jerVL/kg said:
Why is building Academies with Great Scientists being an idiot? What else would you do with them?
My first GS always builds an Academy in my science city. Those that follow usually become Science Super-Specialists in that same city.
DarkFyre may be referring to the fact that the AI generally doesn't indulge in city specialization, so it often builds academies in several cities. I may do that if I have other cities with VERY high science output; otherwise, as I said, I go the SSS route.
It comes down to math and the number of beakers you're producing in the various cities. The Academy increases the beaker output of a city by 50%, while a science super-specialist adds 9 beakers to a city's output. At first glance, then, it seems worthwhile to build academies in any city producing 20 or more beakers per turn, as you'll get minimum 10 beaker boost, greater than the super-specialist.
But hang on. In the science city, you should also have, besides the Academy (+50%), a library (+25%), a university (+25%), an observatory, (+25%), and Oxford University (+100%). Late in the game, you'll build a lab (+25%). If you build monasteries in your science city, which you really should, each of them increases beaker output by 10% as well. Let's assume you build two monasteries for another 20% boost.
For most of the game, then, your science city has a
245% magnification on every beaker produced, 270% in late game. So the 9 beaker Science Super-Specialist is actually contributing an additional
22 beakers for most of the game, 24 in late game, for
a total of 31-33 beakers, not a measly 9. They could contribute more if additional religions spread to your science city and you build more monasteries there. (Yes, I try to intentionally spread religions to my science city just for this reason!)
So it only makes sense to build additional academies in cities producing
at least 62 beakers per turn (50% from the academy = 31 beakers, about the same as the science super-specialist in your science city). Getting that many beakers from a non-science city in early/mid-game is pretty unusual, so the science super-specialist option usually makes more sense.
And don't get me started on wasting a GS to have a Golden Age!