Technology beelining

[QuantumPion]

Well I started over on the same map because I had stone and horses in my first city radius and I am cut off from barbs or other countries. It's such a perfect opportunity I wanted to get things right. So this time I skipped the early religion and instead went masony->the wheel->agriculture from hut->animal husbandry for horse->writing->library->pyramids->meditation (should have gotten polytheism to save a few turns later on for literature)->priesthood->stonehenge->code of laws->oracle (yes I got all 3 wonders!)=civil service->alphabet->polytheism->literature->great library->mathematics->hanging gardens (5 wonders now!), then bee-lined for optics. I also got colossos in another city.

I think the mistake I made before was that I went back and got old techs and then slowly tried to recover, pumping out settlers, etc, isntead of pushing forward with more tech. This time around I got caravels early so I made contact with everyone first. I managed to snag several techs this way and also got magellan's voyage.

Now it's 1000 ad and I just got liberalism. I used the free tech for astronomy. I'm not sure where to go now, because I completely neglected the monarchy to banking path. I'm not sure if I should just hold off on it and go for replaceable parts or scientific method. Any advice?

[Cort Haus]

Originally posted by Dimension


Excuse me? Even if it was a little off-topic, such a picky/rude post is uncalled for, not to mention the fact that if you scroll up you'll see that you are the one who asked for an explanation of the Farseer strategy to begin with.

Are you this friendly with all the people who try to answer your questions?

I'm sure no offence was intended. English is not everyone's first language and sometimes directness can be taken as a slight.

Another version might be something like ...

Technically speaking beeline would usually be defined as a forced path to a high level tech deep into the tech tree, rather than a research order aound the lower-level techs such as the one decribed above.

On that basis, the difference between a 'research order' and a 'beeline-with-diversions' might be a matter of discussion.

[DeepO]

Thanks CH.

Indeed, I certainly was not trying to offend you, nor did I want to come over agressively. And frankly, I've read back what I posted, and can't see the rudeness at all. This most likely has to do that I don't spot the little nuances English has, English in theory is my third language (although lately I consider it my second). Consider yourself writing in Dutch, before making too many assumptions, please.

I'm a bit upset about all this, though... this is now the third time I get a direct comment on not being friendly or gentle, even being rude. I don't get it, when a lot of time I spent here is meant to help others get up to speed. If so many of my comments are turning out wrongly, maybe I should just keep quiet

DeepO

[DeepO]

Oh, and the original point of my post, was just to point out that I don't consider researching Priesthood first, then doing every tech in an order based on lowest research cost, a beeline. I did not say, nor intend that it would be a less valid strategy, only that it doesn't exactly fit the definition of a beeline (which is this thread's title)

DeepO

[UnOrthOdOx]

Originally posted by DeepO
Thanks CH.

Indeed, I certainly was not trying to offend you, nor did I want to come over agressively. And frankly, I've read back what I posted, and can't see the rudeness at all. This most likely has to do that I don't spot the little nuances English has, English in theory is my third language (although lately I consider it my second). Consider yourself writing in Dutch, before making too many assumptions, please.

I'm a bit upset about all this, though... this is now the third time I get a direct comment on not being friendly or gentle, even being rude. I don't get it, when a lot of time I spent here is meant to help others get up to speed. If so many of my comments are turning out wrongly, maybe I should just keep quiet

DeepO

A victim of your own success there. You've certainly mastered the language to where you come off quite fluent on most occasions.

I see your post as not being offensive either, but it's one of those where since the internet cannot convey tone of voice, it COULD be interpretted as being rude or being simply informative. A good thing for folks in general to do is that if a post can be taken 2 ways, take it the better of the two.

[DrSpike]

Originally posted by DeepO

I'm a bit upset about all this, though... this is now the third time I get a direct comment on not being friendly or gentle, even being rude. I don't get it, when a lot of time I spent here is meant to help others get up to speed. If so many of my comments are turning out wrongly, maybe I should just keep quiet

DeepO

If you are including my gentle reproach to all beta testers in that please don't, for reasons discussed before.

And I thought the post here was fine.........hell all of my posts are less polite than that.

[Krill]

[q=DeepO]I'm a bit upset about all this, though... this is now the third time I get a direct comment on not being friendly or gentle, even being rude. I don't get it, when a lot of time I spent here is meant to help others get up to speed. If so many of my comments are turning out wrongly, maybe I should just keep quiet [/q]

A victim of your own success there. You've certainly mastered the language to where you come off quite fluent on most occasions.

I see your post as not being offensive either, but it's one of those where since the internet cannot convey tone of voice, it COULD be interpretted as being rude or being simply informative. A good thing for folks in general to do is that if a post can be taken 2 ways, take it the better of the two.

Yeah, DeepO, In my eyes your written english is wonderful, and to be frank it is better than mine, and English is my mother tongue. As UnO states, the only problem is the ambiguity of the language...and that is in all of our posts, so there is no reason to be upset by this.

[QuantumPion]

Here's my capital later in the game, hehe. Notice the wonders!

Anyway, this game has been progressing well I guess. I'm in first place, but only by a slim margin. I do have a decent tech advantage though. Unfortunately none of the AI's will trade with me, but at least I can stay one step ahead and go for a space race victory easily.

[Datajack Franit]

what difficulty level are you playing?

[QuantumPion]

Originally posted by Datajack Franit
what difficulty level are you playing?

prince

[Proteus_MST]

You have 6 resources within your city radius?

Why do such things never happen to me?
The greatest number of resources within my city radii always was 3 or 4 (and normally not for my capital but for cities founded later)

[Dimension]

Originally posted by DeepO
Thanks CH.

Indeed, I certainly was not trying to offend you, nor did I want to come over agressively. And frankly, I've read back what I posted, and can't see the rudeness at all. This most likely has to do that I don't spot the little nuances English has, English in theory is my third language (although lately I consider it my second). Consider yourself writing in Dutch, before making too many assumptions, please.

I'm a bit upset about all this, though... this is now the third time I get a direct comment on not being friendly or gentle, even being rude. I don't get it, when a lot of time I spent here is meant to help others get up to speed. If so many of my comments are turning out wrongly, maybe I should just keep quiet

DeepO

I'm certainly not deeply offended by your comments, and I'm impressed with your English, but if this is the third time someone's mentioned you being unfriendly, maybe I should explain. It doesn't really have anything to do with nuances of the English language.

I used the term beeline. Anybody with the slightest bit of common sense knows what a beeline is. A line is the shortest path between two points, and its application towards reaching a specific tech is obvious. What I was actually talking about is certainly not a beeline since it is not drilling deep into the tech tree to get to a specific high-level tech but instead going all around the early techs. Instead of "beeline" I should have said "order in which I researched techs in my attempt to achieve the farseer strategy," but that's a little clumsy.

What if I made a big post on a one-word mistake you made?

Hypothetically posted by Dimension

Originally posted by DeepO
13. Oracle completes, pick Civil service. Change your civics to Bureaucracy. Possibly change to caste system. Your capital will increase it's commerce and production by 50%. You might want to run with specialists now, but about everything else is also an option: more production for units or wonders, more commerce from cottages, more food for growth...

You know, "it's" means "it is," so you're saying "it is commerce." I really don't think it is correct for you to say that your capital is commerce. It may have a lot of commerce, but it would be hard to see your capital as the embodiment of commerce. I won't even get into trying to decipher the rest of the paragraph given the ramifications of this interpretation.

See? It sounds rude, picky, sarcastic and condescending. This "grammar nazi" attitude is something you see all the time on forums, but it's rarely someone trying to actually be helpful. If I honestly thought you didn't understand the difference between "its" and "it's," I would keep my comments short. The purpose of a lengthy commentary is to draw attention to your mistake. Going on about the mistakes of others makes it obvious that you are making fun of them.

I really don't have a problem with someone being sarcastic and making fun of me. I did put some time into a post which tells you my take on the farseer strategy, though, and you didn't even acknowledge the effort. You simply replied to tell me how I screwed up.

[Velociryx]

Yeah, DeepO, In my eyes your written english is wonderful, and to be frank it is better than mine, and English is my mother tongue. As UnO states, the only problem is the ambiguity of the language...and that is in all of our posts, so there is no reason to be upset by this.

LOL Krill....are you from the US? If so, that explains it, cos everybody KNOWS that we don't speak English over here...

And DeepO....Keep up the good work! Don't you dare start bein' quiet, or I'll come over there and roust you out of your flat, and get you roaringly drunk....

Good strat. Those who follow it will likely find that it is:

* Much better suited for SP than MP (this long with almost no defense = suicide)

* Much better if no raging barbs (which also prompts more emphasis, earlier on defense)

* Safety increases with map size (and to a lesser extent, no pangea)

* Easier to accomplish in style, in Epic games (which are my favorites anyway)

I think that Deep O's settler in the mix is essential to strengthening the strategy overall, else too much risk is run of falling behind by way of expansion. At least with one extra settler out there, you have the option of building a few troops while running this way, and/or continuing the expansion drive thru the second city. Much stronger than just the straight beeline.

Further, pratitioners should note that tech for tech's sake doesn't win the game....at some point, sooner or later, you've actually gotta BUILD some somethings to make victory happen, so while this will give you a shot in the arm, tech-wise, and enable you to keep pace with the AI on higher difficulties (and OUTPACE them on lower), it falls to you to than make the most of your newfound research capabilities, and convert that into the actual win.

Top notch!

-=Vel=-

[Sosoaha]

I tried the grab of Metal Casting with Napoleon (industrious, aggressive) on Monarch and it worked quite well. As they start with Agriculture and Wheel you can research Animal Husbandry or Mining next, depending on your terrain. I built a worker first and started improving the terrain around my capital. There was Cow and Wheat so I got a big bonus out of it. Next research was on Mysticism so I skipped the Warrior and prebuilt Stonehenge. When I hit size 3 I built the Settler which took 10 turns. The Settler was sent to a nice Spot where marble was available and I hooked up that city as soon as possible. After completion of Stonehenge I built the Pantheon which took some 12 turns with the Marble. My research went Masorny – Polytheism – Monotheism ( found Judaism, convert, revolt to Organized) – Bronzeworking – Priesthood – Pottery. When finishing Priesthood I started the Oracle and completed it in 5 turns => Metal Casting. As Industrious civs get a discount on Forges I immediately built them. So my Capital was producing 12 GPP and getting a Production bonus for Marble wonders of 25(Organized)+25(Forge)+50(Industrious)+50(Marble) =150%. The Great Prophet can be used to build the shrine, but I skipped that for later as only 3 of my cities had converted to Judaism so far and I would get some more prophets soon. I let him discover Theology, you could also discover Code of Laws or Philosophy and got Christianity. I wasn’t so successful in expanding, so I switched to Theocracy for the extra XP. Being Aggressive gave me cheap Barracks in my Military producing cities and Combat I for all Melee units. With those Combat I + City Raider I + City Raider II + 10% City attack Swordsmen and the production bonus to them through forges it was easy to get the desired cities.

[Blake]

I wonder about the feasability of this strat for MP, for agressive civs that start with hunting. You can cheaply grab archery and a half cost rax and some token archers in your capital and 2nd city. Granted, still high risk, but well enough defended (and well, agressive looking) to deter oppurtunistic attackers. The idea probably being to use the super-capital to pump out an army.

Ofcourse this strat, is one of those strats that demands a certain start (or maybe the start demands the strat), a couple of nice food resources that can be worked with minimal tech, some good hills, either coastal (with fishy resources) or on a river. It doesn't really seem feasable with only one food resource and no river, if nothing else you won't have much of a capital to leverage.