Modern Era Technology

[The Evans]

Argh! I'm beggining to get annoyed! In four games of Civ 3, I've fallen far behind real life acheivements in the Modern era. On a good game I get Infantry in the 1800's. But then I start on the road to get tanks and it takes me until the 160's-70's to get old armour when I should be onto things like Space flight... is this just me? Do I not have enough cities to generate the research power nessecary or something? Or does everyone fall behind? I can get flight but never before 2050 have I got Jets. If this is just me I'd appreciate any ideas of how I can keep up in research, but everyone is like this I think that the Modern era techs should be cut down on or made easier to get...

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[pcasey]

Modern era techs cost a lot more than industrial era techs, which makes it hard to stay on a 4 turns per tech curve once the modern era hits.

Some tips.

1) Grow. A big empire = more revenue = more research. On higher difficulty levels, you must fight wars to survive and prosper. Don't hesistate to pull the trigger and run wars of expansion.
2) Get computers early. Then put research labs everywhere.
3) Put Copernicus, Newtons, Seti in the same preferably large city.
4) Build wall street and make sure you have at least 1000 gold banked. The extra 50 gold a turn in interest makes a big difference on smaller maps and can let you run a higher science level.
5) Trade techs with the AI if you're falling behind them. Its often more cost efficient to run all cash and buy tech from the AI than it is to run all science and research them. Of course this presupposes you're falling behind. If you still have a tech lead, I dont' usually recommend selling it off although I"ve been know to unload useless techs this way e.g. Free Artistry after I've built shakespeares, etc.

[Blaupanzer]

What level are you playing on? Are you trading techs with the AI? What percentage of budget is science? If at war, it is not unusual to fall behind the AI on techs, especially at monarch and above where they have a production advantage. Hang in there, watch what they do.

[MarshalN]

Also, what government are you using? Democracy vs Communism makes a big difference. Are you building universities everywhere?

[The Evans]

Depends

Usually Democracy, but sometimes I can't resist being a Communist for wars. Usually 60% Science else I start losing cash/ my peole get unhappy. Playing on Cheifton (otherwise I fall even further behind =() Universities in almost all cities. I often get Copernicus' and Newtons in the same city (My capitol most often..) But I still fall behind =( I never had this problem with Civ2, but even then I could only play on Warlord. I'm usually ahead of the AI by 2 or 3 techs, but I hit the Modern era, and it's like the beggining; 30 odd turns, and a horde to wade through to get to tanks (really made 1916) when I'm still strugling to get combustion =(. I suppose I could do with mass expansion, I play as the Greeks (Scientific and Commercial) which with all the extra revenue should be at a large science advantage. I've only got Computers once and that was in the 2030's, maybe I need to grow and have so many cities that I cna't possibly fall behind but then my expenses are too high. WOuld it be a good idea to have cities that are purely for Libraries, Universities (and other essential buildings) so the maintenance isn't so high?

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[pchang]

Believe it or not, but it is easier to keep tech progress going faster at the higher difficulty levels. At Chieftain, the AI is hopelessly behind and you have to research EVERY new tech YOURSELF. At higher levels, the AI does some researching on its own. You can concentrate on a single branch of the tech tree and obtain the rest from the AI (trade or extortion or both).

[rflagg]

re: Tech lag

A possible gain that I'd see with your current setup is this:

Set your science higher, and make sure you are getting as many luxuries as possible. Even if there's an un-occupied square of land half way around the world, send a settler there and rush build a harbor immediately. Don't worry about anything else for the city, it's just for luxuries only anyways. Also, trade, trade, trade for all the luxuries you can, and frequently renegoiate your luxury trade deals (where you're selling lux's - shoot for the highest bidder, usually around 20 gold/turn if they have some cash and they're polite or better with you). Doing this, along with being ahead in the tech race slightly and selling the techs to all the other civs (make sure you sell the same tech to just about everyone in the same turn, otherwise they'll sell it to other civs and make money off it) should allow for a higher rate of return.

If that doesn't work, try more cities. Believe it or not, I'm playing on a huge earth map, and control all of Africa and Saudi Arabia (cities don't overlap except one or two), and although my production isn't the greatest in all of them, each one has a library/university, and I've got a science rate of 60% and am bringing in the modern techs at around 10 turns (in a republic).

Hope this helps in some way!

-Rflagg.

[solo]

I agree with pchang. At lower levels you are doing all the work, which takes even longer now with the new patch. Increasing your science helps, but think how much faster research would go if you could learn eight techs simultaneously, which is essentially what is going on at higher levels, where MOST techs are acquired through trade. Apply this lesson to lower levels and use the AI to help you research the tree by trading all and any new techs you acquire with everyone of them, to assure that each will be learning something yet unknown to all. Group progress through the tech tree will always outpace an individual effort.

[MadWombat]

Well, you need to get to democracy fast, and you need a decent number of cities. Although it's true that it's easier with the AI doing your research for you, you should STILL be able to get modern techs in not more than 6 turns (under democracy, if you're at war, it's different).

Here's a saved game from my last game that you can look at. See if you can find what I've done differently, and then you can do it yourself

Happy Civving!

[The Evans]

Thanks guys

Thanks for all the hlp guys, I'll be sure to play Regent next time and trade for tech and also expand to get those luxuries faster than the ther civs. Special thanks to Wombat for the .sav file, I havn't d/led it yet but I'm sure it will help =) (it dosn't help really only having 56meg RA,as I cna't run the bigger maps =()

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[minute_soup]

Size of the map and level of difficult has a lot to do with it, I am playing Deity level with a huge map, by 1200AD I was researching future techs. 75% of the advances came from other civilizations though. The game gets really interesting when everyone have all the modern weapons, a lot more strategy involved. Way more fun than using the early rush strategy!