@Meziljin said in Grueling upkeep!:
so if 200 citizen leave game, we will have a ghost town forever.... no upkeep it's actually the only money sink.
It is frustrating each day we have to pay taxes, i hope dev will move to 1 per week (surely bigger, but stressless).
A ghost town will only be a problem on Arboreus, since they can be conquered on the other planets. For Arboreus, I'd look for another way to solve the problem (if it is a problem): say, X number of unanswered citizen requests after Y time.
Money is odd in this game: mobs poop it out, and cities eat it, for no apparent reason. That seems overly simplistic; I'd be much more interested in seeing how a barter-based economy would work (or even currencies that are player-managed!).
Furthermore, even the food aspect of upkeep is odd. Who's being fed? Players already have to feed themselves and craft/build everything, and there are no NPCs around to help out.
Upkeep would make more sense if it were wood and stone, to keep buildings repaired, based on actual usage plus natural decay per building.