Why do AI research faster than me?

Messer Niccolò · October 31, 2002, 05:57

Well, I've just (re)started to play Civ III, after I had given up last year in favour of Civ II

, just because I'm a newbie I've started to play regent.
The question is why the AI seems to be always ahead in tech leading even if I have the only scientific civ on the face of the planet?
Then they sell me their discoveries for

... At this point I usually get bored and go for a little war just to teach them who is the boss.
But why is AI ALWAYS leading tech race???

One question added: should I beeline for monarchy or it's better republic?

... waiting...

... corruption su*xs..

vmxa1 · October 31, 2002, 13:11

I prefer to go to republic as a non religous civ, I do not want to make more than one switch.
The AI should not out research you on regent. They will probably get a jump on you as they will be trading with each other. Things to look at are 1- contact, the more civs you know the better. If you only know 1 and it has learned writing, that will make writing a bit easier to research, if you knew 4 civs that would be better.
2- number of cities and their productivity. If you have a very poor start location that will slow you down. If you do not use your workers well that will hurt. 3- form of government (very early that is not an issue). 4- use of citizen (being on the most productiove tiles. There are other aspect, but those will be enough to get over the top.

SanPellegrino · October 31, 2002, 13:56

A very important point is that the AI is much more aggressive at trading tech to each other, so you're likely to play catch-up til industrial age.

discover first the techs from the monarchy tree, the AI researchs the other path and you can trade with something in your hand.

Theseus · October 31, 2002, 13:57

Check out some of these threads:

http://www.apolyton.net/forums/showt...threadid=59216

Start with "Winning Early..."

Bella Hella · October 31, 2002, 14:19

why are they outresearching you? well, here are the standard possibilities (AFAIK):

- they're putting more money into science than you. in general, this is how you research faster. but how do they have that money?
- they're making a lot of trades to get $$
- their cities are on/near lots of rivers
- they're a commercial civ
- they're an industrial civ and got those roads built quickly
- they have a larger population than you (if this is the case, you can definitely go to war to reduce the amount of citizens, and therefore the amount of science, they have)

that's all i got. remember to emphasize money if you want to be the tech leader. found cities near rivers, road everything, and get that population up.

metalhead · October 31, 2002, 16:44

They probably have more cities than you. Build more cities! (And you thought that was just mindless babble from your domestic advisor)

Solver · October 31, 2002, 16:58

Yeah, on Regent I can keep up in research terms with the AI, though I usually build the Great Library, and go heavy on cash till Education, using it to speed infastructure development. Somewhere towards the end of Middle Ages, I will stop buying techs and see if I can start my own research.

Note, though, that on Monarch, it will become harder to catch up with the AI because of their bonuses.

Purple · October 31, 2002, 17:28

Quote:

Originally posted by vmxa1
I prefer to go to republic as a non religous civ, I do not want to make more than one switch.

Hmmm. I beeline to Monarchy in that situation (nonreligious civ) for the same reason. And I usually stay there for the rest of the game, since war weariness is not much of an issue, even with protracted wars.

If I'm a Religious civ, I go to Republic. Then when war weariness causes too much unrest, I can switch to Monarchy without multiple turns of anarchy.

vmxa1 · October 31, 2002, 17:52

Monarchy is going to make you less productive than republic. If you are lower levels, you can do anything you like, but otherwise you can not afford it unless you are an all out warrior.