Science Points

[Brew God]

Hello Fellow Civ Fans,

When playing Civ 5...up in the upper left corner you see your Science Points in Blue. How does this relate to your speed and or quicknes to discovering the next technology other than higher the number is better for your society. How do you increase this number quickly....building libraries, University, Labs etc. or other builds?

I typically play in regards to taking over other Civ's via military force. So naturally you want to get to gunpowder and then later to tanks and infrantry to have a strong army. Which techniques are best in rapid science and quick technology discoveries.

Hope the above makes some sense and any input pro or con would be helpful.

Brew God

 

[Tabarnak]

Fast growth of this number until Renaissance era is always a good idea for most maps and victory conditions. But keep in mind that after the Ren. era with the PT/Rationalism combo you can get over 70% of your beakers from Research agreements.

I often play science games with max 200-250 bpt and i build a public school in capital only and no research labs and still finish before 1700 AD. Observatories are nice if you can get high population. Near the end, you can get beakers almost exclusively from RAs. It's the only way to get spectacular finish dates.

For the first 120 turns you can build the GL followed by NC to get maximum beakers. Can be done right away, or you can build 2-3 more cities(sword rush or not) before with a little more slower tech pace but with more and output and maybe with an already big army for massive puppeting. When Philo is researched, get some RAs within the 30 turns range(standard speed) before taking PT and keep a high median all the time. For best results, get some around turn 70 and try to get PT around turn 95 to let you time to clear some class. techs to reach a medieval median for your first wave.

 

[FeiLing]

Pretty sure it tells you exactly how many tech points a tech costs when you put the mouse over it. This depends though on game speed.

How to increase science? Oh yeah, science buildings sounds like a plan. These apparently (if anyone dares to read descriptions) work better the larger the population is. Also some of em allow specialist slots which give a significant boost at the cost of a normal worker (who can't produce food/hammers/gold then). However science specialist also contribute to great scientists creation. Such a GS can be used to either build a tile improvement, the academy, which gives a base science of +6 when being worked on. That bonus can be increased by the freedom policy tree. Oh yeah... and the rationalism policy is completely related to science - might want to read about that if you're interested in accumulating science. Or a GS (great scientist) can be used to instantly pick a tech from those that are currently available for you to research. Particularly useful for key techs and ones that take longer to research than others. Then there're also research agreements as a diplomatic option. You and the person/AI agreeing on a RA both pay some money (amount depending on on the era you're in - doesn't have to be equal, but is most of the time) and after 30 turns you get a lot of progress towards your research (oh yeah, I won't explain it in detail here, there is a very detailed thread about RAs in the war academy subforum).
RAs and 'bulbing' via GS play a major role in scientific progress.

 

[Hammer Rabbi]

if you view the tech tree, each tech when scrolled over show the cost of that tech, for example 125. if you have 12 beakers that's how many you get each turn so the tech will be finished on the 11th turn (10 turns = 120, the 11th for 12 more to finish for a total of 132 and the remaining 7 carry over to your next tech selection).

as the others have said, there are many methods to getting more beakers, some are earned every turn from buildings, wonders or tile improvements (academies or jungles). others come in 1 lump sums like free techs from policies, wonders, and great scientist or from research agreements completing.

maximizing their use is a delicate balance in military victories. this game is designed to make each focus come at the expense of another. focusing on tech advancement AND military advancement tends to dilute the efforts of just focusing on one of them. there are MANY different methods and each hinge on many different situations, preferences, and experimentation. there isn't particularly 1 answer but that's why this game is rather full, there are so many methods to the strategies.

btw, there will be lots of short-hand and abbreviations in the answers but you'll be able to figure them out over time (PT = Porcelain Tower for example). it took me a long time to get some of them down. good luck and cheers.

 

[Tokira]

On any of the higher difficulty levels I would build all the science buildings as fast as possible. Also having specialists in universities, public schools and researcg labs is a good idea. Great scientists, rationalism and sometimes even patronage are very useful.

Personally I used to do a lot of RAs but nowadays I don't do them at all really. I got bored of wasting the money due to an AI backstabbing me 5 turns before the RA would end or due to the AI gets wiped out by other civs. Of course the RAs are good if your playstyle is peaceful but since mine isn't, they aren't all that nice. Do them when you have a DOF with a civ, but not when you don't especially if you have a lot of puppets/are going to decleare a war soon.