Made by Leijkar 2000

MK taxes v 1.2 - HTML Edition

Usually when I discuss taxes with people they do use different tax% then me. I guess they have used some other persons tax strategy. I learned taxes myself and even if I have looked at others lately I am still using the numbers I figured out myself. Hope you do find something you can use here.

Any errors reports/corrections or additions are welcome, mag@mindless.com.

Population change comes in steps with 4 tax% / popchange%. With one exception: 0% tax gives +20% popchange.
Tax %Pop change %
0+20
1-3+13
4-7+12
8-11+11
12-15+10
16-19+9  
20-23+8  
24-27+7  
28-31+6  
32-35+5  
36-39+4  
40-43+3  
44-47+2  
48-51+1  
52-55 0  
56-59-1   
60-63-2   
64-67-3   
68-71-4   
72-75-5   
76-79-6   
80-83-7   
84-87-8   
88-91-9   
92-95-10 
96-99-11 
100-12 
Population change is rounded off (towards 0) to nearest 10 (then added/subtracted from pop).
Starting population in all cities are from 1000 to 1290.
Overtaxation: If a city is taxed above 60% for 2nd (or more) turn(s) in a row it gives no income.
Any city with 900-990 population (ending population) gives a $3 income regardless of tax%.
Causing population to fall below 900 means the city is ghosted and it is neutral again.
Banks, univercities, factories and forts are lost. And a penalty of $10 is applied to taxes.
Tax income can never be less then $5 any turn (even if no cities are owned or starvation/ghosting costs 100's of $.
Population shown in management window is what population will be next turn at given tax rate.
So analyzing the tax income I am only using the highest tax% in each popchange% group. With one exception: 60% will also be included as it does not casue overtaxation and the top% in that group might. Tax% 0, 3 & 7 are exluded as they give $0 at all given pops. (for fun try taxing a 1500 pop city at 29% and 30% - study tax income and pop change)
I am including population 900-1500 to cover most situations.
Amount listed is taxes collected. Ghosting cities are listed as "-" and cost $10.
As tax income is based on the tax% and ending population - the income can go up with a lower tax%. As it by that puts pop over threshold for more income.
Click here to open/close taxtable for population 900-1500.

Using the taxtable above this looks like tax% that will give top income for each pop (if listed as x/y the second number is for overtaxed cities).    > > >
PopulationTax%
90011
91019
92023
93027
94031
95035
960-99039
1000-101051
1020-104063 / 51
1050-108075 / 51
1090-110091 / 51
1110-112091 / 47
1130100 / 47 
1140-1230100 / 59 
1240-127091 / 59
1280-1330100 / 59 
1340-1360100 / 51 
1370-1470100 / 60 
1480-150091 / 60
Farms are expensive (10 dollars/each). The initial 4 food available gives you 4 turns of income as a city with farm. The extra income from buying a farm is roughly $1.33/turn so it would take 6 turns or so before it pays off. And the cost to buy them (starting turn4) will drain resources i think is better spent on expansion. So I separate cities without farms and do taxes for them with goal to bring pop below 1000 (where no food is needed) just before it starves.
Any system to increase income in long run is generally a waste of resources I think. Are always some special cases but this system is a more general approach. So I try and gain max income as soon as possible as I will spend it on expansion and it will also increase income.
So as a general rule I follow this:
 Never buy farms
 Never buy banks
 Never go for metros
But I also break all those under certain circumstances.
Also an important factor in doing taxes is the time spent doing them I think. Lately I am a lot more lax in my approach so trying to make it a little faster. If you have any improvement to my system please feel free to let me know and I'll change it. If you feel like charing it that is ;) - I personally like to help everyone as much as I can. That way it is more fun. No system is "best" I think - each system might have advantages for certain situations or may be a simple matter of taste. Trying to balance: income as fast as possible, maximum income and as little time spent on taxes as possible - this is what I come up with. I feel pretty comfortable with it at least - maybe someone else will too.
Base tax rate: 55% (press "t") Why? It will show actual population in management window - making sorting the cities a lot easier.
Management window:
Sorting (clicking "title" of a column) by tax rate will show any city not at 55% easily.
To select all cities you can click first city, scroll down to last and shift-click last. That might be a good idea if many cities are at different tax rates then 55%. One can also select cities by ctrl-clicking them one and one - also works on cities not listed next to each other. Situation have to decide how to select cities.
Cities with farms:
Make sure each field is shaded but farms that is marked and banks that is unmarked. Sorting will be by income so banks would position a city in wrong place - do those seperatly as needed (if you have any).
Sort by population low to high.
Mark first and last city and change tax for all to 100%.
Sort twice by income.
Cities will now be listed from high population downwards in two groups - those with income and those without. First comes those with income. And the population given in this list is the one listed in the management lab (calculated population next turn at 100% tax).
PopTax%Income Comment
1320-1310  91%$9 (mark and change tax to 91%)
1320-1310  91%$9 (mark and change tax to 91%)
1300-1130  100%$9 (leave as is)
1120-1100  91%$8  
1090-1000  100%$8  
990-960*91%$7 (*some cities at end might not go up to $7 and are included in next group, any
960- 930  75%$6 cities later on that does not go up to listed income are also treated like that)
920- 900  63%$5  
After last city listed at pop 900 giving income comes the cities that are overtaxed or ghosts at 100%.
1320-1210  60%$6  
1200-1180*51%$5  
1180-1010  59%$5  
1000- 980  47%$4  
970-ghost*51%$4  
ghost*51%$4  
ghost*39%$3  
ghost*35%$3  
ghost*31%$3  
ghost*27%$3  
ghost*23%$3  
ghost*19%$3  
ghost  13%$3  
The cities listed at $3 move pop to 990 next turn and then you get them to 1020 turn after that.
All farmed cities will end up at 1000 -> 1010 -> 1020 -> 1030 etc. Giving an income of 4-4-5-4-4-5 etc.
Cities without farms:
This is actually what takes most time. But doing it can possibly give you an advantage if opponents start buying farms as they will have less for expansion/war. (and those newly bought farms make GREAT targets - destroy it before they enter again first time adfter buying it and they have a starving city to deal with ;)
Select all cities without farms (banks won't affect sorting as it is by pop and food - but banks give little at low pops ;).
Make sure that all cities are at 55%. (They should be if this text has been followed)
Sort pop low to high and then sort by food.
Cities are now listed pop low to high in groups based on food (low to high).
This is a little more tricky as I try to get the cities to certain pops at certain food levels. Trying to make it reasonable easy to do them.
So will simply list the original starting pops and then only those you get from this system at each lower level.
Columns are food listed in management lab. Current population and then in each column is listed: tax rate, income & population next turn.
Popfood 3food 2food 1food 0starvefood 0
1290100% $9 1140     
1280100% $9 1130     
127091% $8 1160     
126091% $8 1150     
125091% $8 1140     
124091% $8 1130     
1230100% $8 1090     
1220100% $8 1080     
1210100% $8 1070     
1200100% $8 1060     
1190100% $8 1050     
1180100% $8 1040     
1170100% $8 1030     
1160100% $8 103060% $5 1140    
1150100% $8 102059% $5 1140    
1140100% $8 101059% $5 113059% $5 1130   
1130100% $8 100051% $4 1140100% $8 1000100% $8 1000  
112091% $7 1020     
111091% $7 1020     
110091% $7 1010     
109091% $7 100055% $4 109091% $7 100091% $7 1000  
108075% $6 103051% $4 109051% $4 1090   
107075% $6 102051% $4 1080    
106075% $6 101059% $4 1050    
105075% $6 100055% $4 105075% $6 100075% $6 1000  
104063% $5 102051% $4 105051% $4 1050   
103063% $5 101051% $4 1040    
102063% $5 100055% $4 102063% $5 100063% $5 1000  
101051% $4 102051% $4 102051% $4 1020   
100051% $4 101051% $4 1010 55% $4 100059% $3 990 
990     55% $3 990
Ughs- Now I am sick of this ;)
~L
ps - It isn't as complicated once one gets used to it, more complex to explain then do it ;) - ds
uhoh - topics I planned to include but will another date once I collected the data and have the energy.
Metros, banks, starving, food, farm, enemy capture on negative income city, techs (metros related).
Hmm.. what to do when unable to avoid starvation.