Comprehensive Stability Guide/Explanation

[Stacmon]

Hello everyone,

I recall seeing a DoC stability guide and explanation for civics, based on the changes in DoC, along with a reference about not including information for vanilla RFC stability features/components because that information was easy to find.

I tried to look for it, including on Rhye's website's Wiki, but that appears to be down.

Searching for it further, I have had no luck at all so far.

Generally, I actually prefer to play unaware of the detailed mechanics so that I can discover what works and doesn't for myself, developing my own strategies rather than using the same or "best" ones that everyone else does. Knowing too much about the inner workings can sometimes make great features like stability seem useless, especially if there is some "cookie-cutter" approach that works for all civs in all eras.

However, I have had some real challenges/headaches with stability and seeing my empire collapse, despite being in what looked like a very enviable position (e.g. strong military, multiple productive cities, good technological level, highest civ score, etc.)

One aspect of stability that really seems to bother me is that liberating cities that you have conquered, even to your vassals, decreases your stability because the city is counted as "lost". There even seems to be a cap on capturing cities, so you can't offset the negative stability from "lost" cities that are liberated to vassals with positive stability from newly conquered ones.

I have also been unable to understand several other stability mechanics related to the economy, foreign policy, etc. and why, for example, one turn I may have strong positive stability from either "Economy" or "Trade" and the next turn have a negative rating.

I would really be grateful to anyone that could:

1) Point me to a resource on the stability system (either in Vanilla RFC or updated to DoC)

2) Explain to me a way to liberate recently conquered cities to my vassals without incurring negative stability for "losing" them

(a good practical example is giving the Moors, a vassal, cities originally owned by Christian Spain and Portugal as the Arabs and then incurring a huge stability hit for giving away 3-4 cities)

Thanks to everyone able to offer any help and I want to make sure I emphasize how great RFC and DoC are!

 

[blizzrd]

2) Explain to me a way to liberate recently conquered cities to my vassals without incurring negative stability for "losing" them

There is a bonus for liberating cities (to vassals or otherwise) but it only kicks in when your total number of cities is high. I do not know the exact number of cities but from experience it is more than 20.

 

[Stacmon]

There is a bonus for liberating cities (to vassals or otherwise) but it only kicks in when your total number of cities is high. I do not know the exact number of cities but from experience it is more than 20.

Thank you for the comment.

Just to clarify further, you're saying that you would still incur the penalty of liberating the city (lower stability because the city is "lost") but when you have enough cities (e.g. 20), you also get the bonus to counter balance it.

Is the bonus for liberating a city to a vassal equal to the negative stability you get for "losing" it? Is there a cap on the liberation bonus the way there seems to be on conquering cities?

Also, perhaps a third question if there isn't anyone that can find a comprehensive stability guide to refer me and others to:


3) Does the +2 stability bonus per conquered city Expansion Civic have the same cap as the regular city conquest stability boost?

(I think I recall that the cap was something like +40 or +50, so would adopting the +2 bonus stability on conquest Expansion Civic only help you if you are below the cap and be useless to you above it, or will the extra stability be tracked elsewhere? Does it have its own cap?)

Thanks again to everyone!

 

[blizzrd]

There is a stability guide in game within DoC - check the Civilopedia.

Thank you for the comment.

Just to clarify further, you're saying that you would still incur the penalty of liberating the city (lower stability because the city is "lost") but when you have enough cities (e.g. 20), you also get the bonus to counter balance it.

Yes, but the bonus is only temporary. It disappears eventually.

Is the bonus for liberating a city to a vassal equal to the negative stability you get for "losing" it?

No, the bonus is greater than the penalty.

Also, perhaps a third question if there isn't anyone that can find a comprehensive stability guide to refer me and others to:

3) Does the +2 stability bonus per conquered city Expansion Civic have the same cap as the regular city conquest stability boost?

I believe that the bonuses for Resettlement (+2 for founding >15 tiles from capital) and Expansion (+2 for conquering a city) are not capped and are retained even if you later switch out of these civics.

 

[Stacmon]

There is a stability guide in game within DoC - check the Civilopedia.

Thank you Blizzrd, you've been a huge help so far.

One other question about the Civilopedia article...

Do you recall the name of the article and the Civilopedia section it is in? I checked there, and I saw one on how the new Civics system works in DoC, as well as the tile related stability information (e.g. foreign territory, foreign core territory, contested territory, etc.) but I do not recall ever seeing a general stability guide or article that applied to all of the other areas that existed in the original Rhye's of Civilization, such as Economy, Foreign Policy, which buildings can help increase stability (I have noticed court houses help, but it would be nice to find which other early era buildings do too).

This discussion has been very helpful in growing my understanding of stability!

 

[blizzrd]

This is old and not entirely correct (as Harrier, the author, states on the second page), but you may find something useful in here:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=227508

 

[Stacmon]

This is old and not entirely correct (as Harrier, the author, states on the second page), but you may find something useful in here:

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=227508

Perfect, this looks just like the kind of resource I was looking for!

Even if it is no longer completely accurate, I think it will help inform me about the ways that stability works and what types of actions or events might impact it.

 

[jammerculture]

I tried to do this.....

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=487004

 

[Stacmon]

Thanks for sharing that link with me too. All this has helped me to better comprehend the way the stability mechanics work.

 

[yurisusuki]

After i conquer a city, I liberate in the page of options ''Install a government,Destroy ,etc...and i not see negative stability efects