Scientific Method

[AutomatedTeller]

... I would have won a cultural victory long before then.

Oh, well, if you are gonna be like THAT

 

[G-Max]

I usually build Monasteries for the culture, not for the science. Thus, I'm never upset that my +85% beakers goes down to +75%. I am upset that I lose an extremely cheap way to expand the cultural radius of newly built cities and shrink the cultural borders of my opponents. Also, although SM reveals Oil, that resource is useless until you get Combustion, and then you're just trading whales for oil instead of actually gaining anything. All told, it's a pretty bad deal.

I also avoid researching Calendar for the same reason. Unless spices, sugar, dye, banana, incense, and silk are virtually the only resources in my territory, I'd rather keep my Stonehenge.

I don't care how you attempt to rationalize this idiocy. Any game in which you're actually better-off without a technology than with it is an example of bad game design.

EDIT: Apparently, BtS delayed Stonehenge's obsolescence until Astronomy, so if you're playing BtS, you can have your Stonehenge AND your spices. Pretty cool.

EDIT #2: Once the Scientific Method comes along, wouldn't the monks switch to it instead of dropping out of science altogether? As someone said earlier, Gregor Mendel is a perfect example of this.

 

[CajNatalie]

Problem regarding your 2nd edit... advances in science by way of monks are pretty much never nowadays, so the monks have to be booted at some point to maintain parallels.

 

[bob_d]

Scientific Method allows you to research Physics (free GS plus blimps) and Biology (National Park and better farms).

A National Park allows you to turn a single city surrounded by forests and with a lot of food) into a super-massive great people factory. You can get this pretty early in the game if you beeline towards it, and you can run with the Caste System for a long time before you are forced into Emancipation.

 

[hewhoknowsall]

We have discovered the scientific method and libraries and monastaries today.

What does oil have to do with scientific method? Did we discover oil at the same time we discovered scientific method in real life? It would make more sense to have the scientific method boost research by 100%. This may seem to be overpowered, but in reality the scientific method boosted research by far more than 100%.

 

[G-Max]

Scientific Method allows you to research Physics (free GS plus blimps) and Biology (National Park and better farms).

A National Park allows you to turn a single city surrounded by forests and with a lot of food) into a super-massive great people factory. You can get this pretty early in the game if you beeline towards it, and you can run with the Caste System for a long time before you are forced into Emancipation.

That's fine, but the real reason why people have to research it sooner or later is because it's a prereq for Physics -> Electricity -> Industrialism.

 

[Danelius90]

few months since last post, but I was thinking about this tonight randomly when I was out P)
Because I remember the initial comment about boosting research in all cities, and the next comment was about beelining it in 300AD. But what about if it boosted research only for techs in the Industrial era (it is the industrial era isn't it?)
So you wouldn't want to beeline it too early. Although the problem that it still does reduce your rate for pre-industrial techs remains.
an idea maybe...

 

[SewerStarFish]

I've never been happy with the idea that there is a strong incentive in place for certain techs to be avoided because they will make a previous benefit disappear in a heartbeat. It seems to me that the previous benefit could slowly fade out over time. E.g. if it was a +10%, it could go to 7 or 8, then to 5, then to 2, then out. An extra trade route could lose a third of its value, then another, then completely, etc.
Come to think of it, I wouldn't object to a fade in of a benefit either.

Wow, I never really thought of that before but that's a great idea. Maybe Civ VI will have it.