Science cost per advance discovered

When researching new advances, in the beginning it takes only a few beakers to discover an advance. As you only have a few beakers as output it takes a few turns.
However if you progress it takes more and more beakers to discover an advance.

I didn't think much about this, until I read about the OCC game smash played. He couldn't have had much science output, but managed to get the advances quickly.

What are the mechanics behind this. I suppose the number needed is somehow related to the number of cities you have at the time. I just thought that the advances became more expensive as a game progresses.

A super science city can generate 1000+ beakers per turn.That occ game was around 1200+

you are right.Science is culminative.The # of cities plays no role.Your tech level in relation to a key civ does however.

In occ,you generally will be "weak and pathetic" so purple will be your key civ.Gift to them in particular and you will not be penalized with "extra" research turns appearing out of "nowhere"

In occ,you generally will be "weak and pathetic" so purple will be your key civ.Gift to them in particular and you will not be penalized with "extra" research turns appearing out of "nowhere"
--Smash

Click to expand...

I might be wrong, but I'm fairly sure that purple matches with supreme, as player Indians and sioux who stay supreme are their own key civ...Wouldn't weak and pathetic match with a white civ?

Michelangelo,

While we cannot speak to the mechanics of how to gift as Smash has outlined,
we agree with kundor on Purple being the Reference & or (Supreme Civ).
Here is a link to a thread about it here at

Civ Fanatics Purple Civ Thread actual title "Caravans & Trade"

starlifter mentions the purple Civ on the fifth reply posted on the thread.

There is a link there to the thread about it at Apoly, but here it is again,

Apoly's, Key to tech gifting Thread

and here is a small excerpt from that thread authored by samson

The relationship between the Key Civ and the Human Player
involves the Power ratings and Turn positions.
Each civ's Turn Position is determined by its color:

1 White
2 Green
3 Dark Blue
4 Yellow
5 Light Blue
6 Orange
7 Purple

Power Ratings are reported by the Foreign Minister:

1 Pathetic
2 Weak
3 Inadequate
4 Moderate
5 Strong
6 Mighty
7 Supreme

The Key Civ for tech-gifting can always be found occupying the Turn Position
which corresponds to your Power Rating using the above numbers.
For example, if your Power is 'Inadequate', the Key Civ will be Dark Blue.

We found both these threads to be quite infornative but,
As always this info may be worth less than you paid for it.

------------------
TTFNFm & MTFBWY moof

" Only two things are infinite, the universe and human stupidity,

and I'm not sure about the former. " - Albert Einstein

Edit because Dufuses that we are, put the URL for Aploy in both links the originally.



[This message has been edited by moof (edited August 03, 2001).]

ya the key civ can change so I usually play it safe and gift to all.But if you want to manipulate the ai to research a few tech for you,then gifting the key civ frequently is important.Generally you will be last on the powergraph after a certain point.
You'll need embassies or know how to read the icons on the foreign advisor screen to know which civ is rated what.

If you gift everything as you get it to all,you just kill their research rates.Use the cheat menu to set human civ and check the rate after massive gifting.You'll see 100+ turns so you're not going to get much help after a certain point.
The real wizs save oodles of turns by manipulating the ai.You can get many early tech like Iron Working,Bridge Building,Pottery,Seafaring etc out of the ai.

I read the complete Apolyton thread in the link. This explains why as the supreme Egyptians in my last game, even with tons of cities (half the world full) and lots of trade under democracy, my science was slower than it should have been (discoveries every two or even three turns)--it was because I continually shunned the purple Indians, who were the FURTHEST behind of any civ.... Had I gifted them, nurtured and protected them, it probably would have been very different.

It also then seems to follow that, if you're supreme and plan on staying that way, you should ally with the purple ones (unless of course you are purple yourself, which I often have been) and protect them from annihilation, since their annihilation would seem to penalize you greatly in terms of science cost. If on the other hand you are playing an OCC game (something I haven't tried yet), and are thus weakest, you should ally with the whites (as for protecting them from annihilation, that would be something you couldn't do much about though).

Thanks for the enlightenment! However, the tone the AI uses for asking for tech seems to discourage gifting (who wants to give ANYTHING to a demanding whiner?), but I should remember that's just words it's programmed to say--nothing personal....

BTW, it also explains why the Indians stagnated greatly in the first place--I eliminated the Romans, so the Indians became pathetic and yet had infinitely more tech than their nonexistant white key civ....

[This message has been edited by allan (edited August 05, 2001).]