More than 200 cities - some experiences

[ramses II.]

In my last game I had tons of luck. I -Roman- took Carthago early in the game. Then, having built the SoL and switchting to Fundy, I was able to bribe about 20 Chinese cities. Two Indian cities - Delhi and Bombay - had been taken by barbs. I bribed them. In the neighborhood of Delhi I met the unfriendly Japs - so their cities were bribed, too. At last I met the French - I bribed their cities, too, except Paris - my pet city.
I build a city on the city terrain of Paris 2 tiles away - so they couldn't build anything more - no unit, no city improvement. Some tiles around Paris were held by some of my fortified units.
Then phase 2 of my my expansion began. During the game, I had more than 230 cities. I founded a city with 3 engineers and rushed a temple, then a market place - so it could celebrate the next turn.
It is very important to build a mass transit and a solar plant in every city, if the techs are available - or global warming will put you back.
Every turn i built 40-60 freights and earned up to 30.000 gold a turn - tax 0, science 20%, lux 80%.
But then suddenly the payoffs for the freights changed dramatically -max. 208 gold for one freight. Before I had earned up to 2900 gold for one freight. I sent them via airport from one continent to the other.
If a city couldn't produce any freights more or any city improvements - I didn't need SDI facilities - they produced money -> CAPITALIZATION.
So with 0% tax my income was greater than my expenses - freight payoffs excluded.
Partisans became a problem. At least 2 stealth fighters and a spy per city were a must have.
I played deity, map 125x80, raging hordes, 7 civs.
my score was about 12.000 points
The program said my population was 270.000.000.000
but thar wasn't correct. If you reach 320.000.000.000,
you begin with 0 after a while.

[rah]

Yes there have been a few threads on the sudden Drop of caravan payoffs. Many things were postulated as being the cause. Number of cities, population, tech levels, number of units, etc. But to my knowledge, no one was able to prove exactly what did it.

Rich
And Yes, capitalization is helpful to avoid some micromanagment problems, and to build spaceship parts.

[ramses II.]

@rah
when my total BRUTTOSOZIALPRODUKT - 3rd row in the demographics window- reache 99.999 Million Dollar, the freight prices collapsed

[Straybow]

GNP? Was that discussed as a possible trigger? It has been so long, and search still can't find its own ass with both hands tied behind its back.

[rah]

Originally posted by ramses II.
@rah
when my total BRUTTOSOZIALPRODUKT - 3rd row in the demographics window- reache 99.999 Million Dollar, the freight prices collapsed

Yes, i thought that one was discussed and discarded with the rest. Which is strange since it looks like it would have been easy to test. Even though I've never seen it labeled that.

Thanks Ramses, I'll remember that the next time I go for a record game. (which isn't very likely)

Anybody is welcome to verify it for all of us lazy people here.

RAH

[Ben Kenobi]

I'll take a look at my saved scenario with 254 cities.

[rah]

But will that tell you when it shut down? Unless you have saves along the way.

[TimTheEnchanter]

Do you know what tech you were researching? If you were at the point where the tech costs "roll over" (Around Future Tech 150-160, I believe), the limit of 2/3 tech beaker cost would take over and bring you back down to the minimum payout - around 200G

[ramses II.]

If anyone wants to analyze the save ... here its is
It's from the year when I started my space ship. I built cities even the last turn.
B.T.W., I played civ 2.4.2.

[rah]

Originally posted by TimTheEnchanter
Do you know what tech you were researching? If you were at the point where the tech costs "roll over" (Around Future Tech 150-160, I believe), the limit of 2/3 tech beaker cost would take over and bring you back down to the minimum payout - around 200G

I think I remember this happening once even before i got to future techs.