All the cities i get are empty!

[AlecTrevylan00]

Whenever i play and get a city, through defection, a trade, or war, i always say "Yes, install a new governor."
I find the city to be ABSOLUTELY empty of improvements.
I have the original version, so is this a bug or something, or am i doing something wrong

[ixnay]

Most of the time the improvements will be destroyed. Occasionally, though, an improvement or two will survive, such as aqueducts, harbors, hospitals, and marketplaces.

[zulu9812]

It could be the AI selling off all that city's improvements. Although, I've marched up to a city and taken it in a single turn and there's still nothing left in the city, unless that's another example of 'cheats' being pre-programmed into the AI...like when they respawn, for example.

[ixnay]

I don't know about it being a "cheat". I've never bothered to investigate a city that the AI recently captured to see if it loses the improvements, but that's something to try.

[AlecTrevylan00]

but the culture area shrinks to 1 square each direction, and then if they get the city back, it goes back to its original culture and im guessing its original improvements!

And what about when they defect, how are they destroyed or sold if theres no war and they dont know it will defect?

[asleepathewheel]

when a city transfers, it loses all of the culture producing improvements like temples, cathedrals etc., except for wonders. so basically what you get are barracks, aqueducts and marketplaces. if it flips back, the reason it grows back to the radius of the ai owner, is b/c the city has a "cultural memory" . so if you built a temple, waited 5 turns, it would expand, then if it flips over, it would lose your temple, then when you get the city back, it would have the 2 square radius that it had when you owned it, though you wouldhave to rebuild your temple. make sense? (I'm drunk, so i hope I am somewhat lucid at this point)

[zulu9812]

what about the cultural memory for when it was under your control and had your temple? It's still an example of AI 'cheats'

[ixnay]

What about it? Each city remembers how much culture is generated under the different civs; you are no exception. If you recapture an enemy city that you previously owned, the culture will go back to where it was, except that all culture-producing buildings will have been lost.