I have found nothing relevant in the forums, so I will open a thread. I wonder how much do you rate shields and beakers compared to each other. It occurs very often to me to wonder if it is favorable to build a courthouse or a factory in some city and I cannot estimate properly when the investment is going to pay off.
As far as food is concerned, I think its value is too much position-based and it is not worth trying to compare it to production/commerce. Gaining an extra +2 (for example by gaining access to a fish square through cultural battle) may mean different things in different situations. Worst case senario is I may have nothing better to do with that +2 food than using a scientist. That is 1.5 beakers per food. Best realistic case senario is to gain access to two rivered hills (adding extra stuff on those hills is not realistic, you would probably be using those tiles already), that I would not otherwise be able to farm for one reason or another. That is....a lot of beakers per food. So, I think the distrubition of value is too wide to bother finding some value balance.
But shields and beakers, the question of balance keeps arising too often and is not that wide. Assuming reasonable circumstances (somewhere on the end of 2nd era, beginning of 3rd, no special need or lack of need for shileds in the cities, reasonable science balance in the game etc), how much do you value one to another? Obviously, we are building or going to build mil units in the city, not wealth. In wealth, calculating is simple. From my experience, I would say that I have reached the conclusion that a single shield is worth somewhere between 2.5 and 3 commerce, but I would not be surprised if my instict has lead me to a completely wrong conclusion....
As far as food is concerned, I think its value is too much position-based and it is not worth trying to compare it to production/commerce. Gaining an extra +2 (for example by gaining access to a fish square through cultural battle) may mean different things in different situations. Worst case senario is I may have nothing better to do with that +2 food than using a scientist. That is 1.5 beakers per food. Best realistic case senario is to gain access to two rivered hills (adding extra stuff on those hills is not realistic, you would probably be using those tiles already), that I would not otherwise be able to farm for one reason or another. That is....a lot of beakers per food. So, I think the distrubition of value is too wide to bother finding some value balance.
But shields and beakers, the question of balance keeps arising too often and is not that wide. Assuming reasonable circumstances (somewhere on the end of 2nd era, beginning of 3rd, no special need or lack of need for shileds in the cities, reasonable science balance in the game etc), how much do you value one to another? Obviously, we are building or going to build mil units in the city, not wealth. In wealth, calculating is simple. From my experience, I would say that I have reached the conclusion that a single shield is worth somewhere between 2.5 and 3 commerce, but I would not be surprised if my instict has lead me to a completely wrong conclusion....