What's the upside of Research Agreements?

[Smokeybear]

Okay, now I'm seeing a beneficial angle. At least when you've got RAs with several different civs.

To really boost the benefit from RA's, build the Porcelain Tower and acquire the social policy that increases their benefit by 50%... for a 100% increase. By endgame you'll be blowing through 2 techs at a time when an RA pops, with enough science.

 

[CaptainPatch]

OP, have you ever played Settlers of Catan?

Never even heard of it. Is that a Civ V scenario? (Which I never play scenarios, preferring instead to always play Marathon games starting from the earliest possible starting point.) Or is it an entirely different game?

 

[redwings1340]

Settlers of Catan is a really awesome board game, and I'd say it is probably the most famous board game that's come out in the past 20 years.

In it, everyone starts with 2 settlements on an island, you gain resources over time, and you can use the resources to build roads, settlements, and upgrade your settlements to cities. You need specific resources to build stuff (for example, roads cost one brick and one wood to build), so if you have 4 brick (and nothing else) and the other player has 4 wood (nothing else), you can trade 2 of your brick for two of their wood. That way you can both build two roads (good thing), while before neither of you could do anything. When 4 people are in the game, your goal is to get a ton of resources for yourself, but you also need to trade with the other people to get the best set of resources to allow you to develop more.

http://www.catan.com/

This is an awesome game, and I'd definitely recommend getting it .

 

[CaptainPatch]

Off topic

Settlers of Catan is a really awesome board game

Interesting. I'm a gamer going waaaayyyyy back to @1960, and I've got a closet full of a LOT of boardgames. But with the advent of the PC, I've morphed into @100% computer gamer, mainly because you DON'T need other players to play. (Pretty much a full-blown hermit these days.) Seems like I never had a face-to-face boardgame that didn't involve arguments over rules interpretations. With a PC, if you don't like what the PC is doing, you can just reboot; no hard feelings.

Pity, because "Settlers of Catan" sounds like an interesting game.

 

[nightspydk]

I could be confused about something, but it's been changed so you get the lesser of the two contributors, but you still get an amount based on what one of you contributes? To me, this suggests the way to get the most out of it is to sign agreements with the most advanced civs and avoid ones with technologically backwards civs. Is that right? I know there's a cost there in that your competition stays strong, but it still seems like it makes it harder for backwards civs to catch up.

As far as I know you get a portion of the accumulated science from the other civ, so yes you get more from the more advanced, but then your 2nd point is most important imo. The gain can be spread out on different techs.

I've actually had some fun keeping smaller nations alive by granting research agreements and pulling them out the stone age. Maybe they'll become a strong ally later on.

 

[Marathoner]

Off topic

Interesting. I'm a gamer going waaaayyyyy back to @1960, and I've got a closet full of a LOT of boardgames. But with the advent of the PC, I've morphed into @100% computer gamer, mainly because you DON'T need other players to play. (Pretty much a full-blown hermit these days.) Seems like I never had a face-to-face boardgame that didn't involve arguments over rules interpretations. With a PC, if you don't like what the PC is doing, you can just reboot; no hard feelings.

Pity, because "Settlers of Catan" sounds like an interesting game.

There are Settlers of Catan game apps for android and I presume apple as well. It is a fun game, I usually play vs the computer. You should give it a try.

 

[CaptainPatch]

There are Settlers of Catan game apps for android and I presume apple as well. It is a fun game, I usually play vs the computer. You should give it a try.

Hermit, remember? I don't even own a cell phone of any kind. Purely PC gamer. Is there a PC version available?

 

[Kintara]

Hermit, remember? I don't even own a cell phone of any kind. Purely PC gamer. Is there a PC version available?

Here you go.
Also this.

 

[Smokeybear]

Hermit, remember? I don't even own a cell phone of any kind. Purely PC gamer.

Whoa. You could be my twin brother. Were you adopted by any chance?

 

[Wodan]

Whoa. You could be my twin brother. Were you adopted by any chance?

Maybe you were the one who was adopted.

 

[Smokeybear]

Maybe you were the one who was adopted.

I suspect it was 'raised by wolves', but the memories are repressed.