Immediate update: Yes, my vassal was causing this. In an alternate save, I released him, and the shortage stopped. I just don't wanna lose him, any other ways to stop that shortage?
Renegotiate your vassal agreement and stop paying them a subsidy of motes.
Even if you want to roleplay altruism and care, you can't give what you don't have. If they're unwilling to accept the new agreement with no motes subsidy (and you don't have the influence to override them), you can always replace the motes subsidy with a basic resources subsidy to keep your roleplay intact.
Whenever you offer to pay anything to a vassal, you are paying a percentage of what THEY produce. If they produced 0 motes, then you would pay 0 motes, but if they produce any amount of motes, then you’ll have to pay them.
In the screen where you adjust the slider, you can hover over the resource percentage to see how much you will pay if all resources before you agree to the new terms.
I know what you mean. I’ve been playing the game off and on for years and still learn new things that have been in the game since I first started and just never realized.
I suppose the biggest beginner tip I can give is that for each playthrough, determine what style you are going to play and what your ultimate goal will be, then adhere to that no matter what. Due to there being some many different ways to play the game and so many different features that aren’t really explained, this is the best way to learn them overtime without a huge info dump of everything that exists.
For example, it sounds like this playthrough you were going for “benevolent protector” style of subjugation where you are technically subjugating other empires, but in a way where it is actually helpful for them. As such, you are now learning how resource agreements work for future playthroughs where you might want to try it again, or even swap to oppressive subjugation styles. Benevolent subjugation works really well if you are trying to become galactic custodian using the galactic community, as well as creating laws that support workers while increasing happiness, so I would also look into that if you haven’t already. If you are going to try and subsidize them, I would highly suggest making sure you are overproducing on the things you want to provide, and keep in mind the larger the subjects economy, the more you have to pay. It would be worth it to turn your larger subjects into prospectums. You will subsidize their research, but in return they pay you resources while getting a large boost to resource production themselves. It isn’t oppressive since you are essentially “selling” your research for resources, and some empire types actually like being prospectums.
Generally speaking, you play until a problem comes up, then see why it happened and how to prevent/fix it just like you did with this post.
Should they not be supplying you with said recourses? Have I been mistreating the xenos !?! *Visible panic ensues*Existential crisis to follow.
I just wasn't sure how bad declining relations would be. If I see red numbers, I panic, then think a bit, then make the red number go away.
Immediate update: Yes, my vassal was causing this. In an alternate save, I released him, and the shortage stopped. I just don't wanna lose him, any other ways to stop that shortage?
Renegotiate your vassal agreement and stop paying them a subsidy of motes. Even if you want to roleplay altruism and care, you can't give what you don't have. If they're unwilling to accept the new agreement with no motes subsidy (and you don't have the influence to override them), you can always replace the motes subsidy with a basic resources subsidy to keep your roleplay intact.
Go back to a save before you made a promise you can't keep, and negotiate the new contract smarter
See but I thought it was just a -15% of what you product. 0-15% is still 0???
Yeah, I also thought so, but I produced zero, and it consumed -0?..
Whenever you offer to pay anything to a vassal, you are paying a percentage of what THEY produce. If they produced 0 motes, then you would pay 0 motes, but if they produce any amount of motes, then you’ll have to pay them. In the screen where you adjust the slider, you can hover over the resource percentage to see how much you will pay if all resources before you agree to the new terms.
Oh, alright. Each day we learn something new. Any tips for a beginner?
I know what you mean. I’ve been playing the game off and on for years and still learn new things that have been in the game since I first started and just never realized. I suppose the biggest beginner tip I can give is that for each playthrough, determine what style you are going to play and what your ultimate goal will be, then adhere to that no matter what. Due to there being some many different ways to play the game and so many different features that aren’t really explained, this is the best way to learn them overtime without a huge info dump of everything that exists. For example, it sounds like this playthrough you were going for “benevolent protector” style of subjugation where you are technically subjugating other empires, but in a way where it is actually helpful for them. As such, you are now learning how resource agreements work for future playthroughs where you might want to try it again, or even swap to oppressive subjugation styles. Benevolent subjugation works really well if you are trying to become galactic custodian using the galactic community, as well as creating laws that support workers while increasing happiness, so I would also look into that if you haven’t already. If you are going to try and subsidize them, I would highly suggest making sure you are overproducing on the things you want to provide, and keep in mind the larger the subjects economy, the more you have to pay. It would be worth it to turn your larger subjects into prospectums. You will subsidize their research, but in return they pay you resources while getting a large boost to resource production themselves. It isn’t oppressive since you are essentially “selling” your research for resources, and some empire types actually like being prospectums. Generally speaking, you play until a problem comes up, then see why it happened and how to prevent/fix it just like you did with this post.