how to handle corruption

[Ray K]

These approaches are relatively useless because they have very little effect

NOTE: these solutions do NOT work to any significant degree.

1. build a courthouse to reduce corruption
2. be a commercial civ
3. switch to either democracy or communism


These solutions are impractical
4. Use leader to rush-build the Forbidden Palace (can only be done in one city)

These solutions are more effective, but force you to play a certain way:
5. Do not build an extensive empire (i.e no win through conquest)
6. Micro-manage your workers to plant & cut forests
7. Remain in despotism and sacrifice workers to build improvements
8. Keep your cities in perpetual "We Love the King" days (it's not really as effective, though, as some suggest)
9. Play on larger maps where corruption is less severe

This solution is considered a cheat:
10. Use the scenario editor to raise the optimal number of cities before corruption hits

I have tried all of these approaches, and found the game most enjoyable with #10. In my far-flung cities, I can at least get corruption down to 50%, which is at least manageable.

BTW, I have won games through conquest, a lot of unnecessary city management has to take place.

[oedo]

I 100% agree, the manual says there are ways to decrease corruption, but none of them really works. the game designers probably intended massive corruption. that´s why they invented the second palace. but it will take a whole game game before you can build the Forbidden Palace in a suitable city.
it´s pretty sad that you have to cheat if you want to enjoy civ3.

[DaXX]

where is this option in the civedit program? under the rules edit section? which tab?

[Sava]

Relocating your palace to the center of the empire helps a lot. Plus using IFE to build courthouses and the Forbidden palace get rid of a lot of corruption. Plus, using IFE, you don't need to worry about production lost because every cycle yields 10 shields. If you are doing IFE in 8 squares, you can build anything you want within 10 turns.

To find out about IFE go here http://apolyton.net/forums/showthrea...threadid=33292

[Growler]

Why care about corruption?

Assuming you have a good home continent with a palace and a Forbidden Palace, courthouses, and good government then you have plenty of low corruption cities. In the course of world conquest you gain lots of useless small cities but so what? At the front, you just need a place to heal your troops and maybe you want to build a wall for better defense, or a harbor to import some luxuries, but your conquest need not involve a Marshall program to rehabilitate the conquered.

This is not a problem that needs to be solved.

But if you insist that you don't enjoy high corruption in your remote provinces, by all means mod your game. More power to you.

In principle I like the idea of corruption, it prevents a civ from running away with the game once it gets a lead in the number of cities owned.

[madmario]

I agree. Corruption is actually a good thing. Many people complain about the need to rapidly expand -- but corruption assaults this tactic as valid!

One mid game tactic (industrialization) tactic is:

1) Start building a wonder your capitol
1a) Start building a palace somewhere else where it will take a bit but not
forever
2) When the palace is done, switch your old capitol to forbidden palace.
This all has to be timed but it can be done so that you end up with the
forbidden palace in your old capitol. you can "palace jump" your palace
around from there to good spot, and reclaim the land of "oneshieldsuck."


This isn't great, but the system as is does help the underdog to a degree.

[Matthew]

For those of you who complain about corruption, and the supposed helps not doing much, how many cities do you typically have?

My experience with a non commercial civ in republic or Monarchy is that cities adjacent to your capital have minimal corruption. That's up to about 9 cities, if the terrain is kind enough to you. Cities outside of this, with enough room to not overlap much, begin to have more significant corruption, but maneagable, and can be made more reasonable with court houses. Unless terrain is really screwing you over, 16 reasonably productive cities can be had. Just don't make he mistake of building your capital on the coast. With a well placed forbidden palace in one of these, or using a leader to build the forbidden palace just outside this radius, you can have a good number of cities with enough production to at least be worth having.

There are other uses for cities besides production. If you have a good culture rating, as has been mentioned,you can build them near other civs to influence them. They can also be useful just to control a group of resources far from your borders.

Using production from conquered cities half way around the world to continue your conquests may no longer be so useful, but since the dawn of civilization no one has ever managed to conquer the world, and in the modern era controlling large empires has gotten even more difficult. So world conquest should not be easy.

A lot of variety was taken out of the game by the butchering of the trade system and with the way the tech tree was set up. But at least there is still variety in the number of cities you need to build to win. You can probably have 20 or so reasonably productive cities and win quite handily. You can also likely do it with just a few, maybe even 1. It's just not so useful any more to build 40 or 50.

[Ray K]

Originally posted by DaXX
where is this option in the civedit program? under the rules edit section? which tab?

DaXX,
Go edit under "World Size". For each of the sizes, there is a setting called "Optimal Number of Cities (corruption)".

For Tiny/Small/Standard/Large/Huge maps, it is set at 8/12/16/24/32.

Another poster did the math concerning map sizes and # starting civs and came up with the following settings: "12/14/16/21/26" (assuming the corruption level for standard maps is the proper level). Notice how using these settings would make corruption on the larger maps *worse* than it is now.

Basically, corruption is relatively worse on smaller maps and has less effect on larger maps. Soren from Firaxis has essentially conceded this point. I do not know if their patch will address the excessive corruption on the smaller maps, are all map sizes in general.

Currently, I play with the settings "12/14/16/21/26". If you really want to make a dent, you can set them much higher if you want. However, corruption will still be a significant factor in your distant cities, it just won't be at 99% any more.

Personally, I don't see my settings as "cheating", but fixing a problem with the game until Firaxis gets their patch out.