At what point do you build and other questions.

[Indalecio]

decide to build a building?

For example, if a city is generating 4 lightbulbs, would you decide to build a library?

I am trying to be more efficient in my city planning, so I've got a few questions. Well more like random musings.

1)Do percentage bonus stack? 25% from library and 10% from monastery equals a 35% bonus?

2)Lightbulbs = Commerce X Multiplied by bonuses? Are science specialist and settled Great Scientist Lightbulbs multiplied as well?

3)Castles provide 1 extra trade route. Is it a good idea to place one in every city? Same deal with harbors and airports?

4)Religious buildings. Under what circumstances would I build?
1)City has Apostolic Palace religion.
2)City is unhappy.
3)Going for Culture victory.
4)Monasteries for minor science bonus.
5)???

think thats it.

[gdgrimm]

Re: At what point do you build and other questions.

Originally posted by Indalecio

For example, if a city is generating 4 lightbulbs, would you decide to build a library?

Probably. The game tracks "partial" lightbulbs as well, so even with just 3 lightbulbs, the +25% from a Library will do some good. Libraries also generate some culture (for many civs, if you don't have a religion, it's one of the first buildings you'll have that will help push borders). They also let you run scientist specialists, so you might want to build the Library to generate GPP's that will get you a Great Scientist.

Of course, there's a lot of other things that might be worth building. Whether the Library is the best choice RIGHT NOW will depend on what's happening in your game.

But generally, all my cities end up having a Library built in them at some time.

1)Do percentage bonus stack? 25% from library and 10% from monastery equals a 35% bonus?

Yes. Exactly as that.

Lightbulbs = Commerce X Multiplied by bonuses? Are science specialist and settled Great Scientist Lightbulbs multiplied as well?

Yes, and yes. Also lightbulbs generated from Wonders (such as the Library of Sankore, coupled with the appropriate state religion and religious building(s)) get multiplied. The only lightbulbs that don't get multiplied are the ones that you build directly via Research (after you discover Alphabet)

Castles provide 1 extra trade route. Is it a good idea to place one in every city? Same deal with harbors and airports?

For Warlords, it's rare that the extra trade route of the Castle is going to be worth much, and the protective value of them is pretty lame, too. I usually don't build them, but might in some rare cases or when Protective with Stone (+200% to hammer production for Castles), I might.
Harbors I almost always end up building, partly due to their 50% trade route ability, but also due to their health benefit.
Airports I tend to build primarily for the military advantage of moving troops, and then only in small numbers. Again, the extra trade route is usually not worth much, and the +1 will almost always have to be compensated for by building some other building or such.

4)Religious buildings. Under what circumstances would I build?
1)City has Apostolic Palace religion.
2)City is unhappy.
3)Going for Culture victory.
4)Monasteries for minor science bonus.
5)???

1) I don't have BtS.
2) That's the primary reason for me building temples.
3) That's the primary reason for me building the Cathedral level buildings.
4) That's the primary reason for building the Monasteries.
5) Also build Monasteries in production cities if I have the Shrine of a religion and expect to build missionaries to push the religion and reap the tithes.

[nbarclay]

The major limiting factor on the value of castles is that their trade bonus becomes obsolete with the discovery of Economics. If there is a lot of time between when you consider building castles and when you expect to discover Economics, castles can be a good investment. But most of the time, there probably isn't enough time for them to pay for themselves unless their defensive or cultural benefits are important enough to help justify the cost.

[Indalecio]

Originally posted by nbarclay
The major limiting factor on the value of castles is that their trade bonus becomes obsolete with the discovery of Economics. If there is a lot of time between when you consider building castles and when you expect to discover Economics, castles can be a good investment. But most of the time, there probably isn't enough time for them to pay for themselves unless their defensive or cultural benefits are important enough to help justify the cost.

I know the defensive bonus provided by castles is nullified by Gunpowder units, but what how does economics nullify the castle's trade bonus?

[Lord Avalon]

That's the game mechanic: discover econ, castles become obsolete.

FYI, in BtS castles also provide +25% espionage.

[Asmodeous]

Also, in BtS, there's a random event quest you can get to build a bunch of castles and you have two options at the end to get a Great Spy (infinitely useful), some random spy points bonus, and if you have the Great Wall it gives you a third option of causing the Great Wall to generate +25 spy points (yes, +25 spy points. Not +25%) for-damn-ever.

throw a scotland yard in that city and you will out-EP everyone else regardless.

Me.