Originally posted by /u/TheFledglingPidgeon
I’m a bit confused, I’ve googled for advice on which policies to pick and I’ve found a lot of sources singing praises to Monarchy. But I get the impression that the leader bonuses are just… kind of negligible. Sure, Artisan helps a bit in the beginning, and it’s good for afk’ing with engineers, and scientist/philosopher are super helpful, but… the gold honestly seems more useful, and both of the other options at that cost seem better, especially in longer games. Eventually, the leader bonuses like Artisan just seem to be a minuscule fraction of the things they’re providing bonuses to.
Am I just misunderstanding something, or underestimating how monarchy works?
TheFledglingPidgeon
Did not know about the burned paragon, that makes a huge difference. And yeah, after playing a bit with even just over a hundred paragon, I noticed that really, the “kitten” production is pretty unimportant. The only things that really seem to matter, even early in a run, are conversion bonus and crafting bonus (and later on space production, as you mentioned). Thank you for the info!
Antipatience
In the really long runs, the bottlenecks tend to be space production and trade bonus. One of the space materials is pretty expensive, so every little bit of crafting is really good. Sure it’s not a huge bonus, but by this point in the run the options are basically “2 free workshops (monarchy), or boosting resources that you always have capped (autocracy & republic)”
It can also lead to liberalism which gives another nice trade bonus.
A lesser known mechanic is that leader trait is boosted by burned paragon, so Monarchy can become a very strong chocie. (In my runs, the leader makes up like half of my crafting bonus)
None of the policies are bad, though, and a policy with no late game use could sometimes be a more effective option. It just comes down to which part of the run a specific player feels bottlenecked by. As someone who idles a lot, making every craft and trade a little bit better is more beneficial than capping resources faster (cause they’re gonna cap by the time I return anyway).
TheFledglingPidgeon
Thank you. That is definitely much more convincing than most arguments I’ve seen so far for Monarchy. It’s made me rethink several of the policies I use, and how they interact with each other.
ButtonPrince
Merchant or Chemist. An extra 10% crafting bonus doesn’t make that much of a difference but autocracy and Republic do literally nothing (at a certain point)
TheFledglingPidgeon
Which bonuses would that be? The main one I use is Artisan and I don’t feel like an extra 5% would make that much of a difference when my base modifier is already over 600%.
ButtonPrince
I think you probably have a perfect understanding of how Monarchy works. But you arent as far in the game as the people who like it. There is a point in the game where kitten jobs and basic resources are basically totally worthless but the Leader bonuses still provide a slight advantage.
TheFledglingPidgeon
This is what I’ve been doing, the conversion bonus stacks up significantly higher than the double leader bonus. And since Paragon affects conversion to a much lower degree, smelters and calciners tend to be what I want strengthened, rather than, say, an extra 5% workshop bonus.
arcanis321
I have been liking autocracy for the conversion bonus. Really ramps up calciners/smelters once you get some ranks on the leader.
Lesmiserablemuffins
Once you’ve got the workshop upgrades for geologists to produce gold, gold is nothing.