During Session 4 of our workshop, we began balancing production for each of the industries. We also refined the research available to each of the regions and placed a few units on the map. In this session we will examine the economic balance as well as further adjustments to refine the scenario such as opening inventories for products and missiles

For those who are following along without creating their own version, click to download the scenario so far to see what the scenario currently looks like.

5A – Reconciling the Balance Sheet

During the last Session, we covered in detail the balancing of Agriculture. Since then, I have balanced the remaining products for each region by consulting the balance sheet, adding industries and adjusting the production variables in the configuration file. I did not however end up with the same values shown on the balance sheet. I only used this as a guideline. For example, the water production for player 3 was quite low compared to the other regions due to less rivers passing through. Without adding even more desalination plants than I did already, I could not get their capacity much beyond 60% of their overall demand. Looking at the rest of their production, I felt satisfied that they would still be able to make reasonable exports so I chose to leave it this way. The production balance is really secondary anyway so long as World Market goods are balanced in the long run. The economic balance of the regions, while more challenging, is at least as important to how the regions play, perhaps even more so. The balance sheet should be considered a guide, not a blueprint that must be followed.

5B – Balancing the Economy

While there is really no right or wrong way to design a scenario, there are guidelines and patterns that should be followed. One of these is to present a consistent regional situation to the player. If the starting cost of a commodity is $200, it should not climb to $400 in the first few weeks of play. This would be a sign of an unbalanced economy. We have already indicated to the program what level of economy we wanted when the initial GDP/c value was set in the player configuration file. This was important is it affects a number of things such as the civilian demand for goods, the cost of goods and the taxable income that should exist. The program will use the value from the spreadsheet for the first day but for every following day it will examine the actual economic situation of the region and determine its own GDP/c value and begin to shift it in the appropriate direction.

To assist in balancing of scenarios, the calculated GDP/c is reported in the player log files. These are created in the savegame folder each time a scenario is started (not a savegame) unless the logging option has been turned off. Log files are best viewed in Wordpad. The log file lists first the calculated Civilian Approvals for each region (Something we will review later) and then lists for each region both the original and the calculated GDP/c followed by a breakdown of what elements are contributing to the economy. Here is the GDP/c section for player one, New Franconia;

From this we can see that the current territory that New Franconia covers includes enough industries to create a GDP/c of 18227 or 63.4% of the initial value we gave it. While this is low, it is not unplayable. Most regions are suggested to be balanced between 70-90% of the initial GDP/c. The target for a balanced economy is not 100% as one might expect because this number does not include construction elements such as facility and unit construction. These will often account for a significant portion of the economy. Putting a region below 50% will create a failing economy, putting a region above 100% will create a growing economy.

Below the total, we are also given a breakdown of how many dollars per capita certain areas of the economy are providing. This is where we will find our clues on how to adjust the economic model for the desired level. For example, the military salaries are creating $215.97 per capita of the economy. If we increase the total number of reservists or add bases to the scenario to create more active personnel than this value would go up. However, while the salaries add to the economy, they are also an expense that must be paid. Increasing the size of the army will increase the economy but make it harder to make money. In contrast, if we look further down to something such as industrial goods, we see that the player is earning 16.5% ($3021.42) of their calculated GDP/c (18227) from industrial goods and we can also look at their production and demand values here to see that they produce more than they demand. Adding more industrial goods facilities to the scenario would not only increase the size of their economy but would also add to their trade surplus.

Other elements that affect the GDP/c will be found in the configuration file. Things such as Social Spending and Social Safety Net have heavy impacts on the GDP/c. The Social Spending will relate directly to the opening quality ratings assigned in the player configuration file for the seven social services (Education, Healthcare, etc.) and Social Safety Net relates to the rates of employment insurance, pension and welfare. Ideally, since this generate no revenue for the player, neither of these should account for more than 25% of the total GDP/c.

Some factors that contribute to the GDP/c may change as work progresses on the scenario. The Military Salaries and Military Operations values will increase once we add the forces to the scenario, but for a scenario of the size we are doing will likely remain less than 10% of the total GDP/c, perhaps even combined together.

Based on all these factors, what is now required is to make changes to the scenario and recheck the log file until the percentage of the original GDP/c is at the desired level. This can be done by adding industries, unit or bases to the map or by adjusting values in the player configuration file.

NOTE: A step of the map creation was missed in Session 4 Section C. The industry efficiencies of each of the regions should have been adjusted prior to balancing of the industries. Increasing these will help in achieving a higher GDP/c. That section has been updated. To review the changes click <here>. To get the updated player configuration file, click <here>.