How to deal with corruption?

[Manoa]

Is it just me or is corruption in this game out of control? I guess I should first state that I do understand the effects of the Palace, Forbidden Palace, Courthouse, government type, empire size, etc. But while trying to play a standard map prince game (practicing before I try the GOTM) I have trouble dealing with the corruption from ALL but six or seven cities. Any city that is more than a few tiles away from the capitol or forbidden palace is simply unusable. Period.

In Civ 2 I was able to deal with the debilitating effects of corruption by simply RBing the improvements I wanted for every city. But given that caravans are out, there is absolutely no way to generate sufficient gold to RB anything.

I tried playing the game at both higher and lower difficulties with the same results. Deity level is much harder than in Civ 2 not because of an improved AI, but because corruption and waste are programmed so harshly as to prevent the founding of more than a half-dozen cities.

Someone please fill me in if I'm missing something, but the corruption and waste problem ruins the game to the point of it being no longer fun. Just wanted to see if other people had the same experience.

 

[Sparrowhawk]

Yeah, I'd agree they have to do something about corruption. I'm on chieftian, in a democracy, also using improvements, and corruption is still killing me.

 

[mote]

corruption was brutal compared to CIV2

But you can kick it!

If you've already got a bloated empire (I did), you can still beat it with we-love-the-king-day.

Raise % going to luxuries, trade/find luxury resources, build temples, cathedrals, marketplaces, and switch to a republic/democracy as soon as possible.

Your research will slow down, and you'll be unable to prosecute a war but eventually you'll regain control.

If all else fails, consider stripping a small problematic city of its buildings and trading it to a weak rival for a resource/research/lots of cash. (I haven't had to do this, but the idea intrigues me).

 

[Johnny_Vegas]

I posted here on corruption

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?s=&threadid=7600


I think corruption is fine, cause I dislike having to manage a ton of cities. Gotta keep that empire compact! Obviously Firaxis thinks corruption is fine, as they play tested the heck out the game and realize its current level makes for a more enjoyable game.

You can still conquer the world and build colonies to get those resources. Colonies have no corruption. Also you can raze cities too dont forget.

I think the corruption is just a challenge to overcome. The computer is hindered by it too. Most of the computers outlying cities are size 1-3 so far.

 

[Manoa]

mote, your strategy is a good one, but there's one problem. Since WLTKD is restricted to cities of size six or greater, I'd either have to bring along 5 workers or 2 additional settlers for every outlying city I found. Plus, since the problem snowballs as additional cities are founded (the further from the capitol you build your cities, the less able those cities are to produce additional settlers), I really can't see how creating more than 40 or 50 cities is reasonable until the late game.

 

[Johnny_Vegas]

40 or 50 cities? I wouldn't want to have more than 20!

What a micromanagement nightmare.

Anyway, I found having a really happy town, for the WLTKD helps corruption.

And corruption doesn't hurt food production, so getting your cities to grow isn't too hard with high corruption.

I just use my border towns more or less like glorified fortresses. Build walls, and stick in a defensive unit.

 

[Manoa]

Hey Johnny, I have a question: I've only played up to Prince level so far with decent success (I at least won every game). Do you use some kind of small empire strategy on higher difficulty levels? It might be that I'm still stuck in Civ 2 mentality, but I simply cannot see how it's possible to win Deity with that few cities.

 

[Johnny_Vegas]

I dont think there are any easy strategies to win on Deity. We won't know how to perform that feat, until every aspect of the game we have mastered, and every trick we've learned.

I'm sure there'll be a few other more advanced ways of dealing with corruption that we just haven't thought up yet.

 

[mote]

Manoa-

I usually have my cities that are maxed out population and production-wise produce workers because they can quickly replace them. I tend to have one or two breeding farms. These workers can settle in new towns. Also, corruption/waste do not influence food production, so before they add to the town my workers beef up its irrigation to help them grow.

But 40-50 cities?!?!? Sorry... can't help you there.

(wow).

 

[Manoa]

Just trying to maximize the score. The whole corruption problem wouldn't be an issue if it weren't for how the score is calculated. Because it's averaged (as opposed to just the ending score like in Civ 2), it is simply not effective to build hundreds of cities after you have already "won" the game. Plus I also find it annoying that the score only takes into account population, territory, and future techs.

For all the big fuss about cultural and diplomatic victories, there is no way that these methods can compete (score-wise) with the traditional dominate-the-world style.

Since the scoring system rewards players who expand quickly, corruption/waste become a problem within the first hundred turns of the game.