Efficient Culture Generation

When not going for CV, do folks open Aesthetics and then take the SP to get the half price cultural buildings? For me, this delays finishing out Rationalism by at least one SP, but it seems well worth the detour. As joncnunn wrote, Hermitage is a great NW, even with the steep prerequisites.

To me, it is not worth going this route. Because the culture buildings that benefit from this policy are relatively late, they get built pretty quickly without using a valuable SP to shave a few turns.

Are you delaying finishing Rationalism before ideologies or after ideologies? If before (that's a rare luxury), then the cost/benefit is a few turns of production vs. +50% from RA's AND whatever random opener benefit you might choose. I don't think it's close. If it is after ideologies, then those buildings should have long since been built to get much benefit. Is the 25% GWAM bonus (+ maybe Uffizi) AND cheaper cultural buildings worth more? I guess it could be situationally, but you did say "when not going for CV".
 
To me, it is not worth going this route. Because the culture buildings that benefit from this policy are relatively late, they get built pretty quickly without using a valuable SP to shave a few turns.

Are you delaying finishing Rationalism before ideologies or after ideologies? If before (that's a rare luxury), then the cost/benefit is a few turns of production vs. +50% from RA's AND whatever random opener benefit you might choose. I don't think it's close. If it is after ideologies, then those buildings should have long since been built to get much benefit. Is the 25% GWAM bonus (+ maybe Uffizi) AND cheaper cultural buildings worth more? I guess it could be situationally, but you did say "when not going for CV".

The only time I would consider opening point into Aesthetics in a non-CV is with that awkward policy when you finish your Tradition or Liberty tree and you have 1 or 2 policy points to put in before you open up rationalism. If rationalism is open, it's silly to put a point into aesthetics though.
 
There is a huge misconception that generating culture is only and/or significantly more important for CV than other VCs. Social Policies are the life's blood of your empire. Culture CS and Guild Specialists are very important for filling things out as quickly as possible. Founding a religion with Mosque or Pagoda is very helpful. World's Fair, Sistine, and Golden Age spam all contribute. CV is only different than other VCs in that you will turn some of your writers and artists into works instead of bulbing.

Generally speaking there is a brief period between turns 80-130 when you should slow down a little bit to wait for Renaissance (access to Rationalism), but other than that you should heavily prioritize culture output regardless of your intended VC.
OR have social policy saving.

If not going for CV, do this:

Great Writer, treastise
Great Artist , GA
Great Musician, settle.

That should help your culture.

GM-settle instead of tour?

What to do with future GP?
 
Well yes, because if not going for CV you get more culture from a great work, and culture is what you're looking for from these GP, not tourism. Musicians are the worst GWAM to have in a non-CV, but can still be worth a little bit of culture.
And continue the trend with all future writers, artists, and musicians. The biggest question I struggle with here though is when to bulb. It's a lot less straightforward than scientists. Do you bulb now to shave 8 turns off that valuable policy? Or do you wait for your cpt to increase and possibly win World's Fair, thus making your bulb more valuable? Do you make a GA now to speed your next policy and help to construct a wonder? Or do you save it so it's worth more hammers, culture and gold overall?
 
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