Schools

are they ever actually worth building

from Elemental Forums

Schools take up 1 space, and add 25% to the town's tech.  For 3 gold per turn.

Studies cost 1 gold, take 1 space, and provide 1 tech.

So unless you are very pressed for space, a school provides a slight acceleration when you have at least 4 studyies (or libraries), and makes financial sense when you have 12.

Except that any town you are really interested in tech for, you are going to pick tech as a city advancement.

At that point, using libraries, you are getting effectively 3 tech for 1 space and 1 gold,

At 6 libraries, you get 3 tech for the 1 space and 3 gold for the school.

And for it to make financial sense, you need to have 18 libraries.

18 Libraries?

And if you have any other tech bonus (10% for being Capitar?) it gets even worse.

Now, I suppose if you had a lost library that would shift things.  Then the School would give 1.25 tech in addition to the bonus for the studies / libraries.  the only problem is that Lost Libraries are so rare as to be almost irrelevant in evaluating the utility of build options.

 

It seems that the school should be adjusted somewhat.  My suggestion would be to reduce the maintenance cost to 2 instead of 3.  Admittedly, in practice, by the late game, money is not an issue for me.  But It seems like it should balance better.

 

Yours,

Joel

 

elemental
5,852 views 6 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

How does civ bonus, city bonus, and city improvement bonus stack anyways?

 

If I have 10 tech + civ bonus + City bonus + School is it:

 

A ) 10 + 10% + 25% + 25% = 10 + 60% = 16

or

B ) 10 + 10%+ 25% + 25% = 17.19 rounded somehow

or

C ) some completely other combination due to way game mechanics are implemented.

 

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

Looking at one twon where I have a racial bonus of 10%, a level up bonus of 30 percent, and a school bonus of 25 percent, it states that the total bonus is 65, and that maches the calculation for the reported total tech (13.2 on 4 libraries).  (No, that is not my biggest tech city.  But my biggest tech city is also my money source.  No Lost Libraries.)

 

So I would say that the bonusses appear to be additive rather than multiplicative.

Yours,

Joel

Multiplicity - Control multiple PCs using one keyboard and mouse
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

Yet another reason to build your own map! :grin:

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

I'm a little confused, when you say it gets worse, are you saying you are getting more bang for your buck, or are you losing some efficiency somewhere along the way do to implementation?

 

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Glowing_Ember, reply 4
I'm a little confused, when you say it gets worse, are you saying you are getting more bang for your buck, or are you losing some efficiency somewhere along the way do to implementation?

 
End of Glowing_Ember's quote

 

I am saying that as one gets bonusses, it gets harder and harder to build the case for building a school.

Joel

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

o, i see what you mean now - did you take population cost and material cost into your calculations ? I don't see you meantion them. I think the school is 12 population and 3 gold upkeep versus 5 population and 1 gold upkeep for each study, so you get a bonus while being able to maneuver your population around.

This is a good thing when you are low on people count but running large on gold.