Money 'Issues' Leading to Corruption and other Negative Traits

[ReluctantSamurai]

all i know is that some cities are still prone to unrest and rebellion with ZPG simply because of far flung empires

Distance to capital does affect unrest but if a city is at ZPG with at least 80% loyalty, it will not rebel. Some cities have a hard-coded unrest % built in...like Jerusalem (30%), Patavium (30%), and several others which I can't recall off the top of my head. There are, of course, enemy spies to deal with as these can lower loyalty. You'll notice in this screenie that the "good citizens' of Scallabis aren't exactly crazy about Carthaginian rule. However, that city has been mine for a good number of years and because of ZPG, I've never had a rebellion there:

http://i990.photobucket.com/albums/a...g?t=1293806196

i swear it's the farm level that shifts it over the edge

Farms, per se, do not directly affect unrest. They contribute to a higher growth rate, of course, which raises squalor, which contributes to unrest, but if you can ZPG the city none of that matters.

isn't squalor going to be a problem if you're alot past the 24k mark?

If you have the desired ZPG, population size doesn't matter. You've essentially frozen squalor and unrest. I've had cities over 30k that were ZPG with no rebellion in the making. Here's a screenie from a Carthaginian campaign:

http://i990.photobucket.com/albums/a...jpg?1293806277

I will dig up the city info for Carthage if you'd like, but given the date, and Carthage being one of those grain-bonus areas, that the population of my capital (Carthage) is well above 24k. Thanx to ZPG I have no worries about rebellion.

would a foreign imperial HQ produce enough unrest to outweigh max farming influence on population?

When you capture a foreign city, it's best to convert as many buildings to your culture as quickly as possible to reduce the culture penalty which can be sizable in many cases. If the temple is nothing that's very useful, that's always a good place to start. Tear it down and replace it with something of your own. If you capture a town soon enough, several upgrades of the governors building will help a lot. The further from your capital, the more important law & order buildings become.

[MajorFreak]

yes..."desired ZPG" is one thing...not knowing if you'll have 75%+ happiness once it reaches the actual ZPG is another. Now my question is: have you figured out which building types affect loyalty the most, or is it the level of such a building that gives it so much culture penalty?