Stability?

[Coral]

I don't get how stability works. No matter what, my stability always seems to be falling, even in Viceroy. I make absolutely certain to try and do everything to keep it as high as possible. I choose civics that work together, like Representation and Bureaucracy, and I keep a strong economy going and I'm making tons of gold, my people are happy and my cities have plenty of wonders. I have two vassals and Viceroyalty, defense pacts and open borders abound. I have few cities, and I play as nations that historically weren't large anyways. Why is my stability always falling? I like RFC, but this stability thing doesn't make any sense and kind of kills it.

If I do anything except concentrate on building wonders and boosting my economy, my nation simply falls apart. I check my stability ratings: everything is at =, yet my stability gets the deathhead sign because it's going down so much. Is this intended?

 

[kairob]

Have you checked this out? http://wikirhye.wikidot.com/stability

It might answar some of your questions.

 

[Coral]

Yup, I based my entire stability strategy around that after I lost my first game to civil war, and it doesn't help.

 

[AnotherPacifist]

Build lots of courthouses and jails. That's what worked for me in Monarch and Emperor. Sign an occasional defensive pact with a friendly nation. Trade some resource with another civ (helps with economy)
If you don't expand to your historic lands (e.g. Germany as an AI always gets trounced on initially and becomes unstable) I think you also become unstable.

 

[say1988]

It is hard to say anything without a better description (more details). What area do you have the greatest problems: Economic, Expansion, etc.....

But some advice.....

keep a strong economy going and I'm making tons of gold

Now I may be wrong, but the amount of gold you are making is less important the the overall growth commerce growth (your GNP on the demographics screen). The key here is growth, a small growing economy is better than a large stagnate one. This is something that hits small empires (my economic stability was nearly killing me as Japan, since I never expanded outside of Honshu and Korea, and I took those quickly), since the best way to increase your economy is to expand.

Historic territory is another thing that has caused me problems, makes a heck of a challenge as Arabia when the Aztecs won't accept Tenochtitlan, same problem with Incas.

Lastly and most importantly: avoid Anarchy unless it is 100% necessary. This will hammer your stability temporarily and repeated anarchies will doom you in the long run.

 

[Panopticon]

One aspect that really hurts your stability in the long run is the presence of non-state religions in your cities (if you have a state religion). This affects the late conquering civs most of all, though China (and Japan to a lesser extent) also suffers.

 

[Coral]

Thanks for the tips, guys. Does having no state religion hurt your stability?

Also, my particular problem shifts throughout the game. When I fix my economy problem, my expansion rating seems to take a dive and vise versa. My cities always seem to have a low rating, even though I keep the people very happy.

What bothers me most though, is that a lot of times I will have all the stability ratings showing =, but my overall stability is going down.

 

[kairob]

Try building courthouses , cottages are also good for the economy one, as when they all upgrade at around the same time your GDP grows giving you extra stability.

 

[Panopticon]

Thanks for the tips, guys. Does having no state religion hurt your stability?

Not in itself, as far as I know, but having a state religion helps your happiness more than not, until you can choose Free Religion, that is. Angry citizens hurt your stability.

If you give us more information about your game, like what civ you're playing and what you've done in it so far, we can come up with the appropriate solution.

 

[Tweedledum]

You could always have a poke around in stability.py - there's a lot of useful stuff to be derived from it, particularly in quantifying how much instability various things cause...

It has certainly helped me minimise my stability problems...

 

[Coral]

I'm Greece. I have two cities, Athens and Byzantion. The turks are close by, but they do not culturally threaten Byzantion. Athens has the great wall, great lighthouse, colossus, oracle, temple of artemis--most of the wonders so far built. I've founded Islam and Christianity, and the state religion is Christianity. No nation has militarily threatened me, and I defeated the majority of the persian army with my phalanxes in the mountain pass. The happiness outweighs the unhappiness in each of my cities, and I've traded most of my resources away. I've teched up to Assembly Line, and with a huge technical lead, no military can threaten me in the least bit, and as such I have defense pacts and open borders with all of Europe. The Mali are my vassals, and I made the Inca my vassals. My economy seems to be running strong to me, since I am running at a 100% research rate and making a good deal of profit regardless. I have bureaucracy and representation to put more stability in my nation, and Viceroyalty to get stability from my vassals. My nation is on the edge of collapse.

 

[AnotherPacifist]

What's your state religion. Maybe if Athens has Christianity and Byzantion Islam, you need to convert one to the other and switch
Found another city in Greece? Or expand to Asia Minor, you need another city. 3 seems to be the magic number for small civs (Khmer, Mali, Greece)

 

[Coral]

State religion is Christianity. Expanding to Asia minor is a no go, it's late enough in the game that the Ottomans have showed up and I have nowhere to go except America, which is very difficult because to simply clear the Mediterranean, I need permissions from 5 nations.

 

[Panopticon]

Have you tried using a Caravel? It can cross through any seas and oceans, even those you aren't allowed to cross due to lack of Open Borders.

 

[Coral]

Caravels can't carry settlers or military units.

 

[Virdrago]

I've teched up to Assembly Line, and with a huge technical lead, no military can threaten me in the least bit, and as such I have defense pacts and open borders with all of Europe.

If you have that, why can't you go through Spanish waters? Are the Carthaginians still around? Why don't you take them out (at least one city; whichever is stopping you from leaving the Mediterranean), and then go to America? Provoke them to attack you, and your Defensive Pacts will kick in.

 

[Panopticon]

Coral: Apologies, I misread, I thought your request applied to the circumnavigation goal of the UHV.

 

[AnotherPacifist]

Found Sparta (at the western tip of the Peloponnese). That should count as a city and you'll grow it to about 6-7 pop with the fish. The AI sometimes founds this city and it's very annoying, but it does grow without much damage to Athens if you have enough cultural space on the west side.

 

[Heav]

On Balkan there is space for 3 nice cities:

Athens
Epidamnos (one tile west from sheep in Greece)
Byzantium

So my advice is: Build 3rd city on Balkan and it will be better.
And if it isn't enough then try to expand into Greek historical areas(Asian Minor, Mesopotamia, Egypt, maybe Persia and around Black Sea).

 

[Virdrago]

I used Epidamnos to win my Greek UHV: it held back the inevitable Roman attack, and built two Wonders (including one I needed for the UHV - the Colossus, IIRC). Though my city was built farther north, near the copper.

BTW Coral, have we been any help?