Game Start Budget issues

[OraBera]

(Originally posted on the Matrix Foruim)


Searched the forum and hope I'm not reporting a known problem/working as designed. Purchased game through Steam and current version 1.00.19.



Played a few games as USA starting in 1890 and finally noticed a problem with Spain's budget, so I ran a couple of quick tests.



When starting with the USA in 1890 with Super Large budget I get the following:

Jan 1890

USA - 116,480

Japan - 108,320

Spain - 88,320

Austro-Hungary - 106,560



Feb 1890

USA - 116,480,000 - No change

Japan - increased to 116,960

Spain - leaped to 136,320 (Gonna be tough to beat them by 1900)

Austro-Hungary - increased to 116,640



When starting with Spain, it's budget remains at 88,320 but China's jumps from 86,800 to 138,000 (Looks like Japan may lose the 1894 war)



When starting as Japan, both Spain and China experience massive budget leaps the first month.



Appears that similar occurs with any budget level.



Just guessing here but there be budget problems with any game starting in 1890.

Ran a few test through every start year and it appears the bottom 2-3 nations always receive a bit of a budget boost with larger boosts with earlier starts, except for 1920 with the treaty of Versailles (no boosts). Game design?


No real problem with minor budget additions except for the massive increases in 1890, a mild preference for more historical, and the US first historic opponent, Spain, leaps from a bottom 4th tier power to solid 3rd tier ahead of the US. By the time the US/Spain war begins they have a new fleet of modern BB and CA. Kind of ruins immersion for me.

[OraBera]

Saved game in Feb 1890 and it appears every AI country with resources less than 8000 has them increased to this. Editing the save game and playing from there doesn't help, future resource increases start from 8000 and the first increase bring back the problem.

This is a game killer for me, it screws with balance, game play and immersion. Spain and China, the two punching bags of the game have larger and more powerful Navy's than the US and Japan.

This could only be game design and makes no sense to me.

[williammiller]

OraBera

I don't see this in my recent games, however will have internal testers take a look.

[OraBera]

The games were all started with Historic resources, should have mentioned earlier. When I start without Historic Resources, the poorer countries all start with 8,000 as base resource.

When I go and edit a Feb 1890 Historic Resources save game and lower Spain, China and Japan's resources to the regular value from the 1890 start file, in March 1890 they all return to 8,000 value with 1% increase, 8080.

I edited the USA 1890 start to have China and not Austro-Hungary. The USA has no real historic commitment to the Mediterranean but does have a strong interest in the Pacific.

I have uninstalled and reinstalled the game.

[williammiller]

Our internal testers could not replicate this...could be that the nation substitute has some untoward effect, not sure though TBH.

[OraBera]

I've uninstalled and reinstalled twice, without using editing start file, get the same result every time. Oh well. Perhaps Steam version.

[gornik]

I replicated this effect at my game (1.19, only modification was shipnaming & adding some tech bonus to nations). So I try to describe my experiments:
At every test I make nothing, if there was event with rising my budget/tensions, I repeated test from start.

test 1: 
1890
Me - USA
Super large size
no tech variations

After first turn, budget of Spain skyrocket, Jap and AH get bonus too, as you may see at screenshot.
Note: starting same year as Russia with medium size and slight variations, Spain rise budget from 44 to 68 after first turn.
At second try all numbers replicate.

test 2:
1900
Me - Russia
medium size
slight variations

As you may see, same nations (three weakest) got bonus, though much smaller.
Note, starting same year as USA: super large size, no tech variations, Spain rise budget from 108 to 115 after first turn

Test 3:
1920
me - USA
Super large size
Edit: Versal treaty in effect
no tech variations
no treaties
Three weakest:
After turn 1: Germany - 96K to 960(!!!), Spain - 56K to 64K, China - 24K to 44K
After turn 2: Germany - to 33K, Spain - 64K, China - 57K
So China more than doubled their budget, while German budget was devoured by bug.
I've made this test twice and both times Germany lost all their budget at first turn. In second try Spain increased budget to 76K, China stayed at 44K at least till turn 4. 

[williammiller]

Thanks gornik !