when to build campus?

[ryann1337]

when exactly? the people ive seen build campuses extremely late, coming from a very science heavy gameplay from CIV5 im wondering if i should just skip building them until i have nothing left to do

 

[rpgalon]

skip them, focus on expanding, housing, comercial hub/harbor, and workers. Once factory tech is close, build Industrial districts everywhere and try to squeeze the most out of the 6 tiles bonus production. After that you can go for your campus district.

 

[Waywocket]

I feel like campuses are useless except maybe (maybe) in the late game, because all they do is push your tech far beyond the point where you can actually build those things you've researched, which is pointless.

 

[ExemplarVoss]

Except, of course, they push you to factories and powerplants, which is the exact opposite of pointless.
And better military units, which are just gold upgrades.

You only really 1 or 2 campus & theatre districts. It isn't a big deal to build them, but you need to get the wheels greased, and also the base great person generation.

 

[Japper007]

If I get a spot with good adjacency, like mountains or rainforest, I'll build the campus quickly. Otherwise I wait untill after Industrial Districts and maybe Commercial Hubs/Harbors

 

[lamaros]

Like all districts. Build them when you get a big payoff. You need to temper your "build for the sake of it" temptations in this game, a lot.

No mountains and not may campus buildings researched? Just wait it out a bit.

 

[joncnunn]

In the current build, science isn't a bottleneck, it's production; so unless you have a site early on in which it would get a +2 science adjacency bonus, it's best to wait until after the Industrial Zone.
The zones to build everywhere are instead Commercial Zones / Harbors (which increase trade units / allowing more internal trade routes for food and especially production) and when you have the tech for it Industrial Zone.

 

[GAGA Extrem]

Unless I get a REALLY strong spot (e.g. 4+ Science yield), I usually hold off with early game districts and instead focus on Commercial + Industry first.

Science Output from pops is good enough to reach these techs quickly.

 

[Aldor]

If you take a look at your total science output, you can see that there's a huge difference between cities with a campus and those without. Science by population is almost negligible. Now I wouldn't build a campus very early in a poor location, but once you have built basic infrastructure in your core cities there is no good reason to not build a campus.

 

[joncnunn]

If you take a look at your total science output, you can see that there's a huge difference between cities with a campus and those without. Science by population is almost negligible. Now I wouldn't build a campus very early in a poor location, but once you have built basic infrastructure in your core cities there is no good reason to not build a campus.

The problem is that it's extremely easy in Civ VI to run science so far ahead of production that you can't effectively use it (e.g. you are paying full price for almost everything instead of half price.)

Each pop point gives .7 science & .3 culture. Simply in early game sending out lots of settlers (small cities grow faster) and when they are all claimed keeping ahead of the housing capacity limits will allow the cities to grow.
That basic infrastructure needed before a generic city (one without good bonuses) includes a Commercial District and where near coast Harbor (for the internal city routes) and the Industrial zone. Non fresh water cities also need the Aqueduct where possible. In some cases Entertainment may also be needed first.

 

[lamaros]

I think once they address the fact that science drives up production a bit much at the moment, the answer will be "it depends". If you have a massive mountain site for it, then maybe you'll get on early, if you don't you won't.

 

[Qin Shi Hung]

Science doesn't outrun production if you put the additional science into beelining production techs. It just speeds up the discovery of apprenticeship and industrialization.

So it's not bad to build campuses, but there are better things to build early, like settlers, builders, and archers.

Probably commercial districts and traders too, to buy factories on the turn you discover industrialization.

Then, when industry explodes from overlapping factories, build all the things.

 

[Kouvb593kdnuewnd]

The thing about science is it allow you to build what you want. Getting a good unit way before the ai will make the game very easy to win. A few high tech units can kill pretty much all civs in the game and science bring you to the unit.

Who need an economy then everyone else is dead

The problem with industrial zone is that you invest production into getting more production at a later time and it only get really good after factories which again need some teching.

 

[Roxlimn]

Lol.

Players who complain about "sciencing ahead of the curve" aren't sciencing well. They're producing badly. That's the long and short of that. Before Factories, a good IZ gives you +3 or +4 hammers. +6 hammers with a Workshop. You can shortcut that process just by making a Builder and harvesting 2 production-rich hills, or just having a few trade routes to cities that feature IZs. Every Civ should have an Industrial Zone. Not every city, necessarily.

You don't have to skip Campuses, but it would be a mistake to put all your eggs into Science and expect it to do well. Even peeps who did that in Civ5 fared badly until they learned to make +hammer buildings properly.

 

[GT_OKEZ]

Most of the time I build my campus after the com hub or harbor and industrial zone. The idea is IZs provide efficient production to construct a campus or theater district and you can use the gold from com hubs and trade to purchase the buildings that go into the district.

There are times where you get a really nice adjacency bonus and its hard to pass up. It's a case by case basis but in Civ VI meta so far it seems that production and gold > science and culture ...at least when getting started.

 

[Sogno di Volare]

I just don't find that I am falling behind in science like I was in past games, nor is that race hurting me. So I'm focusing on campuses less often (granted an with ideal spot I might do one).

In previous civ games if I fell behind in science because I was emphasizing other things, it could be very hard or impossible to catch up. That just isn't happening to me in IV so I feel I can focus on other things like commercial and industrial zones.

 

[Qin Shi Hung]

In previous civ games if I fell behind in science because I was emphasizing other things, it could be very hard or impossible to catch up. That just isn't happening to me in IV so I feel I can focus on other things like commercial and industrial zones.

The AI is not very good at beelining important techs, nor at using upgraded units, nor (for that matter) at attacking.

If the AI were smart enough to beeline steel for artillery and field cannons, we might feel differently about science.

 

[Kouvb593kdnuewnd]

If the AI were smart enough to beeline steel for artillery and field cannons, we might feel differently about science.

Who need production then you can get cannons?

The thing is that if you can kill the ai you don't have to worry about the later game and thus stuff like factories are not as important as they seems.

 

[Sogno di Volare]

The AI is not very good at beelining important techs, nor at using upgraded units, nor (for that matter) at attacking.

If the AI were smart enough to beeline steel for artillery and field cannons, we might feel differently about science.

Agreed. The whole should I do it thing is relative to the AI's choices.

It is kinda nice change of pace for Civ. I was all about the science no matter what I was doing in V.

 

[rpgalon]

If you have a good spot, a SINGLE early campus is good, because you get it so early in the tech tree that they are still cheap like 60-70 production, if you delay too much and get some techs before it, the production cost skyrocket and becomes ineficient to grab that campus again, you would get better results buying workers, settlers, comercial hubs and city center buildings.

Well, that is my impression of it so far. The biggest increase you feel in production cost of districts is from early game to medieval era because there is a lot of important tech you have to grab and since the increase is linear with tech unlocked, the cost easilly doubles from the starting 60.

My hint is to imediately plant it down when you unlock it, so you lock the cost before it increase. This way it still is worth building, even if delaying by going for other stuff first.