Cost of research and Samson's formula revisited

Perhaps saving as a scenario defaults every civ to have 1 starting tech or something (though I can't say why it would be 1 instead of 0). If you are going to use scenario games as well as regular games to gather information, you should probably put some effort into determining if and how saving as a scenario changes things, before progressing further

If I understand you, your other anomaly has the following properties:

1. It increases the tech number of the civ in question by 1, essentially treating the civ as if it had one less starting tech.

2. It has only been observed altering one civ at a time. In your examples it was the Greeks in one game, and yourself in the other. Also, if the anomaly occurs, it will always target the same civ, based on your saved game.

3. The onset of this anomaly is not regular. That is, if you play a set of turns starting from the same saved game several times, some games will have the anomaly and others will not, or the anomaly sets in earlier for some incarnations than for others.

4. Once the anomaly occurs in a game, it persists through the rest of the game.


Property 1 is just a statement of the effect.

Property 2 looks like the best candidate to be falsified -- and if it holds up, it will make things much more difficult to figure out.

Property 3 suggests that the onset is either random, or that there is some measurement that the game takes, and decides if you no longer "need" reduced research costs.

If property 4 doesn't hold up, it will make the game mechanic very strange indeed.

If I've misunderstood you, can you please state the properties that you know the anomaly has in a concise form?
 
Great synopsis, Prof. Garfield. You got everything correctly. I agree with you in that I think at some point the game decides you no longer need the "help" of the starting tech. This is consistent with the game's philosophy of trying to make it difficult when you get ahead. One thing I would like to test the next time I get a chance is whether this happens when a civ hits supreme.
 
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