So I sat down and tried to work out how the tax system works as to figure out when it's actually a net gain to build given improvements (Clean Sweeping being a good example).



So it works like this:



[PlanetaryProduction] + [ImprovementFlatValues] + [MiscFlatValues] = Taxable Income



These flat values include Planetary Institute, or Home System ("Main System"). Other bonuses (e.g. Clean Sweeping) add directly to the planetary production.



The tax system is actually not this value times the tax rate. 50% tax is actually "no loss, no gain." 100% of the Taxable Income goes strait to your bank. 40% is a 20% loss of this value (80% to bank), and 60% is being 20% more greedy (120% to bank).



[TaxableIncome] + [TaxLoss/Gain] = Leftovers



Here's where it gets fun.



[Leftovers] * [Multipliers] = Total Income



Multipliers are things like Colonial Rights (10% more FIDS) or Heors (12-32%) are summed together, effectively, as they are all calculated from this [Leftovers] value and then added. I.e. they do not multiply each other.



[TotalIncome] - [TotalExpenditures] = Added to Bank



Expenditures should be obvious. Hero upkeep and improvement upkeep.



There's also one last value.



"From distance with empire."



This value is a negative multiplier. I am not sure how close a planet needs to be to another empire (or conversely, how far away from your home). At a glance it appears to be if the planet is 1 jump away from an enemy colony and is also not a colony.



The loss rate is 25% (of leftovers) or 50% (if the outpost is also covered by the range of influence of that empire). There does not appear to be a happiness penalty for this distance, only a money one. I am unable to determine if this dust is gained by the enemy empire (as I have no colonies that are influencing an enemy outpost) or just lost to the ether. I would not be surprised at either.

Very interesting discoveries.

Essentially I figured out that an improvement "breaks even" if it produces 25% more dust than it costs. So for Clean Sweeping, a system would need not three but four moons to actually generate significant net income (at a 40% tax rate).



At only 3 moons you have 6 income * 80% and an upkeep of 4, for a whopping 0.8 dust/turn gain. At a 30% tax rate, you actually start losing money (0.4/turn).

The 4th moon ups that gain to 2.4 at 40% or +0.8 at 30%.

Late-game with the United Empire, running on 80% tax rates, Ecstatic planets, and with numerous Dust production bonuses, it can be possible to build Clean Sweeping profitably on systems with only a single moon.



I actually think Clean Sweeping should be enhanced slightly. Any system should gain from that kind of attention to detail... in extremis. Give it a +2% boost to Dust production. Only massively wealthy systems could ever profit if they didn't have a moon, and then only at high tax rates, but it should be possible.



Aside from my suggestions, I want to substantively add one thing. Ind-Dust Conversion tacks the added Dust production on at the end, after everything else has been calculated. It is the last modification and nothing modifies it. As near as I can tell, aside from when it's bugged out, it is always a flat increase in your Dust production equal to half of your production.

Platescale wrote:
Aside from my suggestions, I want to substantively add one thing. Ind-Dust Conversion tacks the added Dust production on at the end, after everything else has been calculated. It is the last modification and nothing modifies it. As near as I can tell, aside from when it's bugged out, it is always a flat increase in your Dust production equal to half of your production.

Sounds right.

I compressed all his equations into one for simplicity of calculation.



((([PlanetaryProduction] + [ImprovementFlatValues] + [MiscFlatValues])+[TaxLoss/Gain])*([Multipliers]))-[TotalExpenditures] = Added to Bank

or

(((P+I+Mi)+T)*(M))-E=A

stevenmc409 wrote:
I compressed all his equations into one for simplicity of calculation.



((([PlanetaryProduction] + [ImprovementFlatValues] + [MiscFlatValues])+[TaxLoss/Gain])*([Multipliers]))-[TotalExpenditures] = Added to Bank

or

(((P+I+Mi)+T)*(M))-E=A

Yep, although hard to read.



Sure, i can parse through all those parens, but most people can't.

fourth row, third panel.

Sorry for all the parentheses it was the only way to represent the equation and not mess up the order of operations since this is simultaneously a horrendously convoluted yet simple equation. Still it has fewer Parentheses then RNA shape notation which looks something like this

)))))..))))).(((((..(((((

don't ask me what it means I forgot that but that's how they notate the shape.

Draco18s wrote:
[Leftovers] * [Multipliers] = Total Income

That is not total income, as you are leaving out both non-taxable income, like ind2dust, and empire wide bonuses from luxury resources. As far as I know, luxury bonuses are always applied to total income and thereby do not merely stack, but actually multiply other bonuses.

Tax rate actaully works a little different above 50% as far as I can tell. It caps at a 50% boost at 100% tax instead of 100% boost which it would if it followed the linear progression that it does from 0-50% tax. Also you get diminsihing returns for each increase above 50% tax so going from 80% to 100% barely affects your income.



The numbers it shows get rounded a lot but the best approximation that fits the figures I have seen is like this:

50% tax = 0% increase 0% loss

55% tax = 9% increase

60% = +8 to 17% total increase

65 = +7 to 24%

70 = +6 to 30%

75 = +5 to 35%

80 = +4 to 39%

85 = +3 to 42%

90 = +3 to 45%

95 = +2.5 to 47.5%

100 = +2.5 to 50%

Guess it makes sens, universe immersion speaking : the more you taxe people, the more they will find ways to avoid being taxed

Venti wrote:
That is not total income, as you are leaving out both non-taxable income, like ind2dust, and empire wide bonuses from luxury resources. As far as I know, luxury bonuses are always applied to total income and thereby do not merely stack, but actually multiply other bonuses.

Ind -> Dust isn't effected by taxes, and I am unable to be sure which modifiers do effect it. But I will take a look.



As for luxury modifier, I'm almost certain that that is lumped in with the other modifiers, but I will check.

Um, didn't someone already do one of these?

/#/endless-space/forum/33-strategy-guides/thread/14057-understanding-dust-production-and-income-in-a-system



Anyway, its good to know how it works.

supersoaker9 wrote:
Um, didn't someone already do one of these?

/#/endless-space/forum/33-strategy-guides/thread/14057-understanding-dust-production-and-income-in-a-system

I think mine's cleaner, in terms of how it works mechanically. He steps through each process using an example and doesn't have a summary of the raw math. He also goes into detail on how to determine if an improvement is beneficial due to your tax system or not (whereas I didn't step into that math).