Quickest way to raise trade level? Most important tech research?

[unmerged(17211)]

So far I know:

Push naval up in Domestic
Add more spending to trade tech
Breweries

What else?
Also, when people research tech, do you try for an even approach, or do you crank up one sector for a while and then change it? What's the best way to get all your techs up?

Best policy settings for fast tech research without compromising your armies or stability costs?

 

[unmerged(11750)]

Going plutocratic will give higher trade eff.

Most people research one sector at a time. I usually go for Infra 5 first while taking care not to get so far ahead of the curve that the cost increases. Then it's Trade up to 4. After that, I just try to keep Land and Naval on par with the rest of the world while occasionally dumping money into Infra and Trade.

The best DP for research is Innovative and Centralized. Don't sweat the increased stability costs - just avoid conquering provinces with the wrong religion.

 

[unmerged(17211)]

I like to keep narrow-minded because I play as the French and Conquistadors are useful.
Is there a way to blance this?

 

[unmerged(17211)]

Oh, and why is infra so important to get up early?

What I used to do is spend on Naval first until I could get Naval Manufactories and then I'd build about 3 of them and that way, I could greatly ease treasury spending on Naval for the rest of the game.

 

[MAlexander06]

Going to infra 5 fast really only matters if you're not in the Latin tech group. If you are, then you can get by with breaks in your infra investment. If you reach infra 5 early enough, you should have no trouble keeping par with the Latin tech group. Also, I would go narrowminded if you plan on having a large empire. You'll need the missionaries and you also want to be able to gain a stability point fast enough that random events don't cancel it out. Also free trade improves trade eff, IIRC.

It is important to get infra up because this increases your production incomes and makes it easier to advance in all the other techs.

 

[unmerged(8443)]

Free Trade doesn't effect efficiency.

 

[unmerged(17211)]

Ummmm.....

If you're going to invest in one area at a time, what are the most important areas to invest by priority and to what levels do you invest to? I can see:

Trade: High levels good for income
Infra: High levels good for income, stability and deflation
Naval: High levels good for combat and exploration
Land: High levels good for combat

Basically I'd want to play a colonial game with land battles in Europe as well and that means I need CASH and lots of it regularly....

 

[unmerged(8443)]

Since you're playing a Latin techgroup country, you'll want to alternate, focusing most early investment into infra and trade, sometimes land and naval if you lose a CRT or are so far ahead in infra and trade that costs are enormous. It really just depends on the situation. If you notice all your hostile neighbors getting really close to that CRT, you might want to go land; if your merchants are no longer competetive, a bit of trade wouldn't hurt. Just follow your instincts.

 

[unmerged(16363)]

For you it would also be interesting going to infra 5 soon, so you can build governors everywhere then mint 25% of your income on an inflation-free way.

This way, if you eventualy get behind in the land tech race and go into war, you can overwhelm your enemies easily with numbers... But you have a very high production efficiency by then compared to the others, so you can focus on land tech and have a high fly...

 

[unmerged(6147)]

Osaka!

I love playing colonising nations and therefore I also go narrowminded. The low stab recovery costs is a very nice side effect of this slider position.

The order for me concerning tech advancement is something like this

Trade 1
Infra 1
Infra 2 (early on income from trade is not big)
Trade 2
Trade 3 (for the monoply)
Infra 3
Naval 4 (for the cheap transport ships)
Naval 5 (for the increased speed of my ships)
Infra 5 (for the governors)

Both naval 4 and 5 are important when you have explorers.

If I am late in time I will go for Infra 5 before the naval levels but if I am early out and thus suffers from the penalty for being ahead of time I do the naval levels first. In the betas this penalty has disappeared or at least is lessened it is said. I don't know the facts exactly.

Then

Land 5
Naval 11 (for the shipyard, or is it level 12?)
Land 18

I build some 8-10 refineries to take care of the trade tech slider. Often I invest in infra to reach infra 6 so that I can build some 8-10 good manufactories also. I am not sure it is economically sound to build more manufactories than that.

I believe this is a quite good strategy for a SP game that aims at a late WC kickoff. It is of course extremely dangerous/stupid in MP.

Concerning the number of manufactories you should build, see the thread "Doktarrs FAQ on manufactories and inflation".

 

[ForzaA]

Originally posted by Daniel A
Trade 1
Infra 1
Infra 2 (early on income from trade is not big)
Trade 2
Trade 3 (for the monoply)
Infra 3
Naval 4 (for the cheap transport ships)
Naval 5 (for the increased speed of my ships)
Infra 5 (for the governors)

sounds fairly good, although in Beta's (with the new Taxcollector rule) I'd go with Infra 1 first, then trade 1.. also france is more of a producer than a trader.. so i'd guess a bit more focus on infra would be good.

 

[unmerged(9563)]

Daniel, you completely skipped a level of Infra!

 

[Szordrin]

AS France you'll have a rather easy tech development! Basically you need to reach infra and trade level 2, build tax colectors, land 2, 3/3 in infra trade, land 5, infra 5 and trade 3 (alternate when one cost largely more than the other). Promote oficials and you're done. After that, upgrade your land and naval (by the time you get the first explorer, you'll have naval 11+, and with some work, reach the level that gives you increased sight for automatic discoveries)! But if you stole maps, you may need to develop aval earlier. Narowmindness should give you no trouble, but don't change it in the begining, on the contrary, go innovative. You'll get events that will give you the oportunity for that later, and in the begining you need to be innovative (well, not really)!

 

[unmerged(6147)]

Originally posted by KwangTiger
Daniel, you completely skipped a level of Infra!

Ha! I do two in a row!