With 1 turn left, switching tax/science.

[Rogerdude]

I fear the things stated about this "trick" may not be correct.
What I suspect is that the computer adds the science points generated by each of your cities, and when they reach the neccesary sum, the advance is ganied.
So, if this this happens when, say, the 4th city added up his points, the points genreated by the 5th city will be used for the next science advance.
This means that, if you have 1 turn left to research, you can switch the science ladder back, and the advance will still be gained in the next turn, but much later (for example when the 10th city adds up its science points).
You gain more money, that's undisputed, but you traded them for the science points that could be used to start up the next advance.

Waddaya thn'k ?

[vulture]

Originally posted by Rogerdude
I fear the things stated about this "trick" may not be correct.
What I suspect is that the computer adds the science points generated by each of your cities, and when they reach the neccesary sum, the advance is ganied.
So, if this this happens when, say, the 4th city added up his points, the points genreated by the 5th city will be used for the next science advance.
This means that, if you have 1 turn left to research, you can switch the science ladder back, and the advance will still be gained in the next turn, but much later (for example when the 10th city adds up its science points).
You gain more money, that's undisputed, but you traded them for the science points that could be used to start up the next advance.

Waddaya thn'k ?

That was the way it worked in civ 2, but it has been demonstrated many tmies that civ3 does it differently. If you have excess beakers of research left over, they are wasted rather than being put into the next tech. Its a shame, but c'est la vie.

[Arrian]

If you're really keeping track of your Commerce, you can start pulling your Science slider back 2 and 3 turns in advance and save even more Gold...

I've taken to fiddling with the slider once I'm 2 turns away now. I often am still doing things that could change my science output, such as building libraries/universities, courthouses/police stations, or even just city growth.

-Arrian

[nbarclay]

Toward the heavy micromanagement end of the spectrum, I've actually been known to crank down my research early and crank it up late when I'm working on libraries and universities in the hope of maybe saving some gold. The most extreme variant of that when tech takes more than four turns to research and maximum research results in a deficit is to actually turn off research early and build up a surplus which can later be spent researching at a deficit once more science buildings are in place.

[PLATO]

Originally posted by nbarclay
Toward the heavy micromanagement end of the spectrum, I've actually been known to crank down my research early and crank it up late when I'm working on libraries and universities in the hope of maybe saving some gold. The most extreme variant of that when tech takes more than four turns to research and maximum research results in a deficit is to actually turn off research early and build up a surplus which can later be spent researching at a deficit once more science buildings are in place.

This is an incredibly interesting idea. How does it affect building GW? How fast do you catch up to the other Civ's? Does it work equally well across different difficulty levels? Do you trade resources for techs from the AI Civs while your population works to complete your academic infrastructure?

[Mizaq]

This is also a good idea if you're about to build the TOE and you know you cant possibly discover a tech before the thing is built. I just switch all tech off and go for gold instead when I know I'm the only one who has a chance of building it.

[nbarclay]

Originally posted by PLATO1003


This is an incredibly interesting idea. How does it affect building GW? How fast do you catch up to the other Civ's? Does it work equally well across different difficulty levels? Do you trade resources for techs from the AI Civs while your population works to complete your academic infrastructure?

So far, I've only tried the "save early, research after more science buildings are done" approach within the confines of researching a single tech. For example, if a tech takes six turns to research at 60%, I might suspend research for two turns and then push it up to 90% until I determine that I can get the tech at the same time at a lower rate. I don't do that sort of thing often, but I figured I'd bring it up.

The problem with doing it over a longer period of time is that it could cost tech trading opportunities, opportunities to build something new I want to build, or such. But under the right circumstances (e.g. only you know the prerequisite tech so trading won't be affected, and you don't care that much about when you get techs short of your target), it could be done across multiple techs.

Nathan

[badams52]

Originally posted by Mizaq
This is also a good idea if you're about to build the TOE and you know you cant possibly discover a tech before the thing is built. I just switch all tech off and go for gold instead when I know I'm the only one who has a chance of building it.

Exactly, you just discovered a tech and see that you are going to build ToE in 3 turns. Put that tech to 0 because your research will be wasted!

- OR -

Modify your ToE city to be built on the same turn you discover a tech, thereby not wasting those 3 turns of good research!

[Mountain Sage]

Originally posted by nbarclay
Toward the heavy micromanagement end of the spectrum, I've actually been known to crank down my research early and crank it up late when I'm working on libraries and universities in the hope of maybe saving some gold. The most extreme variant of that when tech takes more than four turns to research and maximum research results in a deficit is to actually turn off research early and build up a surplus which can later be spent researching at a deficit once more science buildings are in place.

Absolutely.
The classical example is when you have the GL. You research then at 40 turns/tech and save all the gold. Then you build Libraries fairly soon (if you are still REXing, it's Settler-Library-Settler ...).

Once you get Education, you crank up the tech slider at 4-5 turns. Of course, you will run 50-80 gold/turn deficits, but this has been budgeted for. You sell then the first and second techs to everybody who can afford it for gpt. Most AI won't have any gold left to research as fast as you.

Finally, before entering the next age, you research the last couple of techs in 6-7 turns and accumulate the gold again (if you need to, of course). My experience is that the first techs of a new age (specially if you are the tech leader) are very expensive at 4-5 turns/tech.

If you go for a Spece Race win, the overall goal is to be able to research all the Modern Age techs at 5 turns/tech maximum.

Then it's take off....