Civilization 5 social policy - culture calculation

bootandy

Chieftain
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Oct 3, 2010
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Concerning the amount of culture that is required before you can adopt a new social policy.

How is it calculated? I know roughly its based on number of cities.

Is it only cities you founded?

Does it include puppet cities?

Does it include annexed cities?

What about cities you captured and then razed?

Is it proportional to the size of your cities or your total population?

Or is it proportaional to the current year of the game?


I'm currently in a situation where I've founded 2 cities and Ive puppeted another 4 (I didn't want to but had a bad war). Would annexing these cities increase my social policy cost? [I have enough happyness - thats not an issue].

cheers,
andy
 
It has a base amount depending on which game speed you choose.
We then multiply it by 1+.3*(# of cities other than your capitol).
I'm unsure how the game calculates the cost of the next policy.

Puppet cities don't count. Annexed cities do count. Cities being razed do count. It has nothing to do with population, or year.
 
Map size does count though, the bigger the map, the less new cities make the cost go up.
 
I believe the cost is 25+(6n)^1.7 , where n is the number policies you have. The game rounds that down to nearest number that's dividable by 5.

So the 1st policy costs 25+(6*0)^1.7 = 25
2nd 25+(6*1)^1.7 = 46, rounded down to 45
3rd 25+(6*2)^1.7 = 93, rounded to 90
and so on.

You also pay lower prices on lower difficulty levels:
50% on settler
67% on cheiftain
85% on warlord
100% on prince and higher

On standard, small, tiny and duel maps the cost increases by 30% per new city (capital does not count).
On large maps by 20%.
On huge by 15%.

On marathon speed, the number is multiplied by 3.
On epic by 1.5.
On quick by 0.67.

I'm unsure when exactly si the number rounded, but I'd say after all these calculations.
 
Puppet cities don't count. Annexed cities do count. Cities being razed do count.

Does razing really permanently increase your social policy costs as if you had annexed them? That seems unfortunate and bums me out in my current game (I think I just razed 4 or 5 cities.)
 
Quick question that might be related to the calculations. If you don't adopt any social policies when they become available, does the culture all just accrue until you do? Could you theoretically wait for when you unlock Freedom -> Constitution -> Free Speech for the 25% discount cost on future policies? Or more unlikely, do that AND build Cristo Redentor for an even bigger reduction before taking the rest of your policies?
 
Quick question that might be related to the calculations. If you don't adopt any social policies when they become available, does the culture all just accrue until you do? Could you theoretically wait for when you unlock Freedom -> Constitution -> Free Speech for the 25% discount cost on future policies? Or more unlikely, do that AND build Cristo Redentor for an even bigger reduction before taking the rest of your policies?

The game allows that.
 
Quick question that might be related to the calculations. If you don't adopt any social policies when they become available, does the culture all just accrue until you do? Could you theoretically wait for when you unlock Freedom -> Constitution -> Free Speech for the 25% discount cost on future policies? Or more unlikely, do that AND build Cristo Redentor for an even bigger reduction before taking the rest of your policies?

I wouldn't recommend this strategy though. Say you could normally get Free Speech as your 12th policy. If you save your culture to go strait to free speach you receive an additional 25% discount on policies 4-12. Because the price scales as a polynomial the culture saved by this is relatively small, only 1.5k for a single city empire. This buys you 1.5 additional policies strait away from waiting, but quickly the increasing cost of policies trivializes this savings. At 20 policies that 1.5 k is only .75 of a policy meaning the lead you accumulated has diminished and you have nearly no advantage over the guy who got free speech as policy 12 (note that both you and he are about 2 policies ahead of everyone without free speech at this point). One can assume the same effects for Crisco Redeemer (note that this suggests it might be worthwhile to save culture for FS or CR on the last 1 or two policies you would get before they happen).

Also note that since cities increase the culture costs of policies adding so much as a single city after you would have gotten a policy and before you can take FS or CR completely nullifies their advantage.
 
@sabot I would also add that getting all those early SPs ASAP raises your CPT, and helps you out in other areas of the game. To delay any of the Piety, Freedom, or Tradition SPs for a significant time makes no sense. These SPs are a major part of building a cultural empire.

Also, your last sentence is just another major reason that this is a bad strategy.
 
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