Building Factories all at the same time or staggered

[SCG]

the key to being able to research a new science is having at least 1 city producing at least 1 beaker. If you have 0% science, but a city has a scientist and produces beakers, you can reasearch something new. Likewise, if you have 60% science, but no trade, you won't be able reasearch anything (build your capital on a forest and put the worker on another forest => no sciences to research )

Edit: doh, highlighted the wrong quote - o well. Anyway, jpk is right, you can discover a science at a rate of only 1 beaker a turn, but after about the 2nd or 3rd tech, it effectively takes forever - so in later years, Paul is essentially right - you'll reach the retiring year long before the next tech is researched at 1 beaker per turn
[This message has been edited by SCG (edited June 22, 2000).]

[jpk]

SCG, what I have been trying to say in this thread is that if you deliver enough caravans your science rate doesn't really matter because the science bonus from delivered caravans generates sufficient science to fill the research box. This 0% stuff was just some technical gibberish about the boundary conditions of the algorithms.

Until you can get to the point where you can deliver at least one caravan just about every turn you may want your science as high as possible. I know this means the AI civilizations will research science at a rapid rate, but why do you want to wait for stealth fighters?

[geofelt]

Factories are a good deal if the game will last a while. It helps to be able to build one unit per turn, or other improvements more quickly. If you need gold, just convert production with capitalization.

[Ken Hinds]

I often get Industrialization before I have all the science and cash improvements built in each city. I tend to be a large civ perfectionist keeping only 3 units in each city for defense. What I often do is start a city building a factory and let it go for several turns and then switch to a library, courthouse, Marketplace, etc. If I happen to miss the city for some reason on my city management tour then at worst I'll get a factory when I really could have used another improvement.

Once I get a factory I try to keep the shield/food balanced so that I can get the max possible production from the city. I also try to do a city management tour at least once every turn so that excess production can be changed to gold or science, units in production can be upgrade due to better technology, etc.

Ken

[Theben]

I also build factories right away unless the city is needed to build war units or is in the process of building a wonder. The hoover dam usually follows industrialization so closely that I see no need to wait; in fact by building factories it helps guarantee that you get it!

Pollution is rarely a factor, since I don't play x2 production MP.

[Matthew]

Before building any factories I'll take into consideration my tech rate, and what the outlook is for future trade. If you are getting one tech a turn or two via science and freight, factories may not be worth building except in your best shield producing cities, if at all. My last game I didn't build s Single factory. The turn before the Chinese built Hoover Dam I built the Apollo program.

A factory costs something like 200 shields or so, doesn't it? If shield production in a city isn't high enough that doubling it (assuming you have hoovers) will pay for the factory during it's lifetime, for example, why bother? Also consider opportunity costs. Given the choice I would probably build Freight items that are in demand by some large distant forign city first, provided I think the bonus will be high enough.

I'm not saying I won't ever build factories. But lately I have found that more often than not they just aren't worth it.