Some questions I can't find the answers for

[Afterburner]

1) Do captured workers ever turn into regular workers? Or do they always remain slaves?


2) The Secret Police HQ acts as a second Forbidden Palace for reducing waste and corruption at the cities far from your capital and 1st Forbidden Palace. But it only works under Communism. But corruption and waste under Communism aren't affected by distance from your capital. So what's the point?


3) Is there a way I can edit some text file or something somewhere to make it so where it doesn't require coal to build railroads? Because, lemme tell ya, there's nothing in the game that makes me want to fling Civ3 CDs at the Civ3 designers quite like researching Steam Power and then not having any coal show up anywhere in my territory.


Mmf. There were more questions, but suddenly I've forgotten them. I'm certain I'll rememer as soon as I hit the "Submit" button.

 

[IroquoisPlisken]

1) Nope, they will always be slaves.

2) Well, I don't understand corruption all that well, but I know there are two kinds. Distance (caused by distance from capital, FP, or SPHQ) and rank (I forget what this is exactly...). While there is no distance corruption in Communism, there is rank, which I believe is caused by going over the Optimal City Number (OCN). The FP and SPHQ increase the OCN, allowing you to have more cities before corruption starts to really hurt.

3) Just use the editor to make it so coal is not needed to build railroads. Save it as a scenario, and load it from the Civ Content menu.

 

[Theoden]

1) Only if they are captured back by the original owner.

2) The Secret Police HQ doesn't just reduce distance corruption. It reduces overall corruption in all cities.

3) Go into the editor, edit the rules and go into the worker actions tab. There choose the railroad function and edit what resources is needed.

edit: crosspost

 

[Afterburner]

Thanks for the quick responses, folks.

Another question:

1) I have had other civs open trade negotiations with me where they request captured workers back. Is there a way for me to offer that? Or is it something only the AI can initiate?

 

[Tomoyo]

You can only offer that if the workers are in your capital. However, it is not advisable to sell workers since the AI undervalues them so much.

 

[Bluemofia]

The AI will usually sell a worker for 100 gold.

 

[Afterburner]

Why is it that sometimes I will capture a city and the city will be automatically razed, while other times the AI gives me a choice?

 

[Bluemofia]

If the city is size 1 and no culture, it is auto razed, to represent it's incapability to survive the pillaging an army normally goes through when taking cities. If it is size 2 and up, the population is decreased by 1.

 

[Afterburner]

AH-HAH! I finally remembered the question I originally signed up to this forum to ask!

How long does a unit have to be in a city before you can disband that unit and have it convert to shields?

Thanks again for the responses so far. Very helpful and informative.

 

[Bluemofia]

You can disband it instantly. There's a small exploit where you go and draft a mech infantry in every city possible and you throw all of them to a city and disband them all for shields. Can't disband rush for great/small wonders though.

 

[Afterburner]

You can disband it instantly. There's a small exploit where you go and draft a mech infantry in every city possible and you throw all of them to a city and disband them all for shields. Can't disband rush for great/small wonders though.

Hrm. I coulda sworn I'd moved units to a city and disbanded them and received nothing to show for it. But I don't remember the details, so maybe the city was building a Wonder.

Can you eventually disband units in a city and have their shields go towards Wonder completion? If so, how long does the unit have to be in the city to get that?

 

[Tomoyo]

Can you eventually disband units in a city and have their shields go towards Wonder completion? If so, how long does the unit have to be in the city to get that?

No. Wonders can never be rushed with anything but a leader.

 

[Bluemofia]

If you try by rushing a non-wonder, then build the wonder, it won't work. It would be greyed out.

 

[DBear]

1. Nope. They will always remain slaves. You could integrate them into your cities, but that will cause flipping chances. Best to leave them as slaves, you're not paying for them.

2. SPHQ raises your optimal city number. Also, in the SPHQ city you will have no corruption.

3. You can go into the editor and remove the coal requirements, though IMO railroads really should need coal. Either trade for it or take it.

4. What Tomoyo said.

 

[Afterburner]

Another question:

I finished a Vanilla Civ3 game earlier this week where I was playing on a Large map, with Continents. I started off on the larger of the two continents, along with two other civs. By the mid-Industrial era, I had cleansed the continent of the heathen infidels and spread out to eventually blanket the continent with 82 cities.

Predictably, the cities at my extreme frontier borders were suffering massive corruption and waste.

The thing I noticed was that eventually, for no reason I could determine, cities would eventually become more efficient. I had two cities on my northern border. Both were equidistant from my capital. Both were equidistant from my Forbidden Palace. They both had the same city improvements, including courthouses and police stations. They both had the same population. They both had the same number of garrisoning units. They both had the same overall producitivity. The only difference between the two, aside from the name, was that one had been settled a turn prior to the other.

And one was sitting at 18/2 shields (waste/productive) while the other was sitting at 10/10.

And after several more turns, eventually the 18/2 city became less wasteful. I checked it later and it had dropped down to 50% waste instead of 90% waste.

Does anybody know what would cause a city to become less wasteful over time?

 

[Renata]

Several things might cause a change; it's hard to tell without saves. The magnitude of the change seems large, though. In any case: What was your government? Any government changes during the time period in question? Were any of the towns in question initially not hooked to your trade network, then hooked up later? Did you disband or lose any cities between the towns in question and your FP or palace? Did you gain any happiness modifiers that put the towns into We Love the ___ Day?

As far as the initial question goes, where one town is better off than the other, that probably has to do with their relative rank. If all else is truly equal in C3C, the first town settled will have lesser corruption.

Renata

 

[Afterburner]

Several things might cause a change; it's hard to tell without saves. The magnitude of the change seems large, though. In any case: What was your government? Any government changes during the time period in question? Were any of the towns in question initially not hooked to your trade network, then hooked up later? Did you disband or lose any cities between the towns in question and your FP or palace? Did you gain any happiness modifiers that put the towns into We Love the ___ Day?

As far as the initial question goes, where one town is better off than the other, that probably has to do with their relative rank. If all else is truly equal in C3C, the first town settled will have lesser corruption.

Government was Democracy for the most part, and was compared under Democracy. I switched to Communism a couple of times to relieve the crushing inefficiency and corruption of my distant cities, but I knew how that worked, so I wasn't looking at a city under Communism and thinking "Wow! So much more efficient than it was earlier! Wonder why?" And I switched back in any case.

Towns were all hooked up to my road network at the time of settlement, thanks to the extensive road network left behind by the Greeks and Romans.

Did not lose any cities.

Don't think "We Love the Queen" day was in effect in either city. If it was, it would have been in effect in both, because neither had entertainers. So they would have been subject to the same amount of empire-wide luxuries and entertainment spending.

Just out of curiosity, what's the Optimal City Number for Large maps?

 

[Afterburner]

Do courthouses and police stations affect waste in addition to corruption?

 

[EdwardTking]

Rushing completion of production by sacrificing population can
create unhappiness. Did you do that in one city and not the other?

 

[Zelda's Man]

"We Love the Queen Day" could be going on in one and not the other. It is not guaranteed just because the requirements are met.

@Afterburner: Yes.