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qzjul Game profile

Administrator
Game Development
10,263

Oct 7th 2010, 18:41:52

In an effort to make the game somewhat more friendly to new players, we've changed the default taxrate to 35%, given anybody who's played the game for a while will have learned that that is the optimal taxrate, yet it is not a particularly trivial piece of information to find out when you start the game.
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LittleItaly Game profile

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2172

Oct 7th 2010, 21:07:00

so no one will be able to mess up there country by not changing the tax rate in the beginning... thats not cool.
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Pang Game profile

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5731

Oct 7th 2010, 21:18:20

but, on the other hand... no one will be able to mess up there country by not changing the tax rate in the beginning... and that's good for retaining new players :p
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dustfp Game profile

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710

Oct 7th 2010, 21:40:48

minor, but awesome, change :D
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diez Game profile

Member
1340

Oct 8th 2010, 2:37:15

nice change, this will help new players a lot :D

Tertius Game profile

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EE Patron
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Oct 8th 2010, 3:06:27

Oh, could we also make it so that when we start building res/ent that it automatically changes the tax rate to be the most efficient? That'd be great, thanks. =P

NOW3P Game profile

Member
6503

Oct 8th 2010, 3:42:43

Will be interesting to see how this plays out...

I've always been a proponent of learning WHY you do something, not just having it done for you.

Honestly, I would have suggested setting it at like %30 - it's not optimal, but it's also not going to screw you over if you don't change it. Handing it to folks on a silver platter seems to take some of the fun of learning the game out of it to me.

I can see how it will help new player retention, just not so sure about new player learning curve.

llaar Game profile

Member
11,273

Oct 8th 2010, 15:17:54

makes a lot of sense

Detmer Game profile

Member
4239

Oct 8th 2010, 16:37:58

NOW3P, as they learn to play the game they will learn WHY 35% is the generally optimal tax rate and how varying it at times can be preferable. There is no reason to start people at another tax rate - its not like giving them a good tax rate will make new players competitive...

snawdog Game profile

Member
2413

Oct 8th 2010, 22:13:20

It has gotten so automated,that about all we need now is a browser script to login and play our tu...er...nvm.

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highrock Game profile

Member
564

Oct 8th 2010, 22:33:02

hmm so why is 35% the optimal tax rate?
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qzjul Game profile

Administrator
Game Development
10,263

Oct 8th 2010, 23:28:08

if you take the maximum population formula, the maximum PCI formula, the food consumption formula and income = tax*population*pci - population*food_consumption*(food_price) and take the derivative... you can calculate the optimum taxrate is 35% for a food price of like 32-40 or so
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highrock Game profile

Member
564

Oct 9th 2010, 4:16:22

hmm...that is completely untuitive and nobody will really figure that out on their own...so handing this out on a silver platter is good.
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Detmer Game profile

Member
4239

Oct 9th 2010, 14:01:31

Originally posted by highrock:
hmm...that is completely untuitive and nobody will really figure that out on their own...so handing this out on a silver platter is good.


That is 100% intuitive... net_income = income - expenses....

LOTS of people have figured it out. The only part that requires real effort is determining the formulas for population and pci, which are fortunately well known already.

Pang Game profile

Administrator
Game Development
5731

Oct 9th 2010, 14:51:48

I've never worked out why 35% is the best, from first principles or anything, but I've been told that others have. People like qz! :p

if you don't like the 35% default tax rate, feel free to go into your country when you first log in and set the tax rate to 10% and you won't even notice the change! :D :p
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Tertius Game profile

Member
EE Patron
1439

Oct 10th 2010, 22:53:06

Also, what servers did this go out on? I didn't notice it for any of my most recent startups...

Pang Game profile

Administrator
Game Development
5731

Oct 11th 2010, 3:42:56

This was put in at the time qz announced it, so if you started a new country after this thread was made, you should have seen the update :)
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Rico Game profile

Member
1129

Oct 18th 2010, 7:38:43

36% is best, not 35%!

qzjul Game profile

Administrator
Game Development
10,263

Oct 19th 2010, 5:19:10

depends on food price
Finally did the signature thing.

Mad Morticia Game profile

Member
365

Oct 23rd 2010, 6:17:56

Good job, all admins.