Corruption and its causes.

**TonyJ** · 02-06-2005, 17:15

Apologies if this has been asked and addressed elsewhere.

I have noticed many of my settlements losing money due to varying amounts of corruption.

Now I assume that this is caused by some bad trait by a goverener, but is there any other cause and if so is there a solution. In a couple of my settlements, this is so bad a problem that is making the difference between a loss and a profit.

Does anyone know if there is a comprehensive list of traits / vices and virtues anywhere ?

Many thanks

**professorspatula** · 02-06-2005, 17:26

The further away your settlement is from the capital, the more corruption there is as far as I can see, it's not all down to the governors. Look at your your distant frontier settlements and compare the corruption to the capital and the settlements next to the capital. Any buildings and traits that give law bonuses cut down on corruption.

**TonyJ** · 02-06-2005, 17:32

Yeah I looked at that but it doesn't seem to make any sense - there is massive corruption in some settlements really close to home.

My faction leader doesn't have any bad traits - does his location matter ?

Is there a necessary 'ship link' thingy needed like in MTW cos one of the provinces with a problem is an island ?

**master of the puppets** · 02-06-2005, 17:48

i dunno cause all my patron gods are usually the law bonus ones but take your govs out of the towns see if it improves. if not get all soldiers out of cities let them rebel and recapture them, thats what i do when my finances are gettin low. lightning raids.
people die=less army upkeep,
looting towns=more money,
ousting corruption=less deduction,
taste of freedom=less rebeliosness

note these are only suggestions for an extremest drop in finance

**Vlad Tzepes** · 02-06-2005, 18:37

The funniest thing is that some money are lost due to corruption and some are earned. That leads me to the assumption that the local governors keep the biggest part for themselves but do send their bakshish to the faction leader - who is impersonated by you yourself, the gamer who controls everything in your empire. So, everybody is corrupt in this game, starting with the gamer - what a big happy corrupt family

**therother** · 02-06-2005, 20:09

Have a look at this thread.

**TonyJ** · 02-06-2005, 20:13

Aaahhh superb: many thanks

**Simetrical** · 02-06-2005, 21:28

therother already posted his research thread, but let me summarize its findings for those who don't feel like reading the whole thing.

Corruption is caused by distance to capital. If a city is under 15.88 squares from your capital, it will have zero corruption. Over that figure, corruption eats up a percentage of your city's gross income (trade plus farming plus taxes plus mining, but possibly not admin bonuses), which increases linearly until it peaks out at 65% at around 100 squares from your capital.

The only way to counter corruption (other than moving your capital) is law. Each point (5%) of law reduces corruption by an amount equal to 3% of the city's gross income. Note that this means law bonuses are no more useful at the edges of your empire than at its heart, provided they don't reduce corruption to zero—they reduce corruption in proportion to gross income, so they don't reduce severe corruption more than minor corruption.

Note that corruption never earns you money. The corruption heading on your financial summary is actually entitled "Corruption and Other"—the "other" includes things like loot from conquering cities.

A complete list of vices and virtues can be found in Rome - Total War\data\descr_character_traits.txt.

-Simetrical

**therother** · 02-09-2005, 01:42

Thanks Simetrical, looks like a good summary of the thread. I'm afraid I didn't have time to do one myself.

One question though - where do you get the 15.88 figure? The reason I ask is that I don't think it's actually possible to be 15.88 tiles away. 15.81 would be the closest, e.g. (15,5) or (13,9). The next possible distance after that is 16, i.e. (16,0) or (0,16). Just curious.

**Quillan** · 02-09-2005, 03:53

He might have meant 15.8 and hit the key twice. I've done that sort of thing many times.

**Simetrical** · 02-10-2005, 04:22

I got it through applying algebra to your data. I'm sure I don't have to explain the exact steps to you—I started with y = ax + b (where y is the corruption percentage, b is the "grace distance," and x is the distance minus grace distance), plugged in data, and solved for b. (Actually, I was only doing proportions, so the coefficient a cancelled out.) I may have been excessively precise, but the number did seem to be a very precise fit.

For example, let's take the ratio of corruption at 20 squares to corruption at 40 squares. You give the former as 0.0333958 and the latter as 0.195592, so the ratio is about 0.1707. Since we're talking about a line, this ratio should be exactly the same as (20 – b) / (40 – b). If we use 15.88, we get a ratio of 4.12 / 24.12, or about 0.1708. Repeat with the ratios of 60 squares to 35 squares, which should be 0.357788 / 0.155043, or 2.308. The ratio should be 44.12 / 19.12, which equals 2.308. It's pretty strange, but there you have it.

-Simetrical

**therother** · 02-10-2005, 04:30

Ah, I had thought it might be something like this. You raise a good point - the grace distance could well be 15.81 - I've never actually got round to modding the campaign map to find exactly where it is. Perhaps when I have more time.

PS I've sent you a couple of PMs over the last few days about your suggestion for the Ludus Magna forum. The board had a bit of difficulty during that time, and I'm wondering if you got them?

**SpencerH** · 02-10-2005, 15:27

I wonder if corruption has been increased in 1.2. Playing as Carthage I have 50% corruption in my Iberian city (I forget the name). I've had this city since day one (so no culture penalty), I've built a number of happiness/law buildings (I havent had time to build every single one yet), and the pop is around 10-15K. The instant I moved some of the garrison out to deal with the pesky spanish, the city rebelled. Of course I re conquered it and exterminated.

I know I'm not the only one who thinks this is ridiculous. Squalor had been reduced but corruption may have taken its place.

On a side note I just conquered a spanish city and exterminated (of course). I destroyed every spanish building to reduce culture penalty but the inhabitants were still uncontrollable without maintaining more troops than population (including a good governor).