Question about techs.

[Agathon]

I recently played a game as the Americans in which I decided to go for an economic strategy. In other words I attempted to make as much money as I could and buy all my techs.

I managed to do a good job of this, even though I got beat to the GL and I stil had lots of money for rushes and bribes left over.

The problem is that part of my strategy was to do this for the first half of the game and then go back to a normal research strategy once I had built up a huge economy. But when I decided to switch science back up to 70% it didn't make a difference. I was still taking 40 turns to discover things and putting the slider to 90% didn't make much difference.

So does the game keep track of how many techs you have discovered yourself and does this add to the speed at which you discover later techs?

[Wittlich]

In your later game, did you have libraries/universities built in your cities? This makes a BIG difference in your research time, along with having cities with large population sizes.

I don't believe the game keeps track of how many techs you actually researched and how many techs you bought in the past...

[Agathon]

I had wonderful cities with both libraries and universities (and stacks of other stuff). It still didn't make a difference. I wonder if it's a bug in the Mac version or if I'm just insane.

[Catt]

The game doesn't track how many techs you buy vs. research and use that to compute tech research times.

It's really strange however that with a well-developed empire with libraries and universities in place that any new tech should take 40 turns. Although not a favorite tactic of mine, I have used the "set research to 0%; buy techs until after Edcuation; with universities in place turn on research" on many games and never experienced a similar problem.



Catt

[Agathon]

Weird... I guess I'm just cursed.

[Inverse Icarus]

i've expierence that too, for some reason. going from 0 to 70% science, and still having like 20+ turns for an advance (even with libaries / unis).

it usually levels off in a few turns though.

[Agathon]

Oh, giving up in disgust and swearing at the computer doesn't work then?

[Louis XXIV]

Post a save

[Demerzel]

how bizarre. that strategy is normally foolproof, sounds like a bug to me.

once you have the research infrastructure in place, you should be getting new techs every 4 - 6 turns.

[Agathon]

I don't have the save any more, sorry. I deleted Civ 3 a while back to save space and reinstalled it only today (to start a Pangaea game)

I'm going to start another game with the same strategy when I have time and see what happens this time. Uberkrux is probably right.

[Wittlich]

This all seems vaguely familiar to me...

I believe that when you set your research rate from 0% to 70%, there might be a built-in delay factor to relicate your civilization turning from doing no research at all to a 70% output for research...but I'm not positive. As a matter of fact, I seem to recall that in a couple of my past games, it actually took 3-4 turns before my civilization was cranking out a fair research rate after starting from 0%. Sure, when I first set the slider from 0% to 70-80%, my research times are around the mid 30's...but after a few turns of leaving it there, my research times automatically moved down to under 10 turns to complete the technology research in question.

[Agathon]

Originally posted by Wittlich
This all seems vaguely familiar to me...

I believe that when you set your research rate from 0% to 70%, there might be a built-in delay factor to relicate your civilization turning from doing no research at all to a 70% output for research...but I'm not positive. As a matter of fact, I seem to recall that in a couple of my past games, it actually took 3-4 turns before my civilization was cranking out a fair research rate after starting from 0%. Sure, when I first set the slider from 0% to 70-80%, my research times are around the mid 30's...but after a few turns of leaving it there, my research times automatically moved down to under 10 turns to complete the technology research in question.

That might well be the answer. It looks like Agathon was punished for his impatience.

[Wittlich]

Yes, patience is a virtue - even in (or maybe especially in) a Civ3PTW game!

[Agathon]

Rage can also be a virtue in Civ.

[Vlado]

I've never had a problem with having a few turns adjustment to science and I don't think that there's a warm up period for research either. What I do know though is that when somebody else gets the tech your researching the amount of beakers needed go down and therefor the research time. This could explain why your research time goes down after a while Wittlich.

The only thing I can figure that wrong with the 20+ research time is either a bug or that your empire is to small. With to few cities cranking out beakers it'll take a really long time getting the techs eventhough your empire is well developed. It could also be so that your general income is to low. As far as I know it's so that your beakers are actually money that's converted. Hence when your money income is to low your beakers count woun't be that high either giving a long research time..

An other question though is: When you set the science slider to 50% is that 50% from your end income, eg is the amount of beakers you get derived from the amount of coins on the ground or after marketplaces and banks are accounted for.