Is Building Nothing Wasteful?

Yes, social production on a world producing "nothing" is wasted. The money is still spent to produce "nothing." Some people like this, some people don't mind at all. Anyway, it doesn't look like Stardock will change this anytime soon.

Free production is proportional to your spending. You could see this by allocating zero to say research and seeing that your tech will never complete.

Gaaa! Why must it be so!? (wasted production, that is)

I don't mind it. I look at it as your factories sitting idle so I understand why it doesn't make any money.

~SDC~

The basic idea: You still have to pay the workers at your plants, but you haven't told them to do anything. (Note that you still get the portion of the tax money related to production, so you could also look at it as the plants are producing generic products for individual people, rather than something the government would use, like say... food.)

~SDC~

I realise this (related) gripe has probably come up a billion times before, but doesn't it irritate people that in order to build a ship to defend a new addition to the empire you have to drastically switch production across every planet you have? I don't recall my local toothpaste factory stopping to pump out depleted uranium shells during this years war. Is this just to prevent a complete collapse into spreadsheet micromanagement school, or are there real reasons for the solitary slider bar?

Various explanations have been advanced, none of which is very plausible in "game-world" terms.

Avoiding micromanagement is one answer. The other, which I personally think is the real one, is that it's hard to program the AI to deal with a complicated production system.

My own system of preference would be for by-governor sliders.

"The basic idea: You still have to pay the workers at your plants, but you haven't told them to do anything."

This argument holds no water for me. Two words: maintenance cost.

As vincible said, its most likely a complexity saver but slide-by governings would really add a big layer of strategy by allowing you to really designate different planets for different tasks as well as preventing the rather incomprehensible dumping of resources for no use (as Paul said, there is already a maintenance cost and the other argument about factories producing civilian goods is beyond the scope of the game. The fact that there is a wider economy is implicit in taxes which are paid by the population but the government plays no role in it and would ergo not randomly start funding it just because it wasn't making anything else).
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The expansion will have per-governer sliders.

And how did you manage to get the scoop on that, LeegleechN?

First time I heard it.

Maybe its like a mantra

(thru sheer force of will . . .)
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Well let's see if the chanting works. I've got a couple of changes I really want as well.

Tacit_Exit, what's a good player like you doing without an empire? Do consider joining the Fellowship.

I thought about a way to divide the spending ages ago, not by governors, but by what's in the build queues. No-one cared (:( (:( (:(

Heh, oh well, I'll be interested to see if they do have per-governors sliders coming soon. I'm guessing if that happens, then the empire-wide sliders will just become "dumb sliders", that you only change indirectly through governor sliders.

I remember that thread, I liked your idea Quack. I like the by-governor idea better but your idea would be an improvement too. And there's no reason they couldn't implement both.

Thanks for the invite, oh beacon of GalCiv goodness.

Unfortunately I'd be in danger of being dead weight in an empire atm. I've been lured back to Civ3 and I just can't seem to get enthusiastic about GalCiv right now.

I'll probably take a raincheck till the expansion is released, and see if that puts the fire back in my belly

No worries, Tacit_Exit. Enjoy your Civ3 and hope to see you playing when the Xpack arrives.

Used to play quite a bit of Civ3. I was too unadventurous and kept using the same strat. I liked playing at Emperor(?) and my games always ended at tanks.

edit: BTW, there is no deadweight in empires. Every point gets added up and they all count.
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So if you have so much being put into production, will that money will cover cost for the planets that do have a production line?

eg. Planet 1 had been making stuff and it takes the 20 months to make while planet 2 has been making stuff which will take 200 months.
When planet 1 has finished, will the money the they will recieve then be converted to planet 2 so it's production will be faster?

Warning, I only played the game for like 2 or 3 hours.

No.