Quote Originally Posted by Slon
I don't completely understand that. By "net" you mean after reductions, so having it in the positive would be good and not bad because it means that the city is pulling its weight and more, as opposed to just slowing down the whole empire. I was under the impression that the "income" that is listed for a city is every expense that the city spends on itself, INCLUDING that city's garrison. You mean it has to do with the whole empire?
Yes, your costs are divided up among all of your cities. But it is divided based on the population that each city has. As an example (not correct numbers, but just to give the idea), if you have two cities, one with 10000 population and one with 5000 population, the one with 10000 population is paying for 2/3rds of your costs, and the one with 5000 population is paying for 1/3rds of your costs. Now say the 10000 city revolts, and you retake and use 'exterminate'. The population of that city will now be 2500. So now that city is paying 1/3rd the total costs, and the other city is paying 2/3rds.

That means if you look at the income for the city, it will appear as if it went up. But that is only because it went from paying 2/3rds of the total to 1/3rd of the total.

Bh