other form of income and no banks at 60% or more, you cannot make any
interest, regardless of how many bars you have. A country in this
unfortunate state must either pray (send a begging telegram to a deity), or
try to arrange a loan from another country.
When offering a loan, you are asked for the amount of the loan, the
interest rate and the term (duration) of the loan. The interest rate is the
percent of the loan's principal amount that is added to the loan over the
term of the loan. Thus, if you offer a $1000 loan with a period of one
week and an interest rate of 50%, for the loan to be payed off at the end
of the week, $1500 must be paid. The term of the loan is also the time
which the loanee has to accept or decline the loan - it expires after that
period. If the loan is not repaid at the end of its term, it is said to be
in arrears. From that point on, the interest rate is doubled.
A loaner can collect on an overdue loan. Collecting involves confiscating
entire sectors of the debtors which are orthoganlly adjacent to one or more
sectors of the loaner. A "magic" formula is used to place a cash value on
the sector, and if that value is not too much higher than the value of the
loan in arrears, the sector is given to the loaner, and its value is
deducted from the amount owed on the loan. Multiple sectors can be taken in
this way until the loan is roughly paid up. Note the limitation of an
orthogonally adjacent sector - take care who you offer loans to!
Loans are offered with the 'lend' command. When you offer a loan to
someone, they are sent a telegram informing them of the offer. Loans are
accepted with the 'accept' command. When a loan is accepted, the loaner is
informed with a telegram, and a note is made in the newspaper. The 'repay'
command is used to repay all or a portion of an outstanding loan. The
'collect' command is used to confiscate sectors for an overdue loan. Both
full loan repayment and sector confiscation are noted in the news. The
'ledger' command shows all loans that you are party to, and gives their
current value and interest rate.
If a country should lose all of it's sectors, and still owe money on a loan
to you, you may collect 80% of the ORIGINAL amount of the loan as "bad debt",
and the loan will be considered paid in full. Note that you will be
forfeiting all interest and claim to sectors should the country start over
somewhere else.
Materials and ships can be bought and sold. Materials (shells, guns, iron
ore, planes and gold bars) can be bought and sold only at exchange sectors.
Such sectors cannot deliver things (the same internal sector variables are
used to represent the sale prices). The market in Empire is [basically] open,
that is, you cannot sell to a specific country, you can only set a price on
things and offer them to anyone [who is at least neutral to you]. Proper
coordination with the other country can make a sale effectively private,
however. There are minimums and maximums on the price of the various goods.
The exchange sector doing the selling, and the one doing the buying, must
both be at least 60% efficient. Goods sold are instantaneously transported
from the selling exchange to the buying exchange. Each sale is noted in the
news.
Ships can be sold as well as goods. The ship can be anywhere and in any
condition when it is sold. It does not move when purchased - the buyer gets
it as-is, where-is. Ships must not be in a fleet when they are put up for
sale, [and may not be put into a fleet while they are for sale].
Goods and ships are put up for sale with the 'price' command. They are
purchased with the 'buy' command. The 'report' command shows what is for
sale at what price by who. You can selectively ask for just a naval trade
report or just a land trade report.
One last Empire command has some economic affects. That is the 'grant'
command, which allows one country to grant a sector outright to another
country. The sector must be orthogonal to an existing sector of the country
being granted to. Granting is normally used by bordering countries to clean
up their border. Wholesale granting of sectors to a single other country is
in many ways a very unfair way to get out of the game - it is usually much
better to just leave your country alone and let it be taken over by whoever
wants to try.