Income, food, and cash flow

Where cash comes from and where it goes#

Your main income comes from resident taxes, factory and tourism sales, and selling surplus resources. Expenses include living and administration costs, fixed and variable facility upkeep, imports, development, and disaster responses. G is the game's currency unit.

For example, 2,000 residents generate 20 G in base tax and cost 21 G in living and administration. If actual work totals 1,000 worker equivalents, employment tax adds 20 G. Industrial sales and facility costs are separate. Grow jobs and food supply alongside the population.

Workers and upkeep#

The basic available workforce is 50% of the population. Food shortages and unpaid costs reduce the following turn's workforce, and evacuation reduces the current turn's workforce by another 5%. Your policy decides which industries receive workers first.

Fixed costs still apply when workers are short or a facility is damaged. Variable costs follow actual operation. A factory's 100 G is sales revenue before its 20 materials, 8 G fixed cost, up to 20 G variable cost, and the island's other expenses are considered.

Tourism is limited by demand based on population and environment, visitor transport capacity, and the lodges' capacity. Facilities share the island's total demand; adding another lodge does not create a duplicate group of visitors.

Support a growing population#

Each resident consumes 0.02 food per turn: 40 for 2,000 people, or 60 for 3,000. At a population of 2,000, the initial 12-turn food reserve target represents 480 food. Consumption and the reserve target grow with your population.

Food shortages reduce happiness and population, and weaken the following turn's workforce. Review farm and fishing output together with automatic buying and surplus selling. Drought reduces farming, but does not affect fishing harbors.

Natural growth requires no food shortage, no unpaid costs, happiness of at least 55, an employment rate of at least 40%, and spare housing. The employment rate is actual worker equivalents divided by 50% of the population. New arrivals are also limited by living conditions and available homes. Below 100 residents, the employment requirement is relaxed to help the island recover, but housing, living conditions, and financial conditions still matter.

Woodland and parks support the environment and happiness, while operating factories and mines burden the environment. Environment and happiness change gradually; one new facility does not immediately move them to their maximum.

Trading and storage capacity#

Events can change prices. A reserved trade uses the price when it runs. In the support action Trade resources, choose a resource, Buy or Sell, and a quantity. Manual trades require the whole specified quantity to be possible; insufficient cash, stock, or capacity makes the action fail. Automatic trades can adjust to a smaller available quantity.

Base trade capacity is 80 resource units per turn, plus 100 per effective level of trading port. Food and materials, buying and selling, and manual and automatic trades all share it. The initial undamaged, unpaused trading port gives a total of 180. Buying 100 leaves room for 80 more units that turn.

Automatic purchases aim to cover food reserves, factory inputs, material reserves, and eligible construction needs for the current turn. Automatic selling keeps reserves, upcoming factory inputs, and materials needed by next-turn development plans before selling surplus. Resources bought during the turn are not immediately sold back automatically.

Base storage is 2,000 each for food and materials, plus 800 per effective warehouse level. Excess stocks are not discarded all at once. Each turn you lose 5% of excess food and 1% of excess materials.

When cash on hand is still not enough#

Normal development needs enough resources to pay, no unpaid costs, and sufficient cash, food, and material reserves afterward. Prepare land and Clear forest do not use materials, so a material-reserve shortage alone does not block them. Repairs, evacuation, and emergency response may use reserves when the actual cash and materials are available.

Operating bills you cannot pay become Unpaid costs. Cash does not go below zero, and there is no automatic borrowing. Unpaid costs block ordinary development, cap the following turn's workforce at 80%, and affect residents' well-being. Later income pays them down while you restore operations.

Operating balance accounts for changes in unpaid costs. Cash movement also includes construction, fundraising, disaster responses, and other changes, so the two figures can differ. A cash balance that has stopped falling does not by itself mean the island is profitable.

1. Read the failure reason in Journal, then check minimum cash, unpaid costs, and actual workers in Economy.
2. Move nonessential development later and schedule Raise funds. One main action adds 20 G while normal operations continue.
3. Consider pausing facilities that cannot earn enough because of missing workers or inputs. Paused facilities still incur 20% of fixed upkeep.
4. You can demolish an unnecessary facility even with unpaid costs or insufficient cash or reserves. Upkeep falls from the following turn. Avoid removing too much housing or food production.
5. Check the forecast for a sustainable operating balance and repayment of unpaid costs before restarting expansion.