Does it pay to build wealth/culture/research?

[Optimizer]

Do you ever build wealth, culture or research?

Is it ever profitable to do so before you have all city improvements?

[The diplomat]

I've never used them. I think in most cases there will be something better to build. If you think you've built all the city improvments that the city needs then there are always some military units to build. Generally, you can never have too many military units.

Having said that, it may sometimes be profitable to build wealth, culture or research in specialized cities AFTER you've build the important city improvements. For example, if you have a city that you want to be your super culture city, you're going to build all the culture buildings in it that you can. But once you've done that, you might want to build culture to further increase your culture if you are aiming for a culture victory.

[madmaxxam]

If I'm going for a culture victory I'll build culture for a bit. Also, if I have a brand new city and I want to go quickly to fat cross before I have the time to build a theatre. Other than that, I haven't had the need for any of those 3.

[akuratnik]

I just won a cultural victory on monarch, and basically what it came down to was that I had less cities, pathetic sciene (riflemen/SAM infantry vs tanks/modern armor), and a low score, while there were three civs racing for space and one of them was also going for diplomatic.

so I basically decided to screw science, put culture on 100%, then told my three cities to build culture. The result was that my cities generated roughly 550, 450, and 400 culture per turn.

So I won. Barely. :-D

[asleepathewheel]

I've had to build science before after capturing too many enemy cities, dropping the rate down to 0% with units on strike. ugly, but managed to get currency which turned things around.

[kormesios]

Yes, if you're overexpanded early in the game--or isolated--building research/wealth to keep your economy afloat is worth trying. Unlike asleepatthewheel, I've never pulled a victory in a game where I had to do that, but it's better than nothing.

And it almost always makes sense in the end game, especially if you're trying for a culture or spaceship win. In those cases, buildings and units don't matter much, but getting a tech (or culture victory) one turn early can make a difference.

[TheZvi]

There is at least one reason to build research: Space. At some point in any game that is clearly going to end in a space race, there comes a point where there aren't enough turns left in the game for improvements to be worth it - first the long term stuff, then just about everything. On the other hand, their production doesn't do much for you building the ship either, because what you need are a few big cities (aside from SS Casting, which is incidental). There's no good reason I know of not to research-blitz the late techs if that's how the game is going to end, so long as you don't need any extra military. Usually for me this takes the form of "oh, whoops, I should be in research mode" while I'm working on Computers or something similar.

[asleepathewheel]

Originally posted by kormesios
Yes, if you're overexpanded early in the game--or isolated--building research/wealth to keep your economy afloat is worth trying. Unlike asleepatthewheel, I've never pulled a victory in a game where I had to do that, but it's better than nothing.

And it almost always makes sense in the end game, especially if you're trying for a culture or spaceship win. In those cases, buildings and units don't matter much, but getting a tech (or culture victory) one turn early can make a difference.

yeah, I've managed to win on monarch by doing that. Of course, a lot of it had to do with a large map with 18 civs, much early warfare.

[joncnunn]

If you find yourself in possesion of a 0 culture city that really needs to get it's second ring (or maybe even it's first if it's being crowded out) into it's hands right away, you may want to build culture if you are neither creative nor spirital.

But even then, it's probably more efficent to just build a missonary to establish your state religion in it. [Lacking a state religion, any will do] And those with only 5 shields a turn should probably be building a Temple or Theater instead.

[Tventano]

Also when trying to get a culture win, in some other cities it may help to focus on research, to get radio etc.

[Quillan]

I'd personally say Wealth is the most usefull of the three, overall. All three work the same way; the city devotes all its production to that one area, and you gain half the city's hammers as whatever it is. If they city has 100 hammers, getting 50 extra beakers a turn won't make that much overall difference. 50 extra culture points in that city might make a difference, but probably not in the short run. 50 extra gold a turn, however, might well let you bump your science rate up 10%, which can make quite a bit of difference.

[Bluefusion]

Didn't later techs in Civ 3 make the ratio of hammers to culture/gold/research 1:1?

When the ratio was bumped up I found myself doing it at times.

[Artuero]

I have been using them late game to some degree. If I already have a good enough army, or if I am flying through the techs so I don't want to build until I get to modern armor etc., I'll let my cities that have the improvements I want in them produce wealth which I then use to add improvements to my newer cities. I have also used the culture output to hasten the revolt of border cities into my hands.

[asleepathewheel]

I have two cities with all their improvments while beelining for chemistry. changing those two to research cuts the science by 8 turns, which is killer. I have enough cats and don't want to build maces to buy upgrades, I have too many already.

[Underseer]

Originally posted by Quillan
I'd personally say Wealth is the most usefull of the three, overall. All three work the same way; the city devotes all its production to that one area, and you gain half the city's hammers as whatever it is. If they city has 100 hammers, getting 50 extra beakers a turn won't make that much overall difference. 50 extra culture points in that city might make a difference, but probably not in the short run. 50 extra gold a turn, however, might well let you bump your science rate up 10%, which can make quite a bit of difference.

Gold is not the same thing as commerce, even if both use identical icons.