(December 19th, 2018, 07:33)TheArchduke Wrote: Early tech
To take advantage of Scotland´s strengths I will bumrush Pottery->Writing->Currency->Apprenticeship at the expense of anything else and lay down Campuses, Commercial Hubs and Industrial Zones in my early cities.
AH, Mining, Irrigation will be done only if necessary for an important resource. Let´s hope I do not need the early improvement. For defensive purposes we will do chariots or Horseback Riding and Horseman if 2 horses are available. Else a mass of archers. No Bronze Working, no Astrology, no Celeastial Navigation and no Cultural Districts for as long as possible.
I wanted to make a note by the way, since this was corrected for me in my thread as well, that bum rushing those techs may not be the best idea. The discount formula takes into consideration the number of district unlocking techs you have, in comparison to the number of districts available. To reiterate it:
Quote:It shall satisfy the following conditions.
1: a=number of tech/civics you have researched that allows you to build a district (except Aq/Sp/Ne)
2: b= district you have built (require full district instead of district bases, except Aq/Sp/Ne)
Condition:
1: b>=a, if a>b no discount is applied.
2: b/a> your total number of that type of district(include full district and district bases)
Under such circumstances the cost is discounted for a certain type of district. (except Aq,Sp,Ne)
Also, a and b are refreshed if and only if you finish a tech or civic.
Now you may be fully aware of everything I am about to say in the next paragraph but I think I should write it out just in case since this was not made explicit in your outlining post.
Yes it is true that each tech increases the district cost by 7 (and change) and each civic by 10 (and change), but the production saved from proper use of the discount mechanism may be greater than the amount saved by unlocking fewer techs. For example, to unlock campuses you will need 2 techs for an additional production of +14. Lets say you place the campuses then and there. Now you unlock currency and then apprenticeship. At each instance we will assume you have the population needed for the additional districts. You then place the bases for the commercial hubs and industrial zones as soon as they are available. Thus:
Campus - 74 production each
Commercial Hub - 81 production each
Industrial Zone - 88 production each
Lets assume instead you research 2 techs after placing the campuses then commercial hub but its enough time spent that you complete the campuses and get the discount. Now each CH costs 88 production at its base but you save 40% and they cost 52 production each which is much less than the 81 you would get from b-lining. In fact the districts would only cost 88 after the discount after you unlocked 23 techs. (88/0.4=220 and so (220-60)/7=22.8). You would also be forgoing the benefit of any of those additional techs.
Alternatively, you could half research several techs, such that their boosts would not finish them, and have no increase in cost but have those techs ready to go if needed. You could then get both the benefits of the discounted districts and prevent the cost scaling.
A lot will depend on the number of cities you choose to found and how fast your science is.
The fewer cities the less the discount matters as there are fewer districts getting a discount, and the faster your tech the smaller the gap between the production saved by avoiding scaling and the amount saved by discounting.
To express the formula for discounting fully abstractly:
c = techs researched while building campuses counting currency
h = techs researched while building commercial districts counting apprenticeship
n = number of cities built/conquered
(74*3)+[(74+(7*c))0.6*(n)]+[(74+(7*(c+h))*0.6*(n)]
You said 3 -4 cities. At three, assuming you built 1 district of each type in each city you would either spend (74*3)+(81*3)+(88*3)= 728 production or, to take an illustrative example of using 2 techs and the district tech while building (c=h=3) and 3 cities:
(74*3)+[(74+(7*3)*)0.6*2]+[74+(7*3)]+[(74+(7*6))0.6*3)]
222+171+208.8= 601.8 production or 126.2 production saved.
Using a tech delay strategy and the discount for best results (c=h=1), would give:
(74*3)+[(74+7)0.6*3]+[(74+(7*2))0.6*3)]
222+145.8+158.4 = 526.2 or 201.8 production saved. In either case it is significant.
To be clear B-lining writing then currency is fine, but the third district tech should wait until you have all 6 (8 for 4 cities) down of the first two types. I probably do need to double check these calculations and that my own understanding of the discount formula is correct. I am not sure if going for the discount even with the turns saved from production reduction is faster or slower than just getting the districts out and getting that benefit right away. I make that note because my obsession over this discount was to my detriment in PBEM 11. You saw how underdeveloped my cities were.
You will keep me more honest with analysis and reporting something which is sorely missing from my last two PBEMs.
/3
.
adjacency campus in the southwest whose tile I need to buy. 