I've had Rome: Total War for well over a year now and still I have never played with a faction fully and past probably 220 B.C. Because for some strange reason, I called the event during around 220 B.C. mass "we don't like you!”
Around the time the majority of my most developed city’s happiness would slowly starting dropping steadily. Every turn it would get more and more extreme until my tax rate had to be low. Once it was at low and still public order would drop below 80%, my cities would start rebelling. I never figured out what the reason was until recently.
Squalor.
I never knew about the "settlement details" button that can show you the many details of the settlement including the things which negatively affect public order. I just played with Carthage until my capital rebelled due to extreme squalor. I believe I had about 20 of the "mini-icons" of squalor in the settlement details which were all at 100%. Logically I thought "Oh so this was the problem! I'll just put more emphasis on sewers and public baths and it shall all go away!” Yet, squalor dropped very little. I also had the most recent "political building" such as Royal Palace or Councilor’s Chambers, yet it did little.
The R: TW veterans in the GameSpy lobby say it is most likely due to a constant and rapid population growth in a short amount of time which is causing the extreme squalor. I read Frogbeast's R: TW guide on the game and read the entire squalor section, although it didn't help much. All it mainly said was to build sanitary-positive buildings such as baths and sewers to combat squalor, and when squalor gets way too out of hand I could try moving my entire army out of the city causing instant rioting and revolt in which I could then fight the city and cut the population down enough to "calm down" squalor. I could also try deliberately infecting the city with the plague by a spy which could be a "calmer" way to combat squalor, although I hope I this isn't the only way to deal with my squalor problem.
So with that said, what can I do? I had the best sanitation building for Carthage at that time which was public baths, and it only reduces squalor by a small amount. I also had the top political building. If indeed my squalor problem is resulting in a steady fast population growth in a small amount of time which I think it is, is there any way to "exterminate" the population, or basically just, what can I do? Remember I also had very high tax rate in the city which resulted in the lowest possible population growth rate.
I really want to start a new campaign with Greece now or possibly even Julii, but what’s the point if I'm going to have the faction-wide mass squalor problem around the same time when my faction begins to develop itself. Therefore, I turn to the R: TW community for help.
P.S - On a completely different subject, when can you declare war on the other two Roman factions and the Senate when you're a Roman faction?
P.S 2 - This forum has the worst "in-between posts" time limit I've seen ever in my life of any other forum. 600 seconds is way too extreme.
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