vGeneral Questions:
What is the latest patch version and where can I get it?
The latest patch is v1.29f. You can get it (as well as all old patches) here.
The latest patch includes all fixes in previous patches so you only need the latest patch.
On Thursday, July18, patch to version 1.291f was released 1 day early!!!!!
How do I take screenshots?
Use the capture-function of a graphics program
or
Hit the 'Prt Scrn' button on your keyboard. Then open a graphics program such as Paint (you can use the Windows key, then go to Programs --> Accessories --> Paint, this way you don't need to exit the game), then you 'paste' and there's the screenshot! Remember to reduce the image size a bit, or crop it, and save the file as .JPG.
There are also lots of screenshot programs that you can download at download.com.
What does GOTM stand for?
GOTM stands for Game of the Month. It's the most popular (casual) contest in the Civ community.
You can learn more about it here.
Is there a newsgroup for Civilization III?
Yes, the newsgroup is at alt.games.civ3. You can browse the newsgroup easily here on Google Groups, or you can use a news reader such as Outlook Express.
Where can I download Civ3 scenarios?
You can download Civ3 scenarios in the Completed Scenarios forum inside Creation & Customization.
Multiplayer Questions
Where is multiplayer?
Multiplayer will be released in Late October 2002 with the expansion pack (Civ3 XP). Check the Info Center for more info on multiplayer.
General Gameplay Questions
Read the hotkey reference in the Civilopedia or manual and read readme.txt from the civilization 3 directory to access some options that can't be accessed through menus or icons, like Railroad-to (ctrl-shift-R), upgrade all (shift-U), view clean terrain (ctrl-shift-M), etc. The Civ3 Reference section also contains some excellent reference files. Some of them are listed below:
Civilization III Complete Reference File by LoneWolf5050
Civ3 Keyboard Shortcuts Chart by Christoph Nahr
Civ3 Keyboard Shortcuts by Brandon Supernaw
IDSmoker' s Keyboard Spread by IDSmoker
What is Accelerated Production?
See Town and Production Management Questions for a detailed answer.
Doubled growth, production, and research for everyone.
(Thanx, Bamspeedy)
Why is the Ai so sucky?????
To quote ****** [forgot the nick - sorry!!!!!) My point here is, that games AI are not AI: Artificial Intelligence. They don't think, react would be a more appropriate term. They evaluate the environment (i.e. the current state of the game) and react to it. The quality of a game AI is then directly proportional to how accurate the AI model evaluate the state of the game and what decision it is supposed to make for each criteria.
What are 'culturally linked starting positions'?
It means that civs in the same game will tend to start near civs that share the same culture grouping as themselves. (I.e., the Germans start near the French, and so on)
(This is straight from Dan @ Firaxis, so you better check twice before you doubt it! Thanx Dan!)
How many units can I build off one iron resource?
Resources disappear randomly, don't hold back on building units, it won't make resources disappear faster or slower.
You can also stockpile troops and then upgrade for a traded for luxury - it is the same how much you pay for the lux since the AI doesn't take into account how many units you can upgrade....
I have the necessary tech, but the strategic resources is nowhere to be found!
Press shift+Ctrl+m to show the map without all units, towns and improvements - this will help finding the resources.
The frequency of the resources is dependent on the number of civilizations, so if you have only 1 opponent, do not be surprised if you see 90% of the map and can't find iron - it may well be that the two or three iron are all in the black 10%!
Sometimes, reloading the game helps - there seems to be a graphics / map update glitch
Sometimes, the resources are in the craziest places, e.g. all 5 coal on one 7 tile island. look hard!
You can contact the other civs via F4 and see if they have the resource to sell (even if they only have 1 it will show as e.g. Coal (0)), so - if they know the tech - you'll know where to look.
I can't build railroads. Why?
Your capital needs to have access to Coal and Iron strategic resources.
Sometimes, the map display is buggy. Often, saving and reloading helps here.
I irrigated my grassland, and it's still producing only 2 food. Is this a bug?
In a despotism, production that is 3 or more gets cut down by one point. So if you have 2 food on a square you get both of it. If you then irrigate you have 3, which gets cut down by one so in the end you have 2 food.
squares with extra food or floodplains (that never have production and cannot be mined) do not loose the bonus even in despotism
Is there a turn limit on the game, regardless of what victory conditions you chose?
Games will always stop recording score at 2050, no matter what type of game you are playing, but you can still continue playing after that.
If no one has won by the year 2050 then the winner is determined by the sum of your score at the end of each time period. So, if you ended the game with 200 points at the end of the first time period, 300 the next then 400 then 1000 you'd have a final score of 200+300+400+1000/4 = 475.
How do I view Top 5 cities, wonders of the world, etc?
The keys F7 through F12 show such things, just like in Civ2.
Corruption is way too high.
To reduce corruption don't make too many cities, the game keeps corruption lower when you have up to 8 cities on a tiny map and up to 32 cities on a huge map, other maps are in between.
Try to get your cities in We Love the Ruler mode, do this by trading for all luxuries, or increasing the luxuries rate in the domestic advisor.
Corruption is modifiable in version 1.21f of the game through the editor in new games only.
The AI always gangs up on me.
Beat the AI to alliances, and get some Mutual Protection Pacts (MPP) for yourself.
Use the Foreign Advisor screen to see which A.I.s have MPP.
How many Golden Ages can I have throughout the game?
One, and it lasts 20 turns.
Is there any way to change the year the game ends?
For this you'll need to use one of the player-created save game editors. Check the Utility Programs forum.
How do I stop the AI from building and finishing its spaceship?
The way to stop the AI from building and finishing its spaceship is by capturing its capital. In the process of capturing the capital the spaceship is destroyed and the AI has to start over. (thanx God)
How many turns from 4000 BC until 2050 AD?
540 (Thanks MuddyOne)
Detailed Years/Turn figures are available in the Info Center.
Everyone keeps telling me I can edit the rules - how does this work?
Here's a short tutorial - (thanx sumthinelse)
Let's assume you want to edit the rules in a "regular" game. There is something more complicated called a "scenario," which gives you more options but is more difficult to start on.
Before you start, make a copy of the file civ3mod.bic, name it whatever you like. This will be the file you modify.
Start the editor:
Infogrames main menu->Civ 3->Civ3edit
Load the filename you gave to the copy of civ3mod.bic. Do not change civ3mod.bic, just copies of it!!!
For example, if you want a warrior to move 100 squares, go to
Rules->Edit Rules->Units->warrior.
Then change his moves from 1 to 100. Then you have to save the file.
Then start your game. Choose "Start Scenario (since 1.21 there's no difference between a scenario and a normal game, except that for a scenario you can choose with .bic will be used). Choose the file you just edited.
There are lots of other things you can change, but you always have to change the file and save it before you start a game.
What is "preserve Random Seed"?
The game uses a random number generator to determine the outcome of battles or occurrence of culture flips. With this option on, the number will be saved in the game, so you will get the same result when you reload. if it is off, you will get different results when reloading
A more detailed explanation by sumthinelse - thanx!
The default behavior of the game is like this:
You save the game. Then your swordsman attacks a spearman and dies. You can reload the saved game 100,000 times and retry the combat, but the swordsman will always die. The reason is that the random number generated after you reload will always be the same, because it's in the saved game file.
If you turn off "remember random seed":
You can reload and retry the attack, and the random number will be recalculated. So if you retry the attack, the swordsman will win sometimes and lose sometimes. Sometimes the swordsman will win and have no damage, sometimes will have only one hit point left.
So one way of looking at it is if you want to "cheat." I can turn that option on and off using a hex editor on the saved game (not civ3edit). This is useful if I want to test if something is possible or if something happens every time. If a veteran tank unit wins twice on the same turn, it always gets promoted to elite. You can test that by turning the random seed option off and attacking 2 warriors several times
Will I loose a lot of culture if I move my Palace or a city falls?
NO! Culture you have acquired will not be lost. Only the gain from the improvements you lost will not be there.
It does matter if a city is taken though because old buildings (>1000 years) give more culture. So rebuilding them will give you slower culture growth then before.
Military and Unit-related Questions
Why do capturable units sometimes get destroyed and sometimes captured?
You can only capture units when you have the appropriate technology to build them.
Upgrading all my units is a pain in the ***!
When on of your units is selected press shift-U instead of U and all the units of the same type that can be upgraded will be upgraded.
Must be in cities with barracks, resources must be available, gold must be available.
If you are upgrading naval units, the city must have a harbor.
How do I cancel a bombardment?
Right-click on the unit that you had selected. The bombardment grid will disappear.
Is there an easy way to tell how many units are in an army? Especially when it's in a large stack?
You can easily tell how many units are in an army at a glance, even if it's not YOUR army. Just look at the flag their leader is carrying. In ancient times, the number of "dots" on the flag corresponds to the number of units in the army. In more modern times, the flag has diagonal stripes going from the corners to the center. In this case, the number of stripes indicates how many units are in the army, so that with if a player has the Pentagon and fills up an army completely, the flag will have an 'X' on it. Thanx Lucky Dragon!
How do I unload armies or change units in an army?
You can't unload, change, or upgrade units in an army once it's formed, in versions 1.07f, 1.16f, and 1.21f of the game. In version 1.17f you can unload units from an army by using the stack movement command, "J". Being able to unload units is a bug in version 1.17f.
How often do Great Leaders appear?
see sumthinelses excellent thread on Great Leader here
When your elite unit won a battle, there is 1/16 chance to become a GL. Heroic Epic changes this to 1/12.
Contrary to popular believes, having the militaristic trait only increases the promotion ratio to 1/12, not the chance for a leader.
No GL will appear from fighting Barbarians, only against another civs units.
No GL will appear from wins with an army.
You can only have a maximum of one GL at a time.
There are reported bugs of getting more than one GL at a time and getting armies from goody huts.
An elite unit that has produced a leader cannot produce another one. It can get promoted again and then produce a leader again if it is upgraded. thanx sunthinelse
Can blitz-capableunits create leaders on their 2nd attack?
Yes. They can also do that if they were just promoted in the first combat.
thanx Mike B @Firaxis
My automated workers keep changing my irrigation and mines. How do I stop that?
Press shift-A to automate them instead of A, this way they will
- won't destroy any existing improvements
- won't plant forests
- will do things like forest/jungle cutting
- will build irrigations, mines (not sure what's the decision factor but it works fairly well, as most of my major cities are around size 25-30)
- will build roads, railroads, although often without any sense(IE, they will not build railroads between cities FIRST, but rather they will build rails around one city, then around another and so on). They will build roads and rails outside your borders as well, if cities aren't connected.
- will clean pollution (it's their priority task)
- will connect any resources to existing road/railroad network as soon as they are discovered and inside your borders(that's great IMO, you don't have to bother with map scanning)
- will generally avoid contact with any enemy forces(if auto worker sees enemy unit they will turn back)
- will change mines to irrigation if that is needed to bring water to otherwise dry area!!
How exactly do you "heal" your troops?
Whenever a unit stands still for a hole Turn, he will heal. If he is in a city WITH the Barracks, he will heal completely, but if the troop is healing in the field he will heal one point. Your unit can't heal in enemy territory, without the Battlefield medicine.
How do I destroy an enemy Colony?
You just walk over it with an unit. Or build a city near the enemy colony. When the cultural radius expands over the colony, it is dispersed.
How do I upgrade a unit / Why can't I upgrade?
In order to upgrade:
- the unit must be in a city with Barracks
- you must have to required technology and resource(s)
- the town with the unit must be connected to the resource!
- you must have sufficient money
- the unit must be upgradeable (depends on the mod you might use)
What are the odds of promotions?
Odds of promotion are based on whether the civ has the Militaristic trait or not and whether the victory was against barbarians or not. Basically, chances of promotion are halved for victories over Barbarians and doubled for Militaristic civs.
non-militaristic civ vs. non-barbarians:
conscript to regular: 1 in 2
regular to veteran: 1 in 4
veteran to elite: 1 in 8
non-militaristic civ vs. barbarians:
conscript to regular: 1 in 4
regular to veteran: 1 in 8
veteran to elite: 1 in 16
militaristic civ vs. non-barbarians:
conscript to regular: 1 in 1
regular to veteran: 1 in 2
veteran to elite: 1 in 4
militaristic civ vs. barbarians:
conscript to regular: 1 in 2
regular to veteran: 1 in 4
veteran to elite: 1 in 8
If a victorious unit fails to get promoted, it will always be promoted upon surviving any other battle in the same turn . This gives an obvious advantage to defenders as well as an incentive to use the same offensive units for additional battles whenever possible.
Thanx again Mike.B@Firaxis
How many units do I need to suppress a culture flip?
the full formula (this is from Sorenson, who is responsible for this programming):
P=[(F+T)*Cc*H*(Cte/Cty) - G]/D
where:
P = probability that it will flip this turn
F = # foreigners, with resistors counting double
T = # working tiles under foreign control
Cc = 2 if foreign civ has more local culture than you, 1 otherwise
H = .5 for WLTKD, 2 for disorder, 1 otherwise
Cte = Total culture of the foreign civ
Cty = Total culture of your civ
G = # garrison units
D = factor based on relative distance to capitals
Now reorganizing this gives the required garrison as:
G = (F+T)*Cc*H*(Cte/Cty)
As you can see there is a nice set of extra factors there. Now when you take a city Cc is likely to be 2 for a long while. And then there is the culture ratio. And this is a true ratio so it could be 1.1:1, 2:1, 5:1 depending on how much culture each of you has
The national culture factor is probably the reason why some seem to have no problem with culture flips and others do. Since if you have strong national culture, this value might be approaching 1/2, which can keep the garrison down at a 1:1 ratio. However, if conversely the AI civ in question has double your culture, you are going to need 4 units for every foreigner and tile to prevent a flip.
Thank you, etj4Eagle !!!
Town & Production Management Questions
Why doesn't my city grow past size 6 or 12?
Cities either need access to a river or need an aqueduct (needs Construction) to grow beyond size 6. To grow beyond size 12 you need to invent Sanitation and build hospitals.
How do I disband a city?
There are two ways. The NEW way: Right click on a city and choose "Abandon City" from the menu (requires patch v1.21 or higher).
The OLD way: Starve the city (by changing the citizens into entertainers) and keep producing workers or settlers.
What do the numbers and icons by my cities mean?
The large number on the left shows the size of the city (red if the city is decreasing in size, yellow if it stays the same, white if it's growing
The top number indicates how many turns are left before the city will grow.
The bottom number indicates how many turns are left before the current building or unit is built.
An anchor indicates there is a harbor in the city.
An airplane indicates there is an an airport in the city.
Black smoke means the city is in disorder.
Fireworks mean the city has a We Love The [ruler] Day.
How do I get out of Mobilization economy?
End a war to get out of it (any one will do), if you enabled it during peace time you will have to start a war to get out of it.
Why can't I build my wonder?
You might be building it in another city already. You can only build one of the same wonder at a time.
You rush-built your current building and you're trying to switch. To force people to build a wonder completely you can't do any type of rush-building, not paying for it, not clearing forests, not disbanding units, not even if you rush something and then try to switch.
You don't have the required items yet, some wonders like SDI Defense require 5 Sam Sites in your cities.
The Wonder might require access to fresh water (small lake or river) or sea water (costal squares) to be built.
How do I use the queue?
Shift-Click - Add to production queue.
Shift-Q - Save production queue as default.
Q - Load production queue with default.
Shift-Del - Removes all items from the queue.
Click-Del - Removes the item clicked.
How do I turn off the city governors?
Rightclick on your city and select contact governor to change options.
Careful, they sometimes are buggy - perhaps you have to reload the game for the changes to come into effect!
Can I rush the production of a Wonder with an Army?
No, only with a Leader, which is the unit you build armies with.
After I build a Solar Plant I notice no difference in Production.
That's because you have another Power Plant that already produces 50% production. The positive thing with Solar Plant is that it doesn't produce any Pollution.
What does the small anchor just above the size-number and left of the city-name mean???
It means the town has a harbor in it. This is displayed that way so you can also see it for foreign cities, since harbor play an important role in trade.
Does the city being filled with foreign citizens increase corruption? Should I try to water down the gene pool with my citizens?
Cities with foreigners are more prone to corruption, but mainly because they generally are not as happy as cities with only your population. This is especially true if you are at war with their motherland.
The gene pool automatically gets watered down through time, you can speed it up by adding settlers or workers to a city (if you use workers, make sure that they are ones you made, not captured ones...captured workers will add a population point of their original nationality). Over time, you will assimilate the foreigners into your population.
How do I keep the city from changing production to obsolete units when something is completed?
Use the 'Always start last built unit' option from the preferences menu. If you didn't build a unit before, you'll have to live with it.
Also, use the production queue (see above).
A nice way to quickly check all cities and change their production if you don't like it is pressing 'z' to zoom out, then Shift-rightclick the city you want to change. A production list will pop up. This is way faster than using the normal F1 city list, but be careful not to miss one!
My cities keep flipping to the AI - what can I do?
Build more cultural buildings (Temples, Libraries etc.
Keep more (a lot!!!) troops in the cities
What is Accelerated Production?
What it does is double growth, production, and research for everyone. For example, at the start you only need 10 food to get another population point instead of 20, and only 5 shields to build a warrior instead of 10. This speeds up the game tremendously. However, it is a little off-balance since worker speed and unit movements are still the same. So even if you are industrious, your population grows alot faster than your workers can keep up with the terrain improvements.
With accelerated production, if you play at chieftain, then the AI will be building/growing at the normal human's pace (without accelerated production, or what your used to playing in previous patches), but the human would be building/growing at a pace higher than Deity. Thanx, Bamspeedy (and thanx to TF for pointing this out to me)
Strategy Questions
Please check the War Academy and the Strategy Forum; here I will collect the most frequently asked Questions only!!!!!
I am pathetic - what do I have to do to win?
Expand, expand, expand!
Trade, trade, trade
Be sure not to throw money out the window by researching expensive techs
Be trustworthy (keep your deals) - makes trading alot better.
What can I do about corruption and waste? It is ridiculously high!
See here for an excellent explanation of how it works and what you can do: corruption thread. thanx for the analysis, alexman
The AI keeps attacking because I have a weak military - but they only have outdated units!
The AI counts workers as units, too, and will go for sheer numbers. the only thing you can do is try to keep up in numbers.
Surprisingly, some 'cheap' units proved very effective in combat if used correctly, e.g. longbowmen. Start thinking of hoards of longbowmen + Musketmen instead of the expensive Knights!
Diplomacy and Trade Questions
How to establish embassies?
Double click the star next to your own capital to establish embassies.
How do I access the advanced espionage missions?
Click the pentagon next to the city you built the Intelligence Agency in. Once you have planted a spy use the Pentagon icon near the enemy city you infiltrated to execute missions.
or
Once you have a spy you can press the e button on the right of the lower right hand box (where the active unit is viewed) and then select the civ you want to execute the mission in. (thanx, graeme the mad!)
How do I change/stop trades after 20 turns?
In the trading dialog click "Active" at the bottom of the screen to view active trades. If a trade is preceded by a number that means how many turns are still left. Press "New" to return to new trades.
ROPs, MPPs, embargoes and alliances a sort of trade cancelled the same way!!!!!!!!!
How do I see diplo-relation between several other civs?
Hold down the shift key and click them all
How do I view the other 8 civs on the foreign advisor screen in a 16 player game?
Shift-rightclick on a portrait to change it to another civ. There still is a maximum of 8 portraits at any time
The AI always gangs up on me.
Beat the AI to alliances, and get some Mutual Protection Pacts (MPP) for yourself.
Use the Foreign Advisor screen to see which A.I.s have MPP.
The AI can smell blood in the water - i.e. they think: Oh, he's at war with many so if I go in I can beat him easily!' Try to avoid that, getting allies will keep third parties out of the war, too, by deterring them!
What does the yellow dot next to a leader mean in the foreign advisor screen?
It means you have an embassy with that civ.
Why is the AI so reluctant to trade luxuries, even if I offer three for one?
The AI values trades with the human based on the ratio set in the editor for the level. Supposedly, Regent is equal, but that isn't true: here, the level is set at 130%. So, to the AI an AI offer is worth 130% of the same thing offered by a human.
The AI values luxuries according to the number of happy faces they generate. Thus, with marketplaces or more towns, a luxury is worth a lot more. Also, with Marketplaces, the more Luxuries you already have, the bigger your bonus. E.g.: you already have 7 lux, the AI has 1. An additional Lux for you is 4 happy faces per city with a Marketplace, for the AI it is worth only 1. Thus, the AI will ask for 4:1 if you have the same number of cities.
The AI 'knows' if you can use the additional Luxury. If you have lots of cities in WLTKD at size 12 and Hospitals are more than 20 turns away, the AI will be more agreeable to Luxury trades since the additional Luxuries will help you less than when you have riot everywhere. This can be used to buy 'useless' Luxuries and then just keep the trade going (which is easy since the AI will be in a better mood towards you because of the existing trade)
Thanx TheNiceOne for detailing this
How do I call a UN vote?
Not. There will be a vote (unless you decide not to have one) when you build the UN, then you will be asked again after a certain number of turns (20 I think).
Technical Questions
See also the Civ3 Technical Support Forum - This is not the thread to ask tech support questions....please follow this link to ask new questions. Thank you!
Miscellaneous game-doesn't-start-problems.
Unload all programs running in the background by rightclicking and closing all the icons near the clock and use ctrl-alt-del to stop other unused programs.
Update mother board, video card and/or sound card drivers.
I get a divide by zero error in the game.
If you have over 255 fonts this can occur, reduce your fonts to less than 255.
The text in the game is exceptionally large and doesn't fit in dialog boxes.
Try removing the Lucida Sans font from your windows\fonts directory.
The screen goes black or says Out of sync after the intro video.
This is caused because you don't have the right driver installed for your monitor, find it and install it. If you're unable to do this you can find more difficult solutions on the problems forum.
Scrolling is terribly slow and I'm using a NVidia video card and Windows 2000 or XP.
Either change your driver to the windows default one
or
put hardware acceleration down to one notch from the lowest in the windows advanced display properties, however this will cause the next problem mentioned.
The screen goes black after the splash screen and doesn't do anything anymore.
The intro video can't be played. Delete or rename the movie files, they are in your Civ3 directory below Art\Movies\
The splash screen shows and the game stops or gives an error in ~DF394B.TMP
This is an error in the copy protection, try running the game with a different cdrom drive or remove the Safedisc copyprotection (this is illegal in USA and some other countries though). Contact Infogrames through their technical support and they can give you a legal copy of the .exe file without the Safedisc protect if you prove that you purchased the game.
My foreign advisor shows too few enemy faces.
In your previous game you played with less enemies, a possible solution seems to be to delete the savegames from your previous game.
If you play with more than 7 enemies you have to shift-rightclick on faces to change to one of the others.
I tried changing the resolution as written in the readme.txt, but it doesn't work?
You can put the line "KeepRes=1" in the Civilization3.ini file. and then change your desktop resolution.
Science and Science-related questions
Does research get cheaper the more Civs know the tech in questions already?
Research cost is highly influenced by the number of contacted civilizations who already have researched or otherwise obtained (not: are researching!!!) the technology.
has been changed as of 1.29 -thanx for the update, mydisease!
Research cost = (MM * COST * DM*(K - N) / 100K) - Research done so far
Research cost and research done so far (beakers) in gold
COST is the cost specified in the editor.
MM = map modifiers =
Tiny 160
Small 200
Standard 240
Large 320
Huge 400
N = number of civs on the diplomacy screen that have discovered the tech. The number of civs is the number left. You know what this means, if you want cheap tech, kill, kill, kill!
K is constant for any given number of civs on a map. Values of K so far :
2 civs K=3
3 civs K=4
4 civs K=6
5 civs K=6.66
6 civs K=9
7 civs K=10
8 civs K=12
9 civs K=12.5
10 civs K=15
11 civs K=16
12 civs K=18
13 civs K=19
14 civs K=21
15 civs K=22
16 civs K=24
thanx, Shabbaman and (especially) mydisease
People talk about using Scouts for science- what do they mean?
If you are playing an expansionist civilization, you can enter goody huts at no risk of getting barbarians out of it, and with a high chance of finding technologies in them. So on large maps, you can simply crank out a few Scouts, send them on auto-explore (press 'e') and set research to zero. That way, you can easily accumulate enough money and get many of the ancient techs to be the absolute leader in tech and in culture once you get Monarchy or Republic - simply buy lots of Temples and Libraries with the money you earned! Or use it for military upgrades
Acronyms
Here's an alphabetical list of common abbreviations:
ADM or ADM values - Attack, Defence, Movement values of units
Bach - J. S. Bachs cathedral
CF - Culture Flipping - when a city changes allegience due to cultural superiority
FP - Forbidden Palace
GL - Great Leader
TGL - The Great Library
IW - Iron Works small Wonder
TOE- Theory of Evolution Wonder
US - Universal Suffrage
WLTKD or WLT D - 'We love the King'-Day celebration
WTF - What the F***
For a more complete list, check out this document.
Corruption FAQ by alexman
What is corruption?
You came to the right place! Corruption is the loss of useable commerce in your cities. Commerce lost to corruption shows up in red instead of yellow in the city display.
What is waste?
Waste is like corruption but for production instead of commerce. Shields lost to waste show up in red instead of blue in the city display. Everything in this FAQ that applies to corruption, also applies to waste.
What are the components of corruption?
There are two components of corruption. Distance corruption (DC) and corruption due to number of cities (CC). Each of these components is affected by several additional factors.
What are the factors that affect corruption in a city?
All the factors, big and small, are listed below. DC means that the factor affects distance corruption. CC means that it affect corruption due to number of cities:
Distance from Palace or Forbidden Palace. Does not apply to Communism. (DC)
Number of cities that are closer to the Palace or Forbidden Palace than this city. Does not apply to communism. (CC)
Total number of cities. Applies to Communism only. (CC)
Map size. (DC)
The “optimal” number of cities, for this map size. (CC)
Difficulty level. (CC)
Whether or not the city is connected (by road, port, or airport) to the capital. (DC, CC)
Current government. (DC)
Courthouses and police stations. (DC, CC)
We Love the “_____” Day celebration. Reduces waste only. (DC, CC)
The commercial civilization trait. (CC)
The Forbidden Palace. (DC, CC)
What is the optimal city number (OCN)? What happens if I exceed it?
The OCN is what chiefly determines your corruption due to number of cities. It's not a hard limit. You can have many more cities than the OCN, and still have a productive empire. What matters more is the modified OCN. That is not a hard limit either, but the penalty for adding an extra city after you have already exceeded the modified OCN is twice what it would have been if you were below the modified OCN.
What are the OCN modifiers?
Courthouses and Police Stations each increase the OCN by 25%. WLTK celebrations increase the OCN by another 25%, but only for waste calculations. The commercial trait increases the OCN by another 25%. For Communism the Forbidden Palace increases the OCN by 100%.
What exactly does the Forbidden Palace (FP) do?
It depends on your government. If you are in Communism, the FP doubles the OCN and does nothing else. If you are not in Communism, then distance corruption depends on the distance from the Capital or FP, whichever is closer. The FP also lowers corruption due to number of cities for non-Communist empires, because it provides a whole new set of cities where the rank in closeness starts from 1.
Where should I place my FP?
For Communism, wherever you like. For other governments, place it as far as possible from the Palace to get minimum number of cities corruption, but still surrounded by a bunch cities to lower distance corruption. If you have your FP too close to your Palace, you will have a bunch of cities that are closer to both the Palace and the FP than some other cities farther away. These overlap cities count against the OCN of both the Palace and the FP, which is bad. Basically, the more overlap cities you have, the less cities you can have in your empire before hitting the OCN penalty.
How do politics affect corruption?
Your choice of government affects distance corruption. Distance for Monarchy and Republic corruption calculations is two thirds what it is for Despotism. Distance for Democracy corruption calculations is two thirds what it is for Republic (or 4/9 what it is for Despotism). Communism is completely different. You get a flat 30% corruption no matter what the distance. All non-Communist governments have the same corruption due to number of cities. You count all the cities that are closer to the Palace or FP than the current one and compare that number to the OCN. For Communism you count all your cities against the OCN, not just the closer ones. Fortunately, the FP doubles the OCN for Communism.
Does building a new city affect corruption in existing cities?
Yes, unless the new city is farther away from the Palace or FP than all existing cities, and you are not in Communism. In non-Communist empires, the new city affects corruption in all cities that are farther away, but not in the cities that are closer to the FP or Palace. In Communism the new city affects all cities.
Is there such as thing as a totally corrupt city?
No city can exceed 95% total corruption (rounded down), no matter how many cities you have, and no matter how far it is from the capital.
What exactly do courthouses do?
Courthouses affect both distance corruption and corruption due to number of cities. They cut distance corruption in half, and increase the OCN for their city by 25%.
What exactly do police stations do?
Their effect on corruption is exactly the same as that of courthouses. So a city with both improvements would have 25% the distance corruption and a 50% increase in OCN. Of course police stations also decrease war weariness.
What exactly does the Commercial trait do?
The commercial trait increases the OCN by 25%. It also gives bonus center-tile commerce, but this is not a corruption effect.
What exactly does the “We Love the..” celebration do?
Besides the fireworks animation, you mean? The WLTK celebration acts just like a courthouse, but only for waste calculations.
Does map size affect corruption?
Yes, big time. It has a direct effect on distance corruption and an indirect effect on corruption due to number of cities. Distance corruption is inversely proportional to the map size (average of height and width). Map size also determines the OCN, which greatly affects corruption due to number of cities.
Does difficulty level affect corruption?
Yes. The OCN gets multiplied by a factor that depends on difficulty level. 100% for Chieftain, 95% for Warlord, 90% for Regent, 85% for Monarch, 80% for Emperor, 70% for Deity.
Do libraries and banks reduce corruption?
No. These improvements increase base income by 50%, after corruption is deducted. The same applies to factories and waste.
Do temples and marketplaces reduce corruption?
They can indirectly reduce waste, but only if you have enough happiness to get a WLTK celebration.
Do I really need to build that road?
I don’t know, but if a city is connected to your Capital by road, harbor, or airport, it gets 15% less total corruption.