*Lots of gold* but no cigar!

[Phalanx]

Okay - I can only assume Im doing something wrong. Please enlighten me.

I have a current game going (I only just bought the game BTW) where I am getting 18,000 gold per turn - no, Im not kidding, I have a screen shot to proove it -and my science rate is on 80% (the maximum for corperate republic). I have very many cities (39), all of which are over size 10. All cities have at least university level science improvements but my 10 or so larger ones (size 28-30) have everything up to orbital labs. Every city I own is set to science as the city manager.
As well as this I built the field dynamics lab and the zero crime bill (I have almost no crime) and yet it is *still* taking me 31 turns to discover every advance. Whats going on? I tried splattering the entire map with shopping centres and oil rigs but to no avail!

I am playing on the second highest difficulty level so I expect a little slow science but still! How could you ever win the science victory! The AI can discover advances once every 10 turns or so - why cant I????
<font size=1 face=Arial color=444444>[This message has been edited by Phalanx (edited December 31, 2000).]</font>

[MapleLeaf]

How much do you spend on maintenance? Maybe too much?

[orange]

Yah...that was my original thought too. How much do you spend on Public Works.

I have a similar game going, in fact it's nearly exactly the same (except I'm one step down on difficulty and only have 33 cities...all as you described...most above size 22...) and I get my advances every 7 turns.

Definitely check your spending in Empire Manager...good luck

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[Davor]

How much are you paying your citizens? Is it at max? try turning the PAY slider down. You have alot of citizens in those cities. try turning your pay down and see what happens.

Davor

[bad0cat]

You mention that you have at least "university level" science improvements in every city. You would think that this would improve your science but it might actually be the root of your problem....

I'm not really sure to what extent this is true in CTP II (havn't had a good chance to study it in depth yet) but on CTP it was actually BAD for your science output to build universities, research centers, etc. Why? Because the science bonus you get from these buildings is actually more than offset by their upkeep costs. In other words, you may gain +50 science in a city because of your improvements, but you lose a couple hundred gold too - that translates into minus a couple hundred science nationally.

You may want to try selling some of your science improvements nationally - you may actually see your science go up. Just dont forget to turn autosave off because like I said, while this is true for CTP I'm not 100% sure about CTP II.

Hope this helps.

[Dale]

I have 50 cities in the Hard game I'm playing right now. I'm corp repub. All but 10 cities are over size 25 with only 2 cities under 15 (production high mountain cities actually for churning wonders up). I built the internet and then computer centres in 45 cities (5 were still building up after taking from a low-tech civ) and my science value went from 7 turns per advance to 4 turns per advance. I'd say it pays to build the higher science improvements.

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Rommell to a sub-commander outside Tobruk: "Those Australians are in there somewhere. But where? Let's advance and wait till they shoot, then shoot back."

[ACOLKitty]

I believe the problem is in how income is calculated.

Science it taken from your base gold income. All your bonus income, like from trade routes, TV, etc never goes toward science. That is how you can have 100% science and still be making money.

This situation forces you to use scientists to improve your science rate. If you put 4 scientists in each of your big cities watch the rate drop.

[MapleLeaf]

quote: Originally posted by ACOLKitty on 01-02-2001 12:01 AM I believe the problem is in how income is calculated. Science it taken from your base gold income. All your bonus income, like from trade routes, TV, etc never goes toward science. That is how you can have 100% science and still be making money. This situation forces you to use scientists to improve your science rate. If you put 4 scientists in each of your big cities watch the rate drop.

Frankly, never gave it much of a thought. But if this is true, it grossly underscores the importance of the Trade, especially in the late stages of the game. Why bother with Trade routs, when you make say >5000 gold a turn, pay less then 1000 gold in maintenance and make discoveries once in 5-7 turns on average?

[ACOLKitty]

You are right. I only really use trade int he early game.

Once I have TV there is no point. 20 cities * 20 pop *5= 2000 gold alone. Who needs the trade routes. If you play with few resources they are worthless at that point.

[Dale]

Add Hollywood onto ya list of wonders cuz the Artificial Stupid (thanks to whoever came up with that) builds lots and lots of TVs in it's cities and you don't need to worry about gold again.

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Rommell to a sub-commander outside Tobruk: "Those Australians are in there somewhere. But where? Let's advance and wait till they shoot, then shoot back."