I never spend any money on entertainment

[Khshayarsha]

I spend it all on science. I'm so anxious to get tech advancement as fast as possible, I squeeze all possible funding allocations into maximizing the science spending. I keep the entertainment budget at zero throughout the game.

I do not have big problems with civil unrest, either. I, Emperor Xerxes the Stupendous, love my citizens and I bestow on them all cultural amenities to keep them happy. I always build Temples, Libraries, Cathedrals, Universities (especially Universities!) and even Colosseums. A Temple in every garage and a University in every pot, that's my motto.

On rare occasions, when I go to war in a democracy and I choose to remain a democracy, I crank up the fun a few notches. I hate doing that, though, because it means I have to cut science spending to avoid bankruptcy. I rely on gaining territory through having the coolest culture in the world, rather than fighting. When I do go to war, I don't let it drag on for a long time.

So as long as I can keep the people happy through building (which also brings in more territory and cities who flip for my culture), why should I spend anything on entertainment? Science! Give me more science!

 

[DaveMcW]

*cough*chieftain player*cough*

Ahem.

On Emperor and Diety you have more unhappy people and more expensive techs. Entertainment is much more attractive there.

 

[nullspace]

Nah, even on deity, you can get by with 0% luxuries most of the time. A temple, a cathedral, 4 luxury resources, and a marketplace, and all your size-twelve cities will be perfectly happy.

I'm a big fan of science too, and it really annoys me that doing your own research isn't a good idea on the hardest difficulties. But with 0% science, and 0% luxuries, that's a whole lot of cash to buy your way into any tech you need

 

[Scyphax]

I agree that 0% entertainment is good and I try to keep my population of my core productive cities happy with improvements and luxuries only.

But out on the edge of your empire you have towns with total corruption, full of foriegners, half of them resisting. These towns are never going to give you more than 1 gp and 1 shield per turn.
As soon as I take or establish these towns I give them as many entertainers as possible.

These towns only serve to extend my cultural boundaries and thus monopolise more resources, and enable my units to have supperior movement through roads and rail.

I alway build them a temple just to extend my cultural borders.
A few will get libraries and cathedrals to extend those borders faster.
A rare few may get a wall, barracks, harbour or airport.

The other time I make use of entertainers is in large ancient era river cities. These can get upto a pop of 12 before the catheral or collosium is available. In this early era you usually do not have many luxuries available so you must rely on entertainers.

 

[Shabbaman]

You can use it to trigger WLTKD. Besides that, you can get a higher score.

 

[PersianImmortal]

luxuries my friends luxuries.. pay through the nose to get all.. I usually do.. coupled with marketplaces u still usually end up paying less than u would by moving the slider up a notch.

 

[RobOz]

I agree that you should buy luxuries when you can get them, can being the operative word. If you can't get enough, use that slider. Don't be scared of it! A happy city is a productive city, am I right?

 

[Gothmog]

I often have to use the happiness slider early in the game. When your second citizen is unhappy it makes life tough. I would often rather use the slider than spend the time to build MP's.

In a perfect world one has marketplaces and lots of luxuries (along with the obligitory temples and cathedrals) but if you don't then to the slider you should go. Also sometimes it is better to spend your cash on the slider rather than giving a bunch of stuff to another civ.

 

[Cartouche Bee]

On Deity if you start where your growth is real fast you can't even build MilitaryPolice quick enough, so funding entertainment can sure payoff. I always try to have enough entertainment so that I don't have to waste city workers on the task. If you have a city that is growing out of proportion to the rest of your civ, they should produce some workers or settlers from there.

 

[Khshayarsha]

Yes, Cartouche Bee, that's the other thing. My fastest-growing cities are set to popping out workers and hiving off settlers to cool them down a bit. You really can't have too many workers. (Except in one game, I was Persia, and I swear to Ahura Mazda, my industrious workers had covered the entire continent in railroads and stuff. I couldn't automate them any more! There was nothing left for them to do! I shipped half of them overseas and had the other half planting forests on the few squares where that was still possible. Then chopping them down, then planting, then chopping... every 1 or 2 turns. Now, that's industrious! The other thing to do with them is disband them to add to the population of cities, but you don't want to overdo that. Too rapid pop growth, they're liable to either starve or riot. But in the Modern Age it's possible to grow huge cities.

 

[wilbill]

Originally posted by Gothmog
I often have to use the happiness slider early in the game. When your second citizen is unhappy it makes life tough...

Also later in the game when cities are at 20+, a bump of the luxury slider will keep the WLTKD's coming.

 

[Darkness]

In a perfect world one has marketplaces and lots of luxuries (along with the obligitory temples and cathedrals)

It ain't no perfect world, at least not in my games...

Repeat after me: "The luxury slider is my friend!"

 

[Quillan]

Another tragic case of someone claiming that there is only one way to do things... Your game situation should dictate whether you use the slider or not, and when you play good players (the ai is NEVER a good player) you'll learn to mess with that slider.

Also, why would you buy luxuries for 40 gpt if it costs 30 gpt with the slider... not to mention it stops your evil enemies (even friends are enemies when you play the AI) from utilizing your 40 gpt to boost THEIR GDP.

It is, like everything in civ3, a matter of cost vs. benefits... the problem that a lot of ... new... players make, is that they don't analyze the situations with all the possibilities, they just apply the same vanilla strategy to every situation...

And really, who's favorite flavour is vanilla? (excluding of course, french vanilla, which is quite tasty)

 

[DavesWorld]

Vanilla is my favorite flavor, actually. I like chocolate, of course, but vanilla is smooth and creamy and delicious. mmmmmm

(though when it comes to games I vastly prefer to play "unmodded" vanilla there too. I like to play the game the devs put out and beat/learn that, not a mod I or someone else did).

 

[Khshayarsha]

I've been in a protracted war, trying to mop up the remnants of England all over a huge continent. I've got most of the luxuries in my own territory. I've built cathedrals and temples all over the place. AND I built Universal Suffrage. Still I've had to use the funbar in this war because the citizens go apesh1t about every 15 moves, in at least 75% of my cities at once. Something sets them all off at once. So I crank the fun another notch and look forward to finishing this war. And take a breather until I build Panzers and take out Russia...

 

[wilbill]

Originally posted by Quillan
Another tragic case of someone claiming that there is only one way to do things...
It is, like everything in civ3, a matter of cost vs. benefits... the problem that a lot of ... new... players make, is that they don't analyze the situations with all the possibilities, they just apply the same vanilla strategy to every situation...

Absolutely right, Quillan. I love to try different approaches to the game - sometimes I go back to the 4000BC.sav and start over as a warmonger, or OCC, or diplomat or whatever...just to see if I can do better with a different approach to the game.

Civ 3 is a very good wargame if that's what you want it to be, but it's so much more interesting to try the different flavors available.

 

[Naval Freak]

I dont use entertainment till i get to future tech ONLY. then i kill tthe science and raise taxes and entertainment.... i, too, am obsessed with Persia.

 

[Zachriel]

Originally posted by Quillan
Another tragic case of someone claiming that there is only one way to do things...

That's right. There are many ways to play the game, and the Luxury slider can be crucial. Here's an example of using the Luxury slider to "boom" a Wonder building city, Thebes 1000 BC:

http://www.zachriel.com/gotm9/bc1000-Pyramids.htm