The "cheapest" technology advancement

[Anderis1]

I've had a military technology advancement that costed me just 198 military points. Quite a bit of shock for me. I hadn't ever come close to this before.

What is the smallest number of points you needed to advance in technology in any of your games? What is the smallest possible?

 

[Sfan]

I regularly tech admin or dip below 150 when I do a ROTW WC with spy network bonus and I think I had 105 once. I don't know what could be the minimal cost, I don't know which events add up.
Theoretically, that would be dip because you could have 4 diplomatic idea groups including diplomatic (so -58%), have -20% from neighbor bonus, have -30% from spy network, be a scholar, have the -10% dip cost from advisor, the -10% dip cost from Exploration idea group, the -10% dip cost from "such an asset, this consort", have your golden era, have - tech cost in national ideas. That's about 0 then I guess, even considering the increase over time, but that's unrealistic, and I don't know if all these modifiers can add up or if the consort/the advisor/exploration count as one modifier and the event can't happen if you already got one. I never had several at the same time.

 

[Tom D.]

I think the bare minimum cap is 30 ADM/DIP/MIL but never got so low myself. I saw somebody else get so low.

 

[f.l.]

I think the bare minimum cap is 30 ADM/DIP/MIL but never got so low myself. I saw somebody else get so low.

You are correct, the minimum is 30. I paid this once when all stars aligned and I had some ridiculously low tech cost.

 

[Zenonira]

For what it's worth, this is a very exploitable mechanic. If you get the -75% tech cost from neighbor bonus, you can skyrocket your diplomatic tech from 3 to 23 in a single mana storage, saving you thousands of points to use for integrations, reducing WE, and other goodies.
As an added bonus, the -75% from neighbor bonus doesn't actually go away until the game has one of its logic ticks, despite you teching up, allowing you to actually grab later techs EARLIER by delaying your tech spree. I utilized this trick to get imperialism CB almost 15 years ahead of time, when if you had done tech normally, just tech 23 would've cost me more points than I could actually store.
Obviously this can be used for the other techs as well, but doing it for military would be utter suicide and idea groups are too strong to delay that much, in my opinion.

 

[Sfan]

Same goes for spy network bonus by the way. If you're caught, you can tech as if it was still a 100% spy network until the end of the month.

 

[TenshiN]

Really old version, but i have a screenshot of myself teching DIP for 30 points

Spoiler: Where the stuff's at

 

[Robert de Bruce]

In earlier patches it was normal for me to have Mil 15 and Dip 5. I guess thats why first increased tech cost over time, then corruption and and then institutions were introduced. Nowadays you need money to afford to pay for the corruption created by lagging too far behind in admin/diplo compared to Mil. Since tech cost penalty for not embraced institutions stacks year per year, it is often more wise to get a tech early. Plus you get additional boni for being ahead of time. The corruption tick down or trade efficiency you can get this way are often worth it, especially if you don't have better options to spend your points.

 

[Sfan]

That's still better in terms of monarch points, and monarch points generation is capped while ducat generation can potentially be almost infinite.

 

[Robert de Bruce]

Late game yes, in early game I don't usually delay my tech too much now.

 

[JeanneTherin]

In my Nagaur game I 'managed' to get 60 for dip and admin. Nearly fell out my chair when I saw the cost.

 

[bbqftw]

teching diplo in 1.22 LUL

 

[csi_ice]

Been there, done that.