a what point is...............

Commercial is only way to go nowadays...just not enough players on any server to warrant going tax..even if its decent on TB servers right now wont stay that way..so looking ahead would not be too smart going tax with any race but guard...even if you did go mainly tax i think i would put 50 or so into commercial...just so players cornering food market dont force you into VM like so many times it has happened to others who has pure research...just my 2 cents =0)

But they are good calculations :)

keep in mind that vendeen`s calculations are under ideal conditions.

Sometimes you don`t always have CGs, and you don`t always have max infra, which can affect things.

Viral`s base income for commercial is 5*.7 = 3.5 per land. Base income for tax with max loyalty is 15 * 1.2 = 18. Therefore, when food is 15 or higher, it`s more profitable to be a commercial viral.

With maximized setup of 7 housing, 247 commercial
589 Housing = 10013 * 1.5 * 1.2 = 18023 - Cost of 1002 Food
9411 Commercial = 846,519
Total Income as Commercial = 864,542 - cost of 1,002 food

254 Housing Infra
10,000 Housing = 3,960,000 - cost of 264,000 food (CG`s not included)

Edited by Vendeen on 2011-05-11

Well Im comm viral and explorable personally I like it. No food costs and you don`t have a terrible base pr to work with. Although you are a tad poor..

RT isn`t the only server that people can play on, Jammer.

Food prices. That`s exactly it. You have to depend on the market hugely. I think it`s the smarter option to be a commercial viral, explorable or otherwise, cause you are less dependent on the market.

Food hasn`t been right for months now, costs 9 one day, then 35 the next.

Jammer, I disagree. Sort of.

I`d go tax viral if I was planning on making an explorable empire. Commerce viral if I were planning on going unexplorable...

I assume you mean "at what point if commercial viral better than tax viral?" The answer is once food gets too high. I`m not exactly sure what price that is, but I would personally go commercial, if I was a viral.

11$ = food price btw.

A somewhat complex question. My simple guess-timation suggests around 11$ tax and commerce incomes start to become more equal.

Someone else might have the more accurate question but it does depend on your infra level and if you have access to goods and stuff. (my calculations are CG-less)