How well are you doing. (The Crossover Metric)

[rah]

So you wonder how well you're doing. What type of metric do you use to judge? Do you have a goal of number of cities by X date? Do you have a goal of getting pyramids by a certain turn, or another wonder? Do you try to have steel or liberalism researched before turn 200? The metric I like is what has been referred to as the "THE CROSSOVER". It is quite a simple metric to use since it doesn't require any great mathematical skill and you glance up and just see it. It's when you earning more beakers than the turn number (not including being in a golden age, and you can't be running at a such a high gold negative that it is not sustainable) Using crossover takes into account many other possible metrics.

Example running at 70% science with a plus 2 gold at turn 155, you're earning 160 beakers. You have achieved crossover.

So if this is going to be a solid metric we must have some comparisons. So I'd like people to pay attention during their games and post here when it happened for them so we can get a better picture.

please post the following stats for when you first achieve CROSSOVER and we'll see what the pattern is

(example)
difficulty=Monarchy
speed=Normal
Civ=financial protective
map=pangea
map size= standard
Science percentage=70%
Gold + - = +1 (if you're running real neg, list amount of gold in reserve)
Beakers=150
Turn=149
Add later if you can comment (won a domination win at turn 400) Not really important but I just like reading them

And any other suggestions for details that would help.


Or any other suggestions for other metrics.

[rah]

Oh, and please note if it was an SP or MP game.

[rah]

Ok I guess I'll start;
difficulty=Monarchy
speed=Normal
Civ=spiritual protective
map=pangea
map size= small
Science percentage=80%
Gold + - = +3
Beakers=179
Turn=147

Had early stone and fllood plains so easy pyramids.

[brandonjm8]

i dont know if youd like mine, i play on noble for now but on marathon, so my numbers will be tripled. but if you would i didnt write it down, but im ind/org im almost 1000 points higher than 2nd, i almost have my continent filled (i play continents) huge map, 7 civs, im almost at 1500 a.d. im over 600 turns, and achieved crossover just before i got astronomy, bout 100 turns ago, achieved it after my first GA from building Taj Mahal, to be more precise i had bout 770 beakers after GA and the turn was around 510-535 divide that by 3 for easy comparison to normal speed and thats about 170-180 turns.

[Hauptman]

I base my game progression on wether my infantry are killing longbows or grenadiers.... I guess it's basically if i get the next generation units first I know I'm on track.

[brandonjm8]

I base my game progression on wether my infantry are killing longbows or grenadiers.... I guess it's basically if i get the next generation units first I know I'm on track.

same here, on my current game i just brought up, i just got gunpowder, took me 4 turns, lol. ive got universities and observatories already built so my science now is around 1400 (its still before 1500 a.d.) i dont bother with musketman cuz as soon as i discover democracy to start building S.O.L. (takes a looong time to build w/o engineers) ill be getting rifleman right afterwards, in 10 turns i'll have rifleman and the AI hasnt even discovered gunpowder yet, and i have cavlary to their knights/elephants. im not building an army quite yet cuz my expansion is cruising and i have many cities that are catching up with infrastructure but my older one bout 10 or so (got 34 right now) are cranking a near 100+ science at 90% w/ +35 gold/turn, i can already tell you cuz ive mapped the whole world on my own and less than half the AI's even have optics, lol. only one other has astronomy, but in another 50-100 turns i'll have infrantry and the AI will have maybe musketman, lol. my points are skyrocketing and ive got all wonders except 2 ancient wonders, i could turn 2 of 6 AI's into my vassals if my continent wasnt too far from them, needless to say they all fear me but one might have potential if i dont interfere soon, since my island is almost filled up (3-5 cities space left maybe) as soon as i get steel i may just build a bunch of cannons/cavlary/rifleman and start the conquering. i will say this, if im left with my own island or make it my own early, it seems i pull away from the AI early and just increase my lead, ive had mech infrantry while they still had crossbows many times, might be time to go back to prince.

[Ming]

I base my game progression on wether my infantry are killing longbows or grenadiers.... I guess it's basically if i get the next generation units first I know I'm on track.

True enough... If you're the only one with infantry, that's usually a good sign. However, the AI doesn't race down that specific path, so it's unlikely, but possible they have advanced along other paths and could cause problems later if you don't eliminate them soon

But before Infantry... I find the cross over point a useful measure early in the game. I figure that before 100 turns, I better be expanding and defending myself. After that point, I then try to build the infrastructer to support a larger army and empire. If by turn 150 (normal speed) I'm not making really good progress toward cross over, I know I'm probably screwed. In MP games (also normal speed), if I don't cross it by 180 - 210, I know I'm probably going to have some serious problems. In SP games, 140 - 150 is a good goal. If I do that, I know I'm in good shape vs the AI's. And the proof of this is usually seen later in the game.

[-Jrabbit]

I hit it at Turn 194 (-11, but I had over 500 gold). I remembered to take notes at this point...

Malinese -- Mansa Musa
difficulty=Monarchy
speed=Normal
Civ=spiritual financial
map=pangea
map size= (not sure; small or medium) [Edit: it was "standard"]
Science percentage=80%
Gold = +6/turn
Beakers=212
Turn=201

Lost the race to Great Lighthouse, so my plans had to change.

[brandonjm8]

forgot to write down again, lol. well its 8 civs, prince, huge map, im cre/org, once again hit it after an GA but it was well before 1500 a.d. this time (marathon speed), bout turn 160-170, will try to remember to write down exact numbers next time. it was right after turn 500 at over 800 beakers (marathon so everythings tripled, gotta divide by 3, once again build taj mahal and got my observatories/universities build during the GA).

[rah]

I was playing one the other day focused just on doing it and was quite impressed when I crossed over at about turn 120, but was then gutted by hannibal around turn 170.

[wodan11]

I was playing one the other day focused just on doing it and was quite impressed when I crossed over at about turn 120, but was then gutted by hannibal around turn 170.

Shows the futility of most statistics. There's almost always something that isn't taken into account. Here: how much of your effort you expend on military, for example. Which is a preventative measure which, if not needed, is useless and detracts from the ability to achieve the best on the metric.

[rah]

But with any statistic, it depends on what you're using it for. That was the main reason I wanted people to throw in a comment, like how they went on to win.

I'm just looking for something to use as a quick guideline, because sometimes you're continually at war thinking you're doing quite well, then look up and see how far you are from crossover and figure it's time to change your focus a touch.

[wodan11]

But with any statistic, it depends on what you're using it for. That was the main reason I wanted people to throw in a comment, like how they went on to win.

I'm just looking for something to use as a quick guideline, because sometimes you're continually at war thinking you're doing quite well, then look up and see how far you are from crossover and figure it's time to change your focus a touch.

And sometimes you are doing well on crossover and then see a SOD from Hannibal on your border that you are totally unprepared to stop.

[rah]

Yeah, I never intended it to be the end all, definitive stat.

But again if I'm doing better than the metric, I should be concerned that I've ignored something. like an army.

[-Jrabbit]

Yeah, learned that lesson in another game last night. Put all my effort into laying down baseline infrastructure and was ill-prepared for the 3 civs declaring war on me within 2 turns. One was distant and no concern, one was weak and easily dispatched, but spies keep taking out my lone elephant camp, twice killing off my builds so that Frederick is much more of a challenge, sucking up all resources to solidify our border.