how to get faster early research - slider doesnt work?

I have been trying out various things in civ3 recently, and I just found out something a bit strange...

At the very beggining of the game, it doesnt seem to matter how much gold you put into research, it will still move at the same rate. So say I am researching writing as my first tech, on the first turn it will take 40 turns. Thats fine.

But after 20 turns, of 100% research, with a size 4 city, one citizen on a roaded wheat square, the rest on water (=8 trade), IT WILL STILL TAKE 20 TURNS TO GET WRITING.

All of the money I have been putting into research has disappeared, and I hvae gained nothing from it.

A few turns later, research is doen to 11 turns. If I put all of my citizens on water tiles (=9 trade) then with science at 90% it will take 10 turns, and at 100% it will take 9 turns.

It seems that the first 7 golds you put towards science are completely wasted. Is this just a quirk of the whole 40-turn-max- research system?

Is there any way to boost science early?

Early in the game you have few cities and have despotism which doesn't allow fast reasearch. be patient, trade and open goody huts. It always works that way in the beginning but once out of despotism the research is faster.

Originally posted by [pnp]dredd

Is there any way to boost science early?

Click to expand...

There are several things you can do. First, take a turn or two to pick the best tile for the capital. A capital built over a luxury or gold icon or on a river helps a lot with research. Next, make contact as soon as possible. Send the early warriors out. Bump up the luxury rate if you need more happiness. Contact makes techs cheaper, even if you do not trade for them. Third, build roads for the gold bonus, and build the early cities close to the capital so they can use these road tiles as well.

Do all of this and you will see a huge boost in early research, especially if you get favorable terrain at the start (rivers, luxuries and gold).

i play on monarch and in the begenning all i do is put the research at 0% and get all the money from it, keep buying the early techs, they cost between 70 and 150 gold... but ur main objective must be the great library, keep building the techs until u get the great library, then stop buying the techs because u will gain them for free.... while u are winning all the techs for free from the great library u must build a good empire with libraries and good economy ect ect...when the great library gets obsolect, then by that time ur empire should be strong enough to research the techs by itself.... because the late techs are too expensive...
thats what i do and i always keep myself in the top of the sience...

yep, research costs more than you think .

Originally posted by [pnp]dredd
I have been trying out various things in civ3 recently, and I just found out something a bit strange...

At the very beggining of the game, it doesnt seem to matter how much gold you put into research, it will still move at the same rate. So say I am researching writing as my first tech, on the first turn it will take 40 turns. Thats fine.

But after 20 turns, of 100% research, with a size 4 city, one citizen on a roaded wheat square, the rest on water (=8 trade), IT WILL STILL TAKE 20 TURNS TO GET WRITING.

All of the money I have been putting into research has disappeared, and I hvae gained nothing from it.

A few turns later, research is doen to 11 turns. If I put all of my citizens on water tiles (=9 trade) then with science at 90% it will take 10 turns, and at 100% it will take 9 turns.

It seems that the first 7 golds you put towards science are completely wasted. Is this just a quirk of the whole 40-turn-max- research system?

Is there any way to boost science early?

Click to expand...

Well when you consider that your first city was a group of hunter-gatherers that finally made some roots, you can't expect to much in the way of science for awhile. I find that my science slider is almost down to nothing until I get into the Middle Ages, with Republic as a government. So if you realize that adding more money to it is just a waste, then keep your science low for awhile, and save all that cash for your treasury and your military. Eventually you will be able to bump it up, but not for awhile.