Can't Figure out the Economy

[ScottWashburn]

I love the game and usually I do pretty well with it, but I still can't really grasp the ins and outs of the economic aspects. In a recent game playing Imperial Guard, my economy was rolling along smoothly and then between one turn and the next everything just fell apart. I had comfortable plus growth rates in every category and then suddenly they were all hugely negative and that was the end. In a few turns I had no resources to build anything at all. Nothing else had happened that I could tell. I hadn't lost any resource points or anything, but suddenly I'm in the Great Depression!

[ErissN6]

Same with SMarines, sometimes I brake my economy. We must figure it firstly, before combats. Economy is the 1st battle to be won, but it still somewhat a mystery for it is so easy to forget it and focus on other dangers.

[Kabookie]

A few things affect your econ negatively: unit upkeep, tile upkeep, building upkeep, loyalty and population (above population limit).

[ErissN6]

affect your econ negatively: loyalty

You mean lack of loyalty. Loyalty is good for economy.

[ErissN6]

I had comfortable plus growth rates in every category and then suddenly they were all hugely negative

So this seems an overflow bug. Maybe devs coded Loyalty on 8bits, and if you have more than 128 it becomes negative.

[I_Am_King_Midas]

I doubt he had over 128 loyalty. We would need more details from the story or a save file to say whats really going on.