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  • #46
    I have to disagree with the Great Wall's ranking of 3, as this might actually make someone consider building it. For the 200 shields, there are far better investments than the Great Wall. Ranking it higher than Theory of Evolution is, IMO, nonsensical. Especially when you've managed to wheel and deal for all the non-required techs, Theory of Evolution can give you pure gold.

    Great Wall has one application - giving the Chinese a Golden Age.
    Theory of Evolution - even if you have not researched all the non-required techs, two techs are two techs and you can't argue that you won't have gone for, say, Nationalism and Communism anyway.

    I'd even argue that the Great Lighthouse, despite its ridiculous cost, has more application than the Great Wall since the cost of the Great Wall is 200+ shields anyway (and as I said before, 400 shields to make it an efficient investment).

    I especially disagree with the ranking of Sistine numerically equal to the Great Wall. The Sistine Chapel, even on lower difficulties, will offer a lot more than the Great Wall. Sure, you need a Cathedral, but then Sistine essentially supplies you with an extra Cathedral, giving you an effective bonus of 140 shields + 2 gold/turn for EVERY city you build a Cathedral in. Build four Cathedrals and Sistine will have effectively paid for itself, and everyone will have more than four Cathedrals. Oh, and the six culture is gravy.

    You should probably clarify why UN is a 5. You need it because otherwise you could lose regardless of other factors on any turn. Independently of whatever kind of victory you are trying to get, YOU WANT the UN if Diplo is on.

    Cure for Cancer comes late, is 1000 shields, and any empire across 3 continents will be three-quarters dead from corruption anyway. You may want to rethink this one, especially since its 1000 shield cost is...rather hefty.

    Why rate Copernicus' and Newton's (henceforth C+N, since they're identical) as 3 while SETI's a 5? SETI does the exact same thing C+N do, but at a cost of 1000 shields instead of 400. For less than the cost of SETI you could get both of them.

    Colossus surely deserves more than a two. Yes, it only affects one city, but you can get it early (especially since the AI doesn't prioritize it, a major point!) . If you run the city up to 12 pop quickly, it can give you +12 commerce for over a hundred turns, before you acquire Flight. 1200 commerce is nothing to sneeze at for a 200 shield investment. I'd call it a three with the other power one-city wonders like C+N. Also, with early acquisition comes early culture doubling, so Colossus will end up rating a six for most of the game.

    You should probably note that Adam Smith's pays for Airports too. Key aspect since Airports are the only one of Marketplace, Bank, Harbor that won't naturally pay for themselves.

    Probably a good idea to clarify Apollo Project to "space race victory". No need confusing people, especially beginning players, with the words "science victory", even though that's essentially what Space Race is.

    That said, in general I think you've put together a concise summary of wonders useful to at least some beginning players, and the ratings are generally along the right track.

    -Sev

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    • #47
      It apears that some people are not quite understanding my marking system, maybee I should clarify things.


      Mandatory
      ____________________
      1) Required to win the game in some sort of way.
      2) Or/And influences one aspect of your civilization that cause the others to expand. (eg. happiness promotes growth, growth promotes production ect...)
      3) Or/And it's effects are massive. (eg. Great Library giving you nearly 20 free techs, or Wall Street, giving you large money bonuses for free ect...)


      Very Useful
      ____________________
      1) Affects one aspect of your empire heavily.
      2) Or affects many things in your empire equaling a reasonable effect. (eg. Heroic Epic, which gives your civ the ability to build better wonders faster)


      Benificial
      ____________________
      1) (eg. Great Wall, provieds you with significant military advantages for a short period of time) Nice effects for a short period of time.
      2) Or improving the effects of a city improvment.


      Decent
      ____________________
      1) Giving you a bonus (eg. Money) for a short period of time .
      2) Or given this mark because other better wonders are avalible at this time.


      Mediocre
      ____________________
      1) Affects one very small aspect (eg. Sea travel) that gives you a good effect, but doesn't really do anything for your empire as a civilization.


      Hope this clears things up.
      Alex

      Comment


      • #48
        Battlefield Medicine

        I'm big on Battlefield Medicine! If you are a war monger and want to be efficient at it, you need to be able to heal while in enemy territory. If you're placing 2 or 3 Mech Inf on an enemy mountain as a distraction, they're so much more effective.
        Beer is proof that there is a God and he wants us to be happy. - Benjamin Franklin

        Comment


        • #49
          Hmmm...with your marking system that way, you should probably clarify it on the first page, as the marks will then be quite misleading. If you do intend it as a guide as to which wonders you should build, ranking Sistine and C+N both as 3 is going to confuse novice players who equate rankings with "how good" a wonder is. Sistine fits under 4 in your definition anyway, it gives significant benefit and never expires. Yes, I agree the rest of your ratings make sense given this marking scheme, but then you should clarify that "This Guide is not a measure of which wonders are better than others, or which wonders you should build." Your statement that it is a quick guide in which order wonders should be built is false, as it implies that, among other things, people should beeline for Sun Tzu's Art of War in the Middle Age, when Sistine and Bach's are clearly superior choices at this time.

          Still have to disagree with Great Wall at 3, since that says Beneficial, which by definition means conferring a benefit. I'd argue that in 99% of situations, you do not get a benefit out of building the Great Wall, since you lose on net shields.

          And how is SETI "mandatory" when C+N aren't, when they're identical wonders? SETI does the same thing, and costs two and a half times as much. Its effects are no more "massive" than C+N's.

          -Sev

          Comment


          • #50
            Not to mention that SETI comes too late to be useful, whereas Copernicus and Newton can give your research the kick it will sorely need after having spent so many years binging on free Great Library techs.

            Originally posted by Sevorak

            And how is SETI "mandatory" when C+N aren't, when they're identical wonders? SETI does the same thing, and costs two and a half times as much. Its effects are no more "massive" than C+N's.

            -Sev

            Comment


            • #51
              Thanks for the note, I thought SETI had the same effect as in Civ 2. I composed version 1.2 today, though it does need some more fixes.
              Alex

              Comment


              • #52
                Great Lighthouse more valuable due to bug

                Presently, the Great lighthouse allows Galleys to travel over ocean squares as well as sea squares (This may be a bug, and if so, I hope they fix it).

                As it presently works, this makes the Great Lighthouse very valuable - at least a 4 and maybe a 5.

                If you are on a continent or Pangea type world, you become the only civilization that can explore the oceans. This is good for 5 to 10 extra cities on the unexplored land that you find.

                Mike

                Comment


                • #53
                  Hi, first time poster here

                  It seems to me that if you have trouble keeping up with the AI on wonder creation, playing an archipelego map really helps minimize the effect of the Wonder. In fact, it might possibly make the Wonder counter-productive (for example, on small islands it's cheaper to build multiple granaries than the Pyramids).

                  But, the AI probably doesn't take these calculations into account.
                  Planet Roanoke -- a Civ4/SMAC Remix

                  Comment


                  • #54
                    TOE error in guide

                    Just wanted to point out that there's an error in the guide. I've seen this mentioned somewhere, but I can't remember if it's on this thread. Anyway, the TOE does NOT give you two secondary advances. It gives you the two cheapest advances available, period. Many players grab essential advances first and leave the secondaries for later, so that the TOE ends up getting them only secondary advances (perhaps even secondary advances from a previous age--imagine building it just to get Monarchy!) As such, you maximize the advantage gained by building the TOE if you fill in as much of the tree as you can. Alternately, when you're 2-3 turns from completing it, you can improve its effect by trading for all the secondary advances you don't have yet. Then TOE fills in primary advances you need.

                    Comment


                    • #55
                      The Lighthouse is definitely underrated. You can explore and find other civs, trading with them and trading the contacts with your friends (depends on how you play). It's a great tool -- and best thing is, if you wage a war with those off the continent, they can't hit you back!!!

                      Comment


                      • #56
                        GL

                        IMO the Great Library is highly overrated, at least for my style.

                        I make a TON of gold/turn by developing a tech, then trading it to every other civ. I think I make more gold through this method than through reducing research to 10% and making $$ through taxes.

                        Comment


                        • #57
                          Re: GL

                          You can do that with the GL too. Just because 2 civs have a tech doesn't mean all the others do. I often have gotten a tech from the GL and sold it to other civs, as well as doing my own research (deep rather than broad) and selling the results of that.

                          Originally posted by Quurgoth
                          IMO the Great Library is highly overrated, at least for my style.

                          I make a TON of gold/turn by developing a tech, then trading it to every other civ. I think I make more gold through this method than through reducing research to 10% and making $$ through taxes.

                          Comment


                          • #58
                            Score

                            Pyramids - 4 - Even if you cannot build it 1st, be sure to to capture it later.

                            Oracle - 2 - only 1 more happy face & it requires you to build a temple to get it... also expires.

                            Hanging Gardens - 3.5 - Nice. If your small cities are happy from luxuries or an easy level this is useless, if you have no luxuries or are on Diety/Emperor level it's priceless, but much harder to get 1st too. Expires.

                            Great Wall - 1 - Barbarians are already extremely weak & walls often vanish. Expires. Civ2 Great Wall atleast gave free walls to all your cities. Only thing good is the little bit of early culture.

                            Great Lighthouse - 5 - Pangea value = 0. Columbus & Ponce de Leon await to set sail. You can cross oceans with this centuries before the other Civs! This allows you to be the 1st Civ to settle the "New World(s)" as well as contact other AI Civs 1st. Great Strategic Benefits too. It's HUGE.

                            Great Library - 4 - Firaxis yanked MOST of the thunder that was in this wonder during Civ2, since now it expires MUCH sooner. Although, it is the best wonder for culture dominance & will guarantee you get/keep the tech lead for a bit. Also important if you need to catch up. Warmongers won't have to study.

                            Colossus - 2 - Does very little & expires.

                            Adam Smith's - 3 - Weakened from being the "money powerhouse" from Civ2, but still good to have.

                            JS Bach's Cathedral - 4 - Good. Value drops for archipelago maps.

                            Leonardo's Workshop - 3 - Depends on map size. Larger map = more troops. Since AI Civs cannot upgrade units this is almost useless to them, so letting them have it won't hurt you.

                            Magellan's Voyage - 2 - +1 speed ships isn't going to do much.

                            Sistine Chapel - 4 -Great regardless of the map you're on. Only Bloodlusting warmongers who never build chapels may disregard this.

                            Shakespeare's Theater - 1 -1 happy city.

                            Sun Tzu's Art of War - 3.5 -You will likely be defending your cities or conquering new ones. Veteran troops are more important than in Civ2. This brings flexible offense & defense to your entire empire regardless of how scattered you might be. Not something you want a militaristic enemy to have.

                            Hoover's Dam - 5 -Automatic increased production to factory cities & no pollution! Verrry nice. Not as valuable on archipelago maps.

                            United Nations - 5 -Allows for victory. Ignoring it could cause you to lose. Multiplayer... having your name on the ballot cannot hurt & you can deny the most popular person victory.

                            Theory of Evolution - 3 -2 more techs are 2 more techs. I sware once I only got 1 advance (Radio) from thing!

                            Universal Suffrage - 4 -Democracy wars. I've fought democracy wars without it tho.

                            Copernicus' Observatory - 3 -Good science.

                            Newton's University - 3 -Good science.

                            SETI Program - 1 -You either have the tech lead at this point or you don't. And since this only doubles the base & not double what Copernicus or Newton bring it's benefit is very small. You might get 1 more future tech out of this, but that's it.

                            Cure for Cancer - 2 -Only 1 content citizen for each city & is VERY expensive. However since the other Great Wonders are crap at this point this may be the best to default to.

                            Longevity - 1 -Game is almost over. More citizens do mean a higher score, but unless you're still playing for conquest & still attacking your growth is over. 2 x 0 = 0

                            Manhattan Project - 1 -Double-edged sword. And global warming could ruin your best cities or dissolve your lead.
                            Last edited by Pyrodrew; December 4, 2001, 23:36.

                            Comment


                            • #59
                              Stupid AI

                              Originally posted by Quurgoth
                              IMO the Great Library is highly overrated, at least for my style.

                              I make a TON of gold/turn by developing a tech, then trading it to every other civ. I think I make more gold through this method than through reducing research to 10% and making $$ through taxes.
                              The AI Civs pay FAR too much gold for techs. They should not give up their soul (entire treasury & future income for 20 turns) for only 1 tech... but they often do. That's a stupid AI... hopefully they will make the AI smarter in the patch.

                              Comment


                              • #60
                                Pyramids

                                I give Pyramids a 5+ (and a ) . In my opinion, it is the most impotant wonder in the game. It saves you the trouble of build granaries in every city and spares you the upkeep cost you would usually have to pay. Instead, you can build military units, settles, or temples and just have big cities. Worried aoutyour cities topping off at 12 for a while? Don't! No harm coms from the city not having a sewer system. Just change the tiles that it's taking from to the ones that give the most commerce an production. Then you have a bunch of large cities ready for production of whatever you want. Also, pyramids don't go obselete. Meaning your cities grow to enormous amouts after sewer systems w/o having to worry about granaries.

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