[SPOILERS] WillPlunder as Mehmed of Arabia: Noobs meet world

[Commodore]

Holy...please tell me you have a work boat en route for when you take Standard Oil. That's just nasty.

[Gavagai]

Is prioritizing Alphabet over getting a HE city set up really ever a good idea in a NTT game?

You often need to research Alphabet to clear scientist or merchant bulbpath...

[WilliamLP]

Is prioritizing Alphabet over getting a HE city set up really ever a good idea in a NTT game?

You often need to research Alphabet to clear scientist or merchant bulbpath...

Hmm, I knew about the scientist path but always figured I'd probably like to bulb education which is before alphabet on the list. With a merchant, I guess Civil Service or guilds are appealing techs where you'd need Alphabet cleared. (You can tell I'm not very good at managing great people! ) I'll have to go read the relevant threads several months from now I guess...

[Plunder]

The thing is that with PP you get the income bonus straight away. I would guess the difference is about 5 turns. 5 times 35 commerce and we have a 175 commerce advance over education first.
imo anything that is 'per turn' should be build ASAP.

[Gavagai]

Regarding scientist - Alphabet goes before Philosophy.
(For the record - I have no idea how it is relevant to the reasons which Boldly/Xenu had in this game.)

[WilliamLP]

The thing is that with PP you get the income bonus straight away. I would guess the difference is about 5 turns. 5 times 35 commerce and we have a 175 commerce advance over education first.
imo anything that is 'per turn' should be build ASAP.

See my argument about how moving either PP or education back ultimately costs a beaker difference multiplied by the number of turns it's set back.

You can argue that the difference from PP is greater, and factor in the savings on education, but the timeliness (now vs 5 turns) isn't relevant. (Unless we need a specific tech really soon, which we don't. If we did, we'd be researching that!)

Anyway we'll see if we have a good shot at the merchant next turn. If so, I'd consider bulbing Education right now - the scientist gives >2000 beakers toward it! (And for the GA, the merchant itself takes the place of the lost scientist.)

[Nicolae Carpathia]

Note that basic BTS Statistics Screen doesn't list the number of a particular tile improvement, that's only available if you have BUG mod installed.

[Plunder]

I'm pretty sure the timeliness is very relevant. If we research PP we get our income increase in ~5 turns (the time it takes to research PP), if we research edu first we get our increase ~5 (edu research time) + ~5 turns (ox build time). That ~5 turns of increased income longer with PP first than with edu first.

Which I estimated above.

[WilliamLP]

I'm pretty sure the timeliness is very relevant. If we research PP we get our income increase in ~5 turns (the time it takes to research PP), if we research edu first we get our increase ~5 (edu research time) + ~5 turns (ox build time). That ~5 turns of increased income longer with PP first than with edu first.

Which I estimated above.

But we're getting them both anyway!

A: PP on turn 5, Edu turn 10, Universities turn 15

B: Edu on turn 5, PP turn 10, Universities turn 10

Add up the beakers over the next 15 turns. A has 5 turns advantage of PP beakers. B has 5 turns advatange of University + Oxford beakers. Other than that they are the same!

[Plunder]

Yes, the endpoints are the same. What matters is the time integration of our income. Then PP is the better choice.
In case A your 'bonus' income starts at turn 5, in case B you have to wait until turn 10.