How does culture work?

from Sins Forums

I played yesterday for Advent Loyalists again and this time tried to go heavy with their cultural upgrades, which probably for the first time gave me more of understanding, what is so special and unique about the whole faction. Was totally unaware of things, which give you the map of cultural "strength" across the system, or the fact, i can see enemy grav-well under influence of my own culture for example. 

Anyway i found out, i actually know pretty little about the nuances, how the culture works in detail... i mean, i know, you need to build those broadcast centers ( temples of communion), and it starts spreading from them, or that it targets planets allegiance, or that it affects various things like income rates or weapons damage... but as i used to play almost exclusively as Vasari, i built them only if i had to as a reaction to what enemy does, i mean i was rather reactive than proactive with culture....

so i have 2 questions...

1. Advent are supposed to be the main "culture" faction, what does that exactly mean? Is their culture actually stronger, always pushing the TEC/Vasari one, or its more about having the cultural upgrades/buildings sooner and cheaper? If i play for Vasari, max my culture research and build same number of those media hubs as the Advent Player (with maxed culture himself) on the adjacent planet, will it be a cultural "tie" or will his culture steamroll mine anyway, as its stronger by definition?

2. Should i build the communion temples at my border worlds primarily? I mean, because the culture rates get weaker with the number of jumps, its best to build them closest to the enemy, right?  

 

23,399 views 7 replies
Reply #1 from Sins Forums Top

Every factions have certain advantages in their own culture. Those split into two categories: economy boosts and combat enhancements. The economy boost is the same for every faction, although the Advent can additionally boost this by using their starbase or researching special techs in the diplomacy research.The combat boosts are upnique for every faction, the TEC for example regenerate Antimatter faster in their own culture. The Advent gain more advantages in their own culture then the other factions do.

Also their culture is stronger than other culture. If one TEC culture center was on your planet and one Advent culture center was on the planet next to it the TEC culture would always be pushed back and your planet would gain negative allegiance rates. Of course this can change if the TEC player researches more culture upgrades than the Advent player does, but since the Advent culutre research has so many sub-steps it is unlikely to happen unless the Advent player is sleeping.

Yes, it is better to place the culture centers at the frontlines. However you should always have one or two of them in the back. If the enemy manages to destroy your frontal structures your culture will be removed from the map until you rebuild, taking away all it's boni and making you vulnerable.

If you want to push your culture into enemy territory in order to gain your own combat boni on their planet you might want to try building the culture center upgrade on your starbase. The culture spreading from there is as powerful as multiple regular culture centrs and it is also possible to spread it from neutral wells.

Reply #2 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting mcintire, reply 1
Every factions have certain advantages in their own culture. Those split into two categories: economy boosts and combat enhancements. The economy boost is the same for every faction, although the Advent can additionally boost this by using their starbase or researching special techs in the diplomacy research.The combat boosts are upnique for every faction, the TEC for example regenerate Antimatter faster in their own culture. The Advent gain more advantages in their own culture then the other factions do.

Also their culture is stronger than other culture. If one TEC culture center was on your planet and one Advent culture center was on the planet next to it the TEC culture would always be pushed back and your planet would gain negative allegiance rates. Of course this can change if the TEC player researches more culture upgrades than the Advent player does, but since the Advent culutre research has so many sub-steps it is unlikely to happen unless the Advent player is sleeping.

 

But what if both players maxed their culture research? Does still Advent have an upper hand? 

Thanks for the answer btw.

 

 

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Reply #3 from Sins Forums Top

Depends: if both players are Advent they are pitted into a stalemate (that can be broken by placing a capship in your gravity well). If the other player is a TEC or Vasari the Advent culture wins under the conditions I mentioned. The Advent have one more stage of culture research than the TEC and Vasari have, and more additional researches now with Rebellion boosting culture even more.

Reply #4 from Sins Forums Top

Culture is divided by the number of phase lanes connected to a planet. So if a planet is generating 30 cultures and has 3 phase lanes, each lane is pushing 10 culture per second. The time it takes for the culture to reach between a lane depends on the length of the lane and if an opponent is resisting culture (Via Tech upgrades / Capital Ships / Star Base / Their own Culture). It should also be mentioned that culture down a phase lane is cut in half for each planet it passes through. As long as 1 culture per second is going down a phase lane an enemy planet will start to lose allegiance. Culture can also pass between stars, this is a very lengthy process and takes quite a bit of excess culture but can be devastating to turtles (There is no visual representation for this outside of seeing your culture spread from a pirate base or a star where you have no planets). Now overtaking between cultures is also a bit of a mystery to me but I'll explain it the best I can. If a planet is producing culture with 3 phase lanes, and you are pushing at least 2 of them back the planet will lose allegiance no matter how strong the culture there is. If it is just 1 lane in and 1 lane out it's pretty hard to just overtake it until you destroy all of the cultural repelling things already described. Hopefully this helps, good luck.

Reply #5 from Sins Forums Top

 

1. Advent are supposed to be the main "culture" faction, what does that exactly mean? Is their culture actually stronger, always pushing the TEC/Vasari one, or its more about having the cultural upgrades/buildings sooner and cheaper? If i play for Vasari, max my culture research and build same number of those media hubs as the Advent Player (with maxed culture himself) on the adjacent planet, will it be a cultural "tie" or will his culture steamroll mine anyway, as its stronger by definition?

Advent culture is NOT actually stronger, its more about having the upgrades sooner (and more of them).  One TEC or Vasari culture/media tower has the same strength as one Advent culture tower (ie: '20 Culture').  But opposing towers won't be a "tie" either, because culture repels much easier than it overtakes.  Culture leaving a planet is divided by the number of phase lanes leaving, whereas culture entering a planet has to overcome the full strength of the tower there.  In other words, culture is very easy to counter.  1 culture tower will usually counter 3 or more adjoining hostile towers!

For example:  if you have 4 planets in a straight line : A--B--C--D (and unupgraded culture), it will be a "tie" between 2 towers on B, against 1 tower on C; but visa versa the one tower on C is only sending out '10' against the '40' defending B.  1 tower on each would also be a stalemate, since they are both sending out "10", but defending with the full "20".  It would take 3 towers on B (=30), to overwhelm the 1 tower on C (=20). 

If the planets have lot of branching (phase lanes) rather than a straight line, it requires even more towers to overcome 1 defending tower.  (Note: Now you can 'tech up' culture output.  And Advent Starbases can put out "35" culture, with each upgrade).

2. Should i build the communion temples at my border worlds primarily? I mean, because the culture rates get weaker with the number of jumps, its best to build them closest to the enemy, right?

At the start of the game, No!  But later, maybe yes.  Only one tower at your homeworld can eventually raise the allegiance of your entire empire.  Later, you might need to repel culture, secure uncolonized planets, or attempt a hostile take over from your border worlds.

Reply #6 from Sins Forums Top

Quoting mcintire, reply 1
If one TEC culture center was on your planet and one Advent culture center was on the planet next to it the TEC culture would always be pushed back and your planet would gain negative allegiance rates....


Yes, it is better to place the culture centers at the frontlines.

These comments are actually not correct.

 

Reply #7 from Sins Forums Top

Erm, I have trouble reading your post Won. To be more precise I'm not entirely sure which part of your quotes are quotes and which parts are cour comments on them. Care to cleanup that post so it becomes more readable?

 

Edit: Aha, thanks