GWAM: great work or bulb?

[Magean]

Hi,

When not going explicitly toward a culture victory, what do you do with your GWAM?

Personally, I feel like Great Works don't scale well, not nearly as well as GP tile improvements such as Academies or Towns. It takes too long to break even with the alternative instant bonus... So I'm inclined to burning my Great Writers and Artists, just generating enough Great Works to get theming bonus on the wonders I have. Or not even that.

Anyway. Sometimes I feel bad burning them since the instant culture boost from Great Writers isn't worth many turns, and the Great Artist's golden age is very short. So I'm uncertain what to do, actually. I'm missing something.

Regarding Great Musicians, do you do concert tours when not competing for culture victory?

Thanks in advance.

EDIT: damned, I thought I was posting in the Strategy subforum. I guess this thread should be moved?

 

[Galbias]

The effect of the bulb is dependent on how many GWs of the appropriate type you have so I usually make GWs early and then bulb later, though occasionally I'll make an exception if the bulb is going to do something particularly useful for me at the moment.

That reminds me, I think I saw a bug where Faith-bought GP had weaker bulb yields than naturally born ones which I was guessing was due to the fact they weren't getting the bonus from existing GWs somehow. It was on an older version though.

Regarding Great Musicians, do you do concert tours when not competing for culture victory?

It can give you extra happiness iirc so sometimes I'll use them for that as well

 

[Magean]

The effect of the bulb is dependent on how many GWs of the appropriate type you have so I usually make GWs early and then bulb later, though occasionally I'll make an exception if the bulb is going to do something particularly useful for me at the moment.

Thanks. Do you mean great works impact future bulbs not only through the additional culture they generate (since bulbs are based on culture output over the past N turns, can't remember how many), but also through their own direct effect?

 

[tu_79]

Thanks. Do you mean great works impact future bulbs not only through the additional culture they generate (since bulbs are based on culture output over the past N turns, can't remember how many), but also through their own direct effect?

Yes. Example. Golden Age duration from a great artist is 4 turns + 1 for every great painting.

 

[Magean]

Yes. Example. Golden Age duration from a great artist is 4 turns + 1 for every great painting.

And I didn't ever know that. So that explains why they got so much stronger with time. I suppose it works the same for writers (more turns of culture in a burst).

 

[Emufarmers]

And I didn't ever know that.

It was only added in the July 18th patch.

• Instant yield abilities nerfed for Great Artist, Scientist, Merchant (gold), Musician, and Writer (20-30%)
• Great Writers now scale based on # of owned Great Works.
  • Every GW you have increases the value of your cultural instant yield by 3%.
• Great Artists now scale based on # of active art themes.
  • Every themed art set increases base value of Golden Age turns (4) by 20%.
• Bulbing of Great Scientists, Merchants, and Engineers now scales based on the number of GP UIs of their type you own.

 

[Owlbebach]

Even with the latest changes I never do Great Works if i'm not pursuing Tourism victory. Not worth it. Here is my calculations:

If you make a Great Work ( ) with an Artist you loose 4 turns of Golden Age ( ) in exchange for 1 additional turn of for your future Artists.

Considering the fact that is not completely useless (they give some ), and assuming 1 turn today equals 1 turn tomorrow (actually today worth more than tomorrow), it means that you need to use 4 Great Artists into to pay off all Great Artists that were used in the past for (no matter how many did you use in ). Do you really have more that 5 Great Artists per game? Probably not.

Same with Writers

EDIT: Actually i think it might be tuned so that those who do not pursue Tourism Victory will benefit from creating early on (i.e. give 2 turns of per or maybe 3 turns of per 2 )

 

[Emufarmers]

If you make a Great Work ( ) with an Artist you loose 4 turns of Golden Age ( ) in exchange for 1 additional turn of for your future Artists.

But bulbing a great artist also increases the points you need for your next "natural" golden age, doesn't it?

 

[Owlbebach]

But bulbing a great artist also increases the points you need for your next "natural" golden age, doesn't it?

Thats why i never use them befor golden age happens naturaly. I usually have 2-3 artists that are waiting for the golden age to begin and then i use them for a 30+turns golden age

 

[Bromar1]

But bulbing a great artist also increases the points you need for your next "natural" golden age, doesn't it?

Can anyone confirm this? I can't remember if this was fixed or not