science Slider

[madscientist]

After reading some advice here, I have started abusing the science slider in one of two ways. either 100% science or 100% gold. The reason is that the rounding off (??? ???) is lost so that it's better to get alot of gold, then run at 100% beakers. Does anyone have a good explaination of why this works.

In my recent games I have seen this ends up helping my tech rate although I find myself actually ignoring things like courthouses, markets, etc... simply because there are more things to do. SO if I am getting more overall beakers doing the 100% science/gold thing, is it that much more compared to my sloppy building. Of course I could micromanage more, but it's not always easy.

I am currently using patch 3.19 and the 3.6 BUG mod.

 

[war ensemble]

Yep, it's called binary teching. I wouldn't bother with it unless I needed the edge on the harder of difficulties. As it is, too much effort to have fun with in my opinion.

 

[batavier]

After reading some advice here, I have started abusing the science slider in one of two ways. either 100% science or 100% gold. The reason is that the rounding off (??? ???) is lost so that it's better to get alot of gold, then run at 100% beakers. Does anyone have a good explaination of why this works.

I am currently using patch 3.19 and the 3.6 BUG mod.

you can lose up to 3 beakers/turn from rounding downwards. Your total beakers gets rounded down after going through the slider, then again after the prerequisiste tech bonus is applied and again after the tech-known-by-civ-you've-met bonus is applied.
Using binary research is particularly important if your slider is really low and you produce almost no research.
You also get one extra beaker if your slider is at 0 and you do not run scientists yet.

It will also make it more likely that AI's will learn the tech, so you will get a bigger bonus. The AI's might also learn the tech before you start, so you can decide to research something else. It's also a good idea to put the slider at 0 while building a library in the capital or some time before you get the first academy, or oxford.

The only downside is if you forget about it and end up with a pile of gold and nothing to trade after alfabet.

 

[oyzar]

Actually prerequisite and civknow bonus are applied at the same time, so you can only lose close to 2 beakers... Very hard to lose that much though...(And almost always you lose something to rounding anyways). Personally in the early game(where this is actually a significant amount) I calc how much bpt i will give at different times and try to run 100% when i am closest to X9 or X4 and 0% when i am farthest away(X1, X2 and X6, X7). This doesn't gain you much(.4 beakers maybe per turn if the conditions are really favourable), though if you are only doing ~15 beakers per turn it does add up...

A more important point is to save up gold for when you complete multipliers(for example academy or library, in some games it might even happen that you turn off research from when you get writing until you get up an academy(with a cre and/or philo leader, for example pericles can generate a scientist very fast). The saved up gold can then be transformed into way more beakers than you would otherwise get... Of course this doesn't help much if it delay curical cheap techs like for example bronze working, but using this to get COL or currency cheaper could be nice for example...

 

[timmy827]

In BTS the mechanics have changed as noted by the other responders (it used to be that rounding took place by city, not civ-wide, which made this produce more).

The main reasons this can be helpful besides the early game where a few beakers is still significant is that by storing gold you delay your commitment to a particular tech. Thus it may become available in trade while piling up gold, or at least more AI's know it so when you do shift to full science you get a bigger bonus from known civs. Or if something else changes before you turn science on you can alter your research path without much cost.

Another benefit is that your gold will look like an inverted V rather than staying close to even, so if you get hit with a DoW and need to upgrade a lot (or any other situation where you need to spend gold) you will have a much better chance of being able to react right away.

 

[benfp]

Another benefit is that your gold will look like an inverted V rather than staying close to even, so if you get hit with a DoW and need to upgrade a lot (or any other situation where you need to spend gold) you will have a much better chance of being able to react right away.

Indeed, and it also helps in picking out the most interesting options (or the least annoying ones) when random events (Burning Forests, +2B @ lib or +BPT toward a tech, forge fire) arise after the "tribal huts" gold has been spent.

I also use Binary Research when there is reasonable chance I might miss a first-to-discover-tech-bonus.

 

[PieceOfMind]

A drawback is that when you have a lot of gold AIs can suddenly demand tribute. In one of my games I noticed I never received a demand for tribute until the moment my gold reserves hit 1000.

On the other hand, when playing for diplo bonuses, this may be viewed as a good thing.

Another benefit of keeping a bit of gold around generally, is for the many random events where you have to spend up to about 100gold for a better event outcome.(woops, benfp just mentioned this)

 

[TheMeInTeam]

You also get to pick which trade tech to research with less chance of it being researched by someone else while teching it, on top of everything mentioned already.

Binary is too strong to ignore IMO.

 

[Gliese 581]

I hear the BUG mod now has buttons for switching instantly to 0% or 100% slider which should cut down on the MM.

 

[PieceOfMind]

When it comes to the slider, I also often use it in a binary fashion. If going for an espionage economy especially, it's better to spam your opponent with esp points in the lead up to when you plan to steal a tech etc., because that way you're overwhelming them where if you'd done it more gradually earlier, they'd have invested more EPs against you.

For exactly the same reasons, if running an espionage economy don't spread the EPs out evenly, put them all on one AI for several turns. Again, overwhelming them so they can't possibly invest a proportionate amount in such a short time.

 

[vanatteveldt]

I've heard a lot of people talking about it, but personally I can't be bothered normally. Maybe I should do this until 1000BC or so, as the 1 bpt and possible AI research bonusses might still be siginificant then.

Another reason to do it is if I know my multipliers will increase in the near future, ie in between an enabling tech such as writing, education, astronomy and building the newly enabled buildings; there it is good to set slider to 0, build the libraries/..., then burn the cash again. The same holds if you are running a religious civic and you know that you will switch to free religion in a couple of turns/.//

 

[Hautamaki]

If TheMeInTeam does it, you can be sure that it's not a waste of time (in terms of how much time it takes to physically play the game =p)

 

[JBossch]

A drawback is that when you have a lot of gold AIs can suddenly demand tribute. In one of my games I noticed I never received a demand for tribute until the moment my gold reserves hit 1000.

On the other hand, when playing for diplo bonuses, this may be viewed as a good thing.

This is not a drawback. You should be thankful for the reprieve from a DoW and for the ability to increase diplo. Unless you plan to annihilate the offending Civ very soon, it is almost always worth the money.

 

[PieceOfMind]

This is not a drawback. You should be thankful for the reprieve from a DoW and for the ability to increase diplo. Unless you plan to annihilate the offending Civ very soon, it is almost always worth the money.

A drawback is that when you have a lot of gold AIs can suddenly demand tribute. In one of my games I noticed I never received a demand for tribute until the moment my gold reserves hit 1000.

On the other hand, when playing for diplo bonuses, this may be viewed as a good thing.

I'd much rather give a tech than give a lot of gold which could equate to more than several turns of lost research.