Research

[web25]

Do you guys build libraries or just rely on income?

Ive been building more libraries and adding many scientists and havent really seen a difference with a beaker farm.

I was making more money and getti g tech in the same turns while swotching the scientists for taxmen.

What are your strategies to become a leader in tech?

For some reason i do so much better in momarchy than a republic government. When i switch to republic i nave to increase my taxes just to break even. Maybe im not using republic right to see the commerce bonuses.

 

[Theov]

Oof. Many questions in here...

Yes you should use libraries as they add 50% to your beaker output for the price of 1 gpt (gold per turn). So it will take shields to build it but with 4 beakers it it will be profitable. ( I thought a lib in a 3 beaker town only adds 1 as it is rounded down... also you will lose some beakers as the overflow is not brought over to the next tech).

Same holds up for other multiplier buildings, they cost you x amount per turn, but in non/low corruption town they are almost always worth it.

Using taxmen and scientists should only be used in towns that have max corruption or if there are only 11 tiles to work.
People can either work land, or be a taxman/scientist/entertainer etc (specialist).

It is better to let the people work the tiles instead of turning them into specialist. Worked tiles bring in cash, this cash is used for the treasury or science or for the luxury slider.

So let the people work the tiles, bring in cash, shields and food, a specialist doenst bring in food or shields!

If you post a save of your current game you will get far more precise feedback.

Check out the details of the governments (my sig) to see the governments details, maybe republic doesnt have the unit support you need, or doesnt have the military police you need to keep the people content.
A republic preferably has a strong income or many lux to keep the people happy.

 

[web25]

Thanks that helps a lot.

Are temples and cathedrals worth building in far away cities?

Some of my cities around 20 pop have half unhappy all the time,lol.

 

[Weelildragon]

I think it will help if you can get them to celebrate the President/King day. It really reduces corruption by a lot.

 

[CKS]

Thanks that helps a lot.

Are temples and cathedrals worth building in far away cities?

Some of my cities around 20 pop have half unhappy all the time,lol.

Generally, no. If a city is corrupt, make it into a science farm or a tax farm. Temples and cathedrals cost a lot of shields to build and they cost a lot of maintenance to operate. If a city is not corrupt you want to have all the citizens working, but if it is corrupt, the efforts of your working citizens are wasted, but specialists remain useful.

On the other hand, a library can occasionally be useful even if you only get one extra beaker from it. It might seem like one beaker for one g in maintenance gets you nothing, but maintenance can be paid for by money coming in from other nations and you cannot take money from other civs and turn it into beakers. This is, of course, only reasonable to do if you need lots of beakers, if you can get money from other civs, and if there is a lot of time left in the game.

Remember, though, that you can't learn a tech in less than 4 turns, so if you are doing 4-turn research, you may be able to turn down the science rate or switch to tax men and still learn things in 4 turns.

Also, in republic you will need to increase the lux rate, but you may still be getting more beakers - 70% of 100 to science is better than 100% of 60.

 

[tjs282]

Are temples and cathedrals worth building in far away cities?

Depends. Are you running a Commie government? Are you Religious? Are you trying to win by 100K Culture? If no to one or more questions, then likely not.

Whether you're Commie or Republic (and really, you should pick one of these and stick to it; Republic or maaaaybe Commie for Domination/Conquest, but definitely Republic for everything else), a Marketplace plus 5 or 6 Luxes (settle them, conquer them, or buy them) gives 1 + 1 + 2 + 2 + 3 (+ 3) = 9 (or 12) Happyfaces -- all for a build-cost of 100 shields (vs. 220 shields total, for a Temple + Cathedral) and a maintenance cost of 1 GPT (vs. 3 GPT total). So building a Market, plus acquring the Luxes, plus maybe 10-20% LUX%-spending should easily be enough to keep even a semi-corrupt Pop20 metro happy, without needing a Temple + Cathedral as well.

And if you are Commie, the most important buildings to improve happiness may actually be Courthouses and Police Stations, since these decorrupt your base income, providing more raw bux to be converted into Happyfaces (for any given LUX%-slider setting >0%). Plus under Commie, you don't get war-weariness -- and every other unhappiness-source is entirely the result of your own actions: so keeping whipping/ drafting to a minimum, plus some cheap defenders as military police, should be enough to keep your metros happy.

 

[WeirdoJoker]

I often go for Cultural victories (most particularly with a Religious civ), so I find myself building Temples and Cathedrals anywhere I can.

For doing the Space Race, do I correctly assume Universities help along with Libraries? I've been building them, but haven't really analyzed their usefulness; I've just assumed it. (I also build them for the culture points.)

What's involved with using towns (i.e., the remote ones) as "science or tax farms"? Is it just a matter of getting as much food as possible for growth? What would such a town build, with so few shields? What I want to build depends on what I'm trying to accomplish, of course, but rarely is much of anything practical given the corruption, even with a Courthouse (and later a Police Station).

 

[tjs282]

I often go for Cultural victories (most particularly with a Religious civ), so I find myself building Temples and Cathedrals anywhere I can.

For Culture vics, this is fine—indeed, pretty much obligatory!

Spoiler Speculation :

But to get the 100K before the AI gets 50K at Monarch+, you need to start building Culture as early as possible, and therefore prioritising the techs that get you that Culture. You should also plant towns quite tightly, because the more towns you have, the more early Culture your Civ can produce as a whole. If your Civ is Religious, whipping Temples may be worth doing in the early game, after letting a town get 10 shields in the bin first. The whip-unhappiness is initially countered by the Temple it just built, and will likely have been (nearly) forgotten by the time that lost pop-point has been replaced (unless you're playing the Celts, whose Agricultural growth may be faster than this, even without a Granary).

For doing the Space Race, do I correctly assume Universities help along with Libraries? I've been building them, but haven't really analyzed their usefulness; I've just assumed it. (I also build them for the culture points.)

Any town where it's worth putting a Lib, can almost certainly also use a Uni, so yes. The benefits from having both buildings are cumulative, not multiplicative: Libs give +50% to your SCI%-slider spending, and Unis add another +50%, so whatever fraction of the town's commerce you're converting to beakers, a Lib+Uni will double that beaker-output (eliminating any rounding-losses that a Lib alone might incur). The Culture-points are also nice to have, but would not be the primary reason why you'd build these improvements for a Space-Race win (but for a 100K Culture-win, definitely — so the Babylonians are also a good pick for this VC). The question then becomes, where will building a Lib+Uni pay off?

Spoiler TLDR :

Assuming that SCI%-spending is held at the highest affordable setting (ideally SCI% [+LUX%] = 100%) without going broke on the interturn (deficit-spending an accumulated Treasury is OK!), then all core-towns should (eventually) get Libs+Unis, starting with those which bring in the highest commerce per turn. Once the core was done, I'd work outwards though my peripheral towns, until I got to the ones which would first need Courthouses + Police Stations just to get down to ~70% corruption (which is rather where my farm-land would begin). After Sanitation, as my 'permanent' core-Cities are converted into Metros and 'throwaway' 2nd and 4th-ring towns are Settler-disbanded to provide expansion room (if necessary), this peripheral zone will move further out from my Palace.

Running max.-SCI% will also minimise rounding-losses, and maximise any TAX%-windfall I'd get by minimising the SCI%-slider on the last turn of research — possibly even to 0%, if I have farms established, and my Geek-beakers are enough to finish the project. (An MM-freak might even go so far as to convert all unneeded Geeks into Taxmen as well, but doing that below DG/Deity is probably being unnecessarily retentive).

Conversely, if I was running low SCI% and high TAX% to buy/broker my techs from the AI-Civs, then Libs + Unis wouldn't give much if any beaker-boostage, so I'd rather have Markets + Banks + StockExes (and Taxmen on the farms) — but I'd still start with the highest-commerce towns in the core, and work outwards.

What's involved with using towns (i.e., the remote ones) as "science or tax farms"? Is it just a matter of getting as much food as possible for growth?

Basically yes: plant towns at CxC, preferentially on low-food tiles to get the automatic 2 FPT from the town-tile (which can support 1 Specialist with zero growth in food-poor regions), irrigate(+rail) any adjacent flatland which will give >2FPT (including Deserts if Agricultural), and feed your Specialists using the excess food-harvest.

What would such a town build, with so few shields? What I want to build depends on what I'm trying to accomplish, of course, but rarely is much of anything practical given the corruption, even with a Courthouse (and later a Police Station).

For a non-100K game, in most farm-towns I wouldn't even bother putting up Courthouse, Police Station, or any other (multiplier-)buildings — and I'd also sell off just about everything I 'inherited' from a defeated AI-Civ. At most, a Tundra-farm with an adjacent Fish might get a Harbour (means I can run 2 Specialists + 1 fisherman, instead of just 1 Specialist), and Walls are cheap to build and require no maintenance, so might be useful to boost defence in Pop1-6 farms along my borders, but these can both be assembled relatively quickly by 1-2 Forest-chops, Cav-disbands, or Civil Engineers.

Instead, I'd set farms to build Settlers (to found more farms), Workers (to chop, irrigate and rail more farmland, and/or get later-established farms up to max.pop. that much quicker), Artillery (can be rush-built if you need it, otherwise it's basically just to keep the farm occupied so you don't have to check on it frequently/ at all), or Wealth (you get 1 gold for every 4 shields or part thereof, so each Wealth-farm's single uncorrupted shield can contribute 1 GPT to your income).

You can also conscript defenders from Pop7+ farms, at risk of potentially affecting happiness if Luxes are in short supply.

 

[justanick]

I think it will help if you can get them to celebrate the President/King day. It really reduces corruption by a lot.

No, it does not. If you want to decrease corruption do build courthouses. WLTKD reduces corruption on shields which is called waste. But it does not reduce corruption on commerce. Thus the effect on net commerce is negative. Net commerce is beakers + gpt. So if you produce 400 beakers per turn at -60 gpt, than your net commerce is 340. Net commerce is the main determinant for research in the long run.

Once you have courthouse and police station the effect of WLTKD on waste is low.

And if you are Commie, the most important buildings to improve happiness may actually be Courthouses and Police Stations,

That is highly unlikely. If you go commie you likely have an empire large enough to not depend on luxus slider. Courthouses are a must have as a commie, but police stations only have low return on investment. 2 gpt maintenance for a reduction of corruption by about 2 hardly is worth the investment of 160 shields.

For a republic courthouses can be important for the luxus slider in the semicore.

What would such a town build, with so few shields?

At a production of 1 wealth is the natural choice. Due to rounding you get 1 gpt for only 1 shield. That is exceptionally good.

While you are still short on workers building workers is quite natural, too. Every other option seems like a bad idea. Artillery is possible, but likely this takes way too long to be reasonable. Wealth is usually more feasible.

Settlers could make sense in some circumstances, but i estimate those circumstances to be unlikely.

If there still is plenty land to be used by further sciencefarms, than cash rushing settlers in science farm may make sense. A new farm saves 2 gpt in unit support, gives at least 1 gpt in uncorrupt commerce and would give 1 gpt due to wealth and the city tile produces a net food 2 or 3 if you are agricultural.

Cost for a settler could be 10 gold for 10 turns of not producing wealth, 80 gold for cashrushing, 1 more gold for not producing wealth in the final turn and 40 food for the 2 population the town looses on completion of the settler.

I value 2 food = 3 beakers because scientists produce 3 beakers per turn at the price of 2 food per turn.
Investment = 10+80+1+60 gold = 151 gold.
Return on investment = 2+1+1+3 gtp = 7 gpt.

This is not an excellent investment, but not a particularily bad one either. With 7gtp/151 gold= 4,64% per turn it is better than 2,5% per turn as a benchmark for long term investments.

The relevant issue is that land will be scarce and the limited land can be used with settlers from regulars towns not relying on cash rushing.

Building a few settlers to support further conquests and to take advantage of opening gaps due to warfare makes sense. Obviously it is better to put shields into settlers than to put them into wealth first and cashrush settlers second. Regularily built settler from science farms cost 30 gold(wealth) + 60 gold(food) + 2 gtp(unit support).

One should properly plan ahead to mitigate losses from cash rushing and losses due to unit support. I consider it a good idea to disband units in freshly taken towns to get shields up to 30 and built foreign settler without delay. This reduces the risk of flipping and foreign settler cost no units support.

For doing the Space Race, do I correctly assume Universities help along with Libraries? I've been building them, but haven't really analyzed their usefulness; I've just assumed it.

On average tiles generate a base somerce of about 1.5 as commie or 2.5 in a Republic. The later is usually the relevant case. The city tile itself can be asssumed to produce 5 base commerce. So city tile +12 citizens produce 35 base commerce out of which 20% might be corruption. This leaves 28 base commerce.

Libraries, universities and the modern labs give 50% on this base uncurrupt commerce. So that is 14 beakers each.

If shields are scarce than their value is higher than 1 gold. If commerce is scarce than 1 gold is more valueable 1 shield. For the sake of simplicity i assume 1 gold = 1 shield.

Libraries cost 1 gtp and 80 shields or 40 shields with discount. So it is (14 gtp - 1 gtp)/80 gold = 16.25% p.t. or even (14 gtp - 1 gtp)/40 gold = 32.5% per turn.

Universities cost 2 gtp and 200 shields or 100 shields with discount. So it is (14 gtp - 2 gtp)/200 gold = 6% p.t. or even (14 gtp - 2 gtp)/100 gold = 12% per turn.

Laboratories cost 2 gtp and 200 shields or 100 shields with discount. So it is (14 gtp - 2 gtp)/200 gold = 6% p.t. or even (14 gtp - 2 gtp)/100 gold = 12% per turn.

If you are not a republic those building take much longer to pay off. The assumptions of only 20% corruption and 100% scence sliders are also a bias in favour of those building.

 

[Buttercup]

I tend to build everything I like, sometimes regardless of need, sometimes in-spite of need.

I'm quite OCD with my self-concept of a nice empire I can call my own. Even if that obscure town 4 or 5 rings from my Capital will only benefit by 1 extra Beaker by building a Library, I'll usually build it, just because I like the idea of having a Library in all my towns. For neatness and equality.

However, sometimes I'll forgo building a factory in a town where there's no reason not to simply because I don't like the idea of my citizens in that lovely scenic idyllic location drowning in a sea of pollution.

I like Libraries, so I build them *everywhere*. They're also the best way to chunk out your borders, though, having said that, if I conquer a town I'll usually build a Temple first or instead, depending on how late in the game it is. Same rule for late-game new city founding, such as Islands and etc.

When do I build libraries? Usually as soon as possible, though this phrase doesn't automatically mean some cities might not have a lot of other priorities first, such as, for example, as just one minor example, an early border town where a couple of Spearmen, a Barracks and a Wall might be more both fitting and relevant than one more Library, in the short-term. Or a Harbour for a town of mostly water, & etc etc.

 

[vorlon_mi]

Chaining together several of Justanick's points -- since you're going for a spaceship victory, you will definitely learn all the techs in the Industrial era. Thus you will be able to railroad and irrigate all the flat tiles in the region where your C-x-C science farm is located. Railroaded, irrigated plains or grasslands will produce an abundance of food, to feed your scientist specialists. I nearly always build a Marketplace in farm towns, for the happiness multiplier effect. I usually have to cash-rush it, because the farm towns usually only produce one shield per turn. If I'm paying close attention, I might run a few turns with the specialists as Civil Engineers (hard hats) to speed up the Marketplace build, then switch them back to Scientists and cash-rush the rest.
If any of the farm towns are coastal, I will often build a Harbor.
But no, they don't produce any units or build additional buildings. Once they're set, it's Wealth all the way. "Set it and forget it." I will sometimes switch one from Wealth to pop out a worker, and then switch it back. The worker can be added to another city -- say, a beachhead city on the other continent -- that needs to grow.

 

[tjs282]

since you're going for a spaceship victory, you will definitely learn all the obligatory techs in the Industrial era

FTFY

Why even bother with most of the optional techs (apart from maybe Sanitation, if you're planning to convert your Cities to Metros)? You'll get to the Modern Age that much faster without them (it is a Space-Race, after all!), and the AI will usually (eventually) do (Nationalism and Espionage and Communism and Ironclads and) Advanced Flight and Amphibious Warfare for you at some point, if you really want them (well, maybe not so much below Monarch, but then skipping the optionals just makes your tech-lead even bigger)...

I nearly always build a Marketplace in farm towns, for the happiness multiplier effect.

Shuuuurely not in the Pop6-ers? You usually only need to keep max. 3 farmers content/happy, which you should easily be able to do with only 3-4 Lux-resources (without a Market). And even in the Pop12-ers (wet or previously Duct'ed by the AI), 5-6 Luxes should be enough to keep the farmers happy...

Are you often short on Luxes? What map-settings do you habitually play on?

If any of the farm towns are coastal, I will often build a Harbor.

There's little point doing this in a 'normal' farm (i.e. one without seafood-bonus tiles), because 'all' a Harbour does is increase the output of Coast/Sea tiles from 1 FPT to 2FPT (and cost you maintenance). So while your farm can get bigger, all newborn 'fisherman' will just eat what they catch, instead of producing sufficient excess to support another Geek. (And you'll have more people needing happiness! )

If the town has a Fish (+2 FPT) or 2 Whales (+1 FPT each), it's different: because the Harbour adds 1 FPT to the base-tile (feeding the fisherman/whalers), the seafood-bonus can then be fully passed on to an extra Geek (and 2 Fish will feed 2 Geeks!).

So I just leave coastal farms at whatever max. population level (farmers + Geeks) they can reach with their railed+irrigated (fertile) flatland — even if that's only Pop3-4, I should be able to run at least 1-2 Geeks. And in stunted Pop1-2 towns in non-fertile areas (non-AGRI Desert, or Hills or Tundra, without food-bonuses), 1 citizen per town can Geek using the food from the town-tile.

 

[justanick]

I nearly always build a Marketplace in farm towns, for the happiness multiplier effect.

That is a bad idea unless you get past size 6 or even past size 12. The later would require hospitals and for that to pay off you would need to aim for a long term science farm. So instead of many small ones you try to get few big ones with 10 to 17 citizens on the tiles and 10+ scientists on top of that. You need aqueducts, hospitals, courthouses, police stations, harbours, commerce harbours, marketplaces, liberaries, universities and the modern labs. Not counting in discounts that is 100+160+80+160+60+160+100+80+200+200 = 1300 shields for a metropolis with up to 70% corruption. This can make sense as that way your total research output will be about 30 + specialists and thus higher than without those investments mentioned. But those will be quite high. 1300 shields by engineers instead of scientists equal 1950 beakers. If we assume the amount of specialists does not change in the long run and that 3 small farms with 1 regular research each are replaced by one big farm with 30 regular research, than it is 27 beakers per turn / 1950 beakers = 1.38% per turn. So it would take about 100 turns to pay off, but even at 4 engineers it takes further 1300/8 = 162 turns before those 100 turns starts. If most of the shields come from disbanding units, than it goes a lot faster. If instead of building wealth units are built for disbanding it its 2 gold per shield because wealth gives up to 2 gold per 4 shields but disbanding only 1 shields per 4 shields. So 1300 shields equal 2600 gold and it is 27 beakers per turn / 2600 gold = 1.04% per turn.

If you really want to max out research it is a way to go, but the reality of the situation is that space victory can be achieved before such investment pays off and lower research in the short run could delay space victory. It is the limit of 4 turns per tech that cannot be undershot, thus increasing research output past that is wasted. Short term research output is important.

I usually have to cash-rush it [...] Once they're set, it's Wealth all the way. "Set it and forget it."

So you get 1 shields form cash rush per 8 shields put into wealth. Produce units for disbanding and you get 1 shield per 4 shields. It is much more efficient or at least less infficient. And reducing research spending to hopefully increase research output in the long run is a questionable choice, too.

There's little point doing this in a 'normal' farm (i.e. one without seafood-bonus tiles), because 'all' a Harbour does is increase the output of Coast/Sea tiles from 1 FPT to 2FPT (and cost you maintenance).

I like to check the facts on that assessment. It is best to assume that the town already has freshwaster or an aquedukt. Aiming science farm to utilize existing fresh water makes sense and if for some reasons a region has plenty food but not freshwater building aqueducts dors pay off. If the aqueduct reduces money from wealth by 200 and 6 more scientist cost 40 food each, than it its 18 beakers per turn / 560 beakers = 3.21% per turn.

Now a courthouse, a harbour and a library cost additional 160 gold + 120 gold + 160 gold = 440 gold. 3 tiles of coast and 3 tiles of sea cost 40 food each. So it is the same 360 beakers for the food. The regular research might have 2 before the investment and 9 after it. So it would be 7 beakers per turn / 800 beakers = 0.875% per turn and less if i properly count in maintenance. Without the bonus resources you mentioned it is not worth the invest. A long term science farm is questionable, the mid term compromise as i sketched here is even less reasonable.

 

[web25]

when you guys buy tech, what are the prices for each age?

also when making science farms, how many specialists total to make a difference?

do scientists also save you money even if you cant get enough to lower the turns to research a tech? for instance are they wasted if you cant research faster?

 

[tjs282]

when you guys buy tech, what are the prices for each age?

Depends on map-size, difficulty and how many other civs (that you know) also know whichever tech that you want to buy.

As a rough guide though, the average base-price for all the techs in an age (which are set in the editor) roughly doubles from one age to the next.

also when making science farms, how many specialists total to make a difference?

To what? Turns to research? Depends on all of the above factors (tech-cost), how many farms you've set up, what tech-level you have, and various other factors. But assuming that you're beginning to set up your first farms (in conquered territory) towards the end of the Middle Age, their beaker-boost is initially going to be fairly low.

Before rails (Steam), a Pop5 farm on fully irrigated Grassland can usually run at least 2 Geeks (2*3 beakers per turn) from 3 farmed tiles (each farm-tile gives 3 FPT = 11 FPT total = 3 Farmers + 2 Geeks + 1 FPT excess; assigning a third Geek at Pop6 will put the farm into negative FPT); but even a Pop6 Plains-farm would still only be able to run 1 Geek (because irrigated Plains yield only 2 FPT, i.e. no excess food apart from the town-tile)

After rails, a Grassland farm could now run 3 Geeks (each tile now gives 4 FPT = 14 FPT total = 3 Farmers + 3 Geeks, plus 2 FPT excess; it could now build Workers in 10T at Pop6), and the Plains farm could now run 2 Geeks.

The Agricultural trait (+1 FPT from the town-tile), food-bonuses (Wheat, Cattle, Game, Fish, Wines), and/or Floodplains (4 FPT before rails) will all increase the food-harvest and hence potential Geek-numbers per farm.

do scientists also save you money even if you cant get enough to lower the turns to research a tech? for instance are they wasted if you cant research faster?

Even if your Geek-farms would allow you to do 4-turns-per-tech at less than max.SCI%, it's still usually better to keep your SCI%-slider at the highest rate you can afford (after any needed LUX%-spending), to minimise rounding losses.

Therefore, running Geeks as well as max.-SCI% should still 'save' you money on the last turn of research, because you should then be able to reduce to 'min.-SCI%' on the last turn, and get a large TAX%-windfall instead. The more Geeks you run, the more you should be able to reduce the SCI%-slider (possibly even to 0%), and the bigger the windfall.

If you can actually get a tech using only Geek-beakers on the last turn, then to squeeze every last possible gold piece out of your farms, you could -- if you have the patience for such micromanagement -- also reassign some Geeks as Taxmen as well (just enough that 1 more Taxman would push turns-left-to-research back up to 2). But you'd also have to remember to reassign them again when you start your next research-project...

 

[Lanzelot]

also when making science farms, how many specialists total to make a difference?

I just finished a standard size, emperor level space race, so I can provide some numbers to give you an idea:
In these circumstances (standard/emperor), the modern age technologies require around 8000-9200 beakers. (Tech prices depend on map size and difficulty level -- among other things.) So in order to research these techs in 4 turns, I needed 2000-2300 beakers per turn. Throughout the modern age my core cities (with Libraries, Universities and Research Labs at 100% science rate) provided 1700-2100 beakers, and the rest came from specialists. (Both, the output of my cities and the number of specialists kept increasing during that time, as I was improving my empire.) So I had something like 100-130 specialists, providing 300 beakers (and some cash as needed, in order to cover the deficit that was not covered by the AI).

Of course in the middle age and early industrial age these numbers are much smaller, as railways are not yet available (or not yet constructed in sufficient numbers).

The general recipe for a fast space race is:

• Switch to Republic asap.
• Core cities need Libraries and Universities asap
• Conquer enough territory, so that a) your future science farms can start growing and b) you have ~5 luxury resources
• Buy the remaining 3 lux resources from the AI (Pay with techs. Also get their gold-per-turn in those deals, so they cover your deficit!)
  This gets you the required happiness and the required cash resources to run 100% science (whenever needed - of course reduce the science slider to save gold, whenever you can get a tech in 4 turns at less than 100%!) (This by the way works better on higher difficulty levels, emperor and above, because on the lower difficulty levels the AI is so weak that they almost never have spare gold they could give you...)
• Get Steam Power asap, so that the extra food from railways can feed a huge number of specialists in the totally corrupt outlying villages & cities.
• And you need more workers! (But this applies to any Civ3 game, not only to a space race... You always need more workers than you currently have...)

 

[justanick]

Buy the remaining 3 lux resources from the AI (Pay with techs. Also get their gold-per-turn in those deals, so they cover your deficit!)

Buying the the last 3 and more importantly the last 2 lux can be quite expensive as they give 4 happy faces and are valued as such by AI. So taking them by force has some merit. Some force will be needed to get all resources for the spaceship, trading for them would be quite expensive.

Hospitals are a good way to increase the reserach output of the core cities, but the question is whether it pays off the 4 turn delay by the tech. At the lower difficulty settings it might not and at the higher settings it can probably be traded for.

 

[CKS]

If you are really having trouble paying for the last few lux resources, you can pillage your own luxes so that you are buying luxes that only give 1 happy face. Then re-road your own.

 

[web25]

Lanzelot - how many core cities did you have?

I recently built the internet in my current game and noticed a huge difference, i could turn the slider down 1 and saved about 300 gpt.

 

[Spoonwood]

The general recipe for a fast space race is:

• Switch to Republic asap.
• Core cities need Libraries and Universities asap
• Conquer enough territory, so that a) your future science farms can start growing and b) you have ~5 luxury resources
• Buy the remaining 3 lux resources from the AI (Pay with techs. Also get their gold-per-turn in those deals, so they cover your deficit!)
  This gets you the required happiness and the required cash resources to run 100% science (whenever needed - of course reduce the science slider to save gold, whenever you can get a tech in 4 turns at less than 100%!) (This by the way works better on higher difficulty levels, emperor and above, because on the lower difficulty levels the AI is so weak that they almost never have spare gold they could give you...)
• Get Steam Power asap, so that the extra food from railways can feed a huge number of specialists in the totally corrupt outlying villages & cities.
• And you need more workers! (But this applies to any Civ3 game, not only to a space race... You always need more workers than you currently have...)

Your luxury advice might need some modification, but I think more-or-less it works.

I pretty much agree otherwise.

I do think that you've missed one useful generally applicable tip though:

Try to get the AI to do research for you. Avoid researching techs that they will probably research first and then trade for those technologies.