Geronimo Finally buys CivIII

[Shr3dZ]

Whlie we are on the topic Id like to ask a question about pre-building.

Ive had certian situations in which I havent taken the time to figure out. Lets say you are 1 turn away from finishing a Bank build, normally you would be able to switch to a GW, but instead you pay 50gp and finish it off, then you switch it to a GW, it wont let you now will it? You have to let the resources come in by themselves, no paying and then switching... am I missing anything else? If thats not the reason why Im not able to switch to a GW sometimes, please enlighten me.

PS: Does anyone know the chances of firing and hitting on a ZoC shot?

[Arrian]

Lets say you are 1 turn away from finishing a Bank build, normally you would be able to switch to a GW, but instead you pay 50gp and finish it off, then you switch it to a GW, it wont let you now will it? You have to let the resources come in by themselves, no paying and then switching... am I missing anything else? If thats not the reason why Im not able to switch to a GW sometimes, please enlighten me.

Correct. The same thing is true of getting shields from a forest chop. If you are building the bank and chop a forest, you will not be able to switch over to a wonder. Ideally, the game should just deduct the forest chop shields, but it doesn't work that way.

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I don't know the ZoC odds, no.

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Geronimo:

If the randomness of the combat is getting you down, I highly recommend building some bombard units (catapult/trebuchet/cannon/artillery) and using them to soften up the opposition prior to doing battle. That, and make sure your units are veterans (build barracks!). Those two things will cut down on whacky results somewhat. If it STILL irritates you but you otherwise enjoy the game, you can go the route of modding the game. The most common mod of this nature is to double the hitpoints of all units. This reduces the likelyhood of losing a superior unit to and obselete one.

-Arrian

[gunkulator]

I thought you couldn't switch production at all once you hurry a build but I haven't checked recently.

To prebuild a wonder you can't have any shields generated by disbanding a unit or chopping a forest. The wonder option will be grayed out.

Another note. Some wonders have special requirements. You can only build the Lighthouse in a coastal city. State of Zeus requires Ivory. Hoover Dam city must have a river in its radius. There's more so check the civilopedia.

[Arrian]

You can switch between normal builds just fine. In fact, there is a whole technique termed "shortrushing" that is used to avoid shield wasteage and/or speed up builds. Have 30 shields accumulated in a 50-shield build, producing 10 shields/turn, but need it next turn? Switch to a 40-shield build, rush, switch back to 50-shield build. And so on and so forth. It can get very complex when you combine that with workforce adjustment (with tight city spacing).

-Arrian

[Geronimo]

In civ2 I grew used to zero corruption from democracy empires. In civ3 otoh I am noticing that nothing seems to work to keep corruption below 50% in less than half of my cities! I had thought the forbidden palace would make a big difference but even in the city where I built it something like 10% of its income under democracy is lost to corruption!

What is the best strategy to reduce corruption?

[Theseus]

Originally posted by Arrian
You can switch between normal builds just fine. In fact, there is a whole technique termed "shortrushing" that is used to avoid shield wasteage and/or speed up builds. Have 30 shields accumulated in a 50-shield build, producing 10 shields/turn, but need it next turn? Switch to a 40-shield build, rush, switch back to 50-shield build. And so on and so forth. It can get very complex when you combine that with workforce adjustment (with tight city spacing).

-Arrian

/me snickers, just like Vizzini in 'The Princess Bride'. "I'll tell you later."

[joncnunn]

If your empire is too large, think of the conquered provinces as just holding the space and providiing luxaries & resources and denying them to your oppoents.

Always be thinking in terms of net shield production and net commerce.

I'm naturally a builder, Court Houses go up very fast in the 30% to 70% shield corruption zone upon discovery of Court Houses. Helped along by rushing after leaving Depostism in that new zone. (Leaving Despotism for a more advanced govt significantly reduces corruption & waste.)

The next thing is WLTPD. This will require 5+ luxaries, plus a Temple and Market Place for the smaller cities eligbile, with wonders and/or Cathedrials as the city grows.

The last things that are adviable are Police Men & Police Stations. Each police man will restore one lost shield + one lost commerce, this is before city multiplers.

Police Stations act as a second Court House.

What I do every time I finish a build is check what would produce more when complete between corruption reducer, tax enhancement, and science producer. This depends upon the ratio of gross commerce to lost commerce and the anticipated science slider setting.

About 10% commerce lost in the FP city is about normal. Such a city would benifit from additional corruption fighters, but not as much as building a university if running 50%+ science.

Originally posted by Geronimo
In civ2 I grew used to zero corruption from democracy empires. In civ3 otoh I am noticing that nothing seems to work to keep corruption below 50% in less than half of my cities! I had thought the forbidden palace would make a big difference but even in the city where I built it something like 10% of its income under democracy is lost to corruption!

What is the best strategy to reduce corruption?

[punkbass2000]

Originally posted by Theseus


* Theseus snickers, just like Vizzini in 'The Princess Bride'. "I'll tell you later."

"Inconceivable!"

"You keep using that word. I do not think it means what you think it means."

[Xorbon]

In addition to policemen, another specialist that was added in Conquests was the civil engineer. The civil engineer is quite helpful when it comes to speeding-up production of improvements (and wonders) in highly corrupt cities. What they do is add two shields to the production of their city. You can get civil engineers after researching an industrial age tech (that I can't remember at the moment). One note however, they don't add shields (or anything else) when the city is building units.

[Theseus]

"You killed my production... prepare to die."



(sorry, but pb2000 and I are having a PB fest)

[Willem]

Originally posted by Geronimo
In civ2 I grew used to zero corruption from democracy empires. In civ3 otoh I am noticing that nothing seems to work to keep corruption below 50% in less than half of my cities! I had thought the forbidden palace would make a big difference but even in the city where I built it something like 10% of its income under democracy is lost to corruption!

What is the best strategy to reduce corruption?

There comes a time when there's nothing you can do about it. The further away your cities get from your Palace, the worse it will be.

You might consider moving your capital to a more central location though.

[nbarclay]

When I'm building a huge empire on the way to domination, I normally switch governments to Communism once it becomes available. It's not as good for research as Republic or Democracy, and the anarchy of the transition is a bit of a pain. But it's better for production, and it gives me the feeling of having my entire civ be productive instead of having a lot of the conquered land feel almost useless. (I might note, however, that I rarely research Communism myself. I usually wait until I can trade with one of the AIs for it on favorable terms.)

[joncnunn]

Generally it's not worthwhile to relocate the palace by then. It would increase corruption in the best built up cities.

Originally posted by Willem

There comes a time when there's nothing you can do about it. The further away your cities get from your Palace, the worse it will be.

You might consider moving your capital to a more central location though.

[joncnunn]

I'd have big enough tech leads to have to reserach Communism myself just for the Police Station.

(While ToE is being built, already had Replacable Parts and Sanitation, and the Corporation.)

Originally posted by nbarclay
When I'm building a huge empire on the way to domination, I normally switch governments to Communism once it becomes available. It's not as good for research as Republic or Democracy, and the anarchy of the transition is a bit of a pain. But it's better for production, and it gives me the feeling of having my entire civ be productive instead of having a lot of the conquered land feel almost useless. (I might note, however, that I rarely research Communism myself. I usually wait until I can trade with one of the AIs for it on favorable terms.)

[Arrian]

Originally posted by nbarclay
When I'm building a huge empire on the way to domination, I normally switch governments to Communism once it becomes available. It's not as good for research as Republic or Democracy, and the anarchy of the transition is a bit of a pain. But it's better for production, and it gives me the feeling of having my entire civ be productive instead of having a lot of the conquered land feel almost useless. (I might note, however, that I rarely research Communism myself. I usually wait until I can trade with one of the AIs for it on favorable terms.)

Bolded part mine. And that, ultimately, is why I will endure anarchy to switch over to communism.

Playing on Monarch as I do, I often have a large tech lead by that point, and will do a fair amount of research while still using republic before switching (not to mention building police stations, rushbuilding other stuff to use up any treasury I have, and prebuilding the SPHQ or generating and holding a MGL for that purpose). A well-developed, large empire with a FP + SPHQ can equal and even surpass republic in terms of research output. It's just that once you hit that point, you're teetering on the brink of domination victory. I like to teeter for a while, basking in the glory of my nearly corruption-free empire.

As for the early game:

1) connect your cities via roads/harbors. There is actually an added corruption hit for unconnected cities.
2) prioritize courthouses.
3) get a FP up quickly
4) try to place the FP in a spot where it will provide a corruption boost to several other cities (this is a tricky balance with #2).
5) work on getting cities into "We Love the ___ Day" by building improvements & wonders, trading for or conquering luxuries, and using the luxury spending slider. WLT_D will result in a noticeable drop in shield waste (but will not help commerce corruption).

-Arrian