question about great library...

[Demerzel]

Stuck on a tiny island far away from anyone else playing on Monarchy level, I race for the Great Library in order to keep up with the AI in the tech race.

I complete the library to the sacrifice of other wonders but then for the next ten or so turns nothing happens. I'm forced to research several lowly techs that I know everyone else must have already, stuff like ceremonial burial, etc... Suddenly I get a couple of free techs and then for the next 20 turns plus I've received nothing... It's about to be made redundant via education and it's not really earnt its keep

The question is, when does the great library decide to give you the techs everyone else has? You would expect it surely to do it as soon as its built, not ten turns later ( when I've been forced to research stuff that it should have given me already ) and then as soon as 2 civs share the knowledge. Just had the persians beat me to a middle age wonder too, so it would seem to be not giving me some new techs as well...

Bit annoying really.

[Wittlich]

Actually, I have noticed the same thing myself - I build the Great Library, I am WAY behind in the tech race; but I never get any of the "advances already discovered by at least two other civs." (ALL of the of ther civs are busy building Wonders out of my league, but I still will not get the prerequisite tech advance needed for the wonder in question, even when everyone else already has it. I might get lucky enough and get a couple advances before the GL expires, but nothing to makeup for the cost of building the damned building in the first place...most of the time I don't even receive one advance...and yes, this is playing at Monarch and higher.

[Jaybe]

Originally posted by Wittlich
..."advances already discovered by at least two other civs." ...

Just in case this is relevant, it only applies to other civs YOU ARE IN CONTACT WITH. If you haven't met them, then they don't count toward Great Library advances.

So, if you are in an isolated island, or have destroyed all the other civs on your continent, the GL might not benefit you. When I build it, I build galleys and risk them in the ocean, trying to find those other civs across the sea. BTW, the AI never risks their boats.

[Catt]

Jaybe's exactly right - the Great Library is powerful when you have contact with numerous civs, a lot less powerful when you have contact with 2 civs but are playing a huge map 16 civ game (which might take you 3 1/2 months to finish - truly a great game, but you then might want to try smaller maps - sorry, off-topic reference ).

Also, although this is not true in every case (and I just recently experienced one of the cases where it is not true), you should never get to Education on your own and have your Great Library made redundant -- as soon as you build the GL, set your science to 0% -- the whole power in the GL is to have others do your research for you (plus the nice culture points )-- any gold you invest in science is wasted gold.

Catt

[mwaf]

Jaybe got it right. It annoyed me quite a bit, too, since in the first two games I built the Great Library I didn't get anything. Then I looked in the Civiliopedia, which explained the requirements. Now I'm playing on Earth with 15 civs and I have definitely benefitted from it, it even gave me Education.

However, I didn't set my science rate to 0% - instead I had specific goals, such as getting to Republic as fast as poissible, leaving all the other techs to the AI.

I got to try that science to zero strategy next time, though, it might be a better strategy (especially on more difficult levels).