Why does my city produce more beakers when it is set to produce gold?

[Yoyoson]

Has anyone ever gotten into this weird situation where a city produces MORE beakers when it is set to produce gold?
I have a city right now where if I set it to Make Beakers, then I get 0 beakers and 0 gold. But if I set it to Make Gold, then it produces 2 beakers and 0 gold. How does this make any sense?

This is my first game. I am playing as Catherine of Russia. I am playing on Chieftain difficulty. I think we're in the second age of the game; it is 1175 AD. The city is my capital and it contains the following buildings: Great Wall, Palace, Barracks, Temple, Library. It has the following great people settled in it: Gilgamesh (-50% building cost) and Marco Polo (+50% gold production).

The city is of population 6. All the citizens are working the field, and NONE of those tiles in the field are Trade tiles.

I should also add that this is on the iphone/itouch port of the DS version.

 

[Sn1p3rk1ll3]

Well just maintain your resourses yourself!
-Sometimes putting the resourses on just gold deletes a few working tile workers (population) and they become workers in your city (and thus get extra trade, which produces science/gold), and because you selected 'gold', and you can't have both gold and science at the same time from a city, you get gold.


Long sentence short : read the manual

 

[Yoyoson]

Unfortunately I don't think there is a manual for the itouch version. But at least on Firaxis's site they have the DS version's manual available for download.

It doesn't seem like any of my 6 workers are being converted into Tradesmen. At least, I can still see them on the city screen, working those tiles.

I think I've figured it out though, and it comes down to this: A Library acts as a trade MULTIPLIER (x2 beakers ) when you've set the city to Make Science. But it acts as a CONSTANT (+2 beakers) when you've got it set to Make Gold. Thus, if my citizens are working 0 trade, then when I'm set to Science, 0 times 2 is still 0, but when I'm set to Gold, 0 plus 2 is 2. Hence I make more science when I'm set to make gold. Am I right or am I right or am I wrong?

EDIT: Oh yeah, here is the relevant paragraph from the DS manual:

Effects of Trade Assignment
When a city’s trade is assigned to research, all of its trade is turned into research
(beakers). Libraries, universities and the like will greatly increase the beakers the
city produces. Financial buildings like markets and banks will produce very little
gold (markets produce only 2 gold and banks only 5). In short, a city will produce
a lot of science but little or no wealth while its trade is assigned to research.

When a city’s trade is assigned to gold, all of its trade is turned into wealth (gold
bars). Markets, banks and the like will greatly increase the amount of gold the
city produces. Research buildings like libraries and universities will produce little
research (libraries produce only 2 beakers and universities only 5). In short, a city
will produce a lot of gold but little or no research while its trade is assigned to
wealth.
You can change a city’s trade assignment as often as you want.

 

[Sn1p3rk1ll3]

Manuals are handy if your new to a game

 

[MorteEterna]

Why don't people like to search?

In fact I wrote how it works in the strategy archive (you can find it and the name is pretty obvious. I don't remember it).

You don't get more beakers, you just get more if you don't work on water tiles (or deserts)

If you work on 1 water tile, with the library, you will produce 4 beakers per turn.

If you work on gold, you get 2 science and 2 gold

If you don't work on water tiles, but you choose gold, you will produce 2 beakers.

That is how Aztecs can tech and get gold at the same time with ease.