Is representation retroactive?

Artifex1

Warlord
Joined
Oct 19, 2006
Messages
284
Lets say I found 8 cities and then get representation..are those 8 cities now costing me 33% less when going for social policies? or do they not get the benifit since they were founded before I got the policy?
 
they cost less. the formula on a standard size map is basically base cost * (1 + 0.15 * extra cities), representation changes it to base * (1 + 0.1 * extra cities)

so in your example with 8 cities total you'd immediately go from paying 2.05x base cost to paying 1.7x base cost
 
I don't think Vexing has answered the question.

I'm not 100% sure, but I think it is not retroactive.

Or you could pop down 20 cities, and late game you could choose Representation and suddenly have a few SP's to choose.
 
they cost less. the formula on a standard size map is basically base cost * (1 + 0.15 * extra cities), representation changes it to base * (1 + 0.1 * extra cities)

so in your example with 8 cities total you'd immediately go from paying 2.05x base cost to paying 1.7x base cost

I don't think Vexing has answered the question.

I'm not 100% sure, but I think it is not retroactive.

Or you could pop down 20 cities, and late game you could choose Representation and suddenly have a few SP's to choose.

he not only answered the question, he showed exactly how it works. :crazyeye:
sigh...

Put in a more simple statement:

Yes it's retroactive. The cost for the next Social Policy is calculated 'on the fly' so the reduction does in fact make the next Social Policy cost less than if you had chosen a very different Social Policy. No you don't 'get culture back' as it just changes the target for the future SPs.

Simple to test as well. Save your game just before choosing an SP and then take Representation, note the culture cost listed, then reload/chose a different SP. The representation chosen one should cost less than the non-representation one.

*** obviously, you'll have needed to expand before getting to this point.
 
^ This exactly

The -33% from Representation applies to the modifier 0.15 in the posted formula. To take off 33% from the modifier, multiply .67 times 0.15 and you get 0.1005. That is rounded down to .10 and applied to the formula. Instead of 1 plus 15% of your number of cities, it's 1 plus 10% of your number of cities with Representation. Since, as MadDjinn pointed out, the formula is calculated each time you buy a new Social Policy it is in effect retroactive. What it doesn't affect is the :c5culture: you already spent on policies prior to selecting Representation, though if you calculate the savings you might find that it does compensate you slightly.
 
It is retroactive in the sense that future policies will cost less per city, including cities founded before Representation.

It is not retroactive in the sense that you will still have paid more per city for policies up to that point, and you aren't refunded that culture in any sense, so if you buy it 20th in one game and 10th in another, in the game where you buy it 20th you will need to pay more total culture for a given number of policies. That is, while your 21st policy will cost the same amount for either game, your total cost for 21 policies will be higher the later you take Representation.
 
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