Do you explore after initial expansion?

[siggboy]

I'm talking about an added bonus % of beakers. I forget the exact percent, but as someone who takes odd tech paths, I find myself backfilling techs quite often, and quite often I do this sometimes before anyone knows alphabet.

I know about that part of the game, although I must admit that I rarely try to take advantage of the fact. One has to meet as many of the other civs as possible in order to see what techs are cheap, so exploring is important to meet them all. I never had a doubt about that ;-).

On the other hand, one could simply watch the beaker count on the F6-screen. Do you actually have to have MET those others civs in order to get the discount, or is the only thing that matters how many others civs do have the tech (regardless if they are in contact with you or not)?

Exploring is easy money, because you can sell your maps to other civs if you have areas they don't.

Getting to Paper first is easy money, no exploring needed. You simply buy the entire map from any of the other civs (the AI tends to explore thoroughly), then sell it to everybody else for a huge profit. The only black spots remaining will usually be in the lands of isolationists like Toku, who neither open borders nor trade maps with you (or anything, for that matter).

Which leads me to another topic: how detrimental can it possible be to sell "secret" information such as the map to an AI? I often find myself denying the AI information about my map, even though I could make a nice coin from it, because I fear them expanding into territories that I want to claim myself, because they see the resources there. Does anybody have significant experience with this?

I'm specifically talking about islands with strategic resources. Showing the AI the way via a map sale might lose you those spots earlier than needed.

 

[Wolfshanze]

If I know alot about the oceans before the map is circumnavigated, I don't share that info with the AI... I always want to be 1st to know the path around the globe (circumnavigate) to get the +1 naval movement bonus.

After I'm 1st in circumnavigation, I'll freely share maps with the AI if it's worth the money.

As to the original question, getting the naval movement bonus is important to me, so I'll always try and explore at least in a global-water sort of way.

 

[siggboy]

As to the original question, getting the naval movement bonus is important to me, so I'll always try and explore at least in a global-water sort of way.

Yeah, it's a very strong reward. If you end up having to fight naval wars you are miles ahead of the AI with that bonus. I more than once got it just from buying maps, without sending a single ship around.

 

[Wolfshanze]

Yeah, it's a very strong reward. If you end up having to fight naval wars you are miles ahead of the AI with that bonus. I more than once got it just from buying maps, without sending a single ship around.

Rushing Optics to get the Caravel, then building TWO and sending them in OPPOSITE directions on the map usually suffices to ensure being the first to circumnavigate and get the naval bonus.

 

[siggboy]

Rushing Optics to get the Caravel, then building TWO and sending them in OPPOSITE directions on the map usually suffices to ensure being the first to circumnavigate and get the naval bonus.

That's what I do (if I can be botherered; not that much point to it on a pangaea map, for example). It also helps that the AI doesn't exactly prioritize Optics. So even if you're somewhat lazy about it yourself the bonus is easy enough to achieve. I think that depending on map type the AI should value Optics far higher than it actually does.

 

[gdgrimm]

My exploration runs in phases:

2 "scout" type units to map out the whole continent I start on, and anything within galley access.

Then I use them for fog busting, not exploring. This way I've meet every civ that'll be able to chat with for quite a while, and seen almost every tile on the continent, and can easily figure out who will have access to what. The trade screens also provide insight into that.

Then with Caravels, I usually attempt to get the circum award, and will explore enough to find the rest of the civs and any large land masses that might be worth colonizing.

I really don't do much exploring after that.

 

[Pe Ell]

Much less than what I would like. I often just forget about it. Sure I'll check the situation before an invasion, knowing where to strike can be handy, but I seldom keep track of the AI's resources, nor where they keep their stacks to any great degree. My caravels ends up auto exploring after the circumnavigation is won or gone. And the thing is, after years of playing Starcraft I know how important exploring is. It's such a basic thing to improve your game, be it turnbased or realtime strategy. It annoys me that I don't do it more properly.

 

[Danny_Archer]

Meh, I kinda overlook exploration in the early part of the game. I mainly build up my empire, attack someone and then get my civilization off the ground before I really care what's going on at the other side of the world. When push comes to shove, trading some gold for maps usually does the trick.