Research penalty for large empires

[penco]

I have a few questions about the documented research penalty for large civs. At what point along the commerce line does the penalty apply?

1) Techs cost more beakers.
2) Commerce gets nerfed by a % civ-wide (similar to Bureaucracy bonus in capital)
3) Research gets a negative multiplier civ-wide (similar to the positive multiplier on, say, Free Religion)


Which of these 3 is it? Or is it something else?

 

[Jusos2108]

First one and it applies after ten cities. It might have been ~10% per city, can't remember..

 

[penco]

So am I correct that a good workaround would be to run an Espionage economy and just steal techs? Or is the price of stealing inflated also?

 

[3Miro]

The penalty is quadratic and it kicks in fairly early. It is just that it doesn't really affect you until you reach 10 cities (it is small before hand).

I never needed to make an empire this large (except Mongolia, but there I tech only for Keshiks, no other techs are needed).

 

[Jusos2108]

So am I correct that a good workaround would be to run an Espionage economy and just steal techs? Or is the price of stealing inflated also?

It is also inflated, but espionage points accumulate quite quickly with the appropiate buildings, even when running it at 0%. So basicly your should research some and steal some.

 

[SilchasRuin]

So am I correct that a good workaround would be to run an Espionage economy and just steal techs? Or is the price of stealing inflated also?

I tend to research, but get great spies as often as possible, courthouses are the first buildings I ever build as Japan, Germany, or Russia, for example