Super Science City in Civ III?

[molesworth]

In Civ II there always used to be strategy to build a Super Science City. This woud be a city which had high commerce resources within its boundary - Whales, Gold, etc - the more the better. Then you would build Copernicus' Observatory, Newton's University and Shakespeare's Theatre in this city. Plus all other science improvements, sometimes not even building a bank or stock exchange there.

I wonder if this is a Strategy in Civ III? Is the effect of Newtons' cumulative with Copernicus' in Civ III as it was in Civ II? I have tried building Super Science Cities (SSC's) in Civ III but don't seem to notice much effect from them. What do you think? BTW the idea of building Shakespeare's in a Civ II SSC was to minimize civil disorder so scientific output was not interrupted. In Civ III, of course, it has the added benefit of allowing the SSC to grow to its full commercial potential very quickly.

 

[MAS]

Its just as effective as far as I know, sometimes even more so.
Of course, the best thing to do is to expand and just get more cities, but if you have the luxury to be able to build all the required wonders in one city, then go ahead and do so.

I once played A 5 city challenge 20K game. (huge map, all civ slots used) in Monarch difficulty. My capital was the 20k city, it build most AA wonders, including collosus. The beauty of this super science city in C3C is the tourist money thing, not only did the city produce commerce from tiles, but almost as much commerce from the ancient wonders. All multiplied by 3 (base100%+lib50+uni50+cop50+newt50= 300%)

I was ahead in tech during the middle ages, and managed to trade it with the other civ for all 8 lux and over a 100 gpt from several civ. I was able to run 100% science, pay upkeep for my relatively large army (compared to the no. of cities I had -5- ) and still had enough gold left over to rush-buy stuff. That game was quite fun!

 

[Aigburth]

Its just as effective as far as I know, sometimes even more so.
Of course, the best thing to do is to expand and just get more cities, but if you have the luxury to be able to build all the required wonders in one city, then go ahead and do so.

I once played A 5 city challenge 20K game. (huge map, all civ slots used) in Monarch difficulty. My capital was the 20k city, it build most AA wonders, including collosus. The beauty of this super science city in C3C is the tourist money thing, not only did the city produce commerce from tiles, but almost as much commerce from the ancient wonders. All multiplied by 3 (base100%+lib50+uni50+cop50+newt50= 300%)

I was ahead in tech during the middle ages, and managed to trade it with the other civ for all 8 lux and over a 100 gpt from several civ. I was able to run 100% science, pay upkeep for my relatively large army (compared to the no. of cities I had -5- ) and still had enough gold left over to rush-buy stuff. That game was quite fun!

I've got a screen shot somewhere from a 1CC 20k game I played where the science bar in the city view literally disapeared off the left hand side of the screen. I can't remember how many beakers that was but it wasn't in golden age as that came quite early, I'll see if I can dig it out.

 

[vorlon_mi]

In Civ II there always used to be strategy to build a Super Science City. ....
I wonder if this is a Strategy in Civ III? Is the effect of Newtons' cumulative with Copernicus' in Civ III as it was in Civ II? I have tried building Super Science Cities (SSC's) in Civ III but don't seem to notice much effect from them. What do you think? ....

This strategy works, although not as strikingly as Civ II.
IIRC, the bonuses in Civ 2 were multiplicative, that is,
two 50% increases were evaluated as (1.5 * ( 1.5 * base))
In Civ 3, the bonuses are additive, that is, base + 0.5*base + 0.5*base

The other aspect of the strategy which is harder in Civ3 is the lack
of caravans to help build wonders. There are relatively few rungs
on the tech tree between Astronomy and Thy of Gravity, which translates
to relatively few turns in Civ3. You can't stockpile 'vans to help
finish the second wonder (Newton's). Assuming that you have a prebuild
for Cope's, you can finish it as soon as you discover the tech for it.
But the city has to start over, to collect shields in a prebuild for Newton's.
It will still require a few turns after discovering the tech before you can
finish Newton's, and there is the risk of the AI falling into building it
through a wonder cascade.