Tips on working a research style of play

[Rustypipe]

Hey,

Just wondering on what would be some good idea's or ways to build a empire / game towards research. My style I like to play is expand a fair bit and research the snot out of the comp to the point where I have a gaping lead where my units are way more advanced then start war if I feel like it. Anyhow so far i'm seeing a few ways on which this can be done and just wondering if anyone has found any help tips or tested out some of these ways to find out which may work a little better.

First way being: Pick a civ that has Financial and Industreious or Financial and expansionest and focus most of my cities on production allowing wonders, units, workers and such to be built fast and help research and expand the network untill you can turn all production into research then just put most of the cities on research.

The second way: Would be pick the same kind of civ's with the same traits and build specilized cities where some are all food to spawn mad numbers of great people and continue adding them to the city and some are for comerce and research.

I'm sure there is many more ways to do this but just wondering what some people have found to work the best and fastest as these two are the two i'v somewhat been trying to test but still are unsure to which is better or if i'm missing something.

Any help on the subject will be greatly appricated. Also I do rush for reglions and get 3 within my empire for extra gold to fund my research so that has been covered . Anyhow thanks in advance.

 

[Shillen]

If you're getting a gaping lead in tech you should probably be playing on a higher difficulty level.

But your method sounds good to me. There's also the decision whether to trade the techs to the AI's for other techs. This will speed up your tech pace a great deal, but it will probably reduce your lead because you rarely can get full value for your techs. On the other hand if you horde them you can get a bigger lead, but you'll get new techs at a much slower pace.

I like to have coastal cities that have access to about 5-6 water tiles and the rest grass/hills/forest. I convert about 3 of the tiles to towns. About 3 to farms. And about 4-5 are hills/forests. That way they can still build stuff like observatories and universities and wonders, and when they're not building those I can switch them into super science mode. You can also switch the tiles with your workers when needed, but the only problem is you can't regrow forests that you chop down.

 

[Rustypipe]

but is it more benifitical to specialize your cities or kinda keep them all usefull in all area's ?

Like having a food city to pop out great people often then throwing them in your main city for science and stuff would think to help? no? then agian when it comes times for stuff sometimes you can't crunch the numbers fast enough any tips on this or testing?

 

[Shillen]

Sorry I guess I didn't read your entire post. It's hard to concentrate on reading people's posts when you're getting 3 hours of sleep a night due to civ addiction.

Anyway your second option is much better than the first. I like to have a city specialized for great people in most of my games. They should have multiple food bonuses and lots of grassland that can be irrigated. They won't produce a damn thing except great leaders.

Setting your cities to "build" research is typically a very poor way to get science. Most cities don't produce that many hammers in the first place. Also if you set them to build research it does not factor in things like a forge or a factory. It will base the output on your base hammers, not the modified ones. And then in the end it cuts the hammers in half to generate research. So you're lucky if you're pulling in 15 beakers a turn doing that. It's only worth doing that if you honestly have nothing to build in that city.

 

[Rustypipe]

Cool so the best bet would probably be make 4-6 speicalised cities then just make the rest average i guess or situtated for there position i guess, but whats the best way to get bekers? a city with TONS of food around it and turning extra people into scientists or a city with LOTS of cottages aroundn them for commerence and putting that extra cash into it ?

 

[Shillen]

Well let's see. If you have a town on a tile then you get 5 commerce from it with printing press and 7 commerce from it with free speech civic. Then if you have a library + observatory + university you get +75% science. So you pull in about 12-13 beakers from that one tile. Meanwhile if you have a farm with biology tech you get 4 food. This allows you to hire one extra specialist. If you have representation civic then you get 3 extra beakers from them making a total of 6 beakers.

So disregarding the fact that you have to build the towns up from 1 commerce in the beginning, the towns produce far more than specialists do when fully built.

edit: Oh that's if you're running 100% science. If you're running science at like 50% then specialists are better. But I don't think I've ever had to lower science that much.

 

[Rustypipe]

Cool, well its off to do some testing, hopefully all wil go well. If anyone else has any idea's let me know.

Thanks !

 

[Rustypipe]

How exactly does research per square work ? is it souly based on the research slider and what kind of buildings you have built in your city ?

If this is the case having high production in your city would be good to build all thouse buildings ?

Also how do you build a production city if you are lacking mountians ? other then building facotries and such? is there any other adition you can add??

Also I just finished playing a camer where i had financial as a trait and even though i had cottages galore around my cities especially early in the game i wasn't pulling in any extra money ?! my 2nd city which was close buy had almost every tile around it a cottage and i was still makin 0+ gold a round ? is there something i'm missing ? Like to get all that extra gold out of the tiles do you have to raise the tax rate on that city ? or something?

 

[avitarx]

Gold is split into gold/science/culture, so if your taxes are 100% science you will get no gold, beakers instead.

Mines, mills and a couple other improvements provide production (look down the column on the folded chart).

Planes and forest also provide production with no improvement. If you start with no planes, forest, or hills, it is probably time to restart.

 

[CitizenCain]

Try a financial trait any lots of cottages, especially on flood plains and grasslands. From the instant you put that cottage down on a flood plain (for example), you'll be getting 3 food, 3 commerce. And the bonus gets bigger the more you use it. Not to mention all the buildings/civics/etc that modify your commerce.

That's what's gotten me loving the Financial trait... and if you like wonder whoring too, try out China under Qin - Industrious and Financial. <drool>

 

[Lazarous]

Well let's see. If you have a town on a tile then you get 5 commerce from it with printing press and 7 commerce from it with free speech civic. Then if you have a library + observatory + university you get +75% science. So you pull in about 12-13 beakers from that one tile. Meanwhile if you have a farm with biology tech you get 4 food. This allows you to hire one extra specialist. If you have representation civic then you get 3 extra beakers from them making a total of 6 beakers.

So disregarding the fact that you have to build the towns up from 1 commerce in the beginning, the towns produce far more than specialists do when fully built.

edit: Oh that's if you're running 100% science. If you're running science at like 50% then specialists are better. But I don't think I've ever had to lower science that much.

That's actually not true. Specialist beakers get added up before the multipliers are done. So, in your example - the 6 beaker specialist would provide 1.75*6=10.5, so 10 beakers, as well as 3 culture and 3 great person points. (the culture bonus is again added before multipliers)

Theres a handy little pop-up box that details the various things that are done to get your science, money and culture produced per city, just mouseover the relevant number in your city display.

 

[Rustypipe]

anyone have any answers for the new questions ?

 

[khumak]

The 6 beakers per specialist that you can get is BEFORE modifiers so they add up fast. I've had several cities surpass 200 beakers when I concentrate on scientists.

 

[Rustypipe]

Any other stragies ? has anyone got any good research stragies for Noble difficulty settings. I seem to always get over run by a warmongering comp when I tech to much its like they sence i'm close to gun powder and roll in ! with hords and hords of swordsmen. I can do alright if i warmonger but then my tech seems to suffer throughout the game and I rely pretty much on the steem rolling effect.