What about Research Agreements

[mastrude]

How do they work? Do they add to the total research done by those who make the agreement? In the case of adversaries, shouldn't you deprive them of the benefit by doing research on your own? In the case of partners, you should do them if they add, but I'm I've never seen that. Is it allowed?

 

[ForkOfSpite]

I don't know the actual formula, but it depends on the science output of both of civs total science output of whichever civ generates less total science during the research term (presuming Brave New World). The higher, the better, so if you have an option but can only afford one, it's better for you to sign the RA with which ever AI civ has better science output.

As for not signing them to deny the opportunity for the opponent, they are generally more beneficial for people rather than the AI - not necessarily a better science boost but because people can put that science to better use, usually. Figuring out the circumstances where it would be better to deny the opponent seems difficult to know for certain, so unless you think you want to declare war before the RA completes, it's usually a good idea to sign it.

Multiplayer has its own complications, and since I don't have experience, I have no comment. If "partners" means coop (i.e. Teams 1 & 2 vs. Teams 3 & 4), then like multiplayer, I don't know. Presumably, it'd be best for teammates to sign as many as they can with each other if it's allowed (unless the gold could be better spent elsewhere, of course.)

 

[mastrude]

We need to know the details of how RAs work. Do they really ADD to what you could do alone? If they do, then how?

 

[mbbcam]

There's a long thread here: https://forums.civfanatics.com/threads/question-about-research-agreements.514438/

 

[ForkOfSpite]

Looks like the other thread concluded that RA boost depends only on whichever civ generates fewer beakers during the agreement, and if that value is X, the base boost would be 0.5*X/3. For a 30-turn agreement (not sure if game speed affects the duration or the formula), that's equivalent to 5*<x> where <x> is the average beaker generation per turn for the lesser output during the term. So, if you are the civ that generates less science, the base value is 5-turns of your average research - before bonuses from Porcelain Tower or Rationalism.

So, it always produces at least some research for both civs (unless one of the civs somehow produces zero research). In practice, I tracked the RA outputs in one of my games. The lowest I saw was about 1.9x turns of research and the highest was 6.7x turns of research. Both of those included the bonus from Porcelain Tower, but neither included the bonus from the Rationalism policy.