Cottages and research

[unska]

Hello, I just registered to the forum so bare with me!

I bought Civilization 4 a few days ago and I can't figure out why I should build cottages.

I usually take Hinduism and start spreading it as fast as possible making me receive like +10 gold / round (100% research) in a few rounds. At the year 500-1000 AD I usually have around +100 gold / round (100% research).

So far I haven't built any cottages and I want to know if I am lacking something?

While I'm here I'd like to ask how can I increase research? So far I that these do the job:

- Research bar
- Buildings
- Wonders
- Inventions

I'm looking a way to maximize research capabilites.

Thanks in advance!

 

[Joshua368]

The main thing is that you want more cities. If you're earning gold at 100% research, you are seriously unexpanding. If you expand to have like 6 - 8 cities at 1 AD, your research will drop to around 30% or below, yet overall your total research will be much higher because you'll have more commerce.

Most of your research will come from commerce, which is what cottages make. You know how each tile has food/hammers/commerce, right? Food lets your cities grow faster, hammers let your cities build faster. Well all the commerce in your empire gets added together and sent through the slider, turning into science or gold. So the more commerce you have, the more cities you'll be able to afford (gold) and the extra will turn into science (beakers).

On top of that you can run specialists to give science. Libraries are a very good early building, as they open up two scientist specialists slots. On top of that the Representation civic (unlocked either at the Constitution tech or Pyramids wonder) signifigantly boosts the science yield of specialists. Plus they give great people points, which can settle or bulb or do other things to enhance research.

 

[Willem]

I agree. If you're making +100 gold per turn at 100% research, then you're not expanding nearly enough. You can get away with that in the lower levels but once you start increasing the difficulty, that's going to be a handicap for you. Not to mention that your final score is largely based on how much territory you control. Start exapnding more and you'll see the value of Cottages.

 

[Supr49er]

Enjoy your civving.

Welcome to the Forums unska.

 

[unska]

Oh, okay, so if I have:

a) 1 city with 10 commerce improvements. 100% research.
b) 2 cities with 10 commerce improvements each. 100% research.

The b) will research faster?

If I understood correctly Commerce and Gold is a different thing? Commerce is the thing you gain from commerce improvements and Gold is the 'money' you receive after the Commerce has gone through the research slider?

Does the towns with your religion give you Gold or Commerce?

 

[Joshua368]

Gold and commerce are indeed completely different things, and its good that you can tell them apart.

Commerce is what you gain from improvements like cottages, it goes through the slider in the top corner. It can be research, it can be gold, it can be culture, and in Beyond the Sword it can be espionage. It all depends on what your slider is set to.

Gold is what finances your empire and goes into your national funds which you can see in the top corner. Every city you found will cost gold in maitenance (once they get up and running though they will easily pay for themselves and more) and units will cost gold as well after a certain ammount of "freebies".

Note that some things such as religious shrines give pure gold, not commerce. To tell the different, commerce is while gold is . Another thing to notice is that buildings like libraries and banks only multiply research and gold (respectively) and not raw commerce, so for example if you're running 100% science and there's no shrine in the city, a library will help but a bank will not. The Bureaucracy civic is the only thing that multiplies pure commerce. A pretty simplified scenario but that's the basic idea.

As for commerce, imagine it like this: One city at size 10 could work ten towns and have say... 50 commerce, at 100% science since one city doesn't cost any gold. This gives you 50 beakers. Or you could have 8 cities at size 10 working ten towns and have 400 commerce, though only at 60% science because the cities are costing you money. But even though the slider isn't as high and some of the commerce is going into paying for cities, you'd still be earning 240 science and be much better off.

Also buildings like courthouses will be very handy is decreasing the costs of cities, and will help raise your slider back up once your new cities are up and running.

 

[Willem]

Oh, okay, so if I have:

a) 1 city with 10 commerce improvements. 100% research.
b) 2 cities with 10 commerce improvements each. 100% research.

The b) will research faster?

That's correct. Keep in mind that 100% of 0 is still 0. Using the research slider only can be deceptive. It may look like you're pumping out lots of beakers but if your base commerce is low then you won't be. You're much better off having a number of cities pumping out commerce, even if it means lowering the percentage on your slider. You need to keep an eye on your actual output, not just base it on the percentage of your slider.

And as mentioned, running your slider at 100% research makes your Markets etc. useless. Since they also work by percentage, if you have no commerce going into your gold production, then those types of buildings will be doing nothing, unless you have a shrine or other gold producing buildings or are running some Merchant specialists. Ideally you don't want to run your slider at any more than 90% so your Markets etc. will provide you with some benefit.

 

[unska]

Thank you for the two posts above, they were VERY helpful! I'm going to enjoy playing even more for now on.

A few quick questions;

1) I played a match online versus my friend and a few AIs and it seemed that me and my friend were moving our units simultaneously? I thought this was a turn based game? Can this be changed? Attacking eachother was very difficult!

2) How can I see the amount of research like in the following picture:
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e313/prelynmax/Civ4ScreenShot0053-1.jpg

3) What is a beaker?

Thanks again.

 

[unska]

Double post.

 

[Joshua368]

Thank you for the two posts above, they were VERY helpful! I'm going to enjoy playing even more for now on.

A few quick questions;

1) I played a match online versus my friend and a few AIs and it seemed that me and my friend were moving our units simultaneously? I thought this was a turn based game? Can this be changed? Attacking eachother was very difficult!

2) How can I see the amount of research like in the following picture:
http://i42.photobucket.com/albums/e313/prelynmax/Civ4ScreenShot0053-1.jpg

3) What is a beaker?

Thanks again.

1) When you begin the multiplayer game you should have the choice to make it "sequential" or "simutanious". Pick whichever one you want. Though a lot of online games use simutanious because its signifigantly faster, but during wars have a "code of war" where the players wait until whoever moved first to finish before the second player moves, to simulate turn-based play when it's needed.

2) Buy Beyond the Sword. Very nifty new feature.

3) The science/research equivilant to gold. It's actually a flask icon... it's the raw research that goes into learning techs.

 

[unska]

Great, thanks. I'm going to go back enjoying the game.

 

[Willem]

2) Buy Beyond the Sword. Very nifty new feature.

Yes. Unfortunately Firaxis didn't think of putting the actual values on the main screen itself in the earlier versions. You need to go into your Financial Advisor screen in order to get that information. I believe it's F3, though it's been a long time since I've actually used it so I'm not positive. But you really should buy BtS anyway, it adds so much more to the game.

 

[unska]

Yes. Unfortunately Firaxis didn't think of putting the actual values on the main screen itself in the earlier versions. You need to go into your Financial Advisor screen in order to get that information. I believe it's F3, though it's been a long time since I've actually used it so I'm not positive. But you really should buy BtS anyway, it adds so much more to the game.

I think I will, do you think I should buy Warlords too while I'm at it?

 

[hexem3117]

No, as far as i know BtS is basically Warlords+ goodums so it'd be a waste

 

[Willem]

Yes, BtS has everything that Warlords does except for the scenarios. All the civs, buildings,gameplay changes etc. are included. Unless you really want to play the scenarios, which aren't really all that great IMO, then it's not worth buying.

 

[Spartan117]

Yes. Unfortunately Firaxis didn't think of putting the actual values on the main screen itself in the earlier versions. You need to go into your Financial Advisor screen in order to get that information. I believe it's F3, though it's been a long time since I've actually used it so I'm not positive. But you really should buy BtS anyway, it adds so much more to the game.

I have been spoiled; I cant imagine having to frequently view the advisor screen for the amount of beakers.