Resource Overview | History |
Knowledge is one of the six basic resources in Rise of Nations. Knowledge is a primary resource and is required to research most of the technologies at the Library, with the exception of the earliest. Without Knowledge, the player cannot progress through the Ages or research military or economic upgrades. In the late game, Knowledge is also used as a production resource and required to develop and construct nuclear missiles as well as both Information Age wonders, the Super Collider and the Space Program.
Knowledge is the only resource that cannot be traded at the Market, making the construction of a University and training Scholars a necessary task to obtain it.
Gathering Knowledge[]
Knowledge may be gathered once a nation enters the Classical Age (except for the Greeks; see below). It is primarily produced by building a University and creating Scholars. When a University is built, the nation is granted a one-time bonus of 25 Knowledge. The university itself produces Knowledge at a rate of 10 (per 30 seconds). This can be increased by creating Scholars at a University. Each University may hold a maximum of seven scholars at a time, limiting the amount of Knowledge that can be gathered, as each city may build only one University.
Scholars initially generate Knowledge at a rate of 5 (per 30 seconds). This rate can be increased by researching various technologies, which become available at the University as a nation progresses through the ages. The following table shows Knowledge production per Scholar and maximum production per University with seven Scholars, including University's base gather rate:
Technology | Per Scholar | Per University (max) |
---|---|---|
- | 5 | 45 |
Literacy | 7 | 59 |
Printing Press | 10 | 80 |
Scientific Method | 15 | 115 |
Institutional Research | 20 | 150 |
Supercomputers | 25 | 185 |
In contrast to all other basic resources, the production of Knowledge is not affected by the Commerce Limit and its gather rate may be increased to the maximum of 999 without limitations.
Rare resources[]
Knowledge is also produced by a number of rare resources, which can be gathered by sending a Merchant from the Market to the resource location:
- Aluminum: +20
- Coal: +15
- Dye: +10
- Gems: +10
- Obsidian: +10
- Papyrus: +10
- Relics: +20
- Spice: +10
- Tobacco: +10
- Uranium: +20
- Wine: +10
- Wool: +10
The gather rate of rare resources in friendly (i.e. own and allied) territory can be increased by researching the Taxation line at the Temple (+20%, +50%, +100%, +200%) and by building the Porcelain Tower (+200%).
Nation powers[]
- The Greek Power of Philosophy: Can build Universities and gather Knowledge at the beginning of the game. Also starts with a University.
Wonders[]
- The Hanging Gardens wonder (Thrones and Patriots) increases Knowledge production by +50, roughly that of an early University with seven Scholars.
Notes[]
- By default, Libraries do not contribute to the gather rate of Knowledge. However, it's likely it was experimented with before the current game mechanics were finalised: rules.xml contains the value LIBRARY_LITERACY (line 141) which can be modified to have Libraries produce Knowledge as well.
Trivia[]
- The only building in the entire game to grant Knowledge as plunder is the Super Collider, making it by far the rarest resource to ever plunder.
- The Knowledge resource used to be Wool, and this is presumably the source of the wool mill. The replacement is noted as having occurred in January 2002 in internal developer notes, well before the game's final release. Wool was later turned into a rare resource.
|