A Test of Game Skill for WildEyes (Little Upsilon)

thank you jo,
i read the doc, but it does not cover everything. it doesn't specifically say that your education index depends on what other variables. i would like to know that education index depends on how many elementary schools, secondary schools, tertiary schools, nurses, doctors, engineers, etc....

then the corporations depend on those education variables, plus material availability and quality, type of workers, and so on.

then each of the defense and offense index depends on each number of weapon types, military forces, their locations, their quality, and so on.

this game is far from chess, for me. in chess, you know the capability of each of your pieces. in this game, i'm more like playing it by being blindfolded. ever try to walk from one location to the next, with your eyes/ears closed/covered? that's what i am in this game at this stage.

for example, no one told me that my military units will not be able to go thru my own fortication along my border, if i don't move them before declaring war? yes, i have one unit that does not seem to move at all and being stuck behind my own wall of fortications along my border with the c3 i'm going to war with. these are just the things they don't tell you ahead of time. learning by trials and errors, very time consuming and painful.

That's what makes experience so crucial in this game, xlong. Trial and error. You can learn how each bit works in isolation from the docs, but the rest you have to figure out for yourself.

Sort of like chess - you can learn the moves that each piece can make, but only by playing can you learn how to use them together. And then there's the intuition part ... Kasparov didn't get to be world champion by repeating the sets of moves invented by other players. He was able to see how they worked together, through a lot of years playing, and maximise the infinite variables to a point where he could use them better than anyone else.

Every time you come across something where you don't understand how the two (or more) things interact, test them. Go through each permutation one at a time, note the results, then compare them. Yes, it takes time. If it didn't, we'd all be masters after a few months of playing, and get bored and go find something else. Instead, we spend years getting to know it, and enjoying the journey

Education index is finite. If you go to 'important things to do', it will tell you what index your schools, highschools and universities are at. The lowest of them will be the eventual education index of your country, although if you have been building recently it may take a few months to catch up. So if you need an education index of 120, schools and highschools are at 120, but unis are only at 100, then you need more unis to get your index up to 120.

If you look at how many schools / highschools / unis the game says you need, that will give you an index of 100. So if you need an index of 120, multiply the number it says you need by 1.2. If you have fewer than that, then subtract one from the other, and that is how many more you need to get to the required index.

Hope that helps!

Hugs and respect

Jo

Thanks for the clarification Jo. Still a building. DI of 570 and FI of 116. I'll have to do some readjusting - thank goodness I still need massive population and cash reserves to start hitting those upper levels, so should have the time to do so.

Much respect,
M. Ney

FI is entirely dependent on population Marshal. It's down to income over expenditure, and they are both finite, unlike health, education and transport.

If you have more people, they will make more profit, and there is no incremental expenditure. Whereas with health, education and transport, if you have more people, they will need more schools, hospitals and roads, which will cost more, without related additional income.

DI is also finite. Each weapon you have gives you x additional points. So the more population you have, the more points they can sustain.

So ... yes ... to get to higher levels you need a certain level of population. I would guess at 70M+ ... average.

Hugs and respect

Jo

Jo, you have this knack of conveying lots of clear, concise info in just a tiny bit of space.

When I get started I usually have to dump it because it turns into an epistle.

Thanks Rick

Hugs and respect

Jo

jo,
what's the logic in that the more weapons/military stuffs you have, the higher your cost?

military seems to be treated as an expense, but yet you can sell or buy military services on the world market. in this case, it seems to be a revenues as well as an expenses. the guide/doc don't specifically tell you what it is, just said part of the "x group" which is useless to figure it out.

Xiong,

I believe Jo was referring to the cost of running military systems and units. You're paying not only for the upkeep - but also the salary levels. The latter is what's going to hurt me. If you sell the unit's necessary components (military services, supplies, gasoline, etc) then it becomes revenue. The expenses are salaries + supplies used - but I'm figuring just the salaries, as supplies are in your country consumption. Still be an expense, but in a different column of your budget. (and don't take that for gospel, I'm SWAGing that).

Jo, top level requires 150 million average (and 12 countries) for game level 16 on peaceful. 20 million less average on warlike. Going to be a long slog.

Much Respect,
M. Ney

xlong - each weapon you have in a country has a number of ongoing costs associated with it.

Most weapons that use ammo, use it monthly for 'training'. So if you have some AAMBs, for example, you will be buying anti-aircraft missiles which get used up every month. You will also have to buy military supplies and gasoline / aircraft fuel which, although I don't think they count as 'military spending', are still a monthly expense which drags your FI down. Your FI is an equation of income over expenditure. The more you spend every month, the smaller the difference between the two and the lower your FI.

Secondly, as Marshal says, you have to pay the wages every month of the soldiers and officers who man that weapon, whereas if they were employed by a CEO corp, the enterprise would pay the wages. Another extra expenditure item!

Lastly, because the soldiers and officers are employed in your army, they are not employed in a corp, so you have fewer corps in your country if you have weapons. Fewer corps = less income / profit = lower FI.

Peaceful mode is a LOT more difficult at the high levels, Marshal. Especially since the GMs reduced the DI requirements on non-peaceful mode. As long as there is an option to use war level OR Defensive Index to go up levels, non-peaceful mode is a lot easier - 9 countries and 100M population. DI of 300 and Defensive Index of 600 (which, if you are below WL3 and keeping weapons purely for the points, is the same thing). However, the option won't be there forever - the GMs are gradually phasing it out.

Nevertheless, you're right. Peaceful or non-peaceful, it is a long slog. Level 14 took me over a year, and level 15 has taken the same amount of time so far, although a lot of that has been due to slipping back regularly because of game engine changes. I've been within a couple of tenths of an FI point twice now, only to see it drop back again in response to a game update

Hugs and respect

Jo