It's all about the money.

[benjamin1981]

I often find myself in the position where I make more and more money, but I keep less and less of it. It all goes to maintenance and corruption. And then the people get cranky, and I make even less, and I have to put research down to like 40%. How should I get out of this mess? I have a lot of libraries and temples and stuff that cost money. But since the temples make people happy, you'd think that it would increase the commerce more than it costs to have the temple. Anyways, should I increase luxuries to ameliorate the situation, or what would you do? What do you do when your economy goes down the drain? My problem is, I've played a lot of Civ, but I never got good.

Benjamin

[eldar]

I suspect better players may have more answers, but:
0. Road every (land) tile that's worked.
1. What government are you in? If you're short of cash but have a big population, try Republic or Democracy. It'll do your bank balance wonders.
2. How big is your military? Even with 'big military' governments like Monarchy or Communism, a huge military can end up costing. A big military in a Republic with small cities can be crippling at first - try Monarchy or Feudalism at first if this is the case.
3. Build Courthouses, Marketplaces and Banks (and Stock Exchanges and Commercial Docks, and Smith's Trading Post if you can).
4. Trade with the AI civs for luxuries (to keep the Lux slider down - combine with Marketplaces for a cumulative effect) and gold.
5. If you have to make Entertainers, check that they can't be Taxmen instead.

Neil.

[Tomoyo]

You don't have to keep research at anything. The best slider positions IMHO are 0%, 10%, and 100%, or 90% if you have to run 10% entertainment.

As for happiness, luxuries with markets > temples and cathedrals, unless you have the Sistine Chapel, which it sounds like you should try for.

[Dave the Monkey]

Courthouses and Police Stations work by reducing corruption. Also, if your empire is big, you'll need the Forbidden Palace to act as a second capitol, again reducing corruption.

Try a spell in a Republic (even if you're a warmonger). Reduce your army and build marketplaces and banks in as many towns and cities as you can. Once you have the proper infrastructure in place in a core number of cities (markets, libraries, temples, cathedrals, banks, courthouses, etc) you can switch to another govt and build up an army.

[benjamin1981]

I'm having a Monarchy, and I don't have more troops than allowed. I was building the Sistine Chapel, but the bastards made it when I had one more turn to go... I thikn maybe spending more on luxuries would be a good idea, as it would in turn make more happy face, so I would get more production and commerce. Anyways, thanks for the help.

Benjamin

[Tomoyo]

I would switch to republic, and get a lot of marketplaces and luxuries. (lux tax in the meanwhile)

Also, Monarchy allows MPs, right?

[smackster]

Best way to get uncorrupted cash is with trades from the AI. Of course you need to get ahead in tech to do this, but that is how the best players control the game.

[mevlin]

I agree with Tomoyo in a sense. I usually have the Science set to 0% until I generate a ton of money and then set it as high as possible to almost rush build the science. Every turn checking to see if I can knock it down a notch and still keep the same build time until built and then repeat the process again. At least this way you should still always have a stockpile of cash to rush improvements or upgrade if needs be.

[geonnyboy]

A big thing for me is to make sure you have all of the essential money making improvements in as many cities as you can (especially your core cities.) Each increases your tax revenue in each city by a certain percentage. So if you have a city that makes 50 gpt (nice city by the way) with a marketplace (50% commerce bonus) and a bank (another 50%) that increases your gpt to a whopping 100 (unless my math is wrong 50 + (50 x .5) + (50 x .5) = 100!) That makes a huge difference, especially in super productive inner cities. Plus if you have PTW or conquests, you get the added benefits of stock exchanges you can build in each city.

I found these improvements vital to my commercial empire. Plus, the marketplaces double as happiness builders when you got some luxuries coming in. Even a couple of luxuries will make a huge difference.

Personally, I find the financial side of Civ to be one of the most fun aspects of the game (which is why I usually labor through the ancient and medieval eras.) Once I have my commercial empire going, I can buy all the friends I need!!

[King PJ]

I agree! What's even better is if you have a civ with the commercial trait!

[geonnyboy]

Originally Posted by King PJ

I agree! What's even better is if you have a civ with the commercial trait!

Oh yeah! My last game I was playing conquests as England, Commercial and Seafaring (Commerce bonus on all land AND sea squares!) I made so much money that I could rush build military units in all of my cities, at a 60% (sometimes higher) research rate, with a 10% luxury, and still make massive profits!

Behold the power of chee...er I mean cash!

[zerksees]

It's really all about the food. Money comes after food. Money is corruptible. Food is not.

It is probably too late in your current game for this to make a difference, but not for next game.

As far as this game goes, I agree with what the others have said: Get out of that monarchy - it adds way too much corruption. Get more luxuries (you need at least four kinds) and build marketplaces - these help your happiness.

[rysingsun]

all good tips. ill add two more.

1) this first one is time consuming. every single turn check every opponent to see if he has discovered new technology. buy it at any price. (you save the money by not doing research which of course implies you dont need libraries.) sell the technology to everyone else. on the easier settings you will usually come out ahead on the trades and hence pad your coffers while keeping up with everyone on technology without having to research OR build libraries.
2) its all about resources. get as many as you can get your greedy little hands on. you would be amazed how many you can pull right out from under your rivals' noses by plopping a settler down right next to their culture boundary and squeezing a square of theirs into your own new culture boundary. resources are also a major priority when deciding who you want to go to war with and which cities you focus on when you have an ally in a war.

perhaps the most satisfying part of the game for me is taking a resource i need in a war and as a result permanantly reducing my luxury slider a notch. woo hoo! those other resources are priceless too. iron, saltpeter, coal, oil, rubber, and so on. you need those desparately to fight a plausible war. im wrapping up a game (yeah i know ... big tangent) and now tackling my most technologically advanced rival. im building tanks. he is about to discover that technology but it will do him no good. the best units he can build anymore are riflemen and (HAHAHA) knights its a bummer not having resources . a perfectly good game can be ruined by not having a few critical resources like coal and rubber.

[crazyluke2001]

Taxmen are the key. They are the only income from a city that is not affected by corruption.

[earthguido]

Can you check in your F1 screen (advisor) where is your income coming from and where is it going to?

[KaDingir]

Originally Posted by zerksees

It's really all about the food. Money comes after food. Money is corruptible. Food is not.

You've obviously never seen the vegetable drawer in my refrigerator.

To reiterate what better players than I have said: it's impossible to overstate the value of luxuries and markets. If you can get four or more luxuries with marketplaces in all of your cities, you'll rarely need to use the luxury slider.

[zerksees]

Originally Posted by KaDingir

You've obviously never seen the vegetable drawer in my refrigerator.

I must clarify. In the game, money is corruptible, food is not.

[Tomoyo]

...Unless you use food to farm specialists...

[Kalach]

I normally try to get sistine + cathedrals for happyness, trading for all the lux's and getting markets is proberly the best way to do it. Get both of those things and you shouldn't have any problems.
Rep/Demo give all tiles that already get commerce, +1 commerce.
Don't neglect the tourist money from wonders, especially in small empires.
Trading techs is the best way to get money and keep your enemies (everyone else ) poor.
I recently tried a OCC game at regent and was making over 1200gpt at 100% research