Tried and tested way to make good extra cash

[Exsanguination]

this strategy is really only necessary for those who find themselves lsoing money each turn trying to get techs faster, and by using this strategy you usually end up with with more than you lose.
(btw, this does not work under despotism)

Say you're researching economics. You put the science slider to 50%, and it'll take 12 turns to get. If you put it to 90%, it'll take 6 turns. Put it about 70%, where you'll probably lose about 10 gold/turn. When there are 2 turns left to economics, slide it back to 60%. It should still be at 2 turns left, and probably an extra 1 gold/turn. Then, at 1 turn left, slide it back again (sometimes you can get away with putting it all the way down to 20%, which is really fruitful). You should end up with an extra 25 to up to 250 extra gold/turn. Now, you've gained some extra gold ont helast trun, making up for what you've lost. It works, try it!
(sometimes you can afford to slide it back with 3 turns left, too!)

 

[Daaraa]

I've done this myself.

However, this will only work if there is no science beaker carry-over from the last turn.

Example : I see I'm going to discover economics in 1 turn. I reduce my science to say 10% and I get lots of gold. But I notice that I make the discovery near the end of the "You built...this..we want to build...this" sequence. I'll try then to discover music theory.

If I leave my science where it is, I notice that I get the discovery at the beginning of the sequence. (I have done this and this does happen. Did it off a re-load that I forgot to chage the rate.)

Therefore, my question (and this is what I don't know the answer to) is if the other cities contribute to the music theory advance or is that science wasted?

If it is wasted then great go for it.
If it is not, then reducing the science for gold is good once in a while to reduce the waste of science in the 4 turns per discovery limit.

 

[Salvor]

They seem to carry over, from what I've seen.

But you still could lose them if you're not careful. If you change what you're researching (at any time) you lose all the beakers built up toward that item. So be sure to have your next research project queued up by the time you get down to 1 turn left.

One time I was researching Banking and it said I had one turn left. I got an announcement that someone was building JS Bach's and I hadn't researched music theory yet (I was trying to fast-track towards Democracy). I wanted to see how long it would take if I switched to music theory. It said 19 turns, so before leaving the advisor screens I switched back to banking, figuring I'd buy music theory from somebody. Guess what? It said 19 turns to complete. It might be because I had to switch to my domestic advisor to see the number of turns (the box was too small to show on the research screen), and might not have reset if I hadn't left the screen, but whatever the reason I was a bit surprised. Fortunately, I had autosave on and restarted the turn (I didn't consider that a cheat, since I was only checking and didn't intend to change anything).

Also, by having the screen come up at the start of the turn sequence, you have the option to build any new units or improvements that depend on that particular advance. Otherwise, you'd have to go back during your turn and change production in those cities individually by hand.

 

[Exsanguination]

Originally posted by Salvor
They seem to carry over, from what I've seen.

But you still could lose them if you're not careful. If you change what you're researching (at any time) you lose all the beakers built up toward that item. So be sure to have your next research project queued up by the time you get down to 1 turn left.

One time I was researching Banking and it said I had one turn left. I got an announcement that someone was building JS Bach's and I hadn't researched music theory yet (I was trying to fast-track towards Democracy). I wanted to see how long it would take if I switched to music theory. It said 19 turns, so before leaving the advisor screens I switched back to banking, figuring I'd buy music theory from somebody. Guess what? It said 19 turns to complete. It might be because I had to switch to my domestic advisor to see the number of turns (the box was too small to show on the research screen), and might not have reset if I hadn't left the screen, but whatever the reason I was a bit surprised. Fortunately, I had autosave on and restarted the turn (I didn't consider that a cheat, since I was only checking and didn't intend to change anything).

Also, by having the screen come up at the start of the turn sequence, you have the option to build any new units or improvements that depend on that particular advance. Otherwise, you'd have to go back during your turn and change production in those cities individually by hand.

"by changing their focus, you lose all the work on the advance you order them to abandon" - pg. 94 of the manual

If you change research, everything is lost, and you have to start from stratch researching the tech.

One question: It's probably an age-old answer, but it may solve a lot of my problems. The tech cost - lets say it is 1000, is that how many beakers you must produce to get that tech?

And Daraa - i'm not quite sure what you are asking...