Scientist!

[Dutch]

Just thought I'd Ask.
I sometimes find myself behind the eight-ball regarding science with regard to my opponents.
General question: As a general rule, are scientists used by taking how about tax collectors? What if you are not behind in discoveries, do you use them?
"Anyone...anyone...Bueller...Bueller...":aargh3:

 

[Bamspeedy]

Scientists add just 1 beaker, taxman 1 gold. So for the most part they don't really affect research all that much, unless you have ALOT of specialists. The gold/beakers do not get any multiplying factors from libraries, marketplaces, banks, etc. But they are immune to corruption! So in the high corrupt cities it may make sense to make specialists.

Generally I make them taxman, unless converting them all to scientists would shorten the research by a few turns.

One tactic is to use just 1 scientist. Since there is a max 40 turns per discovery, that 1 scientist gets you techs every 40 turns. Only use that if you don't really want to research and/or to save up a ton of cash.

 

[Dutch]

I am not sure what you mean.

"One tactic is to use just 1 scientist. Since there is a max 40 turns per discovery, that 1 scientist gets you techs every 40 turns. Only use that if you don't really want to research and/or to save up a ton of cash."

Do you mean that if I use only one specialist/scientist in each of my cities (if I have 40 cities) I could complete each discovery each turn?
I am not sure what you mean by: "Only use that if you don't really want to research and/or save up a ton of cash"
Wouldn't that dramatically expedite my discoveries? I think my cash flow would be a problem...

Thanks for your attention.

 

[BCLG100]

no the most you can research is 4 turns but the slowest you can reaserch is 40 turns no matter how much money is going in to your tax fund the lowest it can ever be is 40 turns and the scientist is worth 1 gold point for science but the research doesnt just cost 40 gold it costs way more

 

[chiefpaco]

Originally posted by Dutch
I am not sure what you mean.

Do you mean that if I use only one specialist/scientist in each of my cities (if I have 40 cities) I could complete each discovery each turn?
I am not sure what you mean by: "Only use that if you don't really want to research and/or save up a ton of cash"
Wouldn't that dramatically expedite my discoveries? I think my cash flow would be a problem...

You can only research one tech at a time and you can not use less than 4 turns to discover it and no more than 40. Each tech has a "cost" of researching. New techs cost more to research. You can dedicate the % of your income you want to dedicate to research each turn by using the science slider in the F1 screen.

What Bamspeedy was saying was that sometimes you want to research something as slow as possible, i.e. spending as little as possible to research it. Since 40 turns is the maximum time to research something, you could use 1 scientist to do the 40 turns research for you. That is like putting 1 gold per turn on science spending.

Alternatively, you could put your science slider on 10%, but that would represent 10% of your total income, which could be, say 10 gold per turn early on. Maybe at 10% spending it still takes 40 turns to discover that tech. By using one scientist instead of 10% of your income, you save yourself 10gpt.

Using two scientist specialists would be like spending 2gpt on science. Therefore, adding individual scientists doesn't add much.

Your opponents tend to trade a lot of science together. Your best bet is to do some of the researching, but do a lot of trading for tech giving them gold or luxuries in return. It is pretty hard to get through the science tree all by yourself. Maybe you can get a few techs in peace talks when your opponent begs for military mercy.