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Back to the subject of in-game Corruption
1. I have never had that huge a problem with Corruption. Back when I was expecting to be able to take over a city and gear it into full wartime production immediately, as in Civ2, it was a bit of a problem, but not any more. And, like many others, I thought this ability was silly, from a simulation point of view.
2. The question of "just rushbuying" it. Obviously, in a Civ3 democracy, the player has a great deal more control over the Civ than an actual national President has. I consider the player to represent the "soul of the nation" rather than the physical ruler, meaning that the player just makes the decisions, regardless of who would actually make such decisions in the real world. Obviously the lack of "elections" isn't very democratic.
So what does "rushbuying" represent? At base, it represents the application of large amounts of money to a project to finish it more quickly than the locals could. In an ancient monarchy, this seems to be much closer to the "player is the ruler" model, meaning rather than just having the locals take their sweet time, you apply the resources only a King can draw upon to finish the project.
So what does it represent in a modern Democracy? I say it represents capital investment.
Think about it. In a modern democracy, how many major projects actually get done by local initiative and production? Little to none. Nearly everything is completed, quickly, through the application of either private or public capital. As far as the model goes, just as the player is not an elected president, and yet still presides over a "Democratic" political entity, so he is not the richest man in the country (or the entire investing community, for that matter), and yet still presides over a "Capitalistic" economic entity.
Let's take the example of California for a moment. Could California produce it's own military units? Perhaps, if it were a soverign entity and thus had reason to do so. But the National Guard is trained on federal training grounds, which involves federal funds.
Obviously, California is very well developed. Most, if not all, the really major development occurs because of a direct application of national (not necessarily governmental, but whether it be a national corporation, or whatever, it's still national) capital. Locals obviously do much of the work, but it's who pays the bills that counts for the purpose of this simulation.
Still, corruption should reduce with time. Obviously, the following suggestions are for future games, unless the existing code can allow for this, but I am thinking the best way to do this is to base corruption not on raw distance from the capitol, but on the shortest possible travel time, by the fastest possible unit, to the capitol.
Initially, this would be rather high. With the development of The Wheel, it would lower (as the wheel enabled larger empires in the real world). It would, however, be limited by mountains and jungles.
The development of Horse Riding would reduce it slightly further, enabling the "travel times" to cut through unroaded mountains and jungles.
Roads would lower corruption considerably, since they cut travel times in three, particularly through rough terrain.
Rails would be the ultimate panacea for continental government, but the Sea would remain a considerable obstacle.
And, of corse, jets would reduce that problem to it's lowest possible level, since it is possible to cross the sea very quickly via jet.
Or, one could remove the distance tie with the development of Radio, but I think the possibility of the man himself just showing up one day has considerably more effect than the ability to scream at people over the radio. Perhaps the Radio could actually allow for a new kind of corruption reducing improvement, which would increase in effectiveness with the development of space travel (sattelite relay). This improvement would also *definately* be cultural, to represent real historical phenomena such as "radio free europe" or whatever it was called. I think people know what I'm talking about. And this, at the very least, could be added to the existing game.
Oh, and, by the way, who said the Capital lacks corruption? Washington DC, the city, is the most corrupt place in the United States of America!
Perhaps I should've made a new topic for this, since this one seems to be more about who's dad could've kicked who's dad's ass in WWII.
1. I have never had that huge a problem with Corruption. Back when I was expecting to be able to take over a city and gear it into full wartime production immediately, as in Civ2, it was a bit of a problem, but not any more. And, like many others, I thought this ability was silly, from a simulation point of view.
2. The question of "just rushbuying" it. Obviously, in a Civ3 democracy, the player has a great deal more control over the Civ than an actual national President has. I consider the player to represent the "soul of the nation" rather than the physical ruler, meaning that the player just makes the decisions, regardless of who would actually make such decisions in the real world. Obviously the lack of "elections" isn't very democratic.
So what does "rushbuying" represent? At base, it represents the application of large amounts of money to a project to finish it more quickly than the locals could. In an ancient monarchy, this seems to be much closer to the "player is the ruler" model, meaning rather than just having the locals take their sweet time, you apply the resources only a King can draw upon to finish the project.
So what does it represent in a modern Democracy? I say it represents capital investment.
Think about it. In a modern democracy, how many major projects actually get done by local initiative and production? Little to none. Nearly everything is completed, quickly, through the application of either private or public capital. As far as the model goes, just as the player is not an elected president, and yet still presides over a "Democratic" political entity, so he is not the richest man in the country (or the entire investing community, for that matter), and yet still presides over a "Capitalistic" economic entity.
Let's take the example of California for a moment. Could California produce it's own military units? Perhaps, if it were a soverign entity and thus had reason to do so. But the National Guard is trained on federal training grounds, which involves federal funds.
Obviously, California is very well developed. Most, if not all, the really major development occurs because of a direct application of national (not necessarily governmental, but whether it be a national corporation, or whatever, it's still national) capital. Locals obviously do much of the work, but it's who pays the bills that counts for the purpose of this simulation.
Still, corruption should reduce with time. Obviously, the following suggestions are for future games, unless the existing code can allow for this, but I am thinking the best way to do this is to base corruption not on raw distance from the capitol, but on the shortest possible travel time, by the fastest possible unit, to the capitol.
Initially, this would be rather high. With the development of The Wheel, it would lower (as the wheel enabled larger empires in the real world). It would, however, be limited by mountains and jungles.
The development of Horse Riding would reduce it slightly further, enabling the "travel times" to cut through unroaded mountains and jungles.
Roads would lower corruption considerably, since they cut travel times in three, particularly through rough terrain.
Rails would be the ultimate panacea for continental government, but the Sea would remain a considerable obstacle.
And, of corse, jets would reduce that problem to it's lowest possible level, since it is possible to cross the sea very quickly via jet.
Or, one could remove the distance tie with the development of Radio, but I think the possibility of the man himself just showing up one day has considerably more effect than the ability to scream at people over the radio. Perhaps the Radio could actually allow for a new kind of corruption reducing improvement, which would increase in effectiveness with the development of space travel (sattelite relay). This improvement would also *definately* be cultural, to represent real historical phenomena such as "radio free europe" or whatever it was called. I think people know what I'm talking about. And this, at the very least, could be added to the existing game.
Oh, and, by the way, who said the Capital lacks corruption? Washington DC, the city, is the most corrupt place in the United States of America!
Perhaps I should've made a new topic for this, since this one seems to be more about who's dad could've kicked who's dad's ass in WWII.
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