Capitalization

[MightiestEd]

Does capitalization directly convert production into trade?

Does having factories/mfg plants furthur increase the trade produced?

Is it worth building in an SSC/anywhere?

 

[A+ombomb]

I am fairly sure it converts to money, unlike the help file says. Too bad its not trade!

 

[funxus]

Capitalization won't produce trade, it will only produce money. The amount of money is equal to the amount of shields produced (after factories etc is added). It's not a very good deal, because buying shields costs at least twice as much you get from each shield, but if there's nothing left to build and there's no point in building freights, it's better than nothing.

I think you can use it to stop the production of wonders as well, without losing the shields allready built. I.e. if the AI builds a wonder you had almost completed, you can switch to capitalization until you have another wonder you want to build. (Can't swear it though)

 

[TimTheEnchanter]

Yep it does a 1:1 conversion of non-support sheilds (factories, etc are included in the production) into gold, not trade.

If it actually went to trade instead of gold, it would be far more valuable. but sheilds cost at least 2g to rush buy, so it's not a good return on investment. Its equivalent to building things and disbanding/selling them. There are better things to do in a city even when it has built all the improvements it needs.



Edit: Got distracted typing a response and Funxus snuck in under me. He does have a good point about "saving" wonder shields.

 

[Titi]

But indirectly it can be transformed into science: capitalization wherever you can, then adjust your science rate (thanks to the extra money, you can increase it without losing money or making people unhappy because you reduce the luxury rate).

It's a great boost (especially when you race to AC, and know that the AI is about at the same level as you. The few turns advance you get may be what can make you win!)

 

[Ace]

It serves two very handy uses. One: you can get a quick boost to your cash flow by switching to cap. Two: in a large game when a city has built all the improvements it needs, ( For example, there is no reason to build a barracks when the ai is reduced to one pet city) and all the wonders are built and your spaceship is enroute to AC, and you don't need anymore units, switching the city to cap lets you ignore that city for the rest of the game. (This is very useful when you are managing 200+ cities)

This also assumes you don't need freight from this city. (When you are dealing with that many cities, you can be very picky about what freight to build, like Uranium only). And you are not using the FCT.

IIRC, Starlifter had an excellent post on Capitalization in one of his threads a couple of years ago, I just don't remember which one. Maybe someone who does could post a link to it.