Corruption, waste and me.

[TheOverseer714]

You could do what I'm doing with Emperor, which is play everyone and find a way to win. I started with America and am currently at Egypt. Some tribes are a struggle to win with, others are easy. I'm also doing different VCs like 20K, Space, Conquest, Diplomatic, and Domination. Still no Histographic or 100K, which can be tedious to achieve.

 

[Higher Game]

I also play mostly Emperor. I would go higher if I felt like scumming for cow river starts, but I prefer Emperor because it can be played well even in a bad start.

 

[FraterPerdurabo]

Lots of ups and downs, over past few weeks. Been playing a lot more on Monarch and occasionally trying a game on Emperor, just to sort out the things that I see as obvious mistakes.
However, one question:
In the end when I have a relatively well-run empire and I decide to go for the Space Race victory and want to get the most out of my research, do I make lots of Tax Collectors and then boost science to 100%, or do I make lots of Scientists and try to get as much out of them as possible.
Obviously if I get 4 turn research @ 80% then I will adjust the slider accordingly, however in terms of net gain, which one is more valuable, provided that in towns in which I boost research I fully build stock exchanges and research centres.

 

[Spoonwood]

The general consensus tells us scientists over tax collectors. Scientists give you 3 beakers per specialists, while tax collectors only give you 2 gold per specialist. If you plan on a fast space or diplo game where you full throtle the science slider and then only knock it back to 90% or 80% on the last few turns of a tech, I'd recommend foregoing banks and stock exchanges for more military. You don't make all that much on those turns.

 

[Babylon746]

I don't think this is considered thread-necromancy (it's only started a month ago, and no fortnight long since the last reply), but if it is: Bear over with me!

After some time without playing Civ3, I started again recently.
I just ordered Conquests (hopefully arriving next week) and found out that the Forbidden Palace is pretty much useless in C3C compared to Vanilla, as it only affects one city.
Just to get it clear: Is that the case or is there any effect on surrounding cities, like it was in Vanilla?
If there is, I'll be happy.
If there's not, I'll have to live with it. The other features (air bases, better air combat, new improvements, wonders and governments) weigh more.

 

[The Professor]

In Conquests, the Forbidden Palace increases the Optimal City Number (OCN), so it doesn't improve corruption & waste in surrounding cities, but it does help across your empire. It should be most noticeable in your semi-core type areas.

 

[Babylon746]

I see.
Instead of a 2nd core, I get slightly lower corruption all over the place.
I never really understood the OCN thing: If, on a standard map (OCN=20), I build a Forbidden Palace, thus rising OCN to - yeah, how much? Is it a specific number or a percentage of the normal OCN? I hope for the latter: I almost only play world maps, the bigger, the better.

And is the effect cumulative? If I add a second (third, ...) FP type wonder (as in Rise and Rule, IIRC), does the OCN increase with each of those?

 

[Schalke 04]

I see.
Instead of a 2nd core, I get slightly lower corruption all over the place.
I never really understood the OCN thing: If, on a standard map (OCN=20), I build a Forbidden Palace, thus rising OCN to - yeah, how much? Is it a specific number or a percentage of the normal OCN?

I can't recall the correct numbers. For a detailed analysis of the formula for curroption you may want to have a look at Alexman's C3C corruption model, which can be found in the "War Academy"

For a more direct impression on the effect on your empire I recommend you to check out SirPleb's interesting test in his game, which you can find here

 

[Babylon746]

Thanks for your answers!
I looked at the C3C corruption thread which gave me insight into the new and quite different corruption in C3C. I'll have to adjust my "playbook", but I'll manage. And in some situations, this is even better (as in less corrupt)!
For the last time: Does the FP reduce corruption in it's hometown?
According to the corruption thread, a wonder (whether small or great) which reduces corruption does that by cutting 70% off the corruption.
So, an otherwise max corrupt town (90%) will get down to manageable 20% with FP, and to great 10% with FP and courthouse.
Do I understand that correctly?

 

[The Professor]

Yes, that's correct. The town with the Forbidden Palace will have little corruption, and I believe I've read that you can get it down to zero with a courthouse and a police station. So, if you have a very corrupt town that could be very productive if corruption wasn't an issue, then it may be worth it to use a MGL to build the Forbidden Palace. In general, you don't want to wait 100 turns to build it from scratch, so usually, people build it closer to their core if they don't have a leader to burn.