Research rate in the early game?

[macabre]

I usually play on noble with little success (i've only once managed to squeeze out a space race win).

My question is: what is the best BPT and research rate in the early game (Ancient/Classical) to stay competitive in the tech race. I seem to waver between 50%-70% and usually fall into the middle of the pack near the medieval era.

Any help is appreciated. keep in mind this is noble and not immortal/deity.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

% on the slider is not a good metric for research. Your tech position against competition is a good picture. That applies to any difficulty, although of course it's more typical to fall far behind on deity. On noble you can stay ahead the entire time.

Fixed BPT rates just aren't good metrics. It's too map dependent. Try to research things you can trade, or if you suspect you can't trade for them soon (common on noble), make sure you research things like monarchy, currency, and code of laws. With those 3, you can essentially afford unlimited expansion and still develop.

 

[macabre]

thanks. i see what you mean about the bpt and %.

does that mean i should avoid somewhat useless early techs like meditation, archery and instead beeline for later ones?

 

[JBossch]

does that mean i should avoid somewhat useless early techs like meditation, archery and instead beeline for later ones?

Every tech you research should be for a purpose. Focus on what you need and skip everything you don't.

 

[TheMeInTeam]

Every tech you research should be for a purpose. Focus on what you need and skip everything you don't.

Agreed. Even those techs can have uses (actually, although meditation often doesn't directly at first, it is the shortest path to monarchy and needed to bulb philosophy ----> acquired pretty frequently, although usually not before worker techs). Archery for mali unlock a very powerful offense/defense UU, and on deity can be useful to hold off the barbs.

 

[DMOC]

Agree with TMIT, I was actually going to say the exact same thing.

Don't forget that you can often get a religion with Meditation on lower difficulty levels, and Medit unlocks Priesthood which allows temples to be built (for culture wins).

 

[el toro loco]

also don't forget to work your squares and not over expand. 2 cities w/ one of them having gold and another having lots of cottages can dominate the 8 spammed cities the computer puts out.

in later difficulties u must expand or be crushed but at noble you can slow your expansion and completely dominate w/ fewer cities because you are completely out teching them.

/completely

 

[Shafi]

Also tech smartly in order to make sure you have trade options, i play on noble too and i tech alphabet relatively early, sometime soon after the worker techs & BW, this gives me a monopoly on the tech for a while and all the AI's can only trade with me for a while.
Keep an eye on what the AI researches as well.

 

[macabre]

thanks for the replies, i played out a few early games and did much better because i focused on techs i needed for the particular starting situation. I also traded later ones for a bunch of early ones.
once again, thanks.

 

[yanner39]

thanks for the replies, i played out a few early games and did much better because i focused on techs i needed for the particular starting situation. I also traded later ones for a bunch of early ones.
once again, thanks.

As a less experienced player like myself, one of the things that I find tempting is to research techs not because I need them, but because I am moving farther right in the tech tree and leaving these techs behind. I'm getting alot at simply focusing on the techs I need.

 

[ppciv4]

either 100% or 0%.

0% when building library, or until your first GS if being philosophy
0% while preparing for war, build enough army to crash your economy.
100% when researching, get currency to build wealth if overexpanded, that works much better than cottage.

 

[mi6agent]

much better than cottage.

EPIC FAILTURE MATE

BPT that matters, not your science slider. 100+ bpt at 1 AD is good for a normal peaceful standard game at all difficulty lvl .

 

[mi6agent]

does that mean i should avoid somewhat useless early techs like meditation, archery and instead beeline for later ones?

Archery is not useless, it quite important for kill barbs at Emp/Imm level . If you not going to build Oracle yes Meditation is useless, but you need it to get Priesthood -> Mornachy. So you just tech Aesthetics to trade for it with Iron Working later. (or trade Aes for Alphabet then broker Alphabet for IW + Medi/Poly)

 

[Bostock]

Agree with TMIT, I was actually going to say the exact same thing.

Don't forget that you can often get a religion with Meditation on lower difficulty levels, and Medit unlocks Priesthood which allows temples to be built (for culture wins).

Right idea, wrong building IMO -- the best early culture bang for the buck after the monument (assuming no Creative) is the Monastery... which Meditation gives you immediately!

 

[Silu]

Archery is not useless, it quite important for kill barbs at Emp/Imm level .

If you get early enough Copper or Horses (or GW), teching Hunting (for Archery) can actually be a bad thing; before Hunting you can build Warriors for HR happiness even after a metal is hooked (this is obv stupid if you have Camp resources).

 

[blitzkrieg1980]

Archery is important if no copper/horses anywhere near you. Ironworking is too large a tech to go for barb/defense purposes and could kill your economy (unless Rome of course ) so that's when I go Archery... or when playing as Native Americans/Mali

 

[DMOC]

Right idea, wrong building IMO -- the best early culture bang for the buck after the monument (assuming no Creative) is the Monastery... which Meditation gives you immediately!

Well I said temples since they let me build cathedrals, synagogues, pagodas, etc.

 

[macabre]

Ok, i should have clarified what i meant by "useless" techs. I meant techs that aren't really useful for whatever situation I'm in. I'm not saying that archery is always useless, because, of course, it's not.

 

[pesgores]

I keep my slider at 100% yet I always fall back on the Medieval Age.

I think my problem is starting on Ancient. I can't win if I start on Ancient. I can only play a good game if I start in Classical or later. It makes me mad, because all cool scenarios come with Ancient and default and unchangeable option.

 

[blitzkrieg1980]

I think my problem is starting on Ancient. I can't win if I start on Ancient. I can only play a good game if I start in Classical or later. It makes me mad, because all cool scenarios come with Ancient and default and unchangeable option.

This is the clutch portion of the game! The ancient era is when you REX to set up your empire/war for land, holy cities, and workers! If you can't win starting in Ancient era, why not step back in difficulty and learn to set up a good basis for your empire. Then return to your current difficulty. Of course, if you like it this way, don't worry about it