Worthless Techs and Multiple Great People

[mica8911]

Some techs seem not worth getting because they don't lead to anything and they are not required for anything, like divine right (if not able to get Islam). So I can just skip these techs?

How do I get more than 1 great person born on the same turn. I try to adjust great people points with specialist management but it still doesn't work when it appears that they will be born on the same turn. I am sure I have seen the AI have two great people born on the same turn.

I know I have seen it before but I forget where but can someone give me the link to the Abbreviations Guide I need to do some studying.

Thanks

 

[Cutlass]

There's aren't that many techs you can really skip. They either lead to something, are needed for something, or have their own benefits.

As far as the GPs, just stockpile one instead of using it when you get it if you want more than one.

 

[sydhe]

It's possible they're getting the second great person from a tech. For example, if you're the first to discover Music, you get a free Great Artist and might produce a second great person on the same turn through great people points.

That's not counting Great Generals, which are produced differently. It's theoretically possible to get several of them on the same turn if you wipe out an huge enemy stack.

 

[Shurdus]

It's possible they're getting the second great person from a tech. For example, if you're the first to discover Music, you get a free Great Artist and might produce a second great person on the same turn through great people points.

That's not counting Great Generals, which are produced differently. It's theoretically possible to get several of them on the same turn if you wipe out an huge enemy stack.

that was what I was thinking. Music provides a free Great Artist. You might get another GP from GPP generated that same turn.

When a city produces a GP the bar is raised for the next GP to pop out. this means you will have to produce several hundreds op GPP to spawn the next GP. I do not think that is something that is easily done.

Some of the techs are indeed possible to skip. Sometimes you might want them for a wonder, but usually you can forget about them. Founding a religion like islam is pretty much useless it seems since religions are widespread by then and hardly anyone will convert to the late-founded ones.

 

[Tephros]

Some techs seem not worth getting because they don't lead to anything and they are not required for anything, like divine right (if not able to get Islam). So I can just skip these techs?

How do I get more than 1 great person born on the same turn. I try to adjust great people points with specialist management but it still doesn't work when it appears that they will be born on the same turn. I am sure I have seen the AI have two great people born on the same turn.

I know I have seen it before but I forget where but can someone give me the link to the Abbreviations Guide I need to do some studying.

Thanks

What techs you can skip will depend upon what victory you're shooting for and your opponents.

For example, if you're going for cultural you want as many religions as possible, so founding a religion is one way of doing that. Also if you, for whatever reason, have an excess of great prophets, the shrine for even a late religion can quickly outshine a great prophet specialist. Great prophets are also a common incentive to finish researching divine right after you bulb part of it.

If you have stone and/or are industrious, the spiral minaret is a good building, particularly if you're spiritual, have university of sankore, have the sistine chapel, or your religion built the AP. If you're going for a cultural victory it can allow you to run at 100% culture, as your temples, monasteries and cathedrals will be netting you 4-6 extra gold per city.

I very rarely build Versailles. It's insanely expensive when you don't usually need a second forbidden palace. I usually target the civilization and city that builds it because they built it.

Divine right leads to, but is not required for, nationalism. That means you get a 20% bonus towards science while researching nationalism if you have divine right, I think.

Divine right becomes useless after you've already researched nationalism and the wonders for it have been built. But the AI will bug me so much about trading divine right for electricity or whatever, that I end up trading it if I can get a lot of gold out of it and it's a relatively weak rival.

Other examples of techs you might not research:

Although computers lead to the tech to build laboratories, you can get there via another tech. If I have wonders that computers obsolete and have no serious military threat (computers required to get to robotics), I will skip computers in a space race victory. Yeah it seems like computers should be required, and shouldn't be either neutral or penalizing to research. The space elevator would require you to go through computers, but it's not always worth it.

Military Tradition and Military Science are often unnecessary if you don't have to do a lot of fighting.

If you're doing a cultural victory, you're generally not going to research scientific method, and obviously anything that requires it.

If you're going for a religious victory, you're not going to research mass media.

Music is sometimes not necessary.

etc. etc.

 

[PureE]

I know I have seen it before but I forget where but can someone give me the link to the Abbreviations Guide I need to do some studying.

ohh, I'd like this as well. Anyone?

 

[Cashew]

That's not counting Great Generals, which are produced differently. It's theoretically possible to get several of them on the same turn if you wipe out an huge enemy stack.

Lol, why theoretically? That's exactly what happens when you kill a large number of enemy units in a turn. I think the most I've ever gotten is 3 in a turn; although I was imperialistic so it's less impressive.

 

[mica8911]

So you can't get two great people on one turn. Then what city gets the great person first if both cities are scheduled for the same turn?

 

[PieceOfMind]

Presumably the one with the most overflow of GP points (edit...this is incorrect). If it's a tie it might go to the oldest city? I'm just guessing.

EDIT see post #11 below.

 

[LegionSteve]

ohh, I'd like this as well. Anyone?

You mean this one? Commonly Used Acronyms

 

[Bushface]

If two cities are due to produce a GP in the same turn, the one that actually does so will be the one founded earlier (because the order in which city production is considered by the program is controlled by the order of founding dates). The other city will then have to wait until its GP points reach the new target for the next GP. Captured cities get ordered by the date of capture, but I don't think I've ever got a GP generated by such a city.

 

[sydhe]

The main reason to go after divine right is Spiral Minaret. There are several types of great people who will cut the research times. I think artists will as well as priests.

 

[BarrageQueen]

Divine right leads to, but is not required for, nationalism. That means you get a 20% bonus towards science while researching nationalism if you have divine right, I think.

etc. etc.

Can someone verify this? I almost never go for divine right myself, but if there's a research bonus, I might reconsider.

 

[Tephros]

So you can't get two great people on one turn. Then what city gets the great person first if both cities are scheduled for the same turn?

As has been previously stated for multiple great people per turn, it is possible on turns you research music first, physics first, etc. because you can get a great person simultaneously from researching the tech and from great person points. This would be more likely on quick games. I've never seen it, but I play marathon mostly.

Can someone verify this? I almost never go for divine right myself, but if there's a research bonus, I might reconsider.

I am sure that there is a bonus for each tech you know with arrows pointing to the one you're researching (the white arrows in the science advisor screen). Those that have no arrows pointing to them will get no bonus of this kind, e.g. mysticism. But knowing both mysticism and mining will allow you to research masonry faster as both lead to masonry and this rule applies throughout the game. I am less sure if the bonus is 20%, but I think that's what it was.

 

[JeebusGreen]

Really? I would love to hear confirmation on this bonus too.

 

[BarrageQueen]

I am sure that there is a bonus for each tech you know with arrows pointing to the one you're researching (the white arrows in the science advisor screen). Those that have no arrows pointing to them will get no bonus of this kind, e.g. mysticism. But knowing both mysticism and mining will allow you to research masonry faster as both lead to masonry and this rule applies throughout the game. I am less sure if the bonus is 20%, but I think that's what it was.

Oh OK. I'll also check on this the next time I play. It's easy enough to just check the required beaker number, I suppose. But the game could boost the beaker output instead of lowering the beaker requirement as well, as it does on other bonuses.

 

[Tephros]

Oh OK. I'll also check on this the next time I play. It's easy enough to just check the required beaker number, I suppose. But the game could boost the beaker output instead of lowering the beaker requirement as well, as it does on other bonuses.

Here's where I got that from. I had been trying to figure it out myself, and somebody pointed out that it was more complex than I had thought, but the increase does seem to be 20%.

Hmm, those numbers don't quite look right.

1) are you sure that you counted your beakers/turn correctly? Did you remember to include the single extra beaker?

• 676 = 52 * 13 = 52 * ( (10+1) * 20% ).
• 675 = 45 * 15 = 45 * ( (10+1) * 40% ).
• 680 = 40 * 17 = 40 * ( (10+1) * 60% ).

Note: a convenient way to check your results it to adjust the science slider, and see how changing the number of beakers changes the research time.


2) In your experiments with other civs, did you control for how many civs you had met?

 

[Ovidian]

Some techs seem not worth getting because they don't lead to anything and they are not required for anything, like divine right (if not able to get Islam). So I can just skip these techs?
Thanks

I understand what you're saying, it just made me laugh that you used Divine Right as the example. Depending on the size of my empire and how wide-spread my religion is, at times, I make a bee-line for Divine Right. I'm in love with the Spiral Mineret (sp?). Gaining gold for every religious building in my empire and other countries...nice. My economy is stablized overnight. And for some reason, every Civ wants it. So I wait until they have enough gold and sell it to them. I look at Divine Right as my "cash cow" tech.

Thinking about it, I've even gone to war with a few countries only to prevent them from completing the Spiral Mineret before me. Insane? Maybe...but I've never claimed otherwise...

 

[JeebusGreen]

AFAIK Spiral Minaret just means that each building generates 1 gold in its city, not the Spiral Minaret.

Could be wrong though

 

[Joshua368]

AFAIK Spiral Minaret just means that each building generates 1 gold in its city, not the Spiral Minaret.

Could be wrong though

Two gold per building, but you're right. It works on a per city basis and religious buildings in other countries don't help you...