Science Rate Discussion

[-Jrabbit]

I know I'm just a lowly Trade Minister, but my gig contributes heavily to our science rate, so I think some discussion is warranted.

As I recently learned in a succession game, the AI has a strong tendency to mimic the human player's research rates. (With the AI cheat factor, that means they can easily keep up -- or catch up!)

With the Celts now in Democracy (and having enough cities to be a threat in the space race), we need a PLAN for maintaining our research lead. some possibilities --

1. Max out our science rate and try to power our way to victory. (Currently 50% = one/4 turns. 60% = one/3 turns -- etc)

2. Einsteins Galore! (Helpful for sure, but limits other production needs)

3. Trade, trade, trade! Keep the science rate steady, or maybe even drop it. Gain our science bonuses through massive trade. This would mean a significant investment in transports, freights, and escort ships (destroyers).

4. Gain more population through WLTP Days, getting all our remote locations into the size 8-and-up class. This means many more workers = more arrows = more science. Plus more trade bonuses.

5. An intelligent combination of 2 or more of the above.

I won't post this as a poll, so as not to unduly arouse our Minister of Science...

Discuss!!

[War4ever]

the best way is too trade.......but it doesn't seem like were geared for that sort of thing? and were not geared for war, in fact i don't know what were geared for????

[H Tower]

right now i'd say we're geared towards increasing production in the cities, creating basic infrastructure, library, marketplace, etc. but that has almost run its course and i'd like to switch back to freight

[Hydey]

more vans now

[War4ever]

do we have ASTF? i assume we do , but i don't remeber,

and if were gearing for vans again, this is good....if we have a lot of gold in reserves, maybe we should spend some rushing the libs and markets, especially if we have ASTF, the payoff will be worth it in the long run

[Ben Kenobi]

Will be posting my report in a bit.

One option is to build Bach's and to drop our luxuries to 20%, and science to 60%. This will help us avoid civil disorder in some of our cities.

OTOH-
Bach's will also allow us to get into WLtPD growth. This is another option once all cities have their harbours/aqueducts/sewers in place. There are not many left.

I'm a big fan of pop growth- more pop = more trade = more science/lux then we had before. The only cost is the temporary drop in science rate while celebrating.

War- we have Adam Smith. How could we do without the stingy scot?

I agree that we should focus more on 'vans. As more cities finish their infrastructure cycles, I will shift to 'vans as this was the preferred option in the other poll.

[cavebear]

Even with Bach's, I think we would need more Colliseums to get more than 2-3 cities to celebrate WLTPD. It would be nice if we could do that, though.

I agree that we should be doing *some* more trade routes than we are. The gold and bonus beakers would be useful, and in cities with available routes to fill, there would be a welcome and continuous payoff in trade arrows. We do need to cache some freight for a couple of more Wonders (SETI, Apollo). Valencia would be a secure place to build more Wonders, BTW (Granada seems vulnerable to attack, it could use a City Wall).

[War4ever]

i don't think bachs is necessary at this time unless were planning a war, and then growing? but i don't think this is the case.

the vans are better delivered and stored for a different wonder...

[mrboo123]

Originally posted by cavebear
Even with Bach's, I think we would need more Colliseums to get more than 2-3 cities to celebrate WLTPD.(..)

Hell of alot better than building a Colliseum in every city!

[BruceTheStupid]

Having gone heavily down the trade route this far, we should keep doing it - it has another advantage in that if we need to "hurry" (as opposed to "rush") a Wonder, we will have Caravans aplenty running around or close to completion.

[cavebear]

Even changing our luxury rate to 50% from 30%, we only eliminate the unhappy citizens from 1 city. It would get 9 total cities to celebrate though. I don't know for how long, but they would celebrate at least once.

[-Jrabbit]

Then let's invest in SCIENCE!!