How are tech costs calculated?

[mises_the_wise]

... and what does the percentage on the green bar represent?

TIA

 

[3Miro]

There is first a base cost for each tech. Then the cost is modified based upon how many other civs have that tech and then based upon the number of cities that you have (the more cities you have the higher the cost). Then in RFCE specifically the cost gets modified based upon the date on which you would finish researching the tech. Each tech has a historic date on which it is supposed to be researched. If you finish the tech earlier, you get a penalty on the cost. If you finish the tech later you get a discount.

The percentage number represents the bonus or penalty that you would have if you keep on researching this tech at this tech rate. Basically you have a trade-off, if you research a tech too early, then you will pay extra cost, but you will get benefits from the tech before other players. This is particularly useful for World Wonders and major boosts in military tech, i.e. having Knights a few turns before anyone else is huge.

 

[mises_the_wise]

Thank you. Is there somewhere I can find out what the "normal" date is to get each tech?

I'm playing England at the moment and it's about 1700. I got the first two parts of the UHV, but completing the tech tree is going to be close. Each tech I get now has 500%+ penalty. I have quite a big tech lead though, so I guess it would help if I gift all my techs to the other civs? (I tried gifting all my techs to Bergundy but it didn't make any difference... do I have to gift techs to ALL the other civs?) Or maybe I should gift away my cities in France?

 

[3Miro]

Thank you. Is there somewhere I can find out what the "normal" date is to get each tech?

I'm playing England at the moment and it's about 1700. I got the first two parts of the UHV, but completing the tech tree is going to be close. Each tech I get now has 500%+ penalty. I have quite a big tech lead though, so I guess it would help if I gift all my techs to the other civs? (I tried gifting all my techs to Bergundy but it didn't make any difference... do I have to gift techs to ALL the other civs?) Or maybe I should gift away my cities in France?

If you gift your techs to others, this will not boost your research rate. You only get a boost for a tech that you are researching at the moment and other players have already researched it.

500% means that you are probably at the very end of the tech three. How many techs do you have left, you should be able to finish since the techs would become cheaper the closer you get to the very end.

The exact dates for each tech are in the Python code, but not documented elsewhere. You can look at the tiers and you can get a pretty good approximate idea if you count the tiers and divide it between the 500 turns of the game.

 

[mises_the_wise]

You were right. I finished in 1762 with the abilities of the Quayle.

Is there a central thread with strategy guides / walkthroughs, or a hall of fame so I can see what other people have acheived?

 

[3Miro]

You were right. I finished in 1762 with the abilities of the Quayle.

Is there a central thread with strategy guides / walkthroughs, or a hall of fame so I can see what other people have acheived?

The final screen doesn't accurately represent the way you have played. In regular Civ, the most important criteria is how fast you have achieved the victory and how big was your Empire. Thus someone like the Dutch has no chance of getting a large score, since they start late and have only a few cities. The English would also never score well since they have to wait until the late 1700 or so. Basically, you should ignore the score screen.

You can compare one game with England to another game with England and the game were you build more colonies, more wonders and more territory would be the better game, but you will probably not go above the "Quayle" ranking.

If you have achieved all 3 UHV conditions on Monarch, then you have beaten the mod with England. Historically you have beaten the greatest of the English kings and Queens. Give yourself a big pat on the back. You can try with other nations, each nations is supposed to be quite a bit different.