Economic/Research Question - Please Help

[MRhe25]

I have a question that I'm sure many of you could help me with. I've been playing Civ II for a while now, but I've never figured out exactly how the research works. I've read a couple threads about a one-city tactic, and I was frankly astonished to see this.

Is research some sort of relative amount derived from the number of cities? 5 cities wouldn't necessarily produce as much research as one? It just doesn't seem like one city would be able to generate enough research to get very far, let alone launch the spaceship. Thanks in advance.

------------------
"Every soldier carries a field marshall's baton in his pack." - Napoleon Bonaparte

 

[Omega the Great]

Well if you put all your effort into one city you can go far. Ok, you have one city you have access to the sea. You put irrigation down, and build roads around it. You build a lot of caravans and you build a market. You advance some and you keep building up the city and with govs like republic and democracy your one city can make five cities look third world. It can be done you just need to keep playing and you won't think its so big a deal. A big deal is one city defeating a civilization with ten cities and a fundamentalist government. Now if i saw that i would be shocked.

------------------
Omega the Great

 

[Alan_Nicoll]

Research depends on trade and how you allocate your trade among research, taxes, and luxuries. By increasing your trade you increase your research. Number of cities does not affect research except as this increases trade. Building libraries, universities, and research labs increases research in the city where you build them. All of this is in the manual.

 

[thedirk]

Your question is a good one. More cities can mean more research, provided they all are contributing trade. Ten cities with no roads or river nearby will produce far less trade than one city surrounded by roads with several trade routes. It sounds strange that one city can out research many others but it is true. While I don't play a one city strategy, I do use a "research city" strategy. I always build one city on a plain (where roads can be built the quickest) then make sure all it does is build Colossus, Copernicus, Isaac Newton, Library, University. It is not untypical for 1/3 to 1/2 of my research to come from this one city, even in a civ with 20-30 cities.

 

[starlifter]

A properly run single city can generate over 1,000 beakers of science per turn in the late game.

Rate of research is affected by many factors, including map size (larger map=more effort needed for advances), relative human/AI # of tech discovered (excluding the freebies at 4000 AD), difficulty level, # of tech researched, etc.

On a small random map, and gifting techs to the AI, it is possible for a single city to lead the way in tech and land a SS in the 1700s or 1800s, at Deity... perhaps even earlier.

 

[Andu Indorin]

As for the cost of research, and how it changes relative to the comparative power of the competing civilizations, I'd recommend consulting the following thread, The Cost of Research Explained , one the more quality offerings in Apolyton's Great Library.

 

[Warlord56]

Copernicus's Observatory should be a good wonder to build in that one city, aoutomatically making it like two cities of the same size.(in science)

 

[willemvanoranje]

I start my research after I have gained about 300 gold and after I built at least 5 cities. My builing que is 'Phalanx'-'Settler'-'Settler'-'MarketPlace'-'Temple'-'Library'. After that I either go on building city improvements or wonders, or build more settlers.

------------------
I know it seem hard sometimes, but uh...
remember one thing:
through every dark night,
there's a bright day after that,
so no matter how hard it get, stick ya chest out
keep ya head up and handle it.

 

[starlifter]

posted June 24, 2001 05:26 AM
I start my research after I have gained about 300 gold and after I built at least 5 cities. My builing que is
'Phalanx'-'Settler'-'Settler'-'MarketPlace'-'Temple'-'Library'. After that I either go on building city improvements or wonders, or build more settlers.

Of curiosity, do you actually use the queue function and let the computer automatically build for you? Or is that your own, manual queue? Even with a large empire, I find there are just too many variables to entrust a build pattern to the computer. Plus, I rarely build improvements (or even units) without at least a partial rush build, esp. in important cities, or almost any city from about Economics onwards.

EDIT: Spelling

[This message has been edited by starlifter (edited June 26, 2001).]