Are the tax sliders of any use?

[remconius]

There is something that worries me when looking at all the new screenshots that have been released recently. The tax sliders seem to be of very limited benefit.

All the screenshots with interface from Stone age to Moder Age have tax sliders set to 80-100% Science, 0% culture and 0-20% tax.

In every Civ version it has been key to keep science as high as possible. Except when playing a 0-science gambit in civ 3 on higher levels. But it seems that you dont need culture from tax as buildings are providing enough of it. You only need a bit of tax converted to gold, max 20% and the rest science.

This seems like an unbalanced aspect in the game. Or we are getting screenshots from similar style players. Maybe the culture slider is only needed for cultural victories. Doesnt seem to fit the game.

 

[Aks K]

You are right.
In civ 2 and 3 the maximum setting would depend on your government to prevent this, but this seems to be forgotten.
In the beginning of a game I think I might use the cultural slider to expand my borders in cities without cultural improvements.

Aks K

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

Remconius, you have articulated one of my greatest concerns. On several occasions, Firaxians have stipulated how important it is to fund culture through your taxes, and they also gave the impression that a city's ability to generate culture was ultimately tied to how much it is funded from taxes. Now, though, it seems like they have abandoned this concept and returned to the old Civ3 method of simply making improvements and wonders generate it themselves-which I think is a HUGE mistake. I hope a Firaxian will take a small time out of their busy schedule to set our minds at rest!

Yours,
Aussie_Lurker.

 

[Robi D]

Remconius, you have articulated one of my greatest concerns. On several occasions, Firaxians have stipulated how important it is to fund culture through your taxes, and they also gave the impression that a city's ability to generate culture was ultimately tied to how much it is funded from taxes. Now, though, it seems like they have abandoned this concept and returned to the old Civ3 method of simply making improvements and wonders generate it themselves-which I think is a HUGE mistake. I hope a Firaxian will take a small time out of their busy schedule to set our minds at rest!

Yours,
Aussie_Lurker.

I was under the immpression that it was a combination of buildings, slider and great people that influenced culture, not just the slider, anyway i have two things you should note about the screenshots. Firstly he was definately playing at the easiest level and secondly if he has played an of the civs before this one then he would be using tactics, such as keeping the slider high on science, which is how its always been, which you can get away at the easiest level where the ai virtually trys to lose, where as on higher level he would have struggled.

 

[remconius]

I was under the immpression that it was a combination of buildings, slider and great people that influenced culture, not just the slider, anyway i have two things you should note about the screenshots. Firstly he was definately playing at the easiest level and secondly if he has played an of the civs before this one then he would be using tactics, such as keeping the slider high on science, which is how its always been, which you can get away at the easiest level where the ai virtually trys to lose, where as on higher level he would have struggled.

Aye, could be a chieftan tactic....

 

[Aussie_Lurker]

Sorry, I really ought to clarify myself on these matters. When the game was announced at E3, Barry Caudhill was interviewed by IGN. When quizzed on culture he said something along the lines of 'you fund culture via your tax slider, but certain city improvements, wonders and civics settings multiply the culture generated by your tax allocation'. That is how I expected it to work-i.e. say if you put 200 gpt into culture, and you have 10 cities, then this might generate a base culture of 20 culture per city per turn. Adding a temple might, for example, grant a +0.5x culture boost for that city, meaning the city now generates (20+(20*0.5))=30 culture points per turn. Do you see what I mean? The fact it doesn't seem to work that way-even on chieftan level-does disappoint me .

Yours,
Aussie_Lurker.

 

[Darwin420]

Could be the sliders in the city screen are for the city itself, and that there is a separate empire-wide slider that the player is funding culture with (modified by individual city settings and cultural improvements, of course). This would entail a hidden level of MM, but one that is not necessary to win. If this is the case, then I really like what I see.

If it's like you say, Aussie_Lurker, then I, too, am worried.

 

[Superkrest]

darwin..i hope your right...that does make sense..and it would be micro management hell but also neat at the same time..

 

[JavalTigar]

it doesn't have to be micro-management hell. If they rigged it like the city govenor from civ3. You can set it nation wide from the capitol and make all new cities adopt that policy, and you can individually control a cities allocation. (say in a border town where you "pump up the volume" on culture) That could work.

 

[evil_linus]

darwin..i hope your right...that does make sense..and it would be micro management hell but also neat at the same time..

but they've said the tried to get the "unfun" elements out of the game. Micro management hell is (IMO) the pure definition of unfun so this makes me wonder...

 

[Darwin420]

Ahh, but the individual city sliders would not be necessary. The Empire-Wide sliders would work, but, as JavalTiger pointed out, border cities might want a boost of culture. Firaxis said that we would be more inclined to have "specialist" cities in cIV, and what better way than to create a huge commerce city than to increase tax slider, or to have a research city with 100% on the science slider, and so on.

Not a necessary MM step to take, if you don't want to.. but I know some people actually enjoy micro-managing... and this would give them that option.

 

[André Alfenaar]

It seems to me that the option to raise culture per city by spending money is present. Otherwise they wouldn't show this slider. Whether there is also a multiplier involved by the cultural buildings, is something I don't know. But as those buildings seem to produce culture while the cultural slider is at 0, it makes it probable that the buildings provide only a base value.

Building cultural buildings is probably a better tactic in the long term if they have the same bonus in CIV3 that they double culture after 1000 years.

I like the option that you can set the cultural slider per city. In the early game I think I would set it to its maximum in order to grab territory by culture and enhancing the line of sight. (And why research something when you can get it by trading with your neighbour?) And in the later game I would do this with the border cities and in newly conquered cities in order to assimilate them.

In civ3 I had problems with understanding the concept of a 'luxury rate'. By seizing and trading luxury resources my people were usually more than happy enough, so why was there a luxury rate? The inclusion of a 'culture rate' seems much better. But I acknowledge there is some overlap with cultural buildings.

 

[Grey Fox]

All of the reviewers are Newbies, they play with Automated Workers and on Chieftain. Of course they have maxed Science. Of course they face Enemy civs with Knights when they have helicopters, of course they havnt explored the world by the time they are in the industrial age.

Newbies.

 

[Superkrest]

lol..i was waiting for someone to comment on that slightly unfair match up in the screen shot...

and about the topic..if each city does have sliders..i hope that the main slider becomes default and one would have the ability not the priority to customize it in each city.