Resource Wars III - Some Analysis

Day 4,702, 12:55 • Published in USA USA • by Marcelaxy

Hi,

after years of Stagnation in the economic module, Plato decided to spice things up and declar the third Resource Wars.

What's different?

This time, a country can place a maximum of 10 resources, also the relative rarity of the resources has changed.

Food is most common again, Weapons & Air Weapons are equally as common and Houses are the rarest resource this time around.

Other than that, there are no changes anounced or teased to how the resources themselves work, how countries can monetize the Resources they own or any other changes to the economy.

Fyi, by "complete sets" of a resource I mean having all types of it, except the "very common" in one region and requires to be complemented by another region with the very common resource. The max. number of potential sets is dictated by the number of the rarest resource of its industry.


1. Analysis of the Resource types.

1.1 Air Weapons
1.2 Food
1.3 Weapons
1.4 Houses

2. Advice and Speculations

3. Critique and suggestions

3.1 Small countries
3.2 Taxation of employee work
3.3 Post Resource Wars


Analysis of the Resource types.


Air Weapons

Last time around, the resources for Air Weapons were the rarest type of resources, so we ended up with only one good region(Balochistan). This time they're quite common (from 4 to 13 complete sets).

This could mean that the industry finally gets a purpose, because as of right now, it's utterly and completely useless.

Since a Q1 Air Weapon costs about 250cc and gives a 20% damage increase to one hit, 50 Q1 weapons worth 12.500cc give you the damage that one EB would (minus the PP and XP).

Although, doing any changes to the economy after a RW was an unpopular d**k move last time around and always opens opportunities for insider trading... but never say never.

What I assume, is that (alongside higher Q companies), WaM will be available in some way, shape or form. The Reason is simple: Air weapon resources are as common as ground weapon resources, so the industries maybe work similarly.


Food

Nothing exciting. It's the most basic and important item in the game and thus, highly available. It won't generate massive amounts of GPD and the anniversary event boosting its usage and price once a year has been nerfed heavily last year. It generates some neat tax income all year long for countries owning it but nothing special.


Weapons

Probably the most contested resource. It generates the highest GDP numbers and makes use of both, WaM and employee work. Multiple events throughout the year boost its usage and price, sometimes heavily.


Houses

Houses will require the rarest resource in the game with a maximum of 7 complete sets, which could make production more dificult leading to shortages due to resources being conquered and cut-off.

This could slightly affect the prices of houses. Not only that, but a certain US-based large producer of houses will have trouble finding a new place for their companies...

Also, having house resources is relatively undesirable since there's no way to directly monetize them. You have to hope that mostly your citizens use them, so they generate VAT from the products and Work Tax through their eemployees.


Advice and Speculations

Aircraft resources, given the current lack of need for them, could be the easiest resource to get. This gives an opportunity for weak countries to get a complete set of resources. A useless one as of right now, but Plato is known for anouncing changes to the ecconomy even after the Resource Wars ends and even implementing a few of those. It's a gamble for weak countries but maybe the only opportunity they have.

Since Travel is expensive, countries, especially large ones should place their resources in one cluster. Countries with 3 or more regions, that are eligible for 10 resources should have two regions with the 4 rarer types and a third one for the missing two very common resources. All in a proximity as close as possible for the lowest travel cost.

Of course, countries may have to consider their current resource locations. For example, Poland should have their main Weapons region in Pomerania again to spare their citizens and foreign investors the need to spend tokens or CC to relocate the companies. Also that prevents inactive, returning citizens to be screwn over by missing the opportunity for a free-ish company relocation.

Countries with one region could try to get the best resources of a type in one region and concess the cheapest one.

Countries with two region could either have one complete set of 5 resources of one type and get 3 extra resources to rent to other countries or pack each region with the 4 best resources of a type and rent the missing two "very common" resources from other countries.

Also, to spice things up, Code countries could be naughty by putting all their work towards messing things up for Asteria by either taking as many "Very Rare" resources as possible or as many rare resources of a specific industry as possible and scattering them across the map in order to deny Asteria countries some complete resource sets and an easy farm in the future.

Critique and Suggestions


Small Countries

Small countries should've been given an advantage that large countries can't have because before and after the event, there is none.

My suggestion: Countries with 2 Regions should've been allowed to place 5 resources in one region and those with 1 region should've been able to put 6 resources in one region. That could've lead to some interesting dynamics with small countries being able to get a (marginally) better production while the large ones can do more TWs.

Also because countries with 3+ regions can place 10 resources, which is two full sets, in theory no resource consessions are required and this is just a shame. Had they allowed 12 Resources per country, larger countries could choose to either have 3 maxed-out regions and rent the remaining lowest-tier resources or could choose 2 full sets and rent out two spare resources. Alongside advantages for small countries, this could've made it a little less stale.


Taxation of Employee Work

I suggested this time and time again since the last resource wars: Employee Work doesn't directly generate taxes for the resource-owning countries, making going for those resources (Air, House) undesirable.

The Work Tax should not be paid when the employee works anymore but when the work is allocated in a company, based on the Work Tax rate and average wage of the country where it's allocated. Maybe a share could be given to the CS country of the employer.


Post Resource Wars

After Resource Wars, other than maybe the location of some companies, nothing changes for producers. Except maybe high travel cost due to countries having less full sets. Not the way it things are produced, no new products, no new taxation. Resource Wars should be used as a period in which these changes are made or at least anounced (and maybe implemented in the following weeks). Not sometime between Resource Wars, retrospectively turning decisions countries and indiciduals made into good or bad ones.

Also, it's just boring when nothing changes during such an important event.


Other than that, Resource Wars should become a periodical thing. Every 2 years, 3 months we should have one. Why not just 2 or 3 years? That's in order not to give countries repeatedly (dis-)advantages due to their geographic location, climate and holidays. Also, it needs to have set dates from now one, because it seems that Resource Wars only happen when Adminlandia and friends are doing well...