Regarding Production?

Ok so I'm still new to this game, but the question of production keeps popping up in my mind. I've got a good grasp on food and gold, but I don't understand production enough to see why it is important. Sorry for this noob question.

But say I have my capital and it has 30 food, 30 production, and 30 gold. It makes me wonder how much production is enough. Like should it be 60 instead of 30, or is 30 fine?

It's pretty easy to see when I need to increase food and gold, but production seems a little elusive.

In laymens terms, can anyone help me understand the importance of production better, and how much of it I should have? Thx for any help

More is always better and do everything you can to increase it. Build factories, Solar plants, etc.

The thing is ... increasing food now increases your population which gives you more workers which gives you more production.

The food / production relationship is tricky. If you can build sometime in 8 turns but 12 turns would give you more food? Take the food. A bigger city will be better for you down the line.

The critical thing to watch is the 'how many turns till growth'. If it starts getting higher you're doing something wrong.

Your cities can ALWAYS use more production, but they can also ALWAYS use more food, science, and gold as well, so you have to balance.
Chances are you will do a much better job at this by allocating the tiles yourself than the city governor.

Sherlock said:

More is always better and do everything you can to increase it. Build factories, Solar plants, etc.

The thing is ... increasing food now increases your population which gives you more workers which gives you more production.

The food / production relationship is tricky. If you can build sometime in 8 turns but 12 turns would give you more food? Take the food. A bigger city will be better for you down the line.

The critical thing to watch is the 'how many turns till growth'. If it starts getting higher you're doing something wrong.

Click to expand...

Thanks for your help. When u say 'how many turns till growth' do you mean when a new citizen is born? Or do you mean the production menu where it says, "you can build an aqueduct in 125 turns"?

joncnunn said:

Your cities can ALWAYS use more production, but they can also ALWAYS use more food, science, and gold as well, so you have to balance.
Chances are you will do a much better job at this by allocating the tiles yourself than the city governor.

Click to expand...

Thanks for your help also. By allocating the tiles are you referring to locking the tiles down manually so you can pick and choose what you want to be done in your city tiles?

If you're looking for a rule of thumb regarding whether or not your cities are producing enough hammers, I think you should always be able to produce the core buildings of your era in less than ten turns. In other words, if you are in the medieval era and it's taking more than ten turns to build a market, you need production. Not a hard and fast rule, but it will give you an idea.

Unless you are building something critical, it is almost always best to choose food. As mentioned, if your city grows fast, it results in more production later. However, there are times where a little compromise is useful. Such as trying to finish a critical wonder, or when a production tile is far more production than a food tile. You will ultimately try to keep your city growing every 5-7 turns in the capital, and a little slower in satellites. If it is going past that, something is wrong.

The real boost to production comes from the percentage reduction from production buildings. Focusing on food will get you more hammers in the long run, but workshops, windmills, and factories, and forges will make those hammers worth a lot more.

Prozac1964 said:

Thanks for your help also. By allocating the tiles are you referring to locking the tiles down manually so you can pick and choose what you want to be done in your city tiles?

Click to expand...

Yup..

The other consideration is happiness. At upper difficulties, you should reach a point where you want to slow your expansion in population because you're nearing your happiness ceiling (if you don't get to that point, then it's probably like Uzael said, something's wrong.) That's a good time to hunker down and focus on production to build needed infrastructure (like more happiness buildings).

Generally, though, Civ rejects Malthusian thought. Population is power. And since food is population. Food is usually the way to go.

Unless, you're an unrepentant wonder-whore and builder like me, in which case you emphasize production even when you know it is not the smartest course for the long game simply because you MUST have that shiny wonder over there.

Helmling said:

Unless, you're an unrepentant wonder-whore and builder like me, in which case you emphasize production even when you know it is not the smartest course for the long game simply because you MUST have that shiny wonder over there.

Click to expand...

LOL, Guilty!

Production and food are both important and its an more an art than science to learn how to balance them. There really isn't a fixed rule. Best advice is to play more hours.
I usually grow around the happiness that is available for me. If my happiness is low, there's no point for me to grow so fast. Use your citizens for production.