How to maximize research

[Faeelin]

For maximizing research, should I put 80% in research (which I do and make a profit) or should I put 60 % in that and 20% in entertainment, which combined with luxiries should give me a WLKD in most cities.

[Barry Brenesal]

There's no one equation. Depending upon how many cities you've got, the buildings you can add, the mood of your neighbors, your economic condition and resources, any number of strategies present themselves.

For example, I typically go immediately up the tech tree to literature, and build the Great Library. Before you build libraries in your cities, keep your science funding at 10%, since it won't help you by being set at a higher level, but will consume more gold. I try to keep luxuries up sufficiently to allow my city building the Great Library to continue growing without too many unhappy people.

I next go for Republic, since this will get me a burst of quick techs with a lot of money. Again, my ratio of gold-to-science-to-luxuries remains flexible.

[BiggN]

Barry, to be honest, i think you are way off by saying keep it @ 10%.

It actually does go about 2 turns faster if you set it to 80% instead of 10% @ the start.

Agreed the money you make is slightly different, but not a lot at these early stages.

So Yes, i would say, go with 80% at the start, *and you should be making 1 profit each turn*

Don't build anything in your towns *except maybe an aquaduct if you need it*, or this will mean that you have more to pay out.

Wait till you reasearch Currency & Libary, then switch it to 40% profit, get the Market Place & Libary up ASAP, then switch it to 60% and watch those tech's come rolling in.

-BiggN

[Jason]

In the very beginning, you won't be able to do it faster than the slowest time, which is 32 turns. Setting it to 10 percent with only your starting commerce will result in no research. So to begin with, set it to 20 percent, which SHOULD be the lowest amount to give you your free 32 turn research.

Until you have enough science to make the turns grow shorter by pumping up research, keep it on cash. As soon as tech spending has ANY purpose, I do so, even if I have to lose some of the horde in the short term.

If anyone has a better idea...

[albiedamned]

I had tremendous success in the Ancient Era of my current game (Iroquois, Regent, standard map, 8 civs) following a strategy described here a couple days ago, and alluded to by Barry. At the beginning I set my science to whatever the bare minimum was to allow research to proceed (either 10% or 20%), the rest treasury. I used my scout to quickly explore and contact my neighbors while I followed a normal expansion program to build about 6 cities. By keeping science way down, I was able to make around 15 gold/turn, which is a lot for the point in the game. I used the gold to constantly buy techs from my neighbors. However I refused to give them anything other than gold - no maps, no communications, and especially no techs. This effectively made me the tech leader - if someone else got it, I got it, but no one else would since I wouldn't trade it or even let them talk to each other.

As for my own research, I went after Literature. Of course by keeping my science rate minimized, I was only making discoveries every 32 turns. But I got most of the pre-reqs with the above strategy. Once I got Literature, I immediately started building libraries in all my cities. By the time the libraries were ready, I also had Republic. So I switched to Republic (1 turn switch - the Iroquois are religous) and pumped up the science to the max possible without losing money. And then I left everyone in my dust!

Constantly buying techs from neighbors has a fringe benefit, by the way. Actively trading with your neighbors seems to make them like you a little more. Once or twice they threatened me with a demand, but usually the demands were minor. One time when the Americans asked too much, I declined and they declared war. But since my other neighbors all liked me, I got them all (Aztecs, Romans, Egyptians) into a military alliance against the Americans. The war actually lasted a while, but most of it was fought on others territory so I didn't care.

One mistake I made was actually building the Great Library. Since I was buying techs from everyone, there wasn't much out there that I didn't have. And by the time I finished building it, I was into Republic and pulling away from the field. The only advances I got out of the GL were Polytheism and Monarchy, and I only got these simply because I never bothered to research them. I guess it's never a mistake to build a wonder, but I probably could have built something else instead (maybe Sun Tsu).

My game is now around 1790 AD. I still only have 8 cities, but I'm well on my way to a culture victory. I've built basically every wonder there is since the Middle Ages. Ok, not all of them but the vast majority. My cities are virtually untouchable - I have air power, tanks, battleships etc. My opponents are still using cavalry and musketmen or pikemen. Not that I have much to fear, because everyone loves me! I'll probably go for the spaceship victory, but I may get the culture victory first.

[Jason]

Am I the only one who turns off every victory except for conquest? Heheheh. The great questions of civilization 3 will be decided not by speeches and majority decisions but by iron and blood.

[IronSpam]

albiedamned -

Building the Great Library in your game wasn't such a bad idea. Since many of your advancements were made through diplomatic acquisition, by definition at least two civilizations would have the advances you traded in.

If some foreign power had the Great Library, they'd be the direct beneficiary of all your wheeling and dealing for new advancements. Every time you made a technology deal with another power, this third party would instantly "acquire" it as well. A country could conceivably have made the straight drive to Literature, built the Great Library, and scooped up all the advances you spent all that time, energy, and money trading for in your diplomatic dealings.

So building the Great Library, while not directly benefiting your research as greatly as you'd like, effectively kept another party from reaping the rewards of your trading. Sometimes building a wonder to keep the advantages out of others' hands is also a worthwhile cause.

One note. I'm still waiting for my copy if Civ III to arrive in the mail [anthrax won't keep me away from this package!], so I'm assuming the Great Library works the same way as it does in I and II. If I'm wrong on this point, tell me.

[albiedamned]

Originally posted by IronSpam
albiedamned -

Building the Great Library in your game wasn't such a bad idea. Since many of your advancements were made through diplomatic acquisition, by definition at least two civilizations would have the advances you traded in.

If some foreign power had the Great Library, they'd be the direct beneficiary of all your wheeling and dealing for new advancements. Every time you made a technology deal with another power, this third party would instantly "acquire" it as well. A country could conceivably have made the straight drive to Literature, built the Great Library, and scooped up all the advances you spent all that time, energy, and money trading for in your diplomatic dealings.

So building the Great Library, while not directly benefiting your research as greatly as you'd like, effectively kept another party from reaping the rewards of your trading. Sometimes building a wonder to keep the advantages out of others' hands is also a worthwhile cause.

One note. I'm still waiting for my copy if Civ III to arrive in the mail [anthrax won't keep me away from this package!], so I'm assuming the Great Library works the same way as it does in I and II. If I'm wrong on this point, tell me.

Good point - building a wonder to simply deny it to another civ is always a valid strategy. However there is a slight change in the functionality of the GL in Civ3 - you only get advances when 2 civs known to you have them. In other words, you have to have contact with the 2 civs first. Since I was doing my best to deny the other civs contact with each other, it wouldn't have helped them as much as in Civ2!

[Awender]

I began the game with Russians, as they are expansionists and scientific. I hate explore a map with some fighter so my main reason for havin Russians is to have a scout.

The other thing I needed was science.

With the scouts I early discovered almost all huts and got plenty of new techs (I played on huge map - random everything.)