crazy corruption?

[maracle]

Ok, I am having some very strange things going on with my corruption. I'm new to this game, so this was my 4th game (I abandoned the first two, intend to get back to the third) and I had learned a lot of lessons. I'm on a standard continent map, and using persian immortals I conquered the other two civs on my continent. This results in my having a whole lot of cities spread from top to bottom of the map on the left side. Way more than optimal.

I don't really like war as much as expanding cities and building culture, etc. So, I was in despotism until I had completely eliminated everyone else on this continent, then I switched directly to democracy. I thought this would be very beneficial, since it increases production to 150% and supposedly would drasticly reduce corruption.

But, corruption was massive even in democracy all over the place. I recorded everything about my civ and each city in democracy, then switched to despotism to compare. Nothing changed between comparisons. In Democracy I had 764 income, 342 corruption, for a corruption rate of 45%. In despotism I had income of 450 and corruption of 248, which is 55%. Is this really all the difference there is?? After factoring in all the added unit costs for democracy, I gained a net increase in gold of 99 which went toward science. This is good, but for improving three levels of government, its not really that good.

Also, 10% difference doesn't really have much of any effect at the level of the individual city. The cities that were crippled by corruption in despotism are still just as crippled under democracy. Switching to despotism didn't make my citizens any more unhappy, I still had WLTKD in the same number of cities.

So, I'm now wondering if I should just switch back to despotism and then I can at least rush build things. My science rate will drop a little bit, but my civ is 3x the size of any single remaining civ so I research faster anyway, and there is always the pope strategy.

Is democracy just better for smaller civs? Would things change on a harder difficulty level? Am I missing something?

Also, what about the patch? I haven't installed it yet, but it looks like most changes benefit the player. I want to read the sticky threads I see about it first, but others opinions on whether its worth it would be nice.

Thanks!

 

[black_adder2]

Ok, let me try to tackle this.

First, you see a 10% difference, which while not as great as you would expect, it IS significant.

Second, the greater the distance from your capitol the worse the corruption... at a certain distance it is terrible even with courthouses in a democracy. On a sep continent, it simply goes through the roof.

Third, and most important, there is a city limit depending on the map size. It is 12/14/18/24/32 ? I think... or something like that.

So if you were over your ideal city limit for your map (32 for HUGE, etc) then those above the limit can be over 90% corruption, NO MATTER WHAT.

Try building more courthouses, police stations, and a forbidden palace in a spot strategically placed far from your capitol.

 

[slothman]

Since I don't use spaceship parts, I turned 4 of them into "mini palaces" which cost nothing and reduce corruption. I just build those until waste is below 10% in any particular city.

 

[maracle]

It sounds like all the cities I conquered on the north half of the continent are just useless then. Perhaps I should have just stuck with despotism and then I could have rushed improvements to those cities at least.

Still, the "core" of my civ is the southern half of the continent. I've got my capital in the west and am building the forbidden palace in the east, all in the south. It would never finish in the north anyway, so I guess I'll just treat that as sort of a throw-away area, and just focus on my southern half. At this point, I'd like to win by diplomacy or space race, or cultural, or by having 2/3 of the land. Which brings me to another question...is there a way to see what your total percentage of land covered by your borders is? It seems like I've got quite a lot, but I don't want to try expanding any more unless I think I can get enough to win this way.

Thanks

 

[Dillo]

I simply went into the editor and made a few tweaks to some improvements to help control coruption a bit. Easy as that, you just have to experiemnt with it.

 

[Snaproll]

One thing you might try that worked for me is to change to Communism and build the Forbidden Palace in the area where you have the most corruption. Under Communism, all cities produce the same amount of corruption, so your Capitol will get worse but you will be able to build things in your far-off cities. Build the forbidden and then change back to Democracy. Worked wonders for me!

 

[57%]

The income lost in the length of time in Anarchy between governments should be considered, too. From the time you switch, the difference between the income you would have earned (and what could have been spent on science) if you hadn't switched should be compared to the relatively small benefit of a more efficient government.

For example, if on year 1 you went from Despotism, earning 100/turn, went into Anarchy for 5 turns, losing 100 a turn, and then became a Republic, gaining 110 a turn, it will take 50 more turns to "break even" than if you had stayed in Despotism.

(I don't think you lose all income in anarchy, but I don't remember if any anarchy income can be 'spent' towards science, and anyway, 0 income just makes the example clearer)

 

[jju_57]

Most important of all. You need the PATCH! The patch fixed a number of things concerning corruption.