subdividing an empire into "states" to combat corruption?

civ-n00b · November 11, 2001, 13:40

as we all know, corruption is a biatch here. what would happen if we had "regions" or "states" though - have a 'state capital' that reduces the corruption significantly in that region, but not to the extent that the forbidden palace or the palace itself does. this state capital would of course be triggered by reaching a number of cities (30 - 40?) and then every certain amount of cities (20 or so) you can add a new one. the corruption settings would stay the same, but these capitals could decrease it in a limited radius (20-30 tiles all round) and provide culture to that city, as well as happyness (you'd be happy if your city had the capitol, right?).

just an idea

silly typos

redstar1 · November 11, 2001, 14:02

I think theres something in this idea. What if you could build an improvement in each city like a State/County Capitol building etc. The buildings would be expensive enough for you not to have on in each city but their effect would equal that of a palace for the surrounding cities. Only applicable under republic, democracy or communism of course. I think this might be the way to go, perhaps you might even have to build the 'devolved government' wonder first.....

Dave

David Murray · November 11, 2001, 14:05

Hmm, don't you think it's just a *little* too late to be suggesting changes to the game? Maybe if we just had a patch reducing the supposedly over the top corruption levels that would be enough?

redstar1 · November 11, 2001, 14:25

I don't see any reason not to suggest changes. Its a great game (in my opinion) but I do beleive it is unfinished....

Dave

civ-n00b · November 11, 2001, 14:39

i agree with redstar. but i think this is a viable change, i've already seen ppl claiming to have added buildings and other things, i see no reason why Firaxis can't (i'm not saying they should drop everything and add it). but instead of making it overly expensive so not too mayn can be built, i think that just limiting according to the numbers of cities is better.

cerebros · November 11, 2001, 14:45

you could expand on this by each state having it's own culture... although that could get difficult if not handled properly... (different states revolting & fighting the rest of your Civ... states which have vital resources blackmailing you to give them improvements first...)

civ-n00b · November 11, 2001, 14:48

that would be hard to implement and control though =\ it would mimic real life (like in the USA, Michigan and Texas are very different). but what happens if you loose a "state"? thats too dangerous, and i know i wouldn't like to end up like the USSR did...

smellymummy · November 11, 2001, 14:49

they are going to adjust the corruption rate because too many people have complained.

out of all the fixes the next patch will do, firaxis confirmed corruption first. I sincerely hope they adjust it to a minimum though. If civ3 becomes corrupt free (or near-like) as it was in civ2, then it makes this game that much more easy.

redstar1 · November 11, 2001, 15:06

I hope they fix it soon because as it stands it makes expansion difficult if not nigh impossible on higher levels. Corruption is a vital game concept and hopefully they will make its effects slightly less while giving us something worthwhile to combat it with.

Dave

PMLF · November 11, 2001, 15:33

It's a very good idea that would bring more realism to Civ3.

Kuciwalker · November 11, 2001, 16:00

You could do it, if you figured out a way to make the Forbidden Palace a city improvement. Then just name it "State Capital" or something and make it really expensive.

civ-n00b · November 11, 2001, 16:22

maybe instead of a forbidden palace, just copy & paste the courthouse, change names & graphic models & attributes (give it palace-like ones), and there you go (of course this is just talk. i am rather useless when it comes time to doing something

)

Grifman · November 11, 2001, 17:15

Well, a very easy fix is to go into the civ3mod file and use the editor. There is a checkbox that says "Reduce corruption" for the various improvements. For example, you could say that temples and cathedrals reduce corruption (more ethical citizenry), and that barracks/police stations reduce corruption (more govt presence). That and changing the max number of cities before corruption becomes a problem (right now at 8/16/24/32 I think) would really help until the patch comes out.

Grifman

civ-n00b · November 11, 2001, 17:25

yea, i changed the city limit, added a 0 to the end of ea. so now corruption is only... ohhhh... 25% of all my earnings. Washington (capital) even has corruption!!! 133 commerce, 1 corruption. lol!

Honour_Shogun · November 11, 2001, 17:33

for the maps, does that reflect world levels, or only your own? For example, on huge, it says 32 is the maximum before corruption. But, is this for every civ combined(so with 16 civs, each city can have 2 cities before corruption?) or is it for each civ(so, with 16 civs, huge map, that means possibly, there could be 512 cities(yeah, each one is a one tile city

). Just curious. Thanks

civ-n00b · November 11, 2001, 17:43

i'm pretty sure its 32/civ ... i had well over 50 cities when i started noticing this, now i'm into the hundreds of cities in only one half of the map. my military alone is 400 gold/turn, corruption is now 1300-1400 range, but my newly conquered cities are getting their basic infrastructure (temple, library, aquaduct...) up a lot quicker now (after the "tweak").

Taylost · November 11, 2001, 17:54

Good idea, though it may be hard to implament. Maybe Firaxis will include it in an X-pack. (I assuming there will be one)

Slightly OT, if Firaxis does decide to change the corruption level, I hope they will make it modofiable. That way, if you want a real challenge, you can highten the corruption levels to "near suicidal." If you want a nice easy game to have fun and experiment with, you can set corruption levels nice and low. What would really be cool is if you could set the A.I.'s corruption to a different level than your own. This would really add a chalenge for those who feel Diety is to easy.

TitanTim · November 11, 2001, 18:03

I think it's becoming rather obvious that people don't like corruption yet it appears to be a vital part of the game. I don't think it's been given quite the notariety it deserves (like culture) in that it exists but there just isn't enough information about it not to mention there's not really much that can be done about it either.

Personally I like the state idea. There should be a state capital type of building that must be X number of squares away from the national capital and another state capital before a city can build. Make it a bit tough to build and you've got another good building.

I also like the idea of other key buildings reducing the corruption level. This would be a relatively easy way for Firaxis to fix the problem without introducing new concepts.

I also find nationalism to be a bit lacking but that's best left for another thread.

SirSebastian · November 12, 2001, 13:58

I was actually thinking along the same lines last night. I have Vatican City and Constantinople (with the Forbidden Palace) .. and that got me thinking. My corruption is fine, actually... and I like how harsh it can be =P Oh, and don't make fun of me for Vatican City... was doing trying out the "Pope" strategy.

I think Provice works better than "State" ... think of the Roman Empire splitting up into east a west. Perhaps you should be able to "spin off" a group of cities into a separate Civ? That shouldn't be too hard to code in actually.. (except for the support of so many civs). That's it.. that's how you defeat corruption =P Spin off your colonies into little civs... =) They are automatically Right of Passage / Mutual Protection, and they will always count towards your score (maybe 2/3rds of their score counts...) ... sounds good to me.