Suggestions for making Culture Bombs not such a cakewalk

from Stardock Forums
Currently, the AI only objects to bombs in sectors where it has colonies, and it's only available response is to demand a handover... it seems completely oblivious to bombs in adjacent sectors. Also, it doesn't seem to mind at all as it watches its planets flipping one after the other.

I think perhaps the game needs some tweaks to help the AI (and the player, if the AI ever gets it into its head to try the same tactic)...

Firstly, I think there should be a minimum of at least 4 turns before a planet flips, regardless of culture. This will give the victim time to respond either with force, infrastructure or diplomacy.

Secondly, the AI needs a 'please dismantle' request it could use (especially if it's not feeling very pugnacious). Personally, I have *never* given in to a 'hand it over' request, but would dismantle a bomb to forestall war (or victory :) ) If the player 'accepted' a dismantle request, the game should automagically nuke the base in question (to prevent bait and switch).

Thirdly, I think perhaps the relationship rating should decrease by a small amount for every planet lost to a culture flip (to represent increasingly nationalistic tendancies in the remnant), and perhaps even by a teeny amount in the victim's allies ("they may be rolling over like tame xeno-puppies, but *we* know what you're up to!"). I don't think this one is vital, but it would force to player to be a bit more subtle.

I realise that it's important *not* to force a player to go to war when they're attempting a culture victory, but right now it seems like a bit of a sucker-punch.

~SDC~
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Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
I agree with the diplomacy part, I know that when -my- civ is being eaten up with someone's culture that I consider it an aggressive act, and that from my viewpoint our relationship is deteriorating (e.g. I'll start helping their enemies, and looking in general to gimp them).

What I've found happens is that the human player (usually the AIs aren't nearly as good at this) can amass so much +influence stuff (wonders and especially resources) that the AI planets flip faster than you can snap your fingers. I don't want to see culture flipping nerfed out of the game, but I do feel somewhat guilty when I flip 10 sectors worth of planets in 5 game turns.

Perhaps there should be a cap on just how effective culture influence can be? It would still pay for you to have extra +influence in case they built +resistance structures (your surplus influence from before would still keep you at the cap instead of you dropping below it), the main effect of it would be to lessen the overall speed of flipping to give the AI time to build such structures, or just time to respond in -some- way. In many games that I win by culture flipping the conversion happens so fast that the AIs never get a chance to do a thing about it.
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
Don't like culture bombs? Don't use them. Simple.
Star Control: Origins
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
But I *do* like culture bombs... I just feel a so *dirty* when I use them :)

Besides which, sooner or later the AI is going to be given enough smarts to use them itself. Currently, if the AI decides to gun for a culture victory, it seems content to go for a galaxy-wide push, rather than use it's boosted influence aggressively. Imagine how *you'd* feel if your major trading partner (or ally!) plopped a fully-loaded culture SB right next to one of your sectors.

I don't think there's anything fundamentally broken, I'd just like the mechanics to be a little more smoothed out. Right now, they don't feel very realistic.

~SDC~
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
Maybe it should be considered an act of war to build a SB in an enemy sector? Now how far we take enemy sector... I'd say go with influance, whomever has the most owns the sector, thats how it already works now anyway. So if you want to build your SBs out in the middle of nowhere you better be ready for it to be considered an act of war on whomever does control the sector. We can put in a threshold though for the influance though, or call the sectors contested if there isn't enough total influance in the sector.

This would force the culture player to either play very agressivly and defend his new SBs with fleets, or force them to expand their culture outward in a more direct fasion (I suppose 1.03 does this to some extent, though I've not had the chance to really play with it).

I dunno, just more food for thought :)
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
Cataleptic: Culture bombing still works for you in 1.03? I haven't had one work since I upgraded. Then again, my playing style has changed and I'm playing on higher levels now, so that may be why it doesn't come as easy.
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
It's worked quite well in my last two games... both 1.03/Genius. I do rush-build as many of the culture-boosting wonders as I can, and my build-order is dramatically different.

In my last game, I was planning on an alliance victory but about halfway through the game I had found and tagged so many influence resources, the little voice in my head become irresistable... I think I had about +450% influence by the time my plans came to fruition :)

I'm rapidly becoming convinced that the primary deciding factor in how you intend to win the game is your resources.

~SDC~
Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top
All too true. I had one game were I started with 6 military resources, and was up to 9 (every one on the map) and closing in on the last remaining AI when I got the tech victory. I almost never have anything remotely resembling a military victory, I just don't have it in me.

That may be it, I've never pushed the culture-enhancing social projects because they weren't needed before.
Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top
Military resources make -any- victory easier: the military way is obvious, the research way is easier because you need fewer defensive ships for the same military value so you have more to pump into research, the culture is easier because you can take key planets inside the clusters of the enemy AIs and go for peace (which they accept because of your military dominance) and then flip the entire cluster.

If I get three or more influence resources, or three or more research, then I know right off what kind of victory I'll be shooting for, as your dominance in that particular area is almost assured. Military doesn't push me one way or the other, since on gigantic it's not real practical to win by pure military (at least, not very fun IMO, takes too long).
Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top
"Maybe it should be considered an act of war to build a SB in an enemy sector?"

No, no, a most emphatic NO! :)
An SB in a sector not owned by you is not necessarily for aggressive purposes - the most obvious of which is to build Trade enhancing modules to increase revenue.
There's also a UP resolution that makes all starbase modules be effective for allies as well as the owning civilization. Whilst an ally isn't an enemy, if you built the starbase prior to an Alliance request, you'd then be screwed out of the Alliance option since the starbase would've been "an act of war"! :)

~SDC~
Reply #10 from Stardock Forums Top
I would support the proposal to call in the culturemonger's ambassador to inform that diplomatic relations have been officially degraded.

I'm a culture bomber for the fact that it is still (after nerfing) far more efficient to clean up a gigantic map culturally then militarily. However, I could always back my cultural dominance with military prowess so diplomatic hostility wouldn't really hinder me much. It is probably arguable that if you are already dominating both militarily and culturally you are going to win anyway.

But it would give pause to those who have just managed to accumulate a number of cultural resources.
Reply #11 from Stardock Forums Top
I tried a culture bomb for the first time recently, but failed miserably...

First I constructed a Party Palace SB in the sector, and colonized a planet there. Then I bought SE, HI, and Terraforming, and then bought all the culture resist improvments available. But as I was building up the colony, it flipped over to the other side, so my culture bomb was absorbed by the enemy...

Any advice?
Reply #12 from Stardock Forums Top
I don't think you could pull off a trick like that anymore without having at least a couple of fully exploited influence resources plus the usual gadgets like the Restaurant That Isn't At The End Of The Universe, The Book That Isn't The Hitchhiker's Guide and the Binford Distributor 9000.

Cultural Domination no longer seems to be what happens when you're making other plans.

~SDC~
Reply #13 from Stardock Forums Top
You would also need to gauge the target's own influence. It's tough if they also have influence SBs and wonders. Try to take out those SBs first.

Go for better culturebomb-assist planets where possible (class 13/14). Truck over a bunch of pop to help with influence, u have no time for them to reproduce. Then go for cultural improvements.
Reply #14 from Stardock Forums Top
ahh, i didn't think of that... high pop... i think i only brought over like 100 mil just like i do with all my other colonies... oops...