The best slider position

[SoulFisher]

For Rations, Wages, and Work Day, what are the best positions in the long run: maximize Growth (Rations at minimum), maximize gold income (Wages at minimum), maximize Production (Work Day at maximum), or the default for the government you are in? I've tried all of these and I've never achieved a level of Production to have all improvements built in many of my cities. I usually play a defensive game (playing more realist than anything) so I'm always worried about the AI attacking me and capturing a city or two.

[preacherman]

I always max out work day at the begining of the game through Theocracy with food and wages at defalt. I want the most production I can get which if I build the right improvments will give me growth and gold. After Theocracy I run the defalt setting on everything.

[Dictatress]

I leave the sliders at default for my government, because I don't want to deal with the happiness/unhappiness factor it involves. I think the best settings would be with rations and wages on a low setting, and workday on a high setting. Of course, your people have to be very dedicated to stand something like that.... How would you like to work 10 hours a day?

[J Bytheway]

Early in the game wages are important but once you're in Corporate Republic or later governments I usually find that my maintainance costs are about 5-10 times my wages, so maxing the wges slider mkes no difference, but lets me reduce rations. At the beginning or during war having max workday is probably a good idea because it gives you a short term boost, but maximizing growth is better in the long run, since you can use the extra population for labourers and then when you go to war or need production again you can get a lot more by maxing workday.

[PatRussell]

I pretty much do the same as Dictatress...default settings. Lately I have tried playing with the sliders but don't like having to deal with happiness so I'm probably going back to default.

[ZoboZeWarrior]

In the begin, I try ta have an important trade income. So (in therocracy), raise by 2 or 3 level the wage of my people. I raise by one level the Work Day. And lower the ration at maximum without trouble in my cities.

[SoulFisher]

Recently, I've been lowering Rations two levels from the default, and raising Wages one level and Work Day one level to compensate.

I agree with you, J Bytheway, maxing Work Day (and compensating in the other two) for war is a good idea.

I used to keep Work Day as high as I could make it, preacherman, but got to wondering what I might be missing in Science (through low Wages) or in Growth (through low Rations). I have not come to any conclusions as yet.

ZoboZeWarrior, that is a most interesting idea: to pursue a path of trade for the purpose of raising Wages so I could benefit myself in either Work Day or Rations (or maybe just in Happiness).

[ZoboZeWarrior]

my strategy is efficient only when the popultion is still low, because it has a low impact on science. But when population grows too much up, it slow drastically your science.

[J Bytheway]

Originally posted by ZoboZeWarrior
But when population grows too much up, it slow drastically your science.

Only if they are working on terrain that supplies less money than their wages. With wages on max most of the terrains are insufficient so you should have a bank & marketplace to offset this. Of course science buildings also help if you have a large population, not to mention scientists.

[TheRussianKing]

sumone said 10 hrs...
thats bull. My ppl work for 12!!! and NEVER less unless its Commie or Techno!
I usually set my sliders to the Minimum consumption and happiness to when they start rioting. from there I watch the crime numbers carefully and see if I can increase one slider to get more happiness and not lose too much of that resource for gaining the others.

I usually consider wages expendable, they are the things that affect my civ the least. each citizen produces a hole lot of gold so I couldn't care less if it dragged my science a turn or two slower.

Usually in the midgame(well.. in my modpack) my Workday is max(12hrs), Wages max(6g) and rations at min(5food) then I go to civ screen and open all sliders and slide the food to 7.5 Rat, and if I get a boost in my resources, ill keep it at 7.5
In extreme cases it may take 10 !

[jlc9539]

Re: The best slider position

Though I understand the desire to lead a peaceful civilization, some offensive combat is needed. Don't be content to merely defend your turf.

While I'll hardly ever start wars, once I'm in one, I won't stop until I capture some enemy cities and punish the AI. Usually I'll set a goal for myself and then make peace with the AI once I reach that goal. I usually push for strategic cities and don't worry about the smaller, non-consequential cities.

Originally posted by SoulFisher
I usually play a defensive game (playing more realist than anything) so I'm always worried about the AI attacking me and capturing a city or two.

[preacherman]

I make sure that I keep my gold up so that I can get max production without effecting my science. The 2nd thing I build in all cities is market place. I get trade rutes up as fast as possable. It is excess gold that goes to science. I also get mines up as many as possable.

[SoulFisher]

jlc9539:
In the end, I do engage in war from time to time, typically preferring that the AI starts it off. However, I have a tendancy to ally again with them too soon.

all:
Interesting strategies . . . this gives me courage to try a game with wages set high . . .

I've typically been too paranoid to raise wages too high, except in financial emergencies.

[jlc9539]

I get trade rutes up as fast as possable. It is excess gold that goes to science.

In the long run, a city with multiple city improvements for science can produce more science than a city that produces lots of gold. If you're after science, universities and publishing houses go a lot further than caravans. At least this has been my experience.