A few questions

[SecondGlance]

Hi, I've been lurking a couple of months and now have some questions:

1) Say you have a GP farm, surrounded by farms. When do you switch to specialists instead of working the farms, which lets you grow, so then you can support more specialists. I think I wait too long to actually switch to specialists for it to be useful.

2) I have a case of builderitis. Even when trying to specialize citys, I end up thinking "oh, it needs a granary and an aqueduct and coloseum to grow" and "might as well have the science buildings to take advantage of the gold in the commerce city" and of course I build lighthouse/harbor on coastal and...and...and.. you get the idea. What buildings do you use for various types of specialized cities?

3) That being said, once you've built all the buildings in your specialized cities, what then? Do you produce culture/gold/research or units?

4) For the gold production, when you set a city to make gold, is that gold added in before the various multipliers or after?

5) Exactly how do you get the early space races? Do you research only a narrow part of the tech tree? How do you research things so quickly? Even with several cottage spammed cities I find I don't research as quickly as some.

/edit 6) Whats the best way to build culture in early cities (for that essential fatcross expansion)? Religion?
Thanks!

 

[GenocideBringer]

Obelesks are good... Stonehenge if you can is far better.

 

[Sisiutil]

1) Say you have a GP farm, surrounded by farms. When do you switch to specialists instead of working the farms, which lets you grow, so then you can support more specialists. I think I wait too long to actually switch to specialists for it to be useful.

It's totally up to you and how fast you want to produce GPs. I usually have most of my cities grow with a 2 food surplus (unless I'm planning on whipping something soon). I like my GP farm to have a higher food surplus (4-6) so it grows faster--so I try to work just enough farms to achieve that. It really helps if you have one or even two irrigated food resources in its fat cross; so do farmed floodplains.

2) I have a case of builderitis. Even when trying to specialize citys, I end up thinking "oh, it needs a granary and an aqueduct and coloseum to grow" and "might as well have the science buildings to take advantage of the gold in the commerce city" and of course I build lighthouse/harbor on coastal and...and...and.. you get the idea. What buildings do you use for various types of specialized cities?

It's a matter of setting priorities. The top priority buildings in a science city, for example, will be a library, a university, an observatory, and a laboratory. In between getting those built, second priority are commerce buildings. Specialization helps determine these choices for you.

I usually build a granary early to help support whipping, but other health/growth buildings are based upon need. At the higher levels, I don't want the city to grow too big too fast, or health and happiness become problems before I have the resources and/or buildings to deal with them.

3) That being said, once you've built all the buildings in your specialized cities, what then? Do you produce culture/gold/research or units?

I rarely have "all" the buildings--if I do, it means I haven't planned my research so I have the next set of buildings available once the previous ones are built. I rarely produce culture/gold/research until very late in the game, and only because if I didn't, the micromanagement would overwhelm me. Military units are almost always good and needed. Occassionally if I find myself in a building lull I'll attempt a wonder, often without expecting to complete it, but anticipating some gold.

4) For the gold production, when you set a city to make gold, is that gold added in before the various multipliers or after?

You're actually producing commerce, not gold, and I'm pretty sure the multipliers do affect it.

5) Exactly how do you get the early space races? Do you research only a narrow part of the tech tree? How do you research things so quickly? Even with several cottage spammed cities I find I don't research as quickly as some.

Cottage spam is only part of the equation. Some skillful tech trading is also helpful, as are properly-located commerce and science multiplying buildings. A large empire (more research points) can help, though many players say it's optional. And a focused tech path really helps. You can do without techs like Divine Right and some government civic techs like Democracy.

/edit 6) Whats the best way to build culture in early cities (for that essential fatcross expansion)? Religion?
Thanks!

GenocideBringer summed it up: unless you're a Creative civ, Stonehenge is great. It's the earliest available wonder, is relatively cheap and easy to chop, and the AI doesn't prioritize it. Build it and you don't have to worry about the first cultural border pop. Failing that, obelisks can be used, but if you can wait for Writing, I prefer libraries, which have so many additional benefits and don't expire.

 

[Murky]

Hi, I've been lurking a couple of months and now have some questions:

1) Say you have a GP farm, surrounded by farms. When do you switch to specialists instead of working the farms, which lets you grow, so then you can support more specialists. I think I wait too long to actually switch to specialists for it to be useful.

It would depend on my short term goals. Do I need a specialist right now or can it wait? If it can wait, it's probably better to let the city grow closer to it's health or happiness limit before assigning a lot of specialist.

2) I have a case of builderitis. Even when trying to specialize citys, I end up thinking "oh, it needs a granary and an aqueduct and coloseum to grow" and "might as well have the science buildings to take advantage of the gold in the commerce city" and of course I build lighthouse/harbor on coastal and...and...and.. you get the idea. What buildings do you use for various types of specialized cities?

Granaries are good for quicker growth and Aqueducts are best built just before you reach the health limit.

I rarely build coloseums because there's better ways to make the citizens happy like special resources, changing civics or increasing the culture rate.

Production cities get a forge. GP farm gets the National epic. Commerce cities get Markets and Library. Coastal cities get a Lighthouse and Harbor.

3) That being said, once you've built all the buildings in your specialized cities, what then? Do you produce culture/gold/research or units?

Depends on what you need at the time. It's a decision that has too many variables to have a fixed mindset on any particular thing.

4) For the gold production, when you set a city to make gold, is that gold added in before the various multipliers or after?

If you are refering the city manager priority then I believe it is added up first then muliplied by modifiers.

5) Exactly how do you get the early space races? Do you research only a narrow part of the tech tree? How do you research things so quickly? Even with several cottage spammed cities I find I don't research as quickly as some.

Still working that one out myself but generally you want to expand to a large enough size to have several science cities for research and a few production cities to build the parts. It also helps to make friends with the AI and trade techs.

/edit 6) Whats the best way to build culture in early cities (for that essential fatcross expansion)? Religion?
Thanks!

Obelisk, Stonehenge or Library works for early. If you want to go for a cultural victory then found religions, construct shrines, temples, cathedrals, theatres and wonders. It also helps to use your GP farm to produce Great Artist which can add 6000 culture a pop. The Free Speech civic gives +100% culture. You can also get culture by increasing the culture rate. This turns commerce into culture so the more commerce in a city the more culture it generates.

 

[refardeon]

/edit 6) Whats the best way to build culture in early cities (for that essential fatcross expansion)? Religion?
Thanks!

If you can build missionaries, use them. Gives +1 culture per turn and leaves the new city free to build something instead of an obelisk/a library.