changing corruption in editor

[pjpac]

I've never used the editor, so I'm a bit hesitant that I'll mess things up, but I really don't like the way corruption is in CIV3. So I'm taking suggestions on what is the best way to lessen it in the editor. I don't want to get rid of it, but I think it's a little ridiculous having cities produce 50 or so shields but losing all but 1 or 2 to corruption.

[Jethro83]

The best way of reducing corruption with the editor is to make more than just the courthouse and police station to decrease corruption. Make temples, libraries, cathedrals and universities reduce corruption. If that's not enough, go for reducing corruption using marketplaces and banks.

Overall though, changing the optimal number of cities apparantly helps (more optimal cities = less corruption).

[lockstep]

Originally posted by LordAzreal
Overall though, changing the optimal number of cities apparantly helps (more optimal cities = less corruption).

If your empire exceeds the number of optimal cities, corruption starts to increase notedly, so raising that threshold should help for large empires. Notice, however, that you will only be able to build the Forbidden Palace when you have at least half the no. of optimal cities, so less-than-average-sized civs may get into trouble by raising the threshold too much.

A rough calculation: On a standard map with 5000 tiles (100*100/2), water coverage of 70%, 8 civs and a supposed number of 15 land tiles per city (two out of three cities costal with 9 sea tiles, tile overlap and unused land tiles offset each other), a civ of average size will have about 12-13 cities. The no. of optimal cities is 16 for a standard map, so building the Forbidden Palace is possible with 8 cities. If the threshold is raised by more than about 50%, smaller civs won't be able to build the FP.

[Worthingtons]

In my games I combat corruption the following ways :-

Increase Optimal number of cities
Make Temples,Cathedrals and Banks reduce corruption
Ass another version of the forbiden palace

[lockstep]

Originally posted by Rothy
In my games I combat corruption the following ways :-

Ass another version of the forbiden palace

Linked to a certain tech? Any observations on when the second FP is available?

[benjdm]

Corruption annoys the crap out of me so I make temples, marketplaces, libraries, cathedrals, banks, universities, and research labs all reduce corruption. I also double the optimal number of cities.

[Willem]

Originally posted by lockstep


Linked to a certain tech? Any observations on when the second FP is available?

It's available at the same time as the FP if you have one, provided you don't make it require certain conditions.

[Worthingtons]

Depends.

These days I actually add a third version of the fp but exclusive to Monarchy, and that comes (suprise suprise) with Monarchy.

[Willem]

Originally posted by Rothy
Depends.

These days I actually add a third version of the fp but exclusive to Monarchy, and that comes (suprise suprise) with Monarchy.

I have one for every government form, except for Despotism. Since the effects still linger even when I change governments, I have an incentive to stick with the gov until I actually start building it.

[E_T]

You can also edit the Percentage of Optimal Cities setting in the Difficulty tab

Percentage of Optimal Cities

Determines what percentage of the optimal number of cities setting (found on the world sizes page) is actually optimal on the selected difficulty level. If this value is 100%, the optimal number of cities will be equal to the default setting for the given world size. At 50%, the optimal number of cities is halved. At 200%, the optimal number of cities is doubled. This value will not match the value on the World Sizes page exactly because the corruption setting of the player's government type is also a modifier.

This will skew the effects of corrution. The optimal number of cities setting just sets the number before the heavy corruption effects take there toll and also for when you can build FP. On the other hand, the % setting is after the other is used, and can be set to a VERY high number and effectivly kill the outragious corruption effects (making it managable by FP, CH & PS) without making anymore improvements that will effect corrution.

You have to change this value with every level of dificulty that you intend to play. I hame mine set at 5000%, and my corruption is fairly good for 59 cities currently on a large continant.

E_T

[Nebulus]

I´ve played on a standard map vs 7 civs on monarch. Changed 10 city improvements to reducing corruption and to 100% of the optimal number of cities. Added two more ´forbidden Palaces´ (Pentagon and Military Academy) - hmmm, game was too easy having nukes and modern armor in the 17th century and conquering the world until the end of the 18th century...

[Dry]

Originally posted by Nebulus
Added two more ´forbidden Palaces´ (Pentagon and Military Academy)

A friend of mine did that and the game crashed - hem, well it was with nuke plants: converted to wonder, same effect as FP.

hmmm, game was too easy having nukes and modern armor in the 17th century and conquering the world until the end of the 18th century...

I multiplied the Optimal # of cities by 2, but also divided the research speed by 2, of course.

[Willem]

Originally posted by Dry

A friend of mine did that and the game crashed - hem, well it was with nuke plants: converted to wonder, same effect as FP.

That's because he needed to make some text entries in the pediaicons.txt file, in the wonder splash section. The game is looking for a reference to a graphic that it expects to display, and if there's no line telling it where to look, the game will crash as soon as the wonder gets built.

[lockstep]

Originally posted by E_T
You can also edit the Percentage of Optimal Cities setting in the Difficulty tab ...

This will skew the effects of corrution. The optimal number of cities setting just sets the number before the heavy corruption effects take there toll and also for when you can build FP. On the other hand, the % setting is after the other is used, and can be set to a VERY high number and effectivly kill the outragious corruption effects (making it managable by FP, CH & PS) without making anymore improvements that will effect corrution.

This is a very interesting idea. However, I'm not sure if changing the percentage setting would affect human player and AI civs alike, or only the human player (and in that case wouldn't be an acceptable solution to corruption).

I'm aware of the fact that the editor help file does not state anything like 'applies only for humans' with regard to the 'percentage of optimal cities' setting. OTOH, also no such statement is made with regard to 'number of citizens born content', although (as far as I know) the differences between difficulty levels do affect only the human player. Furthermore, in the help text to the 'attack bonus against barbarians' setting, Firaxis states for the only time that this bonus is 'enjoyed by any player (human or AI)'.

Sigh. I'm really hoping that at least the percentage setting for regent applies for the human player AND the AI. Has anyone tested this?

[Willem]

Originally posted by lockstep


This is a very interesting idea. However, I'm not sure if changing the percentage setting would affect human player and AI civs alike, or only the human player (and in that case wouldn't be an acceptable solution to corruption).

There's very little in the editor that applies only to the human player. The only thing I can recall is in the difficulty settings where you can adjust the AI bonuses at higher levels. In the case of corruption, I'm 90% certain it applies equally to all, unless there's a AI cheat I don't know about. That's one reason why I don't like to change that, it will be an advantagge for the AI as well. I prefer building to get the results I want.