Gold in the game is different from Science in a strategic sense. This is because a player with an agressive-specialist economy can win the game by conquest / domination even if it slightly behind in technology by having an overwhelming superiority in force. So it can afford to have lower science rate than its opponents but it needs to meet its upkeep costs every turn or the attempt at domination will fail.
So you must meet your overall city maintenance costs, civic costs and army costs every turn. And these costs grow rapidly as you get carried away by capturing cities and extending your empire adding more population and extending the distance from your capital. Your developed core cities can only afford to carry so many newly captured ones before the costs become unbearable.
Razing big cities will reduce the final score so that is not a desired solution in a domination game although small and inefficient cities can be burnt without losing much.
Here is the equation for Gold that corresponds to the Science equation I gave in post #17 of this thread.
Gold = (C * (100% - R - K) + G) * BG
Where,
C = Commerce in that city (in capital with bureaucracy *1.5)
R = The global science rate
K = The global Kulture rate
G = Gold from Shrines plus Specialist base gold from food specialists, settled specialists, free specialists.
BG = The gold building multiplier in that city (market, grocer and bank)
And the Science equation is modified to use BS to distinguish science buildings from others
Science = (C * R + S) * BS
Where,
C = Commerce in that city (in capital with bureaucracy *1.5)
R = The global science rate
S = Specialist base beakers from food specialists, settled specialists, free specialists as modified by representation.
BS = The science building multiplier in that city (library, monastries, academy, university, observatoty, laboratory)
These two general equations show the important relationships between commerce, specialists and the buildings that boost their performance. I believe any strategy that involves a large number of cities needs to pay careful attention to underlying truths expressed in these equations and needs to apply them even if the player does so unconsciously
I look forward to a numerical argument on the virtues of the "new" strategy
So you must meet your overall city maintenance costs, civic costs and army costs every turn. And these costs grow rapidly as you get carried away by capturing cities and extending your empire adding more population and extending the distance from your capital. Your developed core cities can only afford to carry so many newly captured ones before the costs become unbearable.
Razing big cities will reduce the final score so that is not a desired solution in a domination game although small and inefficient cities can be burnt without losing much.
Here is the equation for Gold that corresponds to the Science equation I gave in post #17 of this thread.
Gold = (C * (100% - R - K) + G) * BG
Where,
C = Commerce in that city (in capital with bureaucracy *1.5)
R = The global science rate
K = The global Kulture rate
G = Gold from Shrines plus Specialist base gold from food specialists, settled specialists, free specialists.
BG = The gold building multiplier in that city (market, grocer and bank)
And the Science equation is modified to use BS to distinguish science buildings from others
Science = (C * R + S) * BS
Where,
C = Commerce in that city (in capital with bureaucracy *1.5)
R = The global science rate
S = Specialist base beakers from food specialists, settled specialists, free specialists as modified by representation.
BS = The science building multiplier in that city (library, monastries, academy, university, observatoty, laboratory)
These two general equations show the important relationships between commerce, specialists and the buildings that boost their performance. I believe any strategy that involves a large number of cities needs to pay careful attention to underlying truths expressed in these equations and needs to apply them even if the player does so unconsciously
I look forward to a numerical argument on the virtues of the "new" strategy