A few numbers (maintenance costs for # of cities)

[ktbutts]

I have started to reap big results from cutting down trees (time to move up the ladder from Noble).

I've started maximizing my food production immediately in order to grow my pop (and producing the first warrior with whatever is left), and beeline to Bronzeworking. This allows me to use slavery to rush a worker. The worker then cuts down trees to rush a settler.

Then I fill in my defensive units and repeat.

Certainly not ICS, but sacrificing a little tech to get an early jump on your first 4 cities is letting me dust the AI on Noble. I'll see if it continues to stack up against higher levels

[Theseus]

[QUOTE] Originally posted by upsidedown
Someone really needs to make a 'megathread' with all these gems.
/QUOTE]

Too early, methinks. I'm keeping a list though, of both 1) early game tips and 2) potentially great threads.

[Kuciwalker]

Re: A few numbers (maintenance costs for # of cities)

Originally posted by Velociryx
In any event, the long and the short of it seems to be that city maintenance seems to plod along on a linear curve, rather than a geometric one, and there's a tickle at the back of my brain that says this might not be enough to truly kill off ICS...when some of the hardcore guys get here and play with it, we'll see what they have to say. In the meantime, it's something to mentally chew on...

Actually, looking at total city support costs, using your figures:

1-2 Cities - 0gpt

3 Cities - 2gpt

4 Cities - 6gpt

5 Cities - 14gpt

6 Cities - 26gpt

7 Cities - 40gpt

8 Cities - 57gpt

9 Cities - 77gpt

10 Cities - 101gpt

Up until you hit 8 cities the curve is basically geometic, roughly doubling each turn. After that point it looks like it's becoming somewhat linear, but it's still a hefty cost.

[Kuciwalker]

3) put some of my spam cities to building wonders I know I won't complete (and when I don't, I get a gold "refund" for shields invested.

That could be a major exploit.

[Fried-Psitalon]

The money ratio is no better than producing wealth, I believe.

[Kuciwalker]

Oh, well then that particular strategy is useless...

[Khaim]

Except you can do it before you get Currency. Still, not much of an exploit.

[sophist]

Depends on how much gold you get back.

[Maniac]

Originally posted by Fried-Psitalon
You know what happens when you assume, right?

From that answer I assume you do not think the use of certain civics relatively deminishes as the difficulty level rises?

That sounds rather weird to me though. Pacifism apparently has no upkeep cost. Its benefits stay the same no matter the difficulty level. Organized religion keeps the same benefits: +25% building production costs. But as far as I heard the upkeep rises as difficulty level rises. So pacifism will in more situations become the more profitable option than organized religion.

Where lies the thinking fault?

[Kataphraktoi]

Originally posted by Velociryx
That'll be a part of the review I'm preparing for Dan and Markos, but early indications are something along the lines of:



-=Vel=-

i look foreward to your review, but how would you compare this to an older game that is recognized as as having great depth, say Alpha Centauri for instance?

boy could that open a can of worms to reply to

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Khaim
Except you can do it before you get Currency. Still, not much of an exploit.

Ah, forgot about that. A good point.

[Kuciwalker]

Originally posted by Maniac
From that answer I assume you do not think the use of certain civics relatively deminishes as the difficulty level rises?

That sounds rather weird to me though. Pacifism apparently has no upkeep cost. Its benefits stay the same no matter the difficulty level. Organized religion keeps the same benefits: +25% building production costs. But as far as I heard the upkeep rises as difficulty level rises. So pacifism will in more situations become the more profitable option than organized religion.

Where lies the thinking fault?

Pacifism's benefits at a higher level could not be as useful, or Organized Religion's benefits at a higher could be much more useful.

[Maniac]

How so?

[Kataphraktoi]

A civic's choice that has zero cost gets better as costs for the others rise in relation to difficulty.even at hardest,it still costs zero.

[joncnunn]

Myself, when playing an Industrious civ [but not creative], I've tried the Stonehidge or bust gambit successfuly.

(Building Stonehidge BEFORE any settler.) It's then a REX phase with the capital to found the first rank of cities, none of your settlers needing to get too far outside your cultural boundary. Monitor the health and happiness of this city since you may want this city to stop growing for a while.

Then a few workers from the capital while all the new cities build a warrior defender.

By then, your new cities can send a second wave of settlers with their defender as escort and a new defender built.

The big thing to watch out for is indeed building an unproductive city which a drain on the productive portions of your empire in Civ IV instead of just itself like Civ III.