Generating lots of research tips

[rantzzz]

Hi all,

I can't get my head around this issue. I'm at Chieftain, normal pace, and in 520 AD. But my whole civilization only generates +74 research! Is that puny or what?!

I would appreciate some tips regarding generating research.

I know cottages contribute to research as they generate gold pieces. I always get my pop to work on the cottages, but each city only generates like 15 beakers of research!

I also know building buildings like libraries helps, but I would like to know at which point in the game by date (500AD, 1000AD, etc) would I be able to generate +100 research per city.

I've read articles about specialization but I don't think I'm ready yet.

Currently I only build cottages on all tiles.

Any tips would be appreciated! I've come quite a long way since I first started playing. I was so lost back then but I've since grasped the basics of the game, and I love it! Praetorians rock by the way lol!

 

[MrCynical]

I also know building buildings like libraries helps, but I would like to know at which point in the game by date (500AD, 1000AD, etc) would I be able to generate +100 research per city.

A quick check - what game speed are you playing at? The in game "date" really doesn't scale very well across the different speeds.

You're not going to be getting anywhere near 100 beakers per city until quite late in the game - once your towns have fully matured and you've got the powerful civics that show up with Liberalism/Constitution. You might get a couple of cities generating that many beakers a bit earlier (thanks to Academies, Oxford and the Great Library), but most will be well below the 100 beaker mark until the Renaissance.

A far better comparison of how good your research rate is is to compare it to the other civs, as that's all that really matters. At Chieftain, you should be at least five techs ahead of the best AI by that point of the game.

As to strategies, building cottages wherever possible is the simplest approach. Use Great Scientists to build academies in your best cities. Head for Printing Press, Liberalism and Democracy to get the civics which boost towns. Obviously keep the science rate as high as possible - founding a religion will help with that.

 

[rantzzz]

Hmm, I'm playing at normal pace, and yes I'm ahead of the AI. That's probably due to Chieftain level, no?

I wonder if I were to play at much higher levels, would I be able to keep up with research....

 

[Refar]

To get MANY cities to make 100+ Beakers each is not that easy - somewhere late game when the cottages are mature and multipliers are built, perhaps.

The Key to early game Research is getting ONE city to make lots of Beakers. The fastest way to get there is Cottage up your Capital, Build Librarie and - if possible - monastery(S). Then head for Civil Service for Burocracy (and of course use the Civic ). Such a capital should make you much more than 75 beakers on itself, as soon as you hit Buerocracy - which can be done fast, if you beeline it. Perhaps around 1AD on Normal speed, if you have good land, and pop a expensive tech (That would often be CoL) on the path from Oracle (Sometimes it's even possible to pop CS with oracle, but that's risky, as you might loose the wonder)

You can support with other - lesser cities - running Cottages as well, or Specialists under Rep - depends on land, and if you got the Mids for Rep - But basicly the capital can make all the Resaerch you need to outtech the AI.

From your post i also think there might be another problem: Where is your Slider ? It sounds like you might have lots of cities - this forces you to run low science slider. Dont make too many cities early - better settle a couple of really good ones.

 

[rantzzz]

Thank you so much for the tips.

From all the feedback at least I get a rough gauge of how my cities should be performing.
So I guess I'll concentrate on getting my capital's research up first. My sliders are at 80%, which is still quite ok.

I also usually out pace the AI early on, but once I reach Modern Era and get mired in war, I'll lose out quickly. All this at chieftain level as well

 

[AlessioCerci]

More cities = More Research.

 

[6K Man]

Some tips:

1. Grow the cities you have. That means getting access to happiness and health resources, Hereditary Rule, and having enough workers to build the improvements needed to sustain larger cities. It's fairly easy to generate research if your cities are size 10 or more.

2. If your science rate is at 80% or higher, you should consider building or capturing more cities. It sounds paradoxical, but in the long run, you're better off with 10 cities at 60% science than 6 cities at 80%.

3. Play a Financial civ if you like the cottage economy approach. Working riverside cottages or hamlets is much less painful when Financial.

4. Build intelligently. Decide if a city is going to be a commerce/science city and focus on buildings that either help the city grow or add to its beaker output (granaries, lighthouses, harbours, libraries, universities. NOT barracks, drydocks, forges (usually!), or units). Don't listen to the stupid advisor that tells you to build a library in the size 6 forest city that's producing all of 6 beakers.

5. Try to trigger the appropriate Great People to assist your city development. An Academy is huge in your top science city, usually your capital. Running Bureaucracy makes it even better. When it's time to build Oxford in your predominantly cottaged capital, having an Engineer makes it a snap.

 

[Gliese 581]

I'd say the "fastest" way to get lots of beakers early is running scientist specialists and building the pyramids for representation, but maybe we shouldn't go there.

 

[Cer]

More cities = More Research.

Yes, but too many cities = less research.

to me, a good rule of thumb is to allow maintenance costs to bring you down to about 50% research. That gives you leeway to build more cities = more room to use cottages. (but a couple of the cities should have mines and farms and no cottages) More cities also can mean more resources that give you empire-wide bonuses to health/happiness.

Another thing that speeds up your research a lot is to go after the strongest economic techs. Some of these are currency, banking, corporation, literature, civil service (because of the bureaucracy civic) and code of laws (because of courthouses, and some people run their economy based on the caste system civic as well). The ones just mentioned will help you be able to support a relatively large empire or possibly go higher on the science slider. Techs that let you build buildings for important bonuses to the science you already produce are of course writing, education, astronomy, and computers. And meditation, if you have religion(s) in your science cities.

 

[Zanttu]

to me, a good rule of thumb is to allow maintenance costs to bring you down to about 50% research. That gives you leeway to build more cities = more room to use cottages. (but a couple of the cities should have mines and farms and no cottages)

On CE yes. While running SE (what I do most of the time), my general rule of thumb is to have positive cash flow while at 0% research, preventing my units from going to strike .

 

[6K Man]

I'd say the "fastest" way to get lots of beakers early is running scientist specialists and building the pyramids for representation, but maybe we shouldn't go there.

That's worked well for me. I just figured that since the OP was talking about cottages, CE advice would be appropriate. Besides (IMO) if you somehow miss the Pyramids (no Industrious/Stone or just started late) and aren't disciplined about managing GPPs, SE can be frustrating.

 

[pigswill]

You can also boost research a bit by running a couple of scientists to get yourself a Great Scientist(GS) and use the GS to found an academy (+50% research) in your best commerce city.
Getting the Great Library helps as well which should be manageable by 500ad if you prioritise it.
Playing a financial civ with cottages helps as already noted.