Penalties in Beelining to a Tech? eg Crossbowmen or Musketmen

[wc3promet]

Penalties in Beelining to a Tech? eg Crossbowmen or Musketmen

I discover that early Beeline usually results in a weaker economy, your health, treasury, happiness, production rate suffers.

It seems that if you see the Research sequence going like 3 turns -> 5 turns -> 7 turns -> 14 turns -> 22 turns, it probably means that you're beelining to a higher tier technology.

[Napo981]

I don't find beelining too smart.

Personnaly, I never did it.

Once I begin to "beeline" a little bit, I find myself really disadvantaged in other aspects of the game. I cannot resist the urge to research others tech.

One of the many things I noticed is that you have not infrastructure to build, making your cities to build.... military units. This adds to the burden of your economy.

Of course, you don't benefit of libraries, civics and so on.

If you beeline too early, you also miss the alphabet, not allowing you to trade techs, and further impair your tech development.

WOuld be interesting to hear an "expert" of beelining!!

[Ray Patterson]

There's a difference between beelining and 'streamlining' if I may coin a new term . If you have a peaceful building strategy, offensive military techs are not very necessary, and maritime techs are kind of optional. In a cultural victory strategy not all my research time is devoted towards liberalism, but still most of it, from the very beginning. This may be because I play below my level and the AI isn't that threatening. But specialization in tech is almost a must I think, a tech higher up does take longer to research but can sometimes be so much more useful it is worth the investment also early on. But know when to alternate a cheap tech in between that you can really use immediately, and streamline in such a way that you can use the intermediate techs as well. Often there are different paths, one more useful for your strategy than the other in terms of intermediate techs. I think it is often worthwile to pick a route that takes slightly longer but gives you immediately useful techs along the way.

[dh_epic]

I do a beeline now and then. Sometimes it's worth it because you save a few turns and get a unit out sooner, and get to make use of it sooner. But at the end of the day, boosting your economy pays off for every subsequent turn. That's why something like currency is so important.

There's natural checks and balances to ensure that nobody can really beeline to some serious technology. You need to juggle a lot of aspects of the game to make progress.

[Darkness]

Beelining works just fine, provided that you don't go to high up into the tech tree. Don't beeline a couple of ages ahead, but 3 or 4 techs is fine.
Like: writing -> meditation -> priesthood -> code of laws (if you missed out on one one of the early religions)

[Crdnl Richelieu]

I dion't think beelining (or hotfooting to coin another new term ) actually penalises the player. Obviously it takes longer due to the greater number of lightbulbs required, but if you take 30 turns to research metal casting, then by the time you come round to researching the technologies you missed, you'll be able to snaffle them up in a jiffy.

Am I right in saying it would take exactly the same amount of lightbulbs to research every single technology, no matter which order you research them in?

[cleverhandle]

This decision also depends on what the other civs are doing in the game. Beelining is nothing but a more pronounced version of researching techs the AI won't. If you've got good trade relations with 2-3 other strong civs, beelining may mean that you get, say, a 4000 beaker tech that you turn around and trade for 3 3000 beaker techs. This isn't always possible diplomatically, but it can sometimes make a huge difference.

[weimingshi]

Beeline for tech too far down the tech tree can result in actually longer research time then a more balanced research approach.

[Napo981]

Originally Posted by Crdnl Richelieu

Am I right in saying it would take exactly the same amount of lightbulbs to research every single technology, no matter which order you research them in?

I think you're right. I haven't notice any differences to date.

The point is your tech will take longer for the same number of research point because your science infrastructure is less developed. But I tihnk your already know that.

It's the reason why I usually run for the tech that enable library.

[BigCMan]

Originally Posted by Crdnl Richelieu

Am I right in saying it would take exactly the same amount of lightbulbs to research every single technology, no matter which order you research them in?

The problem with this assumption is that it ignores the effect of having other technologies. For instance, if you have writing, you can build libraries and research faster. If you beeline and skip this tech, you miss out on that research. So you have to take into consideration the cost of withholding research from other techs.

[Thalassicus]

There's several stages where I beeline for techs, namely Education and Computers. The benefits you gain from much earlier universities or labs outweighs the longer time to research it early. I also Oracle' Civil Service on Monarch or below, for an early +50% production and commerce in my capital, plus macemen and chainable irrigation.

For example, when I finally go for Sci Method (which eliminates the monastery science bonus) I go straight for Physics -> Electricity -> Radio -> Computers (with Communism thrown in for state property)

I also beeline for Education before the cultural techs and many of the military techs a few columns ahead of it, since the ability to trade maps for tech and build universities is just so powerful.

In the early game on Monarch or below I beeline for Code of Laws so that I can use the Oracle on Civil Service and get +50% production and commerce in my capital very early in the game (plus Courthouses and Confucianism). Code of Laws only costs slightly more to research than the Alphabet.

[Puzzlinon]

Am I right in saying it would take exactly the same amount of lightbulbs to research every single technology, no matter which order you research them in?

Not exactly. There's an analysis of research costs in the articles area. There are couple of factors: having more of the optional prerequisites for a tech makes research cheaper, and the more AI's who know the tech, the cheaper it is to research. Both can come into play when you beeline.

Of course you can make that back if the tech has first-discover bonuses, or if you can trade the tech multiple times once you get, to backfill; the two differentials on cost are fairly modest factors, I think.