How to reduce corruption??

[The 777 Hoax]

I'm having a problem with corruption. I understand all of that stuff about where your palace is, the Forbidden Palace, courthouses, and all that... but I just don't really think it's helping. If it weren't for corruption, I could be getting 50 gold per turn, and I could be spending more money on science. Does anyone have any tips for me about reducing corruption? Thanks.

I'm playing the vanilla version, by the way... no expansion packs (yet!).

Cody

 

[camelman]

you could play the game as a communist. i personally never use it but this way all of your cities share the corruption i think?! you could try moving your palace later in the game to ensure its at the centre of your empire. so long as you build lots of roads and generate loads of trade you can afford to lose a little to corruption i think!

 

[vmxa]

In vanilla and PTW you cantake advantage of the RCP (ring city placement). Lay down cities in rings to keep the distance equal for as many cities as you can get on a given ring.

This was nerfed in C3C. Of course the FP placement is important in all except C3C.

You could try to irrigated those towns and use specialist, but they are not as good in those versions as C3C.

 

[boogaboo]

3 points that were missed by all -

1. Being a Commercial civ reduces corruption quite significantly.
2. In communism, there is also the "Secret HQ" small wonder that helps corruption.
3. If I'm correct, shield corruption (waste) is reduced by Police stations in all governments.

Also, you mentioned courthouses -
Are you building them only in corrupt cities?
Building more courthouses makes the OCP higher, thus reducing corruption.
Does Police Stations do it also???? Can't remember

 

[vmxa]

Well I am not sure about the commecial in vanilla. No HQ in vanilla. No police stations either.

Even in C3C you are either commercial or you are not, nothing can be done.
PS are very late and specialist was suggest, just not that one.

 

[drakdan]

As I understand it corruption depends on two things:
1.) Distance from your Capital or Forbidden Palace.
2.) The Number of cities you have.

More of either means more corruption. Courthouses and Police Stations will reduce corruption, but if a city is totally corrupted it won't make much difference and it'll cost you to build it. On the otherhand, if it is marginally or just somewhat corrupt those two buildings can cut down a lot. Also, if you get a great leader it may be worth it to move your palace or to rushbuild a forbidden palace far away from your core.

Communism creates shared corruption between all your buildings. You don't have access to the Secret Police HQ in Vanilla. Any chance you could get a screenshot? Press Z to zoom out, then screenshot it.

 

[KingCruz]

You forgot to mention waste. Corruption is also a problem because of waste, and yes I know you could hire Police Officers, but is there a way to reduce waste?
Does a Courthouse necesesarily reduce waste?

 

[boogaboo]

I know you could hire Police Officers, but is there a way to reduce waste?
Does a Courthouse necesesarily reduce waste?

Reduce waste by Police Stations also (unless, again, the city is too corrupt, and then even this won't help - I think the max corruption is 95% or 90 %)

Courthouse reduces both waste and corruption, but again, just for cities that are not too corrupt.

 

[vmxa]

Guys it is vanilla, no Police specialist and no Police Stations.

"I'm playing the vanilla version, by the way... no expansion packs (yet!).

Cody"

 

[TimBentley]

Waste and corruption will be the same unless the city is in WLTKD (so usually when we say corruption we're referring to both).

 

[jb1964]

@Cody, in Vanilla, other than laying down your cities in concentric rings you're doing all you can. If you're unsure of how to count the distance from the capitol there are tools that will do this for you.

Build courthouses in cities w/ less than ~85% corruption/waste. If you have a city that's beyond that level of waste then the courthouse will have about zero effect and the time/money spent on building it would have been better off cranking out workers or set to cash. I would go for workers and then set those cities to producing settlers or arty units.

Also on Vanilla, the shared corruption in Communism can be brutal.

Another way to "reduce" corruption is crank up the uncorruptable food production and then use your citizen's lives for 20 shields a pop.

The FP in Vanilla is quite useful in reducing corruption in that city and the surrounding cities. However, you need to build 10+ (probably more like 15) clicks from the capitol to make it really valuable. And to do this that far away takes a long time. Try and cultivate a GL just for this purpose.

In C3C there are more ways to combat corruption that have been noted below. Also, the benfits/need of building your empire in nice concentric rings has been removed and the FP placement is less important.

FP reduces corruption in that city and does not effectively create another "ring". So building in a far-away city makes an otherwise corrupt city very productive but the benefits of taking the time to do this are offset by the collective reduction in corruption due to increasing your OCN far earlier in a city nearer the core.

 

[KingCruz]

Soo you would suggest to, basically breed the citizens. Then with the right government, hurry production?
Sounds evil but it could work.
The reason I mention waste is because it takes 50 turns to build a courthouse in the really corrupted cities. i usually just end up reverting those cities to Wealth, is that a good option?

 

[vmxa]

Popping out workers is fine, IF you have a governement that allows forced labor, ut you probably should not have such a goverment.

You do not want to pop them with gold, unless you actually need workers. Wealth is valid for that town.

No CH if the town if low shield, high corruption. If the game was going to last a long time, maybe, but probably not pay for itself in most games.

 

[jb1964]

If you're still stuck in Despot then go ahead and pop them but I would be opting for Republic and stay that way for the remainder of just about any game other than AW.

When you get to Rep the workers/settlers/arty you produce should be a shield at a time. It's really not worth it to pay for 'em. And setting the 1spt city to cash is certainly an option.

Increasing the population in those towns adds to your overall score. However, IIRC the specialists in Vanilla seemed to have little to no effect. Or maybe it was that the added gold was counted but you just didn't see it as clearly.

And I'll interject here that since C3C can be picked up for ~$20 I would opt for that since it's simply a better product.

 

[The 777 Hoax]

Alright, thanks, guys. That really helps a lot. I'm planning to get expansion packs soon, and save my money for Civ4 later

Cody

 

[vmxa]

Just get the cheapest between Coqnuest and Complete at that time. Both have the two expansions included. That will probably be Conquest, but you stumble upon a used Complete or they just want to unload it.

 

[MAS]

Police stations exist in vanilla too, just not the police specialist! they reduce corruption (red gold) not waste (red shields)
Courthouses reduce both. (not that I advice building police stations, their usefullness isn't something to write home about)

I don't see how corruption can be "killing" you. And I'm not to bothered by it ither. Each new city you found increases your power, its just that, each new city increase your power a bit less than the previous one did, but it increase your power nevertheless.

Build a courthouse in your next to core city's and eventually in your core city's too.
The hopelessly corrupt city's (with 95% corruption) you need to handle them diffrently, build a markedplace in them for happyness, and maybe a library to increasse their radius a bit (and aquaducts when they are not next to a river, and there are enough high food tiles around) then all you need from them is specialists, so irigate everything around them and farm taxman from these towns, let them build "gold" when they are done building all the need to build.

 

[Spartanism]

If your playing on Huge maps or larger I would go into the editor and lower the corruption rate. I was playing on a MAX size world and found that my cities were hopelessly corrupt before I even reached over civs. In that case there was no point in captureing cities only razeing them.

 

[The 777 Hoax]

In that case there was no point in captureing cities only razeing them.

Yeah, but then how would you even hope to get anything other than a histographic victory?

 

[MarcoPolo]

I'm having a problem with corruption. I understand all of that stuff about where your palace is, the Forbidden Palace, courthouses, and all that... but I just don't really think it's helping. If it weren't for corruption, I could be getting 50 gold per turn, and I could be spending more money on science. Does anyone have any tips for me about reducing corruption? Thanks.

I'm playing the vanilla version, by the way... no expansion packs (yet!).

Cody

In vanilla it helps to use CxxC city placement in a circle around your capital. It also helps to build improvements like FP, Courthouses and Police Stations. Keeping your citizens happy also seems to help. With governments like depotism and Monarchy you should have some military police in each city. Switching to Democracy is probably the best long term solution to corruption.

It seems like Great Leaders happen more often in Ancient Times for me so you might consider attacking your weakest neighbor until the GL appears then use it to get the FP into a newly conquered city.

You can also make use of specialist citizens. Just have enough citizens working to provide food for city growth. You can put the rest as either Tax Collectors or Scientist. I don't recommend using the Governor to manage some of the really far out places. If you do emphasize food and production.

Also take in account that the AI has to deal with the problem too. Just because you are down 50 gold to corruption doesn't mean you will lose the game.

Just wanted to add that the best way to get money is to trade with other Civs. Get to strategic resources and luxuries first. Research the not so popular techs. Once you have something the other civs don't you can trade it for a lot of gold per turn so long as you have a good trading reputation.