Researching and Finance

[Ayani]

Hey Everyone,

I've gotten a lot of great information and tips from the forum, and I'm able to beat the AI on Noble difficulty at this point. So thanks for all the help so far!

There are just a couple of things I'm not clear on, and I haven't been able to find in any of the strategy articles.

On Noble, I find myself running slightly ahead of the top 2 or 3 AI's in Research, but not very far. Ususally if I look at a trade window I'll have 3 or 4 techs they don't have, but they have 1 or 2 I don't have. I tend to have the research slider at 100% most of the game, or will drop to 90% if I have to. With a well-spread religion and a shrine (and maybe the Spiral Minaret), as well as the income from selling resources for cash, I'm usually not hurting for gold and can make a decent per turn income while at 100% research. However, I've seen screenshots from people totally trouncing the AI and they have their sliders at 50 tech/culture. How do they do it?

Additionally, in regards to the very early game, I know spreading too fast can hurt you. However, it seems no matter what I do, the 3rd city always drops me into negative gold per turn if I stay at 100% research. Usually I cope with this by dropping to 90% once I run out of money at that point, and then back up to 100% as soon as I can support it. Is there a better way?

Thanks for any replies!

 

[Skutai]

On Monarch I commonly drop down to 60% or even 50% research rate before trade routes, Markets, and (most importantly) my cottages start to make up for the shortfall. Cottages are the key to financial well-being, which leads directly to technological dominance.

Also consider how you maximize your research. Use the city info screen to find out which of your cities produces the most beakers. Focus tech in that city with libraries, observatories, and any wonder that helps research. I regularly have a Nerd-ville research city that generates several times the number of beakers as my average city.

 

[petey]

The AI tends to build a lot of cottages and windmills, so that brings them in a lot of gold, which can be used towards research, which is why they're generally doing well in that regard.

The tech slider is important to keep an eye on. Even in the early game, you can still move it down a few notches to pick up gold once you get down to 3 or 4 turns to go, which lets you finance a deficit to keep research up for the next one.

 

[Ayani]

Thanks for the responses

I definately try to specialize my cities, but I also try to at least put a library in all of them at some point.

It seems that cottage money goes directly to research, in that if you have a city maintanence cost of 5, and you are at 100% research, you'll be loosing 5 gold a turn whether or not you have any cottages. Though I can see how the money they generate would make your 50% research possibly higher than someone else who's built only farms.

Petey, are you saying that you can drop the slider when you have a few turns left (ala CivIII) and not lower then number of turns required to complete the tech? I thought they had gotten rid of that, so I hadn't really messed with it much.

Also, Skutai, do you have "Nerdville" set to just output research when you have no research-increasing buildings/wonders to build there?

 

[DaveMcW]

The AIs won't sell monopoly techs, but they are very willing to sell when 2 people (you and them) know it. So they will constantly trade behind your back to try and catch up.

It's difficult to run away in the tech race, unless your economy is 50% of the world total.

 

[Skutai]

Also, Skutai, do you have "Nerdville" set to just output research when you have no research-increasing buildings/wonders to build there?

It's not really something I set. That is, the city also produces other things if necessary, but when a research building or Wonder becomes available I make sure to build one there, if at all possible. For instance, when you've finished your sixth University the Oxford University becomes available and the computer always suggests it. I'll pass on it until Nerdville comes around and then build it there.

It helps to have a troop building city as a counterpart ot Nerdville so the egg heads don't have to be burdened with building their own defensive units. Religion is also key since Monestaries of any religion boost tech. A bunch of 10% bonuses in Nerdville can really add up.

 

[petey]

Petey, are you saying that you can drop the slider when you have a few turns left (ala CivIII) and not lower then number of turns required to complete the tech? I thought they had gotten rid of that, so I hadn't really messed with it much.

If you're at 100% research and something takes 10 turns to research something, when you get down to 2 turns left, it doesn't always take the full 100% research to discover it in those 2 turns. If you go down to 90 or 80% research at that point, then you're still producing enough research to finish up in 2 turns and you're getting more gold as well. Leaving it at 100% research doesn't get the tech faster and loses you gold. Move the slider down until before the # of turns to completion goes up.

One thing to remember, though, is to make sure you move the research slider back up after the tech is discovered or else the next tech will take longer to research.

 

[Gufnork]

The reason some people can run 50% tech and still keep up is because they have a much larger civ than yours. While it costs a lot to maintain it (thus the low tech%), if you get twice as much commerce from your vast empire you're still researching at the same pace.

No, there is no better way. It doesn't take long for the first few cities to pay for themselves though, so it's not a problem. It's not the tech% that's important, it's the number of beakers so don't measure your success by that.

 

[KrikkitTwo]

The AI tends to build a lot of cottages and windmills, so that brings them in a lot of gold, which can be used towards research, which is why they're generally doing well in that regard.

The tech slider is important to keep an eye on. Even in the early game, you can still move it down a few notches to pick up gold once you get down to 3 or 4 turns to go, which lets you finance a deficit to keep research up for the next one.

well yes, but that means less carry over beakers
ie beakers being produced at 100%=30
beakers needed for current tech=100 (4 turns)

2 scenarios

1. leave it at 100%
after 4 turns you have the tech AND 20 extra beakers to go into the next tech

2. leave it at 90% (27 beakers and 3 gold)
after 4 turns you have the tech and 8 extra beakers to go into the next tech
AND 12 gold

so nothing is lost no matter what the setting is.


The only reason to 'fiddle with' the slider is if you need say 5 gold per turn in up keep and 90% slider gets you 4 gpt and 80% gets you 8 gpt. (for max science you have to run a surplus at 80 for a few turns then run a deficit at 90 for a few turns, and repeat.)

This was what they changed to stop the Civ 3 slider mm

 

[petey]

OK, Krikkitone, I didn't know beakers carried over. That does make my slider strategy relatively useless Civ III carryover.

This being the case makes the only reason to use it to do what Krikkitone suggested and alternating between running a profit and deficit to keep he max research you can without going broke.