Know a bit what i'm doing, but not really- Would appreciate a little help

[MrMcQue]

After some trial and error over the time since release, i have never really gotten the hang of it quite yet.

I've had about 150 hours in V2, and many thousands in the EU series, HoI4 and CK2.

But coming to my current playthrough of Victoria 3. After a previous failed game as Iran some months ago (i thought i was doing quite well until Prussia decided to try over and over again to annex me, which they finally achieved in the 3rd war i think), i decided now to give Belgium a go.

I don't want to just minmaxingly play along the "multiculturalism - mass migration - republic - laissez fair" lines, but decided to rp, at least to some degree. With my goals being to stay at least on Freedom of Conscience if not State Religion and a monarchy of some form. In general, i just try to rp a largely worker-friendly yet socially conservative Catholic State. Expanding to form the United Netherlands would be nice, but i don't really care about that all that much.

As for the economy, I first built up my construction industries a bit, built more iron and coal mines, and other bits and pieces.

Research-wise, i tried to go for what was helping my mines, manufacturing and some techs like pharmacy which help the population. I have a defensive pact with Britain and an alliance with France. I also started a small colony in the Congo, but only because i think it's kind of necessary for Belgium. If i'm honest, i largely ignored the military and navy so far.

I went however bankrupt multiple times. My budget seems to have settled a bit now though, ever since GB took over my debts in exchange of an obligation. I have a consntant artillery and paper shortage for some reason, eventhough the factories can't seem to make enough money to hire more people.

But i still feel like a blind man trying to feel around his surroundings with a cane, and recognizing some things but not the majority of them. I don't know where i'm really going with this post, so apologies for this, but i was kind of overwhelmed of watching 9+ hours of guides to get into the game. The times when i learned how to play HoI and EU were times where i had very little to do besides not doing my homework haha.

But i don't think by dept ceiling is rising fast enough, nor do i know which things to really look out for when judging in what kind of state my country is compared to others and compared to where it should be at this point. Should i always make initial products like coal and iron as cheap as possible by building lots of mines for them? How do i know what to export, what to import? Should i just basically build everything in Wallonia?

I attached the current save, so if you are feeling bored and, for some reason, want to look at what i have done to critique me, you are more than welcome to do so.

I have all DLCs except Pivot of Empire

 

[praftd]

The number one things people need to understand that this ENTIRE game is about moving money to where you want it. Don't think about it as goods being produced, but capital.

PMs just shift money from one groip to another. Same with taxes. Same with certain laws. Same with buildings.

Your goal is to move enough money to the state to do what you need, but as much as possible to your pops.

If a building isn't working it means some combination of:

1) Demand for the good is too low (not enough cash inflow to pay wages)

2) Input goods are too expensive (outflow is too high to pay wages)

3) There is a shortage of labor. Either they are uneducated, don't want the job, can't work it (slave, discrimination), or don't exist.

 

[praftd]

Should i always make initial products like coal and iron as cheap as possible by building lots of mines for them?

Not necessarily. If the good is very cheap, then consumers pay less and benefit at the cost of the producer. I.E less cash flows to the iron/coal mines and more cash is saved by the consumer.

If the good is expensive, the opposite.

Ideally you want to demand to be in the sweet zone where the mines are properous but so are the consumers like tool shops.

A good begininer rule of thumb is to keep the prosperity of buildings between 9-18. Ideally in the middle. Nothing wrong with going over, in fact it can be very good, but you have to be careful that the good being produced isn't costing the consumers locally a ton (but it is fantastic if exporting!). Sometimes this means swapping to lower production methods. For example, simple clothes early game is generally waaay better than luxury due to likely having less rich pops to even buy them.

Remember, cash moving is economic energy and taxes. The more cash moving the better. This is why debt spending is so good so long as you don't default. Cash that isn't moving is useless.

Also, governments are inherently inefficient. So government owned buildings literally destroy a certain percentage of cash. Private buildings do not. Thiugh there are benefits of public ownership, but private is far more profitable if youe tax laws and economy laws incentivize private construction

 

[praftd]

Also, just like in real life, exports are capital moving into your country and imports are capital exiting your country and going to the exporter.

You generally want more cash entering your country than exiting. Though that depends on your economic goals as there is value to an import deficit sometimes as value can be used to kickstart industries to generate wealth. But imports like paper to feed bureaucrats SAYS is is profitable, but economically speaking it is not. It is only profitable for your government because you are buying paper or might be able to tax a bit more. But that does not generate capital, it only shifts more cash from your economy to your investment pool with a percentage leaving the country entirely.

But importing coal to produce steel for export? The difference is economic gain.

 

[praftd]

I looked at your save and you weren't doing too bad. Just a few bits that can even things out:

• Switch the glass works to produce ceramics. You had dyes and ceramics were very high in price. Export the ceramics to make a bit more,
  • Right now you simply have too much of these. Demand needs to go up for either glass or ceramics or both.
• Livestock ranches are generally a bust in the current version. Not much you can do. 1.9 should fix this.
• Your arms industries were suffering because steel was in shortage and demand for guns was low. Upgrading your military will increase demand, building steel as you were doing will decrease the price, and then export some of the extra if possible.
  • However, swapping your arms industry from rifles back to muskets was the better play. It got rid of the oversupply and steel use. Increasing productivity to 17
  • Artillery factories were losing money because there was no demand. As above, upgrading your armies increased demand. Exports helped too
• Your fertilizer factories weren't effective because the demand was low. Explosive factories would increase that demand, but those factories were failing too due to no demand for explosives. Nothing was using them.
  • Researching Nitroglycerin as you are doing would solve that when you switch the PMs over and increase iron supplies. This is largely a timing issue. Built a bit too many, too soon.
    • Just keep in mind switching to nitro will likely cause a small drop in productivity to your mines, but these will likely be evened out when steel is consumed more
  • An ammo factory would help too. Demand for ammo was added after upgrading the military.
• Adding consumption taxes on Services is an easy win. Poorer pops don't buy them and they are typically cheap. This ads quite a bit in tax revenue (5.6K)
• Motor industries is just a matter of lack of demand. Build railways where needed, export extra if possible.
  • Get rid of the water-tube boiler, it is increasing supply when you are already in over-supply. Re-add this once nitro is done and coal supplies rise.
  • Once you get pumpjacks your motor industries will skyrocket in demand.
• Paper mills should switch back to hand assembly until you get more coal and sulfur.
  • Nitroglycerine will help here too.

Honestly, you weren't doing bad at all. Your economy was growing and your debt was sustainable. If you stop building for a bit it'd clear up if that makes you uncomfortable. Debt is fine, just make sure the number isn't red and your interest is sustainable. Swapping around a couple PMs netted me another 1 million in GDP within a couple days. And within 3 months I got most things stabilized. Pretty much doing the above.

I think your only issue I saw were minor PM tweaks and you might have overbuilt a few buildings a bit too soon. But given time they will be used. You were kinda sitting on the transition between semi-industrialized and fully industrialized so the economy "flywheel" hadn't quite got off the ground yet to switch over to some advanced PMs.

The transition from those tier 1/2 techs to tier 3 is when things flip over and the game really starts. But getting that loop started is tricky because it kind of all is one big circle between Coal, Iron, Sulfur, Steel. Fertilizer, Engines, Tools, and Explosives. You just need to kickstart it all.