Does anyone know how the starting gold reserves are calculated for turn zero? I have seen a couple hundred turns and they are always the same. ME Games has told me that there is not a specific formula, but I disagree.
Tim Huiatt
If they’re always the same, they’re not calculated in a formula…they’re a set constant, and with a couple hundred turns, you know all the constants then. That’s a good enough data set for me.
I seem to recall having reverse-engineered the formula (or set of constants and how they interacted, if that be a more accurate description) at one point.
However, that mystery solved, I promptly flushed it from active memory.
I’ll try to remember to pull up my old computation sheet and see if I can get what I have to you.
My data set only consisted of two or three games’ worth of data, though. And only FP data.
- Steven K. Mariner
Maybe I should have said this is a loaded question. A turn zero had an incorrect starting gold amount in my opinion. ME says it was not incorrect. If others have an answer as to what the starting gold should be, I would appreciate your input.
Tim Huiatt
I was always under the impression it was pretty much a nation by nation constant that was simply seasonally adjusted. This would be the starting point (as maintenance costs are constant at startup). The only difference from here would be fluctuations in the randomized starting Gold production per starting pop. 2 variables (season and gold production). I’ve been advised by some who work too hard at these types of things that the numbers 2.4 and 4.5 have more to do with this game than they merit… Good luck.
Brad
Took a quick look at some files on my machine. It’s certainly a nation specific calculation, see attached. Some are set, adjusted by seasons (maybe), others fluctuate a small amount (SG and NG are 1/2 revenue, for example, nothing screamed out at me for NMen, Eothraim, etc…).
I’m getting “file is damaged and could not be repaired” when I try to open your PDF.
Created with Acrobat 6. Works for me from the link.
Ha Ha! Now you have to upgrade your Acrobat reader to open the file!
It’s free…takes 5 minutes…
And the new version is slower.
But it was inevitable. I had to upgrade the other machine just to read tax forms for my wife’s new job. I knew I was going to have to upgrade this one eventually.
Grr.
I have some tangentally related information:
My starting gold in a gunboat game was in error. The game is still playing, so forgive me for being vague on those details.
This is the relevant info from my Turn 0 PDF:
“Current gold reserves: xxxx” was correct.
“Revenue expected next turn: xxxx” was erroneous.
Rumor reported that a season change was imminent (fall to winter).
If I had bothered to add my anticipated gold production as shown in the “Population Centers” information with my gold from taxes, I would have caught the error.
The harm was that I failed one order due to insufficient gold. HQ resolved the error by allowing one of my characters to change one of its orders (925) to 320.
My turn did not have a season change, otherwise I would have anticipated the lack of gold.
My turn reported revenue expected next turn as xxxx, but in reality the revenue that was generated that turn was less than xxxx. Gold production from pop centers did not change from turn zero to turn one. Unfortunately their was simply an error in the revenue expected. This impacts the starting gold the nation should have had, but Harlequin said this was not correct. Starting gold was approximately 20,000 less than what it should have been.
tim
This all just goes to prove that you should’nt rely on the data (pdf) sheets too much. When in a tight spot I run a spreadsheet program that will calculate my tax levels and spenditure for me. It does sometimes make a difference 
Good point Ian.
tim
An interesting topic. Playing the QA at the moment and my starting reserve (not income) is 27K on turn 0.
Looking on the file at http://www.meturn.com/bobbins/Downloads/1650%20Quiet%20Avenger%20map.pdf the starting reserve is 49K. This is a 1999 file.
Have the DS reserves been reduced?
For reference my fellow DS starting reserves compared to the files on the website are…
11 76230 - 76095
12 68040 - 57870
13 49950 - File can’t be opened
14 55080 - 54450
15 61290 - 46620
16 48330 - 35550
17 27000 - 49680
18 Unknown - 41400
19 79515 - 67095
20 49680 - 35640
A huge difference for the QA but most of the other DS seemed to do better. Does anyone know how the starting reserve is set?
Kev
If I recall correctly, in 1650 your starting reserves are the greater of :
a) -4.5 x your starting deficit
or
b) a set amount based on Nation, usually 20,000, but occasionally higher (for example NM starts with 37500)
HtH
Kevin