Beeline Teching

[ironic_lettuce]

Hi guys

I know that there are certain techs that people often beeline too, such as CoL etc. My question is, do you ever not research a tech because it would take so long to research? For instance, in my game last night, I could have researched Industrialization (I think it was that!) but it would have taken 29 turns or something! And if I see a tech taking that long I tend to get some of the earlier ones that take a few turns, then research my originally intended tech (industrialization in this case) which then has fewer turns to research. Am I being daft? Should I just ignore the earlier techs if i dont need them, then either trade for them or get them out of other civs in return for me not crushing them to bits

 

[Datian]

That's the whole purpose of the tech tree : the further you go on a single branch, the harder it becomes to reach. In theory, you're supposed to pursue your researches in every branches, otherwise you lose time.

The point of the beeline is to skip this principle by using a GP at a crucial time. Take the CoL slingshot : you make some sacrifices in your researches in order to grab CoL then CS by using a prophet, and bingo, your boosted capitol allows you to regain the lost time very quickly. In the end, the sacrifice was made worthwile.
That's why the oracle comes in handy : you use it to grab a tech which would take ages to research normally.

If you beeline for theater, what's the point, will it help you to search quicker afterwards ? No, so the beeline is pointless, and keeping to the original spirit, that is to say exploring all the branches of the tech tree, is worthwile.

 

[cabert]

I don't quite understand your example but will give you another.

If you have hunting, you can research AH.
But if you research agriculture before AH, AH will be cheaper.

You have
- option A : beeline to AH = pay the full price but have AH sooner
- option B : research agri first then AH = 2 techs instead of just one, a few more turns but not as many as you'd have if you go AH first then agri.

If you have a very urgent need for AH (beelining to writing for instance), it may be better to go option A. If you don't, option B is better (you will need agri soon anyway).

 

[ironic_lettuce]

thanks guys

 

[Datian]

Sorry if my example wasn't very clear, it's quite complicated actually and my broken english does not help !

Say you discovered writing (10 turns), then code of laws (22 turns, wow, that was long !) : you can now look for metallurgy (15 turns, hmm), archery (2 turns, oups forgot about this one), horseback riding (7 turns), or civil service (29 turns). You can't go for civil service, it's too far... but you stored some GP and one can actually reveal you CS : you take it, opt for bureaucratie (how do you write it in english ?), and suddenly your capitol is much more efficient.
Let's look at the new research times (the numbers are not real, they're just an example) : metallurgy (10 turns), archery (1), horseback riding (4 turns)... the long 22 turns for CoL seem now quite short when you see the time you'll gain from now on.

...is it clearer now ?

 

[cabert]

Sorry if my example wasn't very clear, it's quite complicated actually and my broken english does not help !

i didn't answer to you, your example is IHMO too specific to answer the OP (although quite clear)

 

[VoiceOfUnreason]

My question is, do you ever not research a tech because it would take so long to research?

Not as such, with some caveats.

The tech you should be researching is whatever has the highest expected leverage. So techs that are immediately useful come ahead of the big ticket techs, which in turn come ahead of those bits that are useless.

I will, however, postpone researching some high leverage techs, because I intend to lightbulb them, in which case investing research won't make them come any sooner (whether you invest 10 turns researching a tech or only 5, the arrival date is the same if you are lightbulbing the end of it... up to those techs that the GP can research on their own, at least).