Technology Investment Formulae

[Creepster]

I was wondering if anyone knew the requirements of investment for researching a tech. In particular what is the formulae for discovering them? There seems to be some difference required depending upon the row that you are researching on, but is there a fixed number of research units required to achieve the break through or is it a fixed number of turns combined with research investment?

One of the reasons I am curious is that it has been suggested that you get “free” money by reducing the science rate to 10% (or possibly a little higher) at the last turn when discovering a new tech. The remaining extra research goes into cash. I remember on the older versions of civ that the additional research for that turn went to discovering the next tech. If this is true then it really isn’t free money you would be getting. Does any one have some thought on this? I am curious as to what the research formula is.

 

[Bamspeedy]

You can go into the editor and find out how many beakers are required for each tech. But this number is also affected by the map size ( those numbers are in the editor, too).

There is a minimum of 4 turns and maximum of 40 turns/tech regardless of how much or little you have put into science. Any extra beakers you have produced into a tech does NOT go into the next tech. Example you have spent 890 beakers on a 900 beaker tech, you have science at 70%, so let's say you are producing 70 beakers/turn. At the last turn you could put science at 10% and still have enough beakers (10) to gain the tech as if you had left it at 70%, but during that turn you gained extra money since you had the science rate lowered. So it was 60% more of your income going to the treasury during that turn. In larger empires this could be a gain of several hundred gold during that one turn.

It's a good idea to always check the expense sliders when your down to 1 or 2 turns left to discover a tech, to see if you can have it lower and still take the same amount of turns. Or if you had just started researching it and it will take only 4 turns (the minimum), you might be able to have science at a lower rate during the entire 4 turns.

If you really want to micromanage the same rule applies for production (shields). If you only need one more shield to complete a unit, but the city is producing 7 shields/turn, then that's 6 shields that are wasted. You could (although I don't bother with this) move the citizens to other tiles and gain more income or food during that turn.

 

[Creepster]

Thanks for the quick reply. I was afraid that was happening. I have been worngly assuming (stupid me) that I was gaining a partial turn on the reserch rate by leaving my investment high and not taking the extra cash. I liked it better when the left over beakers went to the next tech instead of being wasted.

As for the shields on the older versions of Civ they used to go into your treasury instead of being wasted like they are now. I am unwilling to change the tiles of all my workers to take advantage of that.

 

[BiatchGuy]

Originally posted by Bamspeedy
It's a good idea to always check the expense sliders when your down to 1 or 2 turns left to discover a tech, to see if you can have it lower and still take the same amount of turns.

hmm...

never thought of that!

 

[Grey Knight]

Actually, the faster you are researching a tech the sooner you can do it (aka with more turns remaining). I always check at 1 turn, and later in the game 2 turns. And if I'm at 6 or less turns to research an entire tech I'll check at 3 turns to complete. Particularly if you hit 4 turn (the minimum), the odds that you have a surplus at 3 turns is pretty good!

Cheers,
Shawn