SSC = Starving Silicon City

[Xin Yu]

You build Shakspear's theater in Sticky Mouse.

[La Fayette]

Originally posted by Xin Yu
You build Shakspear's theater in Sticky Mouse.

This solves the happiness problem, but doesn't provide food.

[Starlifter]

Nice technique and good thinking, La Fayette!


by Edward:

It looks like your *6 beaker factor comes from: normal beakers *2 (for library/university combo)) *2 (for Copernicus's Observatory) *1.5 (for Sir Issac Newton's College).

Actually, no. It is not computed like that.

Library increases output by 50%
Univiversity increases output by 50%.
INC doubles Lib, Sci, & RL output only. Nothing else.
Then... Cope's doubles the final total output of a city.




ALGEBRAIC CITY SCIENCE COMPUTATION.....


In an equation, this is how the game computes a single city's Science output:

[ ( AA + 3*NS ) * ( 1+(0.5*SI) ) + ( AA +3*NS ) * (0.5*SI) * IN ] * [ 1+CO ] * [ FM ]

SI = # of science improvements (0, 1, 2, or 3.... one each for Lib, Univ, and/or RL)
AA = Allocated Arrows (total trade used for science; set by TSL slider)
NS = Number of Scientists (0 to 16)
IN = Isaac Newton, 0 or 1 (If exist Isaac Newton, then IN = 1 else IN = 0)
CO = Copernicus, 0 or 1 (If exist Cope, then CO = 1 else CO = 0)
FM = Fundy Multiplier, 0 thru 1 (If Gov't is not Fundy, then FM =1 else FM = 0.5) (FM can be changed by rules.txt, @cosmic)


Here is the simple addition process (from a real game):

90 - Base (21 is due to Colossus)
30 - Trade Route #1
30 - Trade Route #2
30 - Trade Route #3
====
150 - Total trade of city

Assuming Democracy & 100% allocated to science output, with 14 Einsteins, plus Lib, univ, RL, CO, & INC:

SI = 3
AAS = 150
NS = 14
IN = 1
CM = 1
FM = 1

[ ( 150 + 3*14 ) * (1+(0.5*3)) + ( 150 + 3*14 ) * (0.5*3) * 1 ] * [1+1] * [1.0] = 1536 beakers




Note: mathematically, you can simplify:

[ ( AA + 3*NS ) * ( 1+(0.5*SI) ) + ( AA +3*NS ) * (0.5*SI) * IN ] * [ 1+CO ] * [ FM ]

Reduces to this:

[ ( AA + 3*NS ) * ( 1 + 0.5*SI * ( 1 + IN ) ) ] * [ 1+CO ] * [ FM ]

[La Fayette]

Originally posted by Starlifter
Nice technique and good thinking, La Fayette!

Here is the simple addition process (from a real game):

90 - Base (21 is due to Colossus)
30 - Trade Route #1
30 - Trade Route #2
30 - Trade Route #3
====
150 - Total trade of city

1)Thank you
2) Anyone can happen to make mistakes (in that case, I guess total trade would be 180, wouldn't it?)

[Xin Yu]

La Fayette, after building Shak's Theater you can put all citizens on ground, that is ususally enough for WLTKD growth, unless you picked a very barren terrain.

[La Fayette]

Xin Yu
Yes indeed!
Still, I have a feeling that growing past size 20 or so with help of WLT*D is often very difficult. That's why I like to use food caravans for big cities (probably because my management of WLT*D is not optimal).

starlifter
Apart from the tiny mistake I mentioned, I think your calculations are OK. I published some kind of equivalent a few months ago in a thread named 'the twin cities'. I have just given it a 'bump' so you can find it on top of this forum. Please let me know what you think of the idea ...and of the calculations.

[Starlifter]

All the route values should be 20, not 30. OL, so I guess I could not divide 60/3=20 arrows per route, hehe.. However, the total is correct (60). Thanks for ID'ing the error, it is important to get the details right, esp. for people trying to learn this confusing stuff....

I took a real-game example from last fall at CFC (the Game of the Month we play over there), when a person was questioning with a certain undertone how Smash could generate 1536 science from one city.... and I made a very long post to explain how the game works.

I didn't want to get into differential trade technique (too far off topic), so I just used the 60 total (3*30=60, right ). BTW, the thread is here ...

Excerpt (boldface added):

63 - Base
21 - Colossus
1 - Whale (Differential Trade = 3+1+1-4 = 1)
5 - Silk (Differential Trade = 9-4 = 5)
0 - Fish (Diff=4-4=0)
====
90 - Total base trade of city (This is what is used to compute all trade bonuses!)

Add the 60 for the 3 trade routes: 90+60=150

CITY TRADE=150 Smash's numbers work out exactly! To the decimal!

BTW, Science (another Pandora's box for another day):

((150+3*14)*(1.0+0.5+0.5+0.5) + (150+3*14)*1.5)*2 = 1536

Again, ALL of Smash's numbers work out exactly!

[Starlifter]

Please let me know what you think of the idea ...and of the calculations.

I use it all the time for my SSC, though in practical terms I'm not always intent on making the helper city as perfect as the SSC, in terms of base arrows (e.g., I might keep a hill or two). I'm after that Road/RR bonus! Your calculations look fine, BTW.

Here is the thread's link.

[lord of the mark]

Am i missing something - y'all seem to assume that the only reason to go to republic is for the SSC benefits - I find Republic useful for improved trade in all cities, and for celebrating in most cities. And it gives me flexibility to shift between science (get the techs so i can build the improvements) money (to rush buy the improvements) and happiness (to grow the cities sufficiently to cost-benefit justify the improvements)

Of course i've lately been trying to beat deity with a "spotless" reputation(And im close to a win). If you want an earlier, more overwhelming win, or you're playing against humans instead of the AI, I can see where the war-fighting limits of Republic offset the above advantages, and make the "atypical" SSC strategy useful.

LOTM

[La Fayette]

LOTM

IMO you are right about Republic: those WLTCD provide rapid growth and that is precious. The improved trade is less important because most experienced players manage to celebrate under Mon or Com or Fun and get those 2 arrows.
Still Republic makes you somewhat clumsy when fighting a really nasty war. In that case, Mon or Com + a strong starving SSC gives very good results.