The 100%/0% system
Like a lot of players I strive to be technically advanced and early/mid-game I will spend ever penny I get on research. But there are two ways to spend that gold on research.
- The first is to run at the highest possible % research rate that will keep you steady at just above zero gold in the treasury.
- The second way is to find that steady % research rate, the one that doesn’t increase or decrease your treasury, and note what that rate is, plus also note the number of turns it will take you to complete a desired tech at that rate. Then run at a 0% research for just as long so as to accrue enough gold that you can run at 100% to finish that tech.
It’s clearer in an example:
If your maximum research rate is 40% and this will allow to complete your chosen tech in 10 turns, then opt to run at 0% rate for 6 turns and then switch to 100% rate for 4 turns.
The tech will be completed in the 10 turns just the same as first method, but the second way has several advantages.
The benefits of using a ‘100%/0% only’ method of research:
1 Money in the bank
You gain an increasing reserve in your treasury as you begin preparing to obtain a tech and then that reserve is spent over the remaining turns after you’ve switched to the 100% rate. Therefore, apart from one turn each tech, you’ve always got some gold ‘on hand’ in case you need to ‘hurry’ some units for defence or finish a crucial building early or you need some gold in a critical diplomatic negotiation.
This is my main reason for doing it and I like that it works well with Pyramids/Spiritual/Universal Suffrage combo.
2 Flexibility in choosing which tech to research
After running on 0% research for a few turns, you can change your mind about what tech to spend the accumulated gold on, if your priorities have changed in the mean time. Then you won't have lost any time researching the wrong tech.
3 Advantages in tech trading
Doing this on more than one tech, when the intermediate techs aren't immediately needed (and making sure you have enough accumulated gold for researching all the techs in the chain) will mean that you get the intermediate techs later. Although you will complete the chain in exactly the same time as the player that uses method #1 - a steady % rate.
Getting the intermediate techs later is good because it gives you a greater chance of gaining that intermediate (and not immediately useful) tech by trade instead of research.
This happened in my challenge attempt when I saw that Machinery would take 6 turns, Printing Press would take 12 turns, and Saladin had completed all the techs before Machinery. I choose to stay on 0% research until I had enough gold to 100% research both. It ended up that Saladin got Machinery and traded it to me for philosophy at a time where I would have already researched it if I had just run at my max % or chosen not to group the two techs together in this way.
4 The chance of more research bonus for you and less for your opponents
The more AIs have the tech you want the better bonus you get on your research. So those few extra turns of accruing gold before you start researching give your opponents time to get a tech and let you pick up more bonus.
Also, doing this on more than one tech at a time (when the intermediate techs aren't immediately needed) means that opponents will get less research bonus since one less player knows those techs.
5. Gains in beakers and gold through rounding errors
Using the 100%/0% method of research gives you extra beakers and coin because of the way Civ deals with rounding errors.
A simple (and borrowed) example - if you are getting 10 commerce per turn in your city with a library and a market and you run a research rate of 70% for 10 turns you'll have 80 beakers and 30 gold.
What you should do instead is run at 0% research 30% of the time (3 turns) and run at 100% research 70% of the time (7 turns). Then you’ll have 84 beakers and 36 gold. 4 more beakers and 6 more gold than by doing it the easy, but inefficient, 70% research rate.
(All credit goes to the mad genius Zombie69. The calculations for the above example (along with most of the ideas stated here) are all HERE in his excellent micro-management article in the section called The Binary Science Rate. There are also some great tips on micro-management minutiae.)
A note on rounding errors:
- These gains occur no matter what figures you use.
- The gains are lessened as your base commerce increases.
- Specialists that produce gold or beakers can slightly hurt this effect as they still produce beakers or gold when a rate is 0%.
- There is no gain from rounding error until you get at least one ‘+% building’. e.g. library, market, monastery, academy etc, etc
N.B. One of the only disadvantages with the 100%/0% system is that an AI is more likely to demand tribute when it sees you have lots of money in treasury.
Tell him/her to F-off.
The second element of this strat is focusing on constructing the core ‘gold plus-percentage’ buildings sooner than the core ‘research plus-percentage’ buildings.
Constructing both types is better than one, but I (like a lot of players) tended to focus on universities at the determinant of gaining wealth buildings. After completing this challenge I now think differently.
The benefits of focusing on the Mark/Groc/Bank
Writing and Libraries are a vital part of the game, but the jump to Education and Universities is often a long one at around 2500 research points. So I don’t arrive at +25% and +25% research that quickly. (If I’m not crossing water I rarely pick up Astronomy soon for Observatories. And Labs are late game with Computers.)
I’m now happy to prioritise Guilds and Banking and add to my Market to give the +100% to my gold accumulation sooner rather than later.
The tech route to the Groc/Bank fits well with my love of defence (longbowmen) and hampering my opponents (knights). I often pillage my opponent's improvements while I turtle away.
Also I find that my tendency to try to dominate religions means I’m not short on the culture of Lib’s and Uni’s, and now that I’m getting Markets and Grocers earlier than I previously would have the health and happiness bonuses are very welcome.
But the main reason is I like Mark/Groc/Bank is the gold +%'s synergy with the 0%/100% system.
(N.B. I tend to like Academies in long games and they often appear in my capital.)
Synergy
Having a high research bonus works just as well as having a high gold bonus. (Having both high is better still.) But now that I use the 100%/0% system it is even more vital to get ‘gold’ buildings sooner.
This key point can be illustrated by the following example:
Two players both using the 100%/0% research method. The first has chosen to make more of the core gold buildings. The second has chosen to make more of the core research buildings.
The first player accumulates gold faster, but has longer periods spending that gold on research.
The second player takes longer to accumulate the same amount of gold, but researches the same tech quicker.
So the rate at which you get the techs is the same, but the first player arrives at a large ‘safety-net’ of gold in his treasury quicker. Also if he suddenly finds he needs it for an alternate purpose he’ll regain it faster.
I’m going to try and be the first type of guy.
But these guys definitely have advantages over the third guy who always runs on the max rate he can get. He doesn’t get the tech any quicker (10 turns at 70% is the same as 3 turns at 0% + 7 turns at 100%), but crucially he never spends anytime with gold to hand for those
‘oh-my-god-help-me’ moments.
And, of course, all three are better than the guy who poo-poo’s research in favour of hoarding gold for a much later day and is happy to creep up the tech tree at a slower rate. The worst possible option...
in my humble opinion.
[Again all credit to
Zombie69 for a lot of the
thinking 
you see here.]
n Dll
) i.e. Go back in time and wipe out humanity before they have a chance to grow into a threat. 
will reign supreme. But we'll see. 
