This will be fun...Explaining the tax system and...yeah, stuff about food management, as Bankers still do that in some cases.
I'm explaining the food system from a perspective of lords in this thread:
http://forum.battlemaster.org/index.php/topic,530.0.html
The tax system is fairly straightforward and being Banker has tremendous power that must be utilized to be successful and important in any realm. I will talk more after reading what Vellos already covered and when I have a bit more time. ;)
I will also be adding input where work hasn't already been done, but I will almost certainly write something about different approaches to managing food collection and taxation from the Banker's perspective.
When I get time, I may also contribute to this article. But, as can be seen in my Trade Systems article, I prefer to write formatted, detailed articles... so I'll either wait for someone else, and then make comments and addendums, or maybe in a while I'll write one myself.
I can say that banker is my favorite council position.
Then again... I'm an economics student... so that kind of makes sense.
One very simple rule: never let a rural starve to feed a city.
I think there should be a little tidbit here in regards to banker ethics.
While you are certainly free to play your character any way you want, please be aware that such runs both ways. If your character is in fact a greedy morally bankrupt person, then woe unto whatever realm was dumb enough to make you their banker. In such a case, you have the option, as you would probably know by now, of robbing the realm's tax gold, making you ridiculously rich.
If your character is pure at heart originally and becomes greedy, then I suppose you are free to do so as well. Do try to make such a transition credible though, and not make it seem like "Oh, I have the ability to rob my realm's tax gold? Let's do it."
Well, I suppose this really goes for every element, but the banker's actions in regards to tax gold has potentially the most widespread single event impact.
Does anybody have the game-text on hand that you get when you "notice" the books being cooked?
I got it once in Westmoor and called out the treasurer on it. I think it's a random notice to titled positions.
Could someone enlighten me on the whole "Shadow government" thing?
Shadow Government allows you to cook the books, stealing 25% of the currently collected Tax Gold in a region, with 5% being spend on expenses to get that done. The Lord of that Region should generally receive a message that someone has been tampering with the accounts, but Vellos' reply makes me wonder if others can receive it as well (Up to now I thought only the Lord of the Region would though). I know my old Banker got plenty of extra gold by using Shadow Government on Regions that had no Lords without anyone spotting it. A good Banker knows how to steal gold without anyone noticing ;)
Shadow Government also allows you the option to sabotage production in nearby regions, but that option is not yet implemented, at least not last time I checked.
EDIT: Removed untrue sentence. Best to keep those out in a guide.
Quote from: Telrunya on May 11, 2011, 01:51:07 PM
Regions without a Lord lose 50% of their Taxes to 'Administration costs' anyway, so this can be a method to save a few more funds, if no Lord will be elected/appointed by Tax Day.
Actually, so far as I know, that is not the case. The 50% will simply never be collected, which means it's not in the tax offices for you to steal.
Apologies in that case :) I should have paid better attention then.
Quote from: Anaris on May 11, 2011, 02:09:17 PM
Actually, so far as I know, that is not the case. The 50% will simply never be collected, which means it's not in the tax offices for you to steal.
Actually, Telrunya was correct in certain circumstances. If the region had a lord for 6 days, and loses its lord just before the tax day, then some percentage (40%-60%) will be lost on tax day, which means cooking the books will actually save a good deal of that which is lost.
This discussion needs to find a resolution: having a dispute about mechanics in the guide is counter-productive.
Does anyone know for sure which it is? If not, it should be phrased as, "Unconfirmed reports indicate that...."
Ok, how about this: Neither Anaris nor Foundation are wrong, and their statements actually aren't contradictory.
This is because we need to keep in mind how the tax system actually works. If you looked at your region taxes command screen, you would be able to deduce that taxes are collected every day. It's not a single lump that only gets calculated on tax day. That means, so long as there's a lord, then you get the 100% collection based on whatever rate and production you have. The 50% kicks in when there is no lord, starting from the tax collection period that there is no lord.
Although, this is just based on certain tax mechanics that I've concluded based on observations. If someone with access to the code wants to say something else, then he who sees the code wins. But I'm pretty sure I have that mechanic correct.
Okay, no one is wrong, the code may have been updated after Tim or I last saw these parts. Here is the complete picture:
1. Every day that there is no lord of the region, gold collection is reduced by 50%.
2. On tax day, regions without a lord lose another portion of their taxes already collected to administrative costs based on their region type.
3. Thus, if the Banker manipulates the books before tax day for lordless regions, they salvage a part of the already reduced tax collection.
Of course, this applies to cities as well. I hope this clears things up.
Aw, dang, I missed the second part about administrative costs...
You were closer than anyone else. ;)