When you arrive at the Middle Ages, what is the date?

[sboog]

Those of you who play really well, please tell me when you first arrive at the Middle Ages what is the date.

The last game I played I arrived there at 1280 AD. Is that good or terrible?

sboog

[zulu9812]

I usuallly get to the Middle Ages around 60 AD on Regent

[Ignorance]

Terrible.
You'll be entering modern era at that time on huge map,emperor and maximum civilizations, if there is early contact between majority of civilizations. Thanks to insane tech trading.

[W4r_Machine]

The one I remember, which is my current game...arround 200-300 AD on regent and I think I was the last civ to get there.

[Arrian]

Sounds like you're playing chieftain.

The game speeds up on the higher levels of play. In a recent Emperor game, the AI hit the middle ages around 250bc. On monarch, it tends to get there shortly after the bc/ad changeover. I use the AI as the measuring stick here because I've taken to being a warmonger, which means beating tech out of the AI until the middle ages, and then settling down to build.

-Arrian

[Coracle]

1280 AD is terrible even at Regent.

I find the tech tree runs four or more centuries too fast at Monarch.

[sboog]

Yes. I am playing chieftain. I figured I was not doing that great.

sboog

[alva]

quite simple put, the more contact you or the AI has: the quicker science moves along. Set up a game for you and 1 or 2 AI only, and see how long it takes to reach the middleages

[Phil_de_geezer]

In a recent game on Deity (the horror!) i was happily researching horseback riding when the computer informed me that the English were building the Sistine Chapel. Not too sure of the date but it was before AD.

Me don't fink me ready fur Diety!

BTW, is it still possible to keep up with technology by setting taxes to 100% and trading for techs with version 1.21? I don't really like doing it because it feels like cheating.

[sboog]

Originally posted by alva848
quite simple put, the more contact you or the AI has: the quicker science moves along. Set up a game for you and 1 or 2 AI only, and see how long it takes to reach the middleages

alva848,

I don't quite understand what you mean by "the more contact you or the AI has." Do you mean contact between me and the other civ? Or do you mean the less civs there are, the quicker my turns roll around?

sboog

[Arrian]

sboog,

Well, first of all, the AI is handicapped on Chieftain and Warlord. It operates with penalties to production and research, which effectively cripple it. Therefore, the human player ends up doing all the research him/herself, because there's no way the AI is gonna out-research you (at least not on chieftain).

The game will move faster on higher levels when the AI has either a level playing field (Regent) or has advantages (Monarch, Emperor, Deity).

CONTACT

As alva848 said, tech moves faster when large numbers of civs have contact with one another. This is due to tech devaluation. If a civ you know discovers a tech, there is a small drop in how much it takes to research that tech. If 2 know, it's a bigger drop, and so on. This will speed your research up.

-Arrian

[sboog]

Originally posted by Arrian
sboog,

Well, first of all, the AI is handicapped on Chieftain and Warlord. It operates with penalties to production and research, which effectively cripple it. Therefore, the human player ends up doing all the research him/herself, because there's no way the AI is gonna out-research you (at least not on chieftain).

*But that's good for me, isn't it? I wouldn't want the AI to get ahead.

CONTACT

As alva848 said, tech moves faster when large numbers of civs have contact with one another. This is due to tech devaluation. If a civ you know discovers a tech, there is a small drop in how much it takes to research that tech. If 2 know, it's a bigger drop, and so on. This will speed your research up.

*So if I play with 7 civs the whole game will move faster date wise? And with 7 civs it won't cost as much per tech? I'm still not sure I get it.

sboog

[Der PH]

Originally posted by sboog
I don't quite understand what you mean by "the more contact you or the AI has." Do you mean contact between me and the other civ? Or do you mean the less civs there are, the quicker my turns roll around?

Contact between the AIs speeds up the tech development mainly because the AIs are madly trading techs among each other.
I usually play Monarch and the AIs enter Medieval Age some centuries BC.

I try to restrict early AI to AI tech trading by playing on Arcipelago maps, but it doesn't help as much as I would like.
Reducing the AI to AI trade rate in the editor didn't help either. If anyone does know a way how to solve this problem, PLEASE tell me! The high speed tech race in the Ancient Era is quite annoying and takes a lot of fun from the game (but not enough to stop me from playing )

[Arrian]

sboog,

The idea is that once a tech is discovered by someone, it's easier (cheaper) to discover. Thus, the devaluation once 1 or more civs have a tech. You may see this early in the game when you meet a civ that has a different starting tech than you, if you're researching that tech. You will see the # of turns drop for no apparent reason.

Thus, the reason the game moves faster at the higher levels is that the AI can actually research as fast, or faster than you, and there will be times when they are ahead. Catching up isn't necessarily all that hard. You can trade, build the Great Library, or beat tech out of the AI with brute force.

Also, the AI on the higher levels is actually able to afford to buy stuff from you, so you can make some money off of them, and set your science rate higher.

Plus, it may be that you are making some mistakes that are slowing you down, but I can't comment because I'm not looking over your shoulder. If you are determined to do all the research yourself (as is the case on Chieftain), I would suggest playing a Scientific civ, such as the Babylonians or Persians. The 1 free tech per Age will speed things up a bit, as will the cheap libraries and universities.

-Arrian

[alva]

Originally posted by Arrian
sboog,

Well, first of all, the AI is handicapped on Chieftain and Warlord. It operates with penalties to production and research, which effectively cripple it. Therefore, the human player ends up doing all the research him/herself, because there's no way the AI is gonna out-research you (at least not on chieftain).

The game will move faster on higher levels when the AI has either a level playing field (Regent) or has advantages (Monarch, Emperor, Deity).

CONTACT

As alva848 said, tech moves faster when large numbers of civs have contact with one another. This is due to tech devaluation. If a civ you know discovers a tech, there is a small drop in how much it takes to research that tech. If 2 know, it's a bigger drop, and so on. This will speed your research up.

-Arrian

i meant to say the same thing, but arrian explains it much better then i ever could