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Theseus
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The warmonger formerly known as rpodos. Gathering Storm! Apolyton Spirit!!
Apr 2002
time: 00:20
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For all the great commentary here, I don;t remember a great science thread.
There's lots of good advice distributed about however... somebody, I think Arrian or Aeson, recently wrote a bunch of good science /tech tips.
My genreal approach: don;t try to research everything. Figure out your overall game strat, and belline for those techs. Beat the rest of the early techs out of AI civs, via early oscllating wr. Buy some, preferably from lesser developed nations. Ad you get to medieval / industrial, continue your own research path, but with a preference for the "southern" line. Trade like crazy... where possible, trade resources for techs.
As you get more experience, ge a fell for what the AI civs research... don;t research the same thing. Those techs get cheaper as more civs know them, and any techs you discover first are incredibly valuable. BTW, when seling techs, check around for who will give you the best price... it's not always the strongest AI civ.
Lastly, I don;t buy the 10% thing... early in Despotism, you are very disadvantaged in researching techs, but if you play wiht the slider every couple of turns, you'll find that there seem to be "break points" where all of of a sudden increasing to, say 40% research, will cut the time for that tech in half.
Thomas Edison: 1% inspiration, 99% perspiration.
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Tingkai
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To find the Northwest Passage
Aug 2001
time: 13:20
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quote:
Originally posted by FrustratedPoet
Another good tip for building up techs is using an Oscillating War (tm) strategy. Go to war with a nearby Civ, raze 2 or 3 cities (inculding the capitol if you can manage it) and then ask them for peace. They'll probably be scared of you and will gladly give up a couple of techs to get you to go away. Once you have re-stocked your military target another Civ and use this tactic again.
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Is the AI more likely to give you techs if you have a lot of units outside one of its cities?
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Velociryx
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of Candle'Bre
Apr 1999
time: 05:20
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Good thread. As with everything, there's almost certainly more than one way to go about it, but here's the way I've found to consistently work, regardless of the level of difficulty I'm playing:
Early (especially if I am starting on a river): Ratchet science to 90-100% and beeline for Mathematics. The other civs NEVER seem to research Mathematics, but they'll give up the farm in tech trades for it. In the meantime, in order to finance the occassional tech purchase, I'll make it a point to ransack Barb villages. Two of them (50g) will often net me any one of the the early (level 1) techs I want (Warrior Code, Bronze Working, Ceremonial Burial).
A bit of trading sees me in shape to make an Archer Blitz, and continue to keep pace. At this point tho, my slider is still set "fairly high" (high enough to research at a decent clip, while still making money), and I'm beelining for Currency. Why? Most important tech of the Ancient Era, IMO. The Marketplace is a godawfully powerful build. Happiness AND Mo' Money.
The MOMENT we get Currency, every city I've got stops what it's doing and builds a Market.
After Currency, we run straight for either Monarchy or Republic, depending on the current game, and make the switch.
Once the Anarchy period is over, that's when I'll kill my research to 10% or thereabouts, using the cash windfall to rush Markets and other basic infrastructure (Temples, Libraries) in place...and in general, my order of preference is: 1st: Temple (unless playing a Scientific Civ, or if I have 2+ Luxuries) 2nd: Libraries (switches to 1st if I'm playing Scientific or have 2+ Luxuries), Marketplace.
Reasonings behind the build order: 1- Happiness, 2 - Culture, 3 - Greater Market effect after the city has had a bit of time to grow.
In any case, using the spare cash generated by leaving science at 10% for a while is a good investment, cos it gives me MORE spare cash with each one rushed to completion (and btw, when I hit the middle ages, I make a similar beeline to Banking, and repeat, with a side stop to Chivalry if I'm wanting to do some more warring), and during this period, if I AM fighting, I can still keep up in tech. Doesn't really matter how fast or slow I can research, cos I'm getting my techs via another way, BUT....once all those Banks come online, I can rush in universities obscenely quickly, and when I am ready to start researching on my own, the sheer number of cities I have with rushed-in Unis gives me enough research,and then some, to offset the AI's built in advantages.
-=Vel=-
PS: If you're currently researching a tech, the AI will give it to you on the cheap. The fewer turns you have to go on research, the cheaper the sale price. If the wonder associated with the tech has already been built, they'll sell it cheap. The more people who know the tech already, the cheaper the price. At least, those have been my observations.
-V.
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Velociryx
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of Candle'Bre
Apr 1999
time: 05:20
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Thank ya, Solver, and it may well be. See...by waiting till near the end of the Ancient Age to get Currency, you're doing two things: First, you're following the AI's research pattern instead of heading off in another direction. That means that your native research isn't as efficient as it could be, cos you're researching stuff the AI is researching too, and it can do it better than you in the early goings anyway, so you may as well let it.
Second, you're delaying (by a significant margin) getting access to a money machine that doubles up as a happiness enhancer! Market's aren't cheap, that's true, but there are some things you can do to help get them in place more quickly, and once you do, you'll really notice the difference!
To outline more clearly, here's exactly what I find myself doing:
* Soon as we have Currency, trade it away to everybody we're in contact with. If we were falling behind in tech, we're not anymore.
* Assess the current situation, and determine if more warring is in order. If yes, beeline for Monarchy, if no, Republic.
* Regardless of whether additional warring is needed in the immediacy, ALL cities begin work on Markets on the turn that I get the tech, even if it interrupts some other build (the one exception being a wonder build....they're important, but not THAT important).
* Tax slider immediately takes a nose dive. I want to maintain profitibility while researching, so whatever rate will allow for that. Primarily though, I'm hoarding cash for flexibility.
* For speed, and because Markets are a happiness enhancer, I will rush them and temples under despotism, and have yet to feel the sting for it. That's one way of speeding things along.
* Set workers to clear-cut forest around cities working on Markets. Ten shields of production can shave 2-3 turns off of your build time.
* When workers aren't clear-cutting forest, have them make additional mines to spike shield counts. Marketplaces should be treated almost like early, rushable wonders for what they do for you.
Soon as a city finishes its Market, it can get back to doing whatever it was doing before getting interrupted, but the key thing is that once you're ready to switch to Monarchy/Republic, after you've taken the time to get those Markets up and running earlier, rather than later, you'll notice a really quite large difference in your gpt inflows....makes everything easier, and gives you enormous flexibility.
If at peace, rush in peacetime infrastructure, focusing on specific cities that get to "build everything" first....those cities can then crank out an endless stream of troops.
If at war, upgrade your existing army and/or rush buy troops.
Pay cash and spare luxuries for tech.
Give it a go, and see how it does for you!
-=Vel=-
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Alkis
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Athens, Greece
May 1999
time: 05:20
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What you will research and how much you will allocate depends on many factors but to catch up in technology peacefully the main idea is to research a "later" technology.
Good techs to research are Mathematics/Currency, or Writing/Literature. It is important to get a technology first and then trade it for a lot of gold or techs. If you think you can't make it don't even try it. You have the alternative to go to war with someone and extort technologies.
When you trade have in mind that a technology costs less if many civs have it therefore establishing contact with the other civs early is important.
Something that no one mentioned, build the Great Library. It isn't that hard because the AI doesn't research literature very early. It is uncommon to be built before 500 BC.
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johncmcleod
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Coeur d'Alene, ID, USA
Jan 2002
time: 21:20
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If I'm correct, Theseus, the Picard Manouevre is saving right before you try something that is the luck of the draw then doing it, and if it succeeds, save again. If not, load the game. Sorry if this is a dumb question, but you guys talk of setting the science slider down to 10% and raising taxes to 90%. Do you mean to just move the science slider down to 10% so you can get more money, so it's like taxes would be at 90%? Or is there a tax slider? I have looked everywhere for one and I don't see one. Sorry if that's a stupid question, but every month or so I discover something new to this game that is common knowlege to almost everyone else.
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albiedamned
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Ellicott City, MD
Sep 2001
time: 00:20
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It's definitely a little confusing at first. The tax rate is just 100 minus the science rate minus the luxuries rate. There is no specific tax slider.
Does anyone ever use the luxury slider? I can't recall ever using it, but I haven't played above Monarch so maybe you need it more on higher levels. I guess if you don't have enough luxury resources, and you can't get Sistine or Bach, then you might need it.
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Geekinstein
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...one thing you may want to consider:
if you don't want to set 10% aside for R&D, but still want the 32 moves to next tech: flip one person to scientist in any one of your cities and you'll see 32 show up in the number of moves to next tech slot.
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04-07-2002 22:06
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