Can't seem to figure out how to get a culture victory?

Maybe I didn't make it clear.. I'm just wondering how you get a culture victory.. I've had 90% of the territory squares for the last 20 turns or so.. I'm guessing I have to do something more to get the victory? The manual doesn't have anything that explains it.. can someone please help me?

~SDC~

i just had the same thing happen to me. played at least 4 years with contolling way over 90% (only had 4 uncontrolled sectors in a huge map) and 12 mts on the status screen

I eventually got a popup event saying that i would dominate the galaxy in a year (or something like that) and exactly 12 months from the popup event i won the cultural victory.

This is with the 1.02 version, so apparently cultural stuff is still a little wonky

There has to be peace throughout the major races also to get the cultural victory, I.e. nobody can be at war when the countdown ends

I won a cultural victory with at least one AI race at war with a minor race.

~SDC~

I've also had the 12mts showing without actually winning in 12mts. Contrary to what has been said, it is NOT true that none of the major races can be at war to win the cultural victory. I just won on a gigantic map at normal intelligence while the Altarians and Drenigin were at war. (It may very well be true that the humans cannot be at war. I don't know, haven't tried).
In any case, I've had the 12mts show up and stay for awhile myself. I'm not sure what triggers this exactly, but eventually you get a dialog saying that you are dominating the galaxy with cultural and soon you will win. At this point the 12mts starts counting down. I've won three cultural victories so far and this has ALWAYS happened. First, I would just FEEL like I had most of the galaxy and I would check to see the 12mts under cultural victory, but the number would never change until I get the dialog.


~SDC~

Wacky.. I guess I'll just scrap that game then.. at beginner difficulty it's not much fun to play.. the other races didnt' even get more than 2 systems at a time while I had something like 8.. it was helpful for getting the hang of the game though.. just wish I could get the points for the game.. gotta have a challenge

~SDC~

Note that Culture victory is you have 90% of the *culture* not 90% of the *territory*. You can check your % by hitting the ESC key to get to the options screen. Down near the bottom is your % of each of those victory conditions. Make sure Culture is 90%+ there.

Kind of like in Civ 3. You can have a culture victory without owning tons of territory (although it certainly helps).

The problem is you have to be X number of turns into the game before a cultural victory becomes possible (so far not documented anywhere). On medium and smaller maps if you get a good start in the game, it's very easy to meet the stated requirements for the cultural victory, but because it's too early in the gamne it can't actually happen. My solution is usually to get alliances with the races who like me and kill the ones that don't and take the diplomatic victory.

--Soulfire

Perhaps there is a Minor Race (who don't show up in the usual influence areas) with enough influence to keep the victory from triggering?

This bug / misfeature / confusing item happens to me all the time in my games, and I usually go out of my way to nurture strong independant worlds...

Strange - I couldn't figure out how *not* to win via a culture victory. My first three games I won this way - although I had planned a nice little war, the enemy simply came running to me instead.

So, in the end, I turned it off (in the game configuration, at the start of a new game). Now I finally had a military victory LOL

And before you look at me as some kind of strategy-god, I played all AI on 'Beginner', except for the last one

You can't be at war with anyone if you want to claim a cultural victory -- the countdown stops while you're at war. Settle your wars and the countdown will resume. It doesn't matter what any of the other races are doing, though.