Beaker decay

[Blake]

Originally posted by 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?

In a word, nope.

Decay can't be reversed.

[Godel]

Originally posted by 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.

Manual, p.60: "there is no immediate penalty for changing research paths. ... Just make sure you return quickly as your people will start to "forget" what they have learned as time passes."

[Diadem]

Originally posted by Blake

In a word, nope.

Decay can't be reversed.

So how is it implemented? If a building takes 60 turns to complete, do the hammers start decaying after 50 turns even if you build it continuesly? I hope not!

If restarting on a building does not reset it's decay timer, then how does it work?

[Blake]

A building will never decay WHILE it is being worked on - but after 50 turns of not being worked on then it will decay on any subsequent turn that it is not worked on. The decay timer can't be "refreshed" by putting in a turn of production so once you're out of decay time you have to just build the thing.

[Diadem]

So if you work on a building for 10 turns, then build something else for 20, then work on it again for 20 turns, and then build something else again it will decay after 30 turns?

Sounds logical, I guess. Pretty cool that it works like that. Lots of information to keep track of for the game though. Pretty sweet.

[binTravkin]

It would be impossible to reasonably implement it otherwise, Diadem.
If the timer was refreshed each time you started working on the thing again, it'd be too easy to keep 1-2 units in each city's queue and suddenly pop them out once someone attacks.
That would be so gamey considering you don't have to pay upkeep for units in queue plus they'd be latest version of the type as per auto-upgrade.