I forgot to add GPP info:
16farmed GP+3 free ones.
2Academies, 2 merchant missions, 1GA, 2GE used for production, the rest of them settled in capital but the 2 latest GS who lightbulbed.
Doing my usual thing of answering a question regardless of whether it has been directed at me or not. For me it depends on my number and location of production cities and GE posibilities. If I have few production cities and no GE chance I'll probably not bother as it can tie up a city for a long time when it could actually just build parts. If I have plenty of cities and a GE coming up or to hand then I'll go for the soace elevator. Not sure if this is a sensible plan or not; somebody clever than me care to enlighten?
The question was directed to everybody. Thank you for answering, synthboy. Quite a sensible answer. I tend to agree, since I had so many production cities it didn't matter if I tied up one of them.
@Thrallia: Thanks for your answer too. I don't see the +50% as crucial. Your main cities have a lot of multiplier already, forge, factory, power, lab, IronWorks, maybe bureaucracy... Another 50% on top of that doesn't make a big difference.
Now, as for the research pace:
@Harbourboy: the 2700bpt/1680AD figure is irrelevant. I was doing 1700bpt a few turns before, in 1500AD and I didn't research anything usefull from 1500AD on.
A few details so that you can compare with your game: half of research came from the capital at 1500AD. I was running Repre-Burea-Slavery(shouldn't I?)-FreeM(shouldn't I?)-Pacifism. Dozens of mature cottages and Statue of Liberty. Oh, and I give my figures when in 100% research, although I had to run 80% sometimes.
In fact I consider that my research rate was so-so. The important figure to compare with is 1AD. My figure is quite unimpresive, isn't it?