Affects of Cottage Locations on Research Times?

[MrPhil]

This may come out a little disjointed so bear with me.

These things I know:

1. Each map tile has assigned to it a certain number of resources. These resources can be any combination of Food, Hammers, and Gold.

2. Each Technology that you research requires a certain number of beakers (it is beakers right?) to "discover".

Here are my assumptions (please correct me if I am wrong):

1. The number of turns it takes your civ to "discover" a tech relates to the number of "beakers" your city has available or is producing.

2. Worked cottages increase the amount of "beakers" available for Tech research and thus can reduce the number of turns to discover a tech.

My question is this:

In looking at the map tiles around a city, and their respective resources (food, hammer, good), is there a strategy in picking the best lcoations for cottages to reduce the number of turns it takes to discover a tech and if so what is it?

I find myself routinely falling slightly behind in the Tech race on Noble level. I usually stick around #3 in total points and get my fair share of wonders, GP, etc. What I am trying to investigate is if my cottage placement is hampering my Tech research.

Any help you guys and/or gals can give me would be appreciated!

[Solver]

Each tech has a cost in beakers. Suppose it costs 1000 beakers. If you're generating 200 beakers per turn total, you'll discover the tech in 5 turns.

Cottages increase the amount of raw commerce in the city. Commerce is split into research (beakers) and treasury (gold) through your spending sliders. If a cottage has grown, and is giving you 5 commerce on that square, and you have 80% research running, then you'll get 4 beakers and 1 gold from that square. These numbers are subject to the effect of Libraries, Banks, etc., of course.

If you go for a cottage strat... just do it a lot. You'll be able to be well ahead on tech in Noble. I mean a lot. Start building Cottages early. Don't try to have more than 1 or 2 Farms per city. Build Cottages on most plain and grassland squares, except those that you use for farms.

One approach for a balanced city is to put cottages on the flat terrain, and mine the hills. A more research-heavy approach is to put windmills on the hills when you get the tech, but that will lower your production.

[MrPhil]

Originally posted by Solver
Each tech has a cost in beakers. Suppose it costs 1000 beakers. If you're generating 200 beakers per turn total, you'll discover the tech in 5 turns.

Cottages increase the amount of raw commerce in the city. Commerce is split into research (beakers) and treasury (gold) through your spending sliders. If a cottage has grown, and is giving you 5 commerce on that square, and you have 80% research running, then you'll get 4 beakers and 1 gold from that square. These numbers are subject to the effect of Libraries, Banks, etc., of course.

If you go for a cottage strat... just do it a lot. You'll be able to be well ahead on tech in Noble. I mean a lot. Start building Cottages early. Don't try to have more than 1 or 2 Farms per city. Build Cottages on most plain and grassland squares, except those that you use for farms.

One approach for a balanced city is to put cottages on the flat terrain, and mine the hills. A more research-heavy approach is to put windmills on the hills when you get the tech, but that will lower your production.

Thanks Solver! So, there is no correlation between resources per square and the produciton of a cottage on that square?

[Solver]

A cottage produces the same amount of commerce anywhere - because it ADDS commerce. If you read the mouseover tip for "Build Cottage", you'll see that it says +1 commerce. So a Cottage adds 1 commerce to its square - more when it grows. If you build it on a Plains square, which already has 1 commerce, you get 2. If you build on Grassland, which has none, you get 1.

I pray my numbers are correct .

[MrPhil]

Originally posted by Solver
A cottage produces the same amount of commerce anywhere - because it ADDS commerce. If you read the mouseover tip for "Build Cottage", you'll see that it says +1 commerce. So a Cottage adds 1 commerce to its square - more when it grows. If you build it on a Plains square, which already has 1 commerce, you get 2. If you build on Grassland, which has none, you get 1.

I pray my numbers are correct .

Got it, thanks!

So, by those numbers, it would be to your advantage to build cottages on Plains squares to get that extra 1 commerce, yes?

[Solver]

If you build one cottage, yes. But it's even better if you build them on the Plains, and then on Grassland, and get a ton of commerce .

Really, never underestimated Cottages. They're an amazing time investment. They don't do anything great at the start, but when they're Villages or Towns, the effect is much better. When you discover Printing Press, it gets even better. Finally, if you run Free Speech, they just become awesome - and under Universal Suffrage, they even produce a hammer.

[MrPhil]

Originally posted by Solver
Each tech has a cost in beakers. Suppose it costs 1000 beakers. If you're generating 200 beakers per turn total, you'll discover the tech in 5 turns.

How can you tell how many beakers you are generating?

[Solver]

Try the Finance Advisor (F2). On the left, where it shows your science/gold allocation, these numbers should show up.

[MrPhil]

Originally posted by Solver
Try the Finance Advisor (F2). On the left, where it shows your science/gold allocation, these numbers should show up.

Ok, great! Thanks again. Normally, I would have just clicked around till I found it but, I am at work and bored.

[Jerh9e1k5]

You can also see how many beakers a city is producing from within the city itself. I believe it is the top right corner. If you put your cursor over the science beakers picture it will show you a breakdown of how the commerce in the city is giving you beakers. It is very handy to see what kind of effect your added buildings are having on your base commerce (the raw number being collected from the squares you're working).

[Solver]

Yep, those are very handy to see whether your buildings have an effect. In fact, I often use those numbers when deciding on whether to build a Library/Market or do it later. But the F2 screen is useful when you want to see your empire-wide totals, not the number from some city.

[Qwertqwert]

I like to put cottages where ever I can, allows you to reachearch fast and be the first to go to space.

[Willem]

Originally posted by Solver
If you build it on a Plains square, which already has 1 commerce, you get 2. If you build on Grassland, which has none, you get 1.

I don't recall ever seeing a commerce on Plains unless it was next to a river. You're not getting yourself confused by some upcoming rule change are you?

[-Ab-]

i like to put cottages on floodplains
they make nice food/gold producing squares

[Forwarn45]

I find myself routinely falling slightly behind in the Tech race on Noble level. I usually stick around #3 in total points and get my fair share of wonders, GP, etc. What I am trying to investigate is if my cottage placement is hampering my Tech research.

Slightly OT as it's not what you directly asked, but I have found that emphasis on cottages and maximum commerce can help you keep up in the short term. But in the long term, at least at levels above noble, you really need academies and, to a lesser extent, great scientists working in your cities. Many of the AI players love acadamies and will out-science you with these and their other advantages, unless you do the same to them.