How to make lots of $?

[Harovan]

Here's an example:

Let a tech cost 600 beakers, you are making 200 gold per turn. Let's assume, that these numbers don't change. You now play around with the science slider:

100% - 200 beakers per turn - would be 3 turns, but the cap is at 4, so the game shows 4 turns.
90% - 180 beakers per turn - 4 turns needed.
80% - 160 beakers per turn - 4 turns needed.
70% - 140 beakers per turn - 5 turns needed...

Ah! So we set the slider at 80% (lets assume we can afford it). After 3 turns, we have researched 480 beakers. 120 beakers left. To research them, but not more (would be a waste), we can set the slider down to 60%, that gives us 120 beakers. Since we did not spend 160, but only 120 gold for science in the last turn, this saved us 40 gold, compared with the funding in the first 3 turns.

Now lets assume, units+improvements cost 50 gold per turn. you lose 10 gold per turn in the first 3 turns, but you win 30 gold in the last turn. You could even "win" more, if the numbers were different. But you did not magically create money, it's pure math.

You see - no exploit here.

[Arrian]

Ralph just explained it better than I did, using fewer words. Well said, sir. And I agree, I don't think it's an exploit at all.

-Arrian

[Theseus]

bigvic is the only one who mentioned it, but have a favorite strategy for wealth...

If I see that a civ has or is making a lot of gold, I take it.

(pats self on back)

[captaincurt]

In my current huge/pangea/regent/12civs/Iriquois game (though strangely it's islands, not a supercontinent... ) there is tons of gold in clusters in the hills of my northern jungles. As soon as I had the spare settlers, I planted cities on the gold. Knowing they would be stuck at size 2 for a long time, I packed them close together to take best advantage. Each city could reach two gold (in addition to the one it was planted on) and thereby had an income of 15, though corruption siphoned off some of it. A "regular" city would have to be around size 8 or something to match that. I have about ten of these cities, and with no improvements, they are cash cows.

I finally cleared enough jungle for one of those cities to actually grow. It has SIX gold in its radius and is on a river (gold + road + river + republic = a 7-commerce tile). It has something like 45 raw income.

What got me going on this was I needed a good location to build Copernicus', and thinking about it, realized it would have most effect in one of my gold cities. Hopefully I will also be fortunate enough to build Newton's there and truly have a science city.

In any event, as MiloMilo suggested, building permanent-size-2 cities on gold or gems can really improve the bottom line.

[Zachriel]

Originally posted by notyoueither
Set science to 0 after you have contact with 2 or 3 other civs. Use money to buy contact and techs, in that order. The more civs you are in contact with and who have the tech you want to buy, the cheaper the tech is to buy.

I usually set science to 10%. I can usually discover a tech once in a while, then sell it for a bundle, trading for the other techs. (More accurately, I set science to 20% for a few turns, so that the science is not ---, then as soon as possible lower it to 10%. Later, in Republic 40% is pretty normal.)

[Zachriel]

In 4000bc, I set my scientists to work on inventing the marketplace.

[Willem]

Re: How to make lots of $?

Originally posted by bigvic
Just curious how others go about making big bucks. Talked to a friend the other day, who sacrifices tech early to make money. Don't know about that one. Tried it when I first played, but ran into problems. Figured out the playing w/ the science spending thing, then noticed that a great way to become mega moneyman is to, ironically, build loads of science improvements. This reduces the amount of $ you have to spend on tech, thereby increasing profits immensly.

One thing to keep in mind, especially when you get into Republic/Democracy, is keep fiddling with your science slider. Quite often you can lower it a notch or two and it won't have any effect on the number of turns it takes to finish researching your tech. And all that money that would have been wasted will go into your treasury. That alone can make a huge difference.

[bigvic]

Re: Re: How to make lots of $?

Originally posted by Willem


One thing to keep in mind, especially when you get into Republic/Democracy, is keep fiddling with your science slider. Quite often you can lower it a notch or two and it won't have any effect on the number of turns it takes to finish researching your tech. And all that money that would have been wasted will go into your treasury. That alone can make a huge difference.

Kepp fiddling w/ it regardless of gov. Once you have serious science pumpin out of your cities, you can make serious cash. Even if in the beginning of a reserch you are losing $, you may find that by the end you make it back up. Then, if you want, take a research break to make $ for 1 turn, then pump up research$. I think this might have something to do with the fact that, given a little breathing space, I often see the russkies and other scientific/non commercial powers w/ loads of money.

[The Eliminator]

Forget it, max your tech early to mid game, and sell big advances like Polytheism, Literature, and Monarchy to your neighbours for ~400 gold a pop. And early lead in tech and gold will put you in a flawless position when things start heating up. I dont even bother talking to Civs who have less than 350 gold.

[Arrian]

Hmm... in my experience, the AI is dead broke until the middle ages, if not after. Once they get into republic or democracy, you can milk per turn cash out of them, but I had very little success selling ancient techs like mysticism.

-Arrian