Part 38

Dive into the core mechanics of Civilization V! Learn how culture grows, how social policies are calculated, and the impact of your empire's size and game settings on your progress.

Hey there! Ready to dive a bit deeper into the nitty-gritty of Civilization V? This section is all about the numbers behind your empire's growth, specifically focusing on Culture and Food. Don't worry, it's not as scary as it sounds, and understanding this stuff can really help you make smarter decisions. First up, let's talk about Culture and how it ties into things like border growth and social policies. ### Border Growth So, you know how your cities expand their borders to claim more tiles? There's a formula for that! The cost to grow your borders is calculated based on the number of tiles you already have, represented by 't'. The formula is: 20 + (10 * (t - 1))^1.1. Basically, the more tiles you have, the more culture it costs to grab another one. ### Social Policies: The Nitty-Gritty This is where things get a bit more involved, but it's super important for understanding how you unlock new bonuses. The cost of a social policy depends on two main things: 1. The number of policies you've already unlocked (k): This is your base cost. 2. The number of cities you have (n): This acts as a multiplier. There's a formula for the total cost, `p(n,k)`, which takes both into account. But wait, there's more! This cost also gets adjusted based on your difficulty setting, game speed, and map size. Here are the modifiers: * Game Speed Modifier (m_t): This is 3 for Marathon, 1.5 for Epic, 1 for Normal, and 0.67 for Quick. * Difficulty Modifier (m_d): This is 0.5 for Settler, 0.67 for Chieftain, 0.85 for Warlord, and 1 for anything higher. * Map Size Modifier (m_z): This is 0.3 for Normal or smaller maps, 0.2 for Large maps, and 0.15 for Huge maps. The base cost of a policy, `p_base(k)`, is calculated using the formula: `m_t * m_d * (25 + (6 * k)^1.7)`. This means that as you unlock more policies (k increases), the cost goes up significantly, and this is further influenced by your chosen game speed and difficulty. It's a bit of math, but the key takeaway is that unlocking policies gets progressively more expensive, and your game settings can really tweak that cost. Keep an eye on this as you play!