Tech Cost

[digger760]

I down loaded the tech calculator from CFC today

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=38631

i have been using use it to calculate the cost of a tech if other civs already had that tech. What would AI civs offer based these values

as an Example Monarchy, standard map, Warlord costs 576 beakers with nody else discovering that tech.

What if 3 other civs new it. out of 8 civs, but you had only meet the 3 that new it...does that make the cost 230 or 451?

And if the cost is 230...what would the AI offer to sell it to you for

[Shabbaman]

The value is based on the contacted number of civs that have the knowledge. The value doesn't change if an ignorant civ is contacted.

[anarres]

The 'number of civs' is always the total number of civs in the game (8 in this case).

The 'civs who already have it' number is the number of civs that (1) have the tech, and (2) have contact with you.

Not having looked at the calc recently, if the cost is 576 for the first to research it, then isn't the cost if 'X civs alreay have it':

tech cost * X/(num of civs)

So in this case it would be 576 * X/8 = 72*X

Now, I would say that if you knew 3 civs who had it in total the cost would be 3*72 = 216.

If you know '3 other civs' that have it (in addition to the first civ) then that is 4 in total, so the cost is: 4*72 = 288.

FWIW, the AI also modifies the cost it is prepard to sell at based on a few things. Agressive civs charge more, don't know why. There is a 'cut off' point with attiude, which if they drop below they charge more and offer less too (this is somewhere in the 'annoyed' region, so if they are furious or sometimes annoyed they charge more).

Also there is a 'premium' tax (intorduced recently) of 50% on all purchases of bleeding edge tech, so if only 1 civ knows a tech there is a 50% surcharge in buying it (but not researching it of course).

And finally, there is another premium on certain strategic techs such as the government techs, and a couple of the industrial/modern age ones.

Oh, and don't forget that this is all 'IIRC', mistakes are guarenteed... ;)

[Ribannah]

The calculator contains a few errors in the basic tech costs (Refining is the most blatant one IIRC).

[ProPain]

quote:Originally posted by anarres

The 'number of civs' is always the total number of civs in the game (8 in this case).

The 'civs who already have it' number is the number of civs that (1) have the tech, and (2) have contact with you.

Not having looked at the calc recently, if the cost is 576 for the first to research it, then isn't the cost if 'X civs alreay have it':

tech cost * X/(num of civs)

So in this case it would be 576 * X/8 = 72*X

Now, I would say that if you knew 3 civs who had it in total the cost would be 3*72 = 216.

If you know '3 other civs' that have it (in addition to the first civ) then that is 4 in total, so the cost is: 4*72 = 288.



I've never looked at the tech calculator before (not much of a utility man, too time consuming :) ) but this doesnt seem right. In my experience techs get cheaper when more civs know them. In this example costs rise from 216 for 3 civs to 288 for 4 civs. More logical would be to multiply tech costs with (number of civs - x)/number of civs)

Maybe I'm gonna take a look at that tech calc after all.

[Ribannah]

Yes, the tech costs go down with the number of civs that have the tech.

For instance: Radio (standard, emperor) has a base cost of 6000.

Say there are 6 civs in the game, then if:
- 1 have the tech, the costs are 5400
- 2 have the tech, the costs are 4800
- 3 have the tech, the costs are 4200
- 4 have the tech, the costs are 3600
- 5 have the tech, the costs are 3000.

The formula is (base cost) * (1 - 0.50 * (civs with tech) / (civs alive minus one)).

[anarres]

Whoops. 'X' is the number of civs that don't have the tech.

In the example above it looks like I was givgng the discount amount. [:I]

[digger760]

i believe it is the number of civs that you have meet that have the tech...so if if 4 civs have the tech but you have only meet 2 civs with the tech then:

civs with tech = 2

[Ribannah]

I believe that is correct, digger760

[digger760]

I have been looking at the tech calculator for the last few weeks and have noticed that if you use the turns to research box it always seems to be one turn less than the turns to research as shown on the F6 screen.

I used the Tech Cost feild and divided this by number of beakers i am producing using windows calclator. This seems to suggest that the tech calc is rounding down to the nearest whole numbner while F6 rounds up to the nearest whole number.

[anarres]

Yeah, if it's one beaker more than 'X' turns it will take 'X+1' turns, always.

Maybe you should post this to Grey Fox's thread digger?

[digger760]

as soon as i can get an example i will. I started a new game standard map, regent, but all the first techs seem to divided evenly.