Hello, today I will be discussing the way that the economy works in Twilight of Modernity.
Before I begin, there are a few things to consider, Twilight of Modernity is not meant to be an economy simulator, so the characteristics of the economic system must obey certain constraints so as to not negatively impact the gameplay experience:
- The economy must not take too much player focus to manage
- The economy must not feed into itself too strongly
- Economics must incentivize engagement with the other systems (diplomacy, conflict, etc.)
To this end, the system has been constructed around two main concepts: Deposits and Resources.
Diagram describing the differences and similarities between the two.
The general idea behind Deposits is that they represent access to a specific natural or synthetic resource that your economy needs, but does not require direct management of its production, unlike resources.
There are only 3 resources: Industry, Consumer Goods, and Supply. Each of them has a specific purpose and industry dedicated to producing only them.
Consumer Goods is the resource demanded by your population, and the primary source of your tax revenue.
Industry is needed to build and maintain projects.
Supply is needed to build and maintain military assets.
Normal Regional GUI, Points of interest highlighted and numbered
1. Projects
Projects define the infrastructure present in a region. Each one can have many levels, multiplying its effects, but also increasing its cost exponentially. Projects are massively impactful when it comes to resources and deposits, so the general idea of the economy is to build as many projects as possible as fast as possible to maximize the economic power of your regions.
Each project also generally effects the demographic makeup of the region's population in some way. Engineering projects, for example, increase the number of engineers, while bureaucratic institutions increase the number of bureaucrats.
2. Industry
Each region has a certain amount of Industrial Capacity (determined by population), which is then split between a number of industries. There is one industry for each resource, as well as Waste Industry, which produces nothing. Waste industry represents corruption and inefficiency that is present within your region, and the amount of this particular industry varies wildly from country to country, with some having nearly 100% wastefulness in their economy. Generally speaking, you must invest money into reducing corruption, or it will grow slowly until your entire economy is consumed by it.
3. Faction Control
Each region is controlled by a faction, and that faction will gain power from each region it controls. You can forcibly reassign your regions to other factions at the cost of Stability, but this is inefficient as stability is a very valuable resource. Generally speaking, you want your regions to be controlled by factions that are loyal to your regime, as disloyal factions can revolt, and when they do they will take any region they control with them.
4. Population
The population of your society is split between many occupations, which have certain political leanings as well as industrial effects. Usually, most of your population don't contribute industrial capacity but are either children, elderly, or homemakers, who improve population growth.
Your population has an age structure, and over time changes in the world environment will positively or negatively impact the age structure of your regions, and therefore your economic stability.
A relatively healthy demographic structure
Of your workforce, each occupation does not produce resources, but instead defines the political leanings and industrial capacity effect of each population. Generally, laborers, engineers, and technicians are the bulk of your economy, as they significantly contribute to industrial capacity. Other population types like bureaucrats are technically useless, but in some cases more politically reliable.
Soldiers are a special case, your manpower pool is comprised of the sum of their number in your country, and every loss in the field will reflect an equivalent loss in soldier population, so be careful about losing 25% of your population in a war, as that will hollow out your demographics, potentially sowing your future destruction.