Re: [Freeciv-Dev] Superficial analisis of AI research speed.

[Reinier Post <rp@xxxxxxxxxx>]

  Manuel & Tony & others,

[btw, shouldn't this be on the 'freeciv' list?]

> > So I chose despotism , and for a long time I run under it. 
> > The surprising thing happened when I did the switch to Republic 
> > ( as I always do ), then science rate rose up to 60 % ( sixty per cent ).

You mean, the rate at which technology is developed?  Yes, it's
important to realise that under monarchy, your empire will generate
much more trade than under despotism; under republic, it generates even
more trade (see Help->Government in de Xaw client for details); under
democracy, more still (because there is no corruption; this isn't clear
from the build-in help text).

This is the reason why you must turn Republic as fast as you can.
The additional trade makes up for the loss of production (due to units
requiring more support) except in unusual circumstances.

Actually, governments in Freeciv are very unbalanced now; in Civ I and II,
Republic and 'higher' are penalized by not being able to declare war.
Freeciv lacks this penalty; I haven't met a contestant yet who manages
to use Monarchy successfully.

Also, Republic allows you to set the science rate to 80%.
(The AI cheats in this regard, it sets it higher.)

>       The AI will switch to Republic quite early.  This can be a problem
> in some games, as that makes exploration with military units cause a lot of
> unhappiness.

True, but military campaigns rarely pay off anyway.
They're also the hardest aspect of the game, as far as I'm concerned.

>       The science cost depends on how many technologies you have
> researched already.  Thus you would expect it to fall if your empire is not
> expanding research speed as fast as that cost is expanding.

Your 'absolute' rate of scientific development can be found by
multiplying the percentage (in Reports->Demographic) by the tech's cost
(given in Reports->Science).

>       The proper strategy will depend on map sparseness.  A large map
> with few players will draw even harder toawrds the "no cities above size 6"
> style play.

It's extremely important to grab as much land as you can manage, for
two reasons:

  + two small cities are often more cost effective than one big city
  + to settle new land is easy, to conquer it off the enemy is very hard

-- 
Reinier Post                                             rp@xxxxxxxxxx