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[REQUEST]Clear and Easy to Understand Guide to Improvement Swapping


Sinkhan

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Just like to ask for something written so that even a kid could understand. Should have step by step, direct and easy to follow instructions. I've heard different renditions, but they've mostly been rather difficult to fully understand.

I'll edit this first post with the best guide, credit the author, and then maybe we'll get it stickied for all to see ^_^

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The one I was taught, that may or may not still be viable:

Build 5 labor camps.

Pay bills for 5 days (do not collect taxes)

Destroy labor camps.

Build income boosters

Collect taxes.

Destroy income boosters.

Build labor camps.

Pay bills for 5 days.

Destroy labor camps.

Build 5 factories.

Buy gratuitous amounts of infra. (save enough for improvements)

Destroy Factories.

Build income boosters.

Collect taxes.

Destroy income boosters.

Build Labor camps.

Pay bills for 5 days.

lather, rinse, repeat.

Edited by Clarinch
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Here's roughly what I used when I still had to swap improvements (as opposed to just camps as now).

Preparation:

- Save up 10 days' bills, plus the cost of 5 income improvements

- Build 5 labour camps

- Pay bills for 10 days

- Destroy the camps, to free up improvement slots

- Build 5 income improvements

- Collect taxes

You now have a large pile of money. Now you can operate on this cycle:

- Destroy 5 worst (cheapest) income improvements

- Build 5 labour camps

- Pay bills for 10 days (or 5, or 15 or even 19)

- Destroy the camps, to free up improvement slots

- Build 5 factories

- Build infra until you have only just enough money to build the income improvements

- Destroy factories

- Build income improvements

- Collect

This is basically how it works, and the same as Clarinch's. Do that until you get to about 5000 infra when you can hold all the improvements you need.

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What if I've already got all my happiness and income boosters and am just waiting on military ones? I've actually reached a point where I have 5 labour camps AND all other happiness+income boosters.

Should I still do improvement swapping?

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What if I've already got all my happiness and income boosters and am just waiting on military ones? I've actually reached a point where I have 5 labour camps AND all other happiness+income boosters.

Should I still do improvement swapping?

yes you just skip the part where you buy income boosters.

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What if I've already got all my happiness and income boosters and am just waiting on military ones? I've actually reached a point where I have 5 labour camps AND all other happiness+income boosters.

Should I still do improvement swapping?

You are basically just going into the cycle where you pay bills with the labor camps, destroy them to collect taxes, and then rebuy them to pay bills.

Back to the OP, the most simple concept to keep in mind to help guide anyone through the process when they get large enough to improvement swap is these three things:

1) You always want to have Labor Camps when you pay bills

2) You always want to have Factories when you buy infra

3) You always want to have the maximum amount of income boosters possible when you collect taxes.

I'm no longer sure at what infra level a person should start swapping. It used to be around 1400 infra, but with the changes in the price of Labor Camps and Factories I'm guessing it's closer to 1700-1800 infra. When I was between between 41 and 45 improvements, I quit destroying factories and instead swapped Labor Camps and intell agencies just because they were a little cheaper to replace. At 50 improvements you can compare your collections amount with buying a border wall or 2/3 of them after destroying your labor camps, but if you want to keep it simple you can just destroy the LC to collect and rebuy them to pay bills.

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You are basically just going into the cycle where you pay bills with the labor camps, destroy them to collect taxes, and then rebuy them to pay bills.

Back to the OP, the most simple concept to keep in mind to help guide anyone through the process when they get large enough to improvement swap is these three things:

1) You always want to have Labor Camps when you pay bills

2) You always want to have Factories when you buy infra

3) You always want to have the maximum amount of income boosters possible when you collect taxes.

I'm no longer sure at what infra level a person should start swapping. It used to be around 1400 infra, but with the changes in the price of Labor Camps and Factories I'm guessing it's closer to 1700-1800 infra. When I was between between 41 and 45 improvements, I quit destroying factories and instead swapped Labor Camps and intell agencies just because they were a little cheaper to replace. At 50 improvements you can compare your collections amount with buying a border wall or 2/3 of them after destroying your labor camps, but if you want to keep it simple you can just destroy the LC to collect and rebuy them to pay bills.

dude, you had 41 improvements at 1700- 1800 infra!

I'm at 2,999.99 infra and I only have 30 improvements

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dude, you had 41 improvements at 1700- 1800 infra!

I'm at 2,999.99 infra and I only have 30 improvements

You misread my post. I probably didn't have 41 improvements until I was past 3700 infra.

What I said above was 1700 infra is probably a good time to start improvement swapping for those who are thinking about doing it. Again, just tossing a guess out there but I probably had about 17 improvements when I was at 1700 infra.

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wtf i have over 1600 infra and only 12 improvements

You don't have cattle, pigs, fish, or wheat - the major population boosters that would really increase the number of improvements you could have.

Edited by Clarinch
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Here's roughly what I used when I still had to swap improvements (as opposed to just camps as now).

Preparation:

- 1. Save up 10 days' bills, plus the cost of 5 income improvements

- 2. Build 5 labour camps

- Pay bills for 10 days

- 3. Destroy the camps, to free up improvement slots

- Build 5 income improvements

- Collect taxes

You now have a large pile of money. Now you can operate on this cycle:

- Destroy 5 worst (cheapest) income improvements

- Build 5 labour camps

- Pay bills for 10 days (or 5, or 15 or even 19)

- Destroy the camps, to free up improvement slots

- Build 5 factories

- Build infra until you have only just enough money to build the income improvements

- Destroy factories

- Build income improvements

- Collect

This is basically how it works, and the same as Clarinch's. Do that until you get to about 5000 infra when you can hold all the improvements you need.

1. So is what you're saying is that I go for quite a few days where all I do is just collect taxes and pay bills and not buy anything at all? Say if on the first day I collect 3mil, pay like 1.5 mill in bills, do I save the 1.5 left over and not buying anything? These two numbers are actually pretty close to what my actual figures are, but this is from having 5 labour camps already. Should I destroy my labour camps right now and then begin recollecting and paying taxes? If I do, my bills will go up quite a bit though. This is one of the main details I don't understand.

Ok well, let's set up a real scenario of how my nation is working now.

I've got all eco and bill affecters, including labour camps at the moment. My collection is at around 3 mil, and taxes are around 1.5 mil. Do I destroy my labour camps and collect taxes/pay bills until I have enough to pay off 10 days worth of bills + 5 labour camps?

2. So looking back at the scenario I've already set up, do I now rebuild my labour camps and then start paying off my bills without collecting any taxes?

3. Now do I destroy my labour camps and then collect 10 days worth of taxes? (Remember, I already have all happiness/income boosters like intel agencies, churches, stadiums, etc)

If what I've asked in each step is a yes, where do I go from here now that I've got a huge amount of money? Just buy infra until I've nothing left, and then start saving up again?

Wow, this is taking me too long to understand fully... :wacko:

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I generally try to get as close to daily building as possible because daily building is the quickest growth you can get. Here's what I've been testing:

Day 1: Pay bills, swap to happiness, collect taxes

Day 2: collect taxes, swap to lcs

Day 3: collect taxes (still profitable for my, smaller nation; it's only a 500k reduction), pay bills

Day 4: pay bills

Day 5: pay bills

Day 6: Pay bills, swap to happiness, buy infra, collect taxes

Day 7: Day 2

[Edit]->Missing comma made it sound like I was a multi.

Edited by Scorp
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LC swapping:

1. Calculate the amount of money you make per Happiness point. This varies based on citizen count, income modifiers, etc. Easiest way to do it is destroy an improvement that affects happiness before collecting taxes and see how much it would drop your income by.

2. Calculate the number of days it takes for the income from 5 Happiness to pass $750k.

3. Save up enough money to pay all of your bills for at least that many days. The more days you go, the higher your profit, but doing it for fewer than that limit I just explained means you lose money instead of gain it.

Now for the actual swap:

1. With your saved cash, keep paying bills and do nothing else until you run out of money.

2. Destroy Labor Camps

3. Collect Taxes

4. Collect Taxes the next day, then rebuild your Labor Camps and start paying your bills again.

Things of Note:

Never pay bills without Labor Camps.

Never Collect Taxes with Labor Camps.

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