Are government changes worth it?

[screwtype]

I haven't changed governments that much so far, usually because I'm beaten before I have the chance.

However, the bit of experimentation I've done with governments suggests to me they are hardly worth the bother as they have little impact on corruption. I tried Republic and Monarchy and couldn't see any difference in corruption. Then I went for democracy and was very disappointed to find that even that did little to affect corruption.

Finally I tried communism and that was really cool because FINALLY those far flung cities started to produce! However, you have to wait an awful long time for Communism, and also it seems weird that Communism should be the most efficient system of government since it real life it is usually a notably corrupt and INefficient form of government.

What is your experience? Are any of the government changes prior to communism worth the bother, or have you also found they have little effect on your empire's efficiency?

[general_kill]

hmm thats strange. I remember from the editor that democracy, republic and facism all have very low corruption. Communism actually has the worst corruption, even worse than anarchy(if thats possible).

[mtgfreak]

i dont think that communism has 100% corruption
communism makes it so the distance from the palace does not matter. very useful in a bigger empire (that + SPHQ)

btw, Republic gives one extra commerce to each tile already producing one, and Democracy does the same + 1 shield to each tile already producing one (i think)

[TheTruth]

Originally Posted by screwtype

I haven't changed governments that much so far, usually because I'm beaten before I have the chance.

However, the bit of experimentation I've done with governments suggests to me they are hardly worth the bother as they have little impact on corruption. I tried Republic and Monarchy and couldn't see any difference in corruption. Then I went for democracy and was very disappointed to find that even that did little to affect corruption.

Finally I tried communism and that was really cool because FINALLY those far flung cities started to produce! However, you have to wait an awful long time for Communism, and also it seems weird that Communism should be the most efficient system of government since it real life it is usually a notably corrupt and INefficient form of government.

What is your experience? Are any of the government changes prior to communism worth the bother, or have you also found they have little effect on your empire's efficiency?

Changing governments is very important. In despot (your default government) shield per tile is limited to a max of two and commerce is limited to a max of 2 per tile also. Any government other than that one there is no max. Republic and Democracy give you +1 gold per tile. Democracy doesn't automatically give one extra shield but there is no max. So a hill with a mine in Despot only gives 2 shields whereas in any other government that same hill would give you 3 shields and with a railroad it would give you 4 shields.
Also bonus resources (suchas a cow) is limited to 3 foods w/o irragation, in despot, but all others it gives 4 and so on for all other tiles.

With an empire of 60+ cities on a huge map Communism is by far the best government.

Switching government is a must I suggest you learn the do's and don'ts.

[Doc Tsiolkovski]

Some corrections: 'Standard Tile Penalty' (Anarchy, Despotism) does not limit anything to 2. It instead takes away the '3rd' (Food, Commerce, Shield) a tile generates.
That way, an irrigated Grassland is only 2fpt. But a Wheat/Grassland still gives 3 even without Irrigation. Or an irrigated Wine/Grass yields 3fpt.
'Standard Bonus' (Rep, Demo) adds one more Commerce for every tile that already produces at least one. No impact on shields/food though.

That said, changing to the correct Government for sure is one of the most important moves in the game. While Monarchy, Republic, Communism, even Fascism and Feudalism all have their merrits (Demo is nice, but hardly worth 9 turns of Anarchy for non-REL Civ when you are already a Republic), the most important rule is:
Get out of Despotism ASAP!

[Dogmeat]

Originally Posted by general_kill

hmm thats strange. I remember from the editor that democracy, republic and facism all have very low corruption. Communism actually has the worst corruption, even worse than anarchy(if thats possible).

Communism has the lowest corruption. Even without Secret Police HQ I had no more than 10 % corruption in my cities when playing a non-commercial civ.

Edit: Ohh, wait a minute. Now I see what made you think Communism has worse corruption than anarchy. It's because communal is positioned below catastrophic..

[mtgfreak]

communism just takes away the distance from the capital as a factor in corruption

[Mad2rix]

Any civilization with commercial trait will find Communism more useful or valuable in fighting more corruption only taxes along with secret HQ.

[Siddhartha]

Communism rocks as a government and I always will switch to communism after ai research it. I find switching governments important and will usually go monarch/republic(I find republic best usually after some marketplaces are built), democracy, communism.

[mtgfreak]

do you play religious? if not, how do you stand the 6-8 turns of anarchy each time?

[Roi du Culture]

if you can't seem to bring yourself to waste 3-6 turns for a government change, try the religious trait. 1-turn anarchy will make the revolution much easier to swallow.

[Crakie]

I always go straight for Republic and I rarely see any need to change governments after that. The only occasion might be when I lack luxuries to keep WW down, but in general I have enough luxuries (or trade for them) when communism is around.

[Gargantutron]

i always end up choosing democracy (i usually play on Deity or Sid). it's the best, lower corruption than republic. ok republic has some free unit support, but in general you'll still get more money from democracy, and thus research faster. communism will get you more shields, but not more gold... and since you can buy buildings anyway why not choose to go with gold!

under democracy i commonly make over 1000 gpt (sometimes much more ) and yet researching 1 tech every 4 turns in the mid/late industrial era. all this gold means you can easily buy buildings you need in corrupt citites. and with courthouse/police station you usually get some production out anyway. sure troops must generally be built at home, but that isnt a problem with railroads, loads of transports and later airports.

in my experience Democracy simply is the best. sure anarchy is a pain, but it pays back, so switch early in order to get the most out of it.

so IMO no matter how big your empire is, no matter if you're at war or not, democracy will rule! also its sweet being democratic as AI civs often goto fascism... gives you a feeling you are fighting for the greater good. heheh

[narmox]

I sometimes call switching to democracy my "second golden age" because it gives so much gold.

[genghis_khev]

I usually switch to monarchy asap. I'll try to hold out for Communism (I like conquest victories and so by this point have a large empire) but if corrutpion gets too bad I go for a breif bit of Democracy (to get me to communism!). I do tend to play religious civs though!

If you are happier with a mid sized, not overly aggressive civ Demcaracy is probably the way to go.

[WackenOpenAir]

Most players swich to republic as soon as they can afford it (have some luxuries, have some cities size 7+ and some marketplaces) and then never change it again.

You MUST get out of despotism. Republic is almost as good as demo and still alows some war without much problems.

Monarchy might be better for insane warmongerers, but only for insane warmongerers. Normal warmongerers will make sure they don't lose too many units and thus have little problems in republic .

I only have not tried communism yet because it comes too late for me to swich governments. The later in the game, the less worthy it is to swich governments. (since you will have less remaining turns to make it payback the investments of the anarchy period).

I do think they made the anarchy period too long now. It is not that i hate disadvantages in a game, like i have no problems with city flipping and corruption, but this is just out of balance since people only change gov's once per game now anymore. Also do i hate to play the anarchy period, it is boring and i am wasting my time until i can play normallly again.

[SwitchbladeNGC]

What exactly are the advantages to Republic? (I'm new at this)

[Siddhartha]

Originally Posted by Gargantutron

under democracy i commonly make over 1000 gpt (sometimes much more ) and yet researching 1 tech every 4 turns in the mid/late industrial era.

What, I have never even come close to earning a 1000 gpt, what level are you on? how do you manange that?

[MSTK]

Originally Posted by SwitchbladeNGC

What exactly are the advantages to Republic? (I'm new at this)

When you play the game, there is a little "Aa" button on the top left corner of the screen. It indexes the statistics of governments, units, terrain types, etc.

[rockdawg]

I've been able to do this as well. I've only been able to do on Chieftan and Warlord. AND I've typically been researching near the end of the 3rd tech tree and the beginning of the 4th and last tree. You can minimize the amount of money being spent on Science and Entertainment and watch the cash roll in. I don't recall the form of government, and since I generally on play on small and tiny maps I usually only have less than 20 cities. Anyway, it's possible.