del62
Deity
Between which percentages of corruption levels would you recommend building corthouses?
Corruption and Courts
- Thread starter del62
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del62
Deity
Is 70-90% thought to be not bothering with?
Not really. In that range, courts don't reduce corruption enough to cover their own upkeep. If you use CA2, take a look in the Economy tab. That will let you see what a courthouse will do in a city before you actually build it.
del62
Deity
Sorry I did not mean to say 70-90 but 10 - 20%
That's fine. 10-20% has the same problem, though. Not enough recovery to warrant the courthouse. At that level, there usually isn't enough corrupted stuff to make the shield investment and upkeep cost worthwhile. Naturally, there are always exceptions. For example, if you have a town that's making 19 uncorrupted shields, a court might take it to 20, which is one of the "sweet spots" for shield production. If you can get a city to a sweet spot, you might be able to cut overrun, which is also worthwhile.
I would recommend not going by percentages, but by how many shields/gold you earn in the process.
It may depend in part on whether you need extra unit production - if you need the city to be producing extra units, it could be worthwhile to build the courthouse to squeeze out the extra shields to save a turn or more on the unit production.
You may want the extra shields to help speed up other building production in that city. However, if you are at a point in the game where you are using gold to rush buildings a lot, then the shield production is probably meaningless.
Also, if you are late in the game and approaching your victory conditions, the city may not build buildings fast enough to actually contribute to your victory conditions one way or another. Saving a few shields over 100+ turns may be more valuable than saving a lot of shields over 20 or so turns.
The ultimate decision is whether you have something else better to be doing with that city. Is saving a certain amount of shields/gold over a certain amount of time more valuable than, say, using a lot of corruption free specialists? Is there an easier way to hit that production "sweet spot" like Aabraxen mentioned (one mine instead of an irrigation, or one police specialist to reduce a corruption)?
It may depend in part on whether you need extra unit production - if you need the city to be producing extra units, it could be worthwhile to build the courthouse to squeeze out the extra shields to save a turn or more on the unit production.
You may want the extra shields to help speed up other building production in that city. However, if you are at a point in the game where you are using gold to rush buildings a lot, then the shield production is probably meaningless.
Also, if you are late in the game and approaching your victory conditions, the city may not build buildings fast enough to actually contribute to your victory conditions one way or another. Saving a few shields over 100+ turns may be more valuable than saving a lot of shields over 20 or so turns.
The ultimate decision is whether you have something else better to be doing with that city. Is saving a certain amount of shields/gold over a certain amount of time more valuable than, say, using a lot of corruption free specialists? Is there an easier way to hit that production "sweet spot" like Aabraxen mentioned (one mine instead of an irrigation, or one police specialist to reduce a corruption)?
I am in general agreement with all that has been said. To expand on one thing - you really need to compare what you will gain and what you could have done instead. The nice thing about Civ3 is that it is all a matter of trading off one thing for another.
The cost of a courthouse is 80 shields and commits you to 1gpt upkeep. The alternative use of a those sheids: 8 workers/warriors, 3 settlers/swords/horses/galleys (nearly), 4 archers/chariots/scouts, library, 80% of a marketplace, 1 knight/Cav. Gpt upkeep will vary and will need to be considered as well.
So the questions is if all those example choices are outweighed by the benefits of building the courthouse. If you can confidently answer 'yes' then you are good. If not, take a closer look.
The cost of a courthouse is 80 shields and commits you to 1gpt upkeep. The alternative use of a those sheids: 8 workers/warriors, 3 settlers/swords/horses/galleys (nearly), 4 archers/chariots/scouts, library, 80% of a marketplace, 1 knight/Cav. Gpt upkeep will vary and will need to be considered as well.
So the questions is if all those example choices are outweighed by the benefits of building the courthouse. If you can confidently answer 'yes' then you are good. If not, take a closer look.
The Professor
Emperor
One point I would like to add: If you are going to build a courthouse in those 40% - 70% corrupt cities, it should probably be one of your *first* builds in that city. You wouldn't want to build a library, then a courthouse, generally, because the library would be built slower, because of the extra corrupted shields. And the extra beakers generated by the library will also be more corrupted if the courthouse is not built first.
Similarly, I wouldn't build a barracks first (unless it's on a border with a civ you're warring with, perhaps) because the barracks will just sit there, not creating veteran units, while you build the courthouse.
Similarly, I wouldn't build a barracks first (unless it's on a border with a civ you're warring with, perhaps) because the barracks will just sit there, not creating veteran units, while you build the courthouse.
Corruption comes off the top before commerce is allocated to science. That means that, technically, the beakers are not corrupted, but there is less commerce to allocate to science. I don't have the game open, but CA2 says that courts affect shields, too.
It doesn't affect shield production, but it does reduce shield waste, meaning the city has more usable shields. So basically a courthouse helps both production and commerce/research.
