Yeah, I'm sure multiplayer changes things, but for keeping a consistent tech pace up it's good to ask: Which tech will help take me to the next level with commerce and/or tech multipliers? But also: am I placing cities with good commerce tiles AND can I work these tiles? For example, if I plant a city where resources are covered in jungle, but don't have iron working, that city will likely cost more than it produces for a while. Sometimes that's necessary to secure the spot, but too many "dry" cities, as I call them, and your civ will be slowing down tech.
A lot of
high-commerce resources are unlocked from Calendar, and those often come in bunches. Sure you can put a cottage on some prior to that, but unless you're a financial civ, that will only help so much. Getting two or three dye plantations is a shot in the arm since that's 5 commerce each, instantly (6 if on a river, common). Idea being, tech multipliers are only as good as the commerce or specialist beakers they pull in, so got to make the most from the land you've got. And that is true even if one plants otherwise good cities: As they grow and produce, are they growing and producing things that help the empire? So: If you're planting new cities, settler factory. If you're taking new cities by war, units. Lots of food - specialists (ideally with Representation). One major production city can build things like the Pyramids which gets you Rep of course.
Universities & Oxford were mentioned. Those require some planning. Universities are quite expensive, as is oft pointed out, so they should be built in A) Cities with good commerce, and B) Only as many cities beyond that you need to unlock Oxford. So for me it's usually tech cities plus a couple production cities that can crank them out. And you want to time it so that whichever city is likely to finish last gets a head start, so it syncs with the other faster builders, if that makes sense. And all that is only if you plan on the long game - which it seems you do - since it takes a while to gain their
benefit for the
cost and time. Otherwise, for a shorter game, people often recommend just building wealth once basic buildings like granaries are up.
On
bulbing paths, again, I'm no expert in multiplayer, or super high level play, but the Great Scientist bulb path can take you through some tech-friendly techs:
Math (if you get one super early), Philosophy, Education, Lib (if you don't have Machinery), Printing Press (if you do), Astronomy (if you don't have Chemistry's prereqs). You may want Astro earlier, from Lib, if trade routes and sea expansion will help you more, but if not you can tech towards other things you may need or say Constitution to get Rep, for more raw beakers for the Observatories to multiply.
