A rough estimate depending on which education buildings you get
Someone had asked if there was a post to indicate how much you would have to invest if you wanted to make a straight up, full education city and start mining technology cards, so my newest city was the easiest to use.
First I will show all the cards in this city. This is including the tech cards free internet connection and open source to boost the education and require less buildings, but without them you will still need to buy a chunk of education buildings plus the workers to fill them all, so it is good if you can get these tech cards and someone might be willing to sell it cheaper, especially if you are new to dCity!
If you take away the tech cards you will be left with about 131 less education and only a 21% chance to discover technology, so you will be required to buy the additional education and population buildings.
Let's focus on the costs involved for the city if you also buy the technology cards as that is what we have and it is worth getting, or you could buy free education and then get all universities, giving them double the effect and requiring some less education buildings.
Now to work out the costs and this will be a rough average based on current prices and amount needed for each building and the tech cards.
Buildings:
Apartment - 36, Cost: 4.685 * 36 = 168.66 Hive
Hotel - 8, Cost: 4.809 * 8 = 38.472 Hive
Laboratory - 7, Cost: 5.370 * 7 = 37.59 Hive
Luxury home - 20, Cost: 1.270 * 20 = 25.4 Hive
Research Center - 30, Cost: 3.530 * 30 = 105.9 Hive
School - 74, Cost: 2.130 * 74 = 157.62 Hive
University - 16, Cost: 3.970 * 16 = 63.52 Hive
Tech cards:
Free Internet Connection - 1, Cost: 4 Hive
Open Source - 1, Cost: 60 Hive
Total average cost in HIVE for this city = 661.162
And for the amount earned per day?
With current low taxes, 558 SIM a day at current around pegged prices = 2.76768 HIVE a day (36 cents USD) which seems small, BUT it is a technology city with a maxed 25% discovery chance with which tech can also be sold off to earn more HIVE back and tech discovery is daily so you just have to wait until you find them, plus all the cards are there and readily available to sell on the market if you wish to, meaning you can profit easily by holding the city for a while before any plan you have to cash out.
So at first it would be best to go to your technologies page and use the SIM to unlock tech for discovery.
You can always buy a small bit of SIM if you want to unlock more tech by resetting the cooldown, or buy the tech card Better Documentation Practice which is going for about 35 HIVE right now but reduces cooldown to 24 hours, so everyday you will be able to unlock a new tech to potentially discover which is handy if you won't be resetting the cooldown.
So if you are deciding to invest and make a full technology city so you can discover the tech, you now have a rough idea of the costs with current prices, with give or take some HIVE in case you have to buy some more of one education building or are just going to buy the cheaper ones to make the city cost less (Research Center, School, University and Laboratory) if one of the others you can't get all of at the cheaper prices you are wanting to pay.
This is not financial advice but a setup of a city to make it city #5 I have on dCity as I myself believe in it. Do your research and ask questions, then decide yourself if it is for you!
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