Civics and Opportunity Cost

In CivWorld, every civilization can vote to enact one of several Civics. These are basically public policies that your civilization can choose, each with a benefit and a drawback.

There are two primary things to remember about Civics:

• Your civilization can only have one Civic enacted at a time.
• Each Civic can only be claimed by one civilization at a time.

Now that I've told you that, guess what? There are two exceptions to the above rules. Meritocracy and Closed Borders are not "exclusive" - they can be enacted by all the civilizations in the game if necessary.

Most of the Civics give you a +25% bonus in one category (like Production) and a -25% penalty in another (like Gold).  Some will also affect your citizens' Happiness, which makes all your citizens slightly more (or less) productive.

Meritocracy and Closed Borders are intriguing - they appear to have a benefit without a drawback.  Look at Meritocracy, for example.  It automatically removes inactive players from your civilization, which helps your civ pass votes in a timely fashion and provides space for active players to join.  And hey, it doesn't give us -25% to anything!

The thing to remember is the opportunity cost of having one Civic - you're not just paying the penalty associated with that civic, you're also paying the price of not having another civic in place.  You're forfeiting the +25% in some category that you could be enjoying.  This is particularly true of things like Meritocracy (once your inactive folks are cut out, you're not gaining much and you're forfeiting a +25% somewhere else), but it's true of every Civic.

Think about the civic currently enacted in your civilization - is it the best one for your current situation? Or could your civilization be benefiting more from a different bonus or a different penalty?

Science Mazes

EDIT: Science mazes were nerfed in the 7/25/2011 patch to provide very little bonus science so their usefulness may not be what it once was. These tips still stand for how to solve mazes, though!

I don't have a ton of experience compared to some, but from what I've seen, mastery of the science maze can be a huge difference-maker if your civ is aiming for Science Victories.  Here are a few tips to maximize your maze mastery:

• Use the arrow keys on your keyboard rather than clicking the clumsy directional buttons with the mouse - you're going to be exploring a lot.
• You can always Start Over at any time, getting all of your moves back.  Use this to explore the different entrances (generally one on each side) and get a feel for which one actually leads to the center.
• Moving around the outside of the maze does not use up moves, so you can head back to whichever entrance looks promising regardless of where the "Start Over" button spawns you.
• Likewise, moving over a line you've already drawn does not use up moves, so you can backtrack and try a different path without spending extra moves.
• The beakers in the maze grant you a chunk of extra moves and can be a big difference. You can easily evaluate whether it's worth your time to go get a beaker - just answer two question: How many moves do you have after getting the beaker? How many moves do you have at the point you have to branch from the "ideal" path to get it? You may need to run the maze twice (once with the beaker, once without) to be sure, but remember you can Start Over infinitely!
• Each technology has its own unique maze, and you can see the cursors of other players researching that technology. If you reach the middle, all members of your civ working on that technology get a chunk of bonus Science as well.
• Communicate with your buddies in your civ if possible when you figure out the correct way through the maze - multiple solves equals lots of bonus science.

Fame, Medals, Ranks, Ministries and Winning

One of the topics I see a lot of confused posts about in the CivWorld Forums is the variety of methods CivWorld uses to reward and measure individual players.

Fame

Fame is a purely individual score for each player in a game of CivWorld.  Your fame always stays with you and never decreases.  Fame is not used to determine your ranking within your own civilization - only who the "top players" are in the game overall.

You receive fame in a variety of ways.  The major ways you receive Fame include:

• Winning an era - the higher you are ranked in your civ, the more fame you'll get.
• Winning a contest
• Winning a medal (see below)

Medals

Medals are simple achievements, like "Reach population 10".  Medals are unique within your civ - once someone wins the Population 10 medal, you can no longer get it.

There are medals for:

• Reaching new levels of population (first to reach that population wins the medal)
• Researching specific technologies (the MVP of that technology wins the medal)
• Building wonders (a random contributor to the wonder wins the medal)
• Building Ginormous buildings (first to build that building wins the medal)
• Military wins (player contributing the most to the victory wins the medal)
• Reaching new levels of gold reserves (first to reach that much gold wins the medal)

You can see the list of medals remaining for your Civ by hitting the Friends button and then choosing the Medals and Stats tab at the top.

Ranks

Every time you win a medal, you will get a promotion within your Civilization.  If you're currently a peasant, you'll move up and become a Lord or Lady.  This pushes everyone below you down one notch, probably turning somebody else back into a peasant.

Likewise, winning a medal while a Lord will make you a Duke, winning one as a Duke will make you a Prince, and winning one as a Prince will make you the King or Queen of your civilization!

Note that your rank is never determined by your Fame!  You can have 200 Fame and be the lowliest peasant in your civilization (and you will be, if you switch civs during the game).

You get more Fame by being highly ranked when your civ wins an Era, and the various Ranks have privileges (like proposing Civics), but I'll save those for another post.

Ministries

If you are already a Duke or Duchess when you win a medal, you will get an additional benefit when you're promoted to Prince - you will also become a Minister in your civilization's government.  Each category of medal has a corresponding ministry, and each ministry has a bonus you provide as Minister.  For example, the Interior Minister gives a free Harvest to a random member of his civ each time he uses a Harvest.

More information about Ministries can be found on the CivWorld wiki.

Contests

One additional piece of info: Contests held at the Market (like Most Science Harvested or Highest Puzzle Swap Value) act a little like medals, granting you a promotion to a higher rank.  They also award you 1 Fame when you win them!