RA's: How to get the greatest benefit?

[tempshemps]

So many on the forums have been touting the benefits to your science of Research Agreements in Civ5, and I have heard certain things here and there such as that the benefits are greatest when your techs in the tech tree are sortof "evenly balanced" or something. Is this more or less the case (in other words, to get the most out of a research agreement, you shouldn't be too deep into the tech tree in a certain region, while lacking in a few others)?

So before signing your RA, you want to be sure you pick up all those 1-2 turn techs? How do the bonuses work? Does it help if you are researching an expensive tech at the time the RA is completed?

[Joketa]

This is a good question. I'd like to know more about how RAs actually function.

[Littlisk]

A research agreement, once completed, automatically completes one random technology available on your tech tree.

[Vlynor]

http://civilization.wikia.com/wiki/Research_Agreement

"The bonus is calculated as 50% of the median Science value for all of the technologies the player can currently research. This bonus can be be increased by acquiring the Rationalism Social Policy."

I think this means that if you have 3 available technologies, we'll call them A, B, and C, calculate the Median, then half it, and that's how many beakers you receive.

So say A is 400 beakers. B is 300 beakers, and C is 300 beakers.

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Without Rationalism Opener:


1. Put the numbers in the correct order (300, 300, 400)

2. Find the middle number, in this case, it's 300.

3. If there is no middle number, calculate the average of the two numbers closest to the middle (i.e. 300,300,400,400:
300+400=700/2 = 350 the Median would be 350 in this equation.

4.(Using the Median from Step Two) Multiply the Median by .50, in this equation, it would be 150.


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With Rationalism Opener OR Porcelain Tower:


- Instead of multiplying the Median by .50 as you would have done in step 4, you multiply it by .75, this allows you to add-on the 50% Research Agreement bonus that comes with Rationalism or the Porcelain Tower.

The amount of beakers using this method is 225.

---

With Rationalism Opener AND Porcelain Tower:

- Complete steps 1 and 2/3 to find the Median, the number found is the amount of beakers you receive.

(300,300,400) The Median is 300. You'd receive 300 beakers.



You'd receive roughly 150 beakers towards your current tech research without Rationalism and you'd receive roughly 225 beakers towards your current tech research with Rationalism.

It seems like it would pay out in the long run.

[Magic_Hotdog]

Dude... stop that.

You found the mean. The median is 300.

[Vlynor]

Danke. I apologize for the mix up. I changed my original post to calculate the Median, not the Mean.

[Magic_Hotdog]

It's a good step to take, but still not quite there yet. 75% of 300 is 225, not 262.5 (how in the world did you get that??). It appears you substituted the 350 from your sub-example in step 3.

Also, you get a full 100% of the equivalent beakers of the median tech if you have Rationalism and the Pork Tower.

[Gooner]

The RA gives you the beakers equivalent to 50% of the beakers required for your median tech. There is an additional 25% for both rationalism and the PT brining it to 100% of the beakers of the median tech.

If there are two median techs (ie an even number of techs are available to research), it takes the mean of the two median techs.

For example, if there are techs available that require 200, 250, 300, 350, 400 & 500 beakers respectively, the median techs would be the techs requiring 300 and 350 beakers. Therefore, you would receive 325/2 = 167.5 beakers from a RA without the PT or rationalism bonuses.

[Vlynor]

[...]

Fixed, again. Next time I won't try to write something at three in the morning.

[Machturbo]

It goes to the current tech you're researching. Any excess goes to the top tech in what you can select, as in if you have construction on the top where you choose (assuming you don't have something queued to research) goes on to the top one, if you look at the drop-down. That's been my experience with it. Also, as stated before, you get more with the rationalism opener and Porcelain Tower, giving 100% more with both.

[VicRatlhead51]

This explains a lot thanks for the explainations guys. I always thought it had to do with the era but I was way off.

[codekiddy]

Cemplete guide to Research agreements:
http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=445643