Changing Research Slider On Discovery?

[krille]

Heya!

1. I get the impression, from CivAssist II, that it's beneficial to have such a low overflow before a discovery. Why is this? Is beaker overflow discarded upon discovery?

2. If so, is it beneficial to lower the Research Slider to 0% upon discovering a tech? (Upon discovery, you get to pick the next tech to be researched at this point you can choose "What's the big picture" and then via F1/the Domestic Advisor you can change the sliders.)

In my empiric experiment it didn't appear to make a difference. Will adjusting the sliders (upon discovery) not affect the current turn?

 

[Northen Wolf]

It is useful to change slider when you are 1 or 2 turns from getting new tech.
Often enough you can gain tech still in 1 turn while dropping science slider from 70% to 20%. Dropping slider as low as possible also gives huge income for one turn. (as income invested in science goes into your treasury.)

afaik breakers that overflow will be lost, same as overflown shields if city produces 11 shields for a warrior, you lose 1 shield.

 

[Sashie VII]

1. I get the impression, from CivAssist II, that it's beneficial to have such a low overflow before a discovery. Why is this? Is beaker overflow discarded upon discovery?

Yes, overflow is essentially wasted e.g. say you have been researching Mysticism (cost 72 beakers) for 7 turns at a rate of 10 gold per turn (1 gold=1 beaker). After 7 turns you wil have invested 70 beakers and will only need to direct 2 gold per turn in order to discover Mysticism. This allows you to lower the Science Slider down before discovering the tech. On the other hand, if you don't lower the slider and spend 10gpt that turn, you will still get Mysticism but the excess 8 gold is wasted. This means that 8 gold is gone and you get nothing for it.

2. If so, is it beneficial to lower the Research Slider to 0% upon discovering a tech? (Upon discovery, you get to pick the next tech to be researched at this point you can choose "What's the big picture" and then via F1/the Domestic Advisor you can change the sliders.)

In short, no. Upon discovering a tech, you are beginning the research of a new technology. If you lower science to 0%, nothing is invested in its pursuit. The discovered tech is yours, you gain nothing by lowering the slider now. Unlike Civ 4, overflow is wasted.

In my empiric experiment it didn't appear to make a difference. Will adjusting the sliders (upon discovery) not affect the current turn?

I assume you are referring to the turn before discovery. There is no difference as the science allocations for that turn (slider percentage) is already used and any waste is gone forever. You want to adjust the sliders before you end the turn, allocating the minimal amount that is enough for discovery.

 

[krille]

Whose bright idea was it to implemented wasted overflow? It doesn't make any sense.

Good thing they changed that in Civ 4. But even in CivDOS (Civ1) overflow was transferred to the next project - for the AI:s! I can't believe it wasn't implemented for humans back then. It should've been.

My hope for Civ 5 is floats. Most variables should be floating-point! Now why would floats be great then?

In an imaginative Civ3 with floats, let's say we have a city generating 8 base commerce. Since the city suffers a combined corruption of 15%, we've set our science rate to 60% and we have a Library it would yield a total of 8 * 0.85 * 0.6 * 1.5 = 6.12 beakers. That would greatly reduce the need for micromanagement.

 

[Northen Wolf]

Civ can be played 2 ways one is micromanagement one is not micromanaging so much.

You can kill civ down so even preschool kids can play it, but its true gameplay comes out in harder level, wherein you need to calculate odds more and relay on your own mind vs computer calculations of current situations.

I myself get tired of micromanagement but I still do it here and there, there are people who like micromanagement (aabra is one who comes on my mind). There are people who play game just for quick fun, they don't go deep into strategy but still have some fun. Q

Ideas are different, ways of playing are different. I like civilization 3 wherein I have to calculate and wherein sometimes I need strategy, I have to count on thing or two. I dislike civ 4 - too simple for me.