Newbie question here. I've looked at all the FAQ's and I still can't find an answer. In some of my cities the production is terrible: All those red shields! How do I change this, and fix my woes? Any advice would be great.

build courthouses, build a forbidden palace, get your city close to your capital, change your gouvernment...

WLTKD(we love the king day) is usually easier than building courthouses and has the same effect.
Grow to pop size 6 asap (irrigate!), no unhappy citizens, no shrinking/food shortage.

Originally posted by tao
WLTKD(we love the king day) is usually easier than building courthouses and has the same effect.
Grow to pop size 6 asap (irrigate!), no unhappy citizens, no shrinking/food shortage.

Is there an added bonus then if you've got a courthouse and wltkd is in effect?

Yes, the waste-reducing effects stack.

Charis wrote an article that quantified the power of courthouses very effectively. In the first half of the game, they are the equivalent of factories in corrupt cities. I never used to build them, but I give them a lot of thought now.

I agree, I always try to build courthouses as soon as I can in distant cities. Their effect is much more stable than WLTKD, and the farther away you get from your capital, they more than pay for themselves in waste cash loss.

Thanks for all the suggestions, however I've built courthouses and have started on a hospitals. In this particular city( size 12), I still have only one blue shield and about 20 red shields. Should I live with this or is there another way to increse production and reduce waste?

Thanks again all.

Read this thread (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=19922) for the answers to all your corruption-related questions.

Don't be afraid of the length, all you need to know is in the very first post.

Look at your map at the bottom left corner, find your capitol and/or city with the forbidden palace, then click to find your problem city. If its a noticible distance away (i.e. more than 1/4 map distance) than build courthouses, police stations, and ty to make your people happy for a wltkd. Another option is changing to communism if you have many cities away from your capitol. Beware that this evens waste in all cities (i.e. corruption in your capitol too) and you get one less gold per tile worked, but each city has workable production, it depends on your size. Try and compare.

GTO, I would take Beamup's suggestion, as it should answer every question you have, and more. Based on what I learned from that thread, my guess is that your city is over 24 tiles from either a palce or FP. There is a distance limit, as well as a city-number limit, after which corruption is hopeless.

I think there is a limit on the number of cities you can have. Once you go beyond that number, no matter what you do, build courthouses or police stations, the production is still going to be one shield. Even WLKD doesn't help.

Yep, you're basically right. Every map size has a different OCN (Optimal City Number). IIRC, tiny is 12, small is 14, standard is 16, large is 24, and huge 32.

Although you CAN go well above the OCN before you get hopeless corruption. Also, the Forbidden Palace essentially gives you another OCN of cities to use - though you may not get all of it if it's area of influence overlaps the palace's. Again, EVERYTHING you ever wanted to know about corruption is in that first post I linked above.