Staying Ahead in Techs

[kgkia33]

OK, I'm playing on Warlord, as the Vikings. I'm crushing Rome, Celts, and China in research pretty much all the way through the Middle Ages. Then a bunch of turns later, I find Egypt, and like every time I play them, they're way ahead. Got Music Theory, which I hadn't researched, Democracy, Nationalism, and Steam Power. I could see if they were Scientific and got Nat'l for free, but they're not.

I don't understand how the AI out-researched me on Warlord when I was always researching to the point where I would come out even in gold every turn or be losing it. WTH?

On top of being ahead of me in tech, the bastards finished two Great Wonders 3-4 turns within the time I would have finished them (Including Magellan's Voyage, son of a B). Then Smith's Trading Co., then whatever. Prob woulda went on the rest of the game.

I need a better way of handling my research. What can I do to increase my research rate?

 

[DarkTempla]

Well, there are just some general things to be said...
- you need lots of roads for each city, cuz they increase ur money, hence ur tech!
-Build Librarys and Universitys in your major tech cities and everywhere else where they are worth it!!!
-What type of government are u using? If u are not at war, use democracy!!! that is probably what put THEM ahead of you!
In ancient times REPUBLIC isnt bad at all! ( i just tried it *g* so far i have always chosen MONARCHY but i prefer Rep. now! ;-) )

Well, thats about it... wouldnt know what else to say.
Hope it helped you a bit!

greez,
DarkTempla

 

[VenomLord]

dont use monarchy unless you are at war and NEVER EVERY choose communism, if your empire is big enough for it to be affective then you have already won

 

[morkaphi]

Originally posted by kgkia33
OK, I'm playing on Warlord, as the Vikings. I'm crushing Rome, Celts, and China...

Being in intense and long wars definitely will hurt your beaker generation, since you probably won't be able to build the libraries/universities while at war. Long wars make your people unhappy, and your governer might have turned a lot of them to entertainers (which consume but don't produce) to avoid riots.

Originally posted by kgkia33
I don't understand how the AI out-researched me on Warlord when I was always researching to the point where I would come out even in gold every turn or be losing it. WTH?

It's not just a matter of the percentage of your budget spent on science or if you're running a deficit... If Egypt is running a more science-efficient government (rep/dem), it will be very difficult for you to match their science output, since you're constantly at war and likely under monarchy. (hopefully not despotism )

BTW, if Egypt is not the only civ that knows all the techs, they probably did not do the research themselves. Trade more, that will help a lot too.

Originally posted by kgkia33
On top of being ahead of me in tech, the bastards finished two Great Wonders 3-4 turns within the time I would have finished them...

Have you tried to prebuild some key wonders you really want to have?

IMHO, if you're not the super powerhouse in your game, it's very difficult to keep the science going while fighting. Getting out of war will certainly help your research progress, at least your people will be happier without war. The government type is also critical, I believe only rep and dem governments give satisfying science outputs.

Good luck.

 

[GerrardCapashen]

Originally posted by kgkia33
I'm crushing Rome, Celts, and China in research pretty much all the way through the Middle Ages.

If you read the sentence more carefully, you will notice that he is referring to being far ahead in techs, not destroying them in a war.

 

[kgkia33]

Thanks but who ever said I was at war? Maybe you got that from Warlord, but I meant the difficulty level.

I was under Monarchy. I have another question though..

Say I'm in a Republic for the purpose of researching more efficiently, would I switch to Monarchy if I suddenly went to war? I never switch gov'ts because of the situation but I've heard people talk about it.

Also, what if I wanna do a little espionage? Could I switch to Comm. so I'd have a more successful chance of not gettin' caught?

This is turnin' out to be more than one Q, but I got another question. How 'bout Industrial Ages, if I'm a Democracy, what can I switch to during war then?

Thanks.

 

[GerrardCapashen]

Originally posted by morkaphi
Being in intense and long wars definitely will hurt your beaker generation, since you probably won't be able to build the libraries/universities while at war. Long wars make your people unhappy, and your governer might have turned a lot of them to entertainers (which consume but don't produce) to avoid riots.
Good luck.

This is where he said that you were conducting wars.

 

[morkaphi]

My bad...

However, all the above posts should still provide some general principles to put yourself at a good position in techs. In my most recent PTW game (monarch, unmodded as Ottoman), I won the game at the 1950's, researching Future Tech 1 while all the AI civs were still in the late industrial age.

 

[GerrardCapashen]

Never research future techs, you get 100 times more points in the end if you drop your science to 0% and put the money into entertainment instead. Or you could use that 1000 gold per turn to rush a lot of nukes and fire them all off the turn before you finish the spaceship...

 

[kgkia33]

Said by me:
Thanks but who ever said I was at war?

What I meant by that was, "Thanks, morkaphi, but who ever said I was at war?" Got me Gerrard?

 

[kgkia33]

WTH is Future Tech? Is it the tech after you've researched all modern techs?

 

[GerrardCapashen]

No problem. Now that I read it again, it does seem strange that I should have mistaken a rhetorical question for a real one. Sorry about that.

 

[morkaphi]

Originally posted by kgkia33
Say I'm in a Republic for the purpose of researching more efficiently, would I switch to Monarchy if I suddenly went to war? I never switch gov'ts because of the situation but I've heard people talk about it.

AFAIK, if you're the aggressor, your people get mad soon, probably in several turns. If the AI is the aggressor, your people will support the war against the AI in the beginning (you might even have WLTKD when the war starts), but if you fight for too long under rep/dem, the WW will be out of control. IMHO, only switch to monarchy only when you expect the war to last long, but beware of the possibly long anarchy period...

Originally posted by kgkia33
Also, what if I wanna do a little espionage? Could I switch to Comm. so I'd have a more successful chance of not gettin' caught?

The chances for espionage to succeed is always low (and it's pricy), even if you have a comm government. Moreover, successful or not, espionage always hurts your reputation. I wouldn't switch my government just for the spy purposes...

Originally posted by kgkia33
How 'bout Industrial Ages, if I'm a Democracy, what can I switch to during war then?

Either monarchy or comm (if you have it). If situation allows, you may even be able to stay in democracy even at war. There is a thread talking about war under democracy, I will try to find it.

 

[GerrardCapashen]

You can actually fight reasonably long wars in Republic as long as you keep winning. If you love to switch governments all the time, play as a Religious civ and then you will love the 1-turn anarchy that allows you to switch between governments as much as you want. If you want to fight a war as a democracy, get the Great Wonder Universal Suffrage, which reduces war weariness in all your cities.

 

[morkaphi]

Okie, here is the thread:

http://www.civfanatics.com/civ3acad_demo_war.shtml

Originally posted by kgkia33
WTH is Future Tech? Is it the tech after you've researched all modern techs?

Yep, after you have all the techs. If you skipped some optional techs (advanced flight, military tradition), you will have to get them all before being able to research the Future Techs.

Originally posted by GerrardCapashen
you get 100 times more points in the end if you drop your science to 0% and put the money into entertainment instead.

True that you get more points to make your people happy, but I enjoy the Future Techs since I usually finish the games before they're available.

 

[kgkia33]

Do future techs give you anything?

 

[Bamspeedy]

Nope, just points. But the points from 1 future tech is the same as gaining 1 content person or specialist. You can make up for that and SOOO much more by increasing your luxury tax or irrigating some tiles to allow more content citizens/specialists.

 

[hbdragon88]

Originally posted by kgkia33
Do future techs give you anything?

NO.

Practically nothing. I got 10 points (less, I think) and I reserached sixty-three future techs.

Luckily I had used a cheat program and turned on one-turn research, so it wasn't a waste of gold, very much.

 

[NetGear]

Originally posted by GerrardCapashen
You can actually fight reasonably long wars in Republic as long as you keep winning. If you love to switch governments all the time, play as a Religious civ and then you will love the 1-turn anarchy that allows you to switch between governments as much as you want. If you want to fight a war as a democracy, get the Great Wonder Universal Suffrage, which reduces war weariness in all your cities.

i find switching government frequently when your not a religious civ, undoable. If your non religious, you may be better off keeping it as monarchy.