Possible Exploit to Build Rare Improvements

[unmerged(14164)]

I have not found mention of this before...but I'm sure people have previously discovered this trick.

Some of the high end province improvement require a minimum income of 15 to build, namely the Grand Palace.

If you pause the game and crank all taxes to max you can push even low income provinces above 15. Then just build the improvement, re-lower the taxes and un-pause the game. No negative side-effects and you get access to those rare improvements. A Grand Palace in every province means you get three more provinces in your realm than usual, making one extraordinarily powerful!

A quick fix would be to raise the minimum income to 20 with the assumption that players will pause and raise taxes. The AI only builds these improvements in very rich provinces -- provinces that would easily meet a 20 income minimum -- so it would not negatively affect the AI.

Thanks,
Grendel

 

[lenny]

I have not found mention of this before...but I'm sure people have previously discovered this trick.

Some of the high end province improvement require a minimum income of 15 to build, namely the Grand Palace.

If you pause the game and crank all taxes to max you can push even low income provinces above 15. Then just build the improvement, re-lower the taxes and un-pause the game.

It is a well known exploit but has not been mentioned recently.

No negative side-effects and you get access to those rare improvements. A Grand Palace in every province means you get three more provinces in your realm than usual, making one extraordinarily powerful!

Although a royal post and grand palace in every demesne province allow you to lower you nominal efficiency to 50% without income penalty, there are negative side effect. Namely, you will start getting evil events.

A quick fix would be to raise the minimum income to 20 with the assumption that players will pause and raise taxes. The AI only builds these improvements in very rich provinces -- provinces that would easily meet a 20 income minimum -- so it would not negatively affect the AI.

Thanks,
Grendel

The negative effect on the AI is that it won't have these buildings in provinces with income 15-19.99. The human player would continue to use the same exploit, but could construct the provinces in question in less provinces, of course. He will still have an advantage though, and your quick fix will just reduce the frequency of the buildings in-game.

A better fix would be to have the construction possibility depending on base tax. Base tax does not depend on the tax slide settings and hence this would give equal opportunities to the AI and the player.

 

[unmerged(33525)]

It is a well known exploit but has not been mentioned recently.


Although a royal post and grand palace in every demesne province allow you to lower you nominal efficiency to 50% without income penalty, there are negative side effect. Namely, you will start getting evil events.


The negative effect on the AI is that it won't have these buildings in provinces with income 15-19.99. The human player would continue to use the same exploit, but could construct the provinces in question in less provinces, of course. He will still have an advantage though, and your quick fix will just reduce the frequency of the buildings in-game.

A better fix would be to have the construction possibility depending on base tax. Base tax does not depend on the tax slide settings and hence this would give equal opportunities to the AI and the player.

Base it on both, or tinker with the gestion to make sure that the item is effective only when the tax income is above 15. You can crank up taxes to built it, but it won't do you any good if the taxes are not up to par.

This would fix the problem simply and without altering the game balance.

 

[SonofWinter]

I like this functions as is. Why change? Because you don't want to build a palace. Don't use the cheat if you don't like it. Let me use it, if I like it. I don't consider it a cheat. It costs 1,000 gold to build these things, that is not cheap.

Again, don't like this cheat, don't use it and leave us who want it, alone.