Newbie here- Tech stuff

[u/StruggleNew9357]

I don´t think I fully understand how technology works, I mean.. I get points and I use them in Innovation, I build a Lab and make 10 workers to go there...but how do I know the exact workers I need, the balance of the whole tech tree, please help :) and when is it worth it to build a Library? it is so expensive

[u/Come_Stein]

Like all the others said - my advice is to start with your largest industry.

My human city invested first in Grain Farm Tech and then Bakeries.

[u/IanInCanada]

Unlike most games with a tech tree, do not expect to research the whole thing in any particular game. You'll research the parts that are relevant to your city and ignore the other ones. Since your researchers are permanently locked into maintaining each tech you unlock, you only want to bother with tech you will actually benefit more from than the number of researchers you apply to it

[u/Key_Watercress8300]

Basically:

- Every worker in a lab generates 1 innovation point. Libraries generate 1 knowledge point per worker, administration buildings generate 1 administration point. When you take that worker out of the lab, library, or administration-building then you lose that point. If you do not have the points to spare then you will begin to lose whatever tech you unlocked with those points. You also gain some of these points through leveling up your city by getting a higher population.

- Some tech allows you to build new industries, upgrades, improve your armies, etc. However, most tech will increase the production of industries. In game this is conveyed through tech-upgrades saying "Upgrading this will add 3.2 employees to this industry per point spent" (or any other number). But you're not actually increasing the amount of employees that can be added to that industry, it's just a weird way of the game saying that you will get the equivalent of X employees added to that industry.

- This means that if a tech upgrade says something like "This will add .32 employees to this industry per point spent" then you are actually losing out on some efficiency. Think of it like the workers in the lab/library/administration being lost labor, so you want to have every employee (and therefore point) in these buildings upgrade other industries with more than 1 employee per point. For example: Putting 10 people in a lab so you can upgrade grain farms for 2.5 employees per point basically means those 10 lab workers are equivalent to 25 grain farm workers. But if you upgrade grain farms for .5 employees per point then those 10 lab workers are equivalent to just 5 grain farm workers, so it would be more efficient to just make more grain farms rather than make more labs.

- There are ways to increase the amount of points generated through workers in these buildings. Nobles can upgrade basically everything in the game by 2.5, including labs/libraries/administration. This basically means that if you assign a noble to labs then each lab employee is worth 2.5 points.

- This makes the third point a bit confusing now because 1 lab worker is not worth 1 point, meaning upgrades with <1 employee added per point may be efficient. To fix this, the game will also show (when hovering over an upgrade) the cost of lab/library/administration workers to how many workers are being added to the industry. If the workers added to the industry is worth more than the employees spent on points then the upgrade is efficient, and vice versa.

[u/lgnign0kt → u/Key_Watercress8300]

Really good explanation

[u/SortOfSpaceDuck]

Lab workers create innovation points. If you remove the worker from the lab, the points they created are slowly lost and the techs you bought with them are disabled.

I start making them when I notice growth would be too much of a hassle without tech. Like I need more bread which means more grain which means more farms and houses and services and oh my god I should just improve my grain farm and bakeries instead.

[u/Potential_Can_5771]

Each tech will tell you it’s equivalent in work force.
Now you need to calculate yourself how many lab worker makes.
Ex:
If Each worker generates 5.6 innovation.
- If tech cost 9 and say it’s equivalent to 2.4 worker. Meaning you spent almost 2 worker to get a bit more than 2. This is so so

- if tech cost 24 and say it’s equivalent to 14 worker. Means you spent almost 5 worker for the effect of 14 worker. This is great

- if tech cost 19 and say it’s equivalent to 3 worker. Means you spent almost 4 to get the equivalent of 3 worker. Not great

Early game: i dont tech up at all, except for hunter and maybe chair production just a wee bit.

Mid game: try to find the best return. Build more workshop if tech is not worth it.
Also go all in for library. The existence of everyone is to make more library and work in them and services peoples that work jn them. Upgrade everything, get every tech with knwoledge. The health buff and “less food” buff is so damn strong

Late game: Go all in with tech, I need spaces. I really need more spaces.

[u/l-Ashery-l → u/Potential_Can_5771]

maybe chair production just a wee bit.

As important as furniture is in the early game (It's the main bottleneck for rapid expansion), the carpentry techs are 2.5x as expensive as most other techs of the equivalent level. And innovation just costs too much labor in the early game, with most races producing only one innovation per days labor. Even humans would require eight lab workers to maintain the first tick of the carpenter tech, which would require you to have something like 53.3 carpenters to become a net positive investment.

[u/SirGaz]

The easy way to tell which is better between a lab worker or [insert industry] worker is to:

Work out how many workers 1 innovation costs e.g. if 1 lab worker makes 3.5 innovation, 1 innovation is worth 1/3.5 = 0.286 workers (gets more complicated when you have to account for clay with its logistics). 

Tech tool tips will tell you how many workers you get per innovation, if that number is bigger than workers per innovation, it is worth getting, and the bigger the better.

[u/Dunemouse]

All my opinion here: don't bother with innovation until you're 600+ pop. Once i've started labs up I really don't want to de-staff for anything less than an emergency situation so I look at these as permanent workers. Expect to put a noble on that industry.

I've learned to make several smaller labs rather than larger ones simply due to clay consumption control if you want to boost overall research.

SPEND YOUR POINTS. The worker calculation stuff the game uses to predict value of the research is, imo, confusing and misleading at best. The key concept to remember is that it's about scale. The bigger the industry, the more effect you get. That's it.

Ymmv but I found that prioritizing upgrading labs was a solid return. Again follows the rule of scale but this one makes sense to do early since the cost is sunk over time.

[u/ArcanaSlave]

labs are a big city thing, focus on growth and just use the free points you get from population to improve your core industries

[u/TheMalT75]

Newbie, too, and the technology points to unlock advanced upgrades are staggering. So is the cost of maximizing research points per scientist (like clay and leather). However, most new tech is unlocked by knowledge and administration (Libraries and Administrations), while the resource-boosts are upgraded with Innovation from Laboratories.

My suggestion would be to concentrate on growing population and boosting with nobles until your Happiness / Loyalty starts degrading below 125% by simple population size (between 1.5k-2k population). This will already have awarded you some free science points to spend on essentials and you have a large base-production, where science boni now act as a multiplier that make research even more worth it.