Beaker decay

[binTravkin]

Is there any and how long does it take to start?

[Blake]

No beaker decay.

[Reinepein]

There's only *hammer* decay, as far as I know. No idea how fast that will set in (after 10 turns?)

[kiky]

I remember I read it somewhere that 'Civ may forgot' part of certain tech that is put on hold.
but, I could be wrong.

[greenday_234]

what are you guys talking about and what is hammer decay?

[binTravkin]

Hammer decay is loss of hammers for those items which are half-built in a cities queue and haven't been worked upon for some time.

Blake, as you appear the most knowledgeable of inner workings of the cIV, could you clarify how much exactly turns it takes to kick in?
Also is there any differences in decay start time between units/buildings/wonders?

[Jaybe]

I know for sure there is a difference in hammer decay initialization due to game speeds.

[Diadem]

There's no beaker decay. But you rarely half-develop technologies anyway.

The only one I sometimes half-develop is scientific theory. I don't want it, but I want to be able to get it quickly, and move on to physics with great haste, if another AI gets it. So I research it until 1 turn left, then move on to other techs.

It's really annoying that there is no way to spread a religion anymore once you have scientific theory, if you didn't yet build monasteries. After scientific theory you should be able to build missionaries without a monestary, imho. Oh well.

[Jaybe]

Originally posted by Diadem
It's really annoying that there is no way to spread a religion anymore once you have scientific theory, if you didn't yet build monasteries. After scientific theory you should be able to build missionaries without a monestary, imho. Oh well.

After scientific theory you CAN build missionaries without a monestary.
But you have to use the Organized Religion civic.

[Tattila the Hun]

Pst, Organized Religion...

Oh bugger, too slow...

[kiky]

Originally posted by Diadem
The only one I sometimes half-develop is scientific theory. I don't want it, but I want to be able to get it quickly, and move on to physics with great haste, if another AI gets it. So I research it until 1 turn left, then move on to other techs.

When I am confident enough, I do that on Liberalism so I could get better tech.

[Diadem]

Yeah liberalism is a good one, but I'm rarely confident enough for that. I do sometimes research other techs when I have education and none of the other AIs have it. But as soon as there is someone with both education and philosophy, I start researching liberalism without further delay

Besides, you can always get nationalism, which is a pretty darn expensive tech anyway.

[Blake]

Originally posted by binTravkin
Hammer decay is loss of hammers for those items which are half-built in a cities queue and haven't been worked upon for some time.

Blake, as you appear the most knowledgeable of inner workings of the cIV, could you clarify how much exactly turns it takes to kick in?
Also is there any differences in decay start time between units/buildings/wonders?

10 turns for units.
50 turns for buildings and wonders.

I don't believe that changes with game speed, but don't quote me on that...

edit: Actually I think you can quote me on that. It doesn't change with game speed.
Decay rate is 1% per turn for buildings, 2% for units. Minimum of 1.

[Maniac]

I wonder, if you would build part of a building, change to something else, then switch back to the building for a single turn and once again switch to something else... would the timer for decay change back to 50 turns?

[Godel]

Recollection from vanila CivIV manual (paraphrase): "You can switch research between techs. But don't delay completing research too long - afer a while your civ may forget what it has learned."

I don't have the manual with me atm, but I can look it up later and give a precise quote. I had always interpreted this to mean that you can lose beakers. I don't recall ever observing this in practice though.