I just wanna get this area under debate, because i ahve had so many disappointing experiences this last round regarding this issue .

What i am talking about, is when a player, be it banker or resource producer, are really putting his empire is a state of imbalance, where he is not optimizing his income satisfyingly.

One of the things i see people do is as follows:

Getting science before overbuild
Overbuilding to 500% before getting science
General failure to level the balance of science and overbuild in the empire
Refusing to use con science, because they believe income science or resoruce science is superior at all times
Refusing to use income or resource science because they believe con science is superior at all times.
Building some players in family/planets in empire to a much higher level of cost than others
Vastly overbuilding of defences in times on no apparent need
Vastly underbuilding of defences in times of actual need

When being a banker with respoinsibility of much of the fams economics, these are all mistakes that make me sigh when i discover them within my own family. And all of them will lead to a reduce income over time.

Apart from the last two about defences, it is really about allocating the best investment oportunities at all times, so that you do not invest in subpar investments. I see so many people not bothering to do even the slighest bit of calculation, but jsut keep on builing. There are huge gains to optimizing your empire.

The two last points i added, about defences is also something i see a lot. Its hard to always anticipate what might happen, and so defences of some sort is usually preferable, altho i have an objection here. Early round there is a lot of grabbing and raiding going on, and defences are most often a wise idea . However. In current Capri, most families have gotten a large nuumber of naps, and shares with hostile families are therefor severely reduced. Large raids or sudden ops (without former agression) is really very unlikely. The biggest threats aer really different possible nap cancellations etc. I almost never see bankers actually reducing their fleet, because they are now throu a period of hostility. This often results in a too high level of defences, compared to te level of threat. In the case of cancellations or hostilities you can always upgrade your fleet pretty quickly. Still i see bankers and resorucers (who are not attacking and ahrdly opping) vastly overprotected. Having 500k ground and 400k op defences. Especially for bankers this is really devestating for income, they severely reduce science, and ofcourse they demand upkeep.

I am as a pop banker in capri now making over 20 million net income, probably atleast 7 million more than the nearest banker. I do have the biggst population, but the superior income does really foremost come from a well balanced empire, where sciene is in the 65-70 revalon income bonus (compared to other Pax bankers) and a fitted level of defences. My family has had a quite peaceful round i will admit, but still i have lost less than 5 planets, and recieved only about 5 succsessful ops against me throu the round, yet my defences have been at a minimum thou most of the round (out of combat)