How does culture spread?

[Moros]

I don't know how the Roman mechanics precisely work, but settlements do get some cultural influence from the faction that is controlling it. Thus if Roma has religion X and controls a settlement y, then y will get more x. But indeed certain government buildings and other mechanics may fasten or decrease this conversion. @V.T.Marvin should know more.

What I do seem to remember is that settlement size does play a major role for the Romani. If the newly acquired settlement is large, the Romans should have an easier time dealing with it, as it fits their way of government better.

Tweeks on the speed of conversion might be needed though. So input is welcome.

[Guidrion]

I'm playing with Kimmerian Bosporos and it's a nightmare. In a good way because I feel how much greeks settlers are a complete minority and how my basileus has to tread carefully.
But I'm struggling to understand the social engineering I'm supposed to put in place to actually hellenize these damn barbaroi.

[Eyeshield5]

Not exactly sure how it spreads but it does spread slowly once you have taken control of it but it also means you have to check and plan ahead on your conquests and if you have enough resources to do so. It would be lame if you can just blitzkrieg through cities.

[bpax1601]

Yup, first play through as Bactria and no idea how to spread culture. I figured out indigenous military settlements spread eastern empire culture and not my own Hellenistic polity so i destroyed them but my culture doesn't seem to be rising in those provinces. I hope that it is possible to spread my culture to my minor provinces even if it is very slow.

[Lindorn]

Yup, first play through as Bactria and no idea how to spread culture. I figured out indigenous military settlements spread eastern empire culture and not my own Hellenistic polity so i destroyed them but my culture doesn't seem to be rising in those provinces. I hope that it is possible to spread my culture to my minor provinces even if it is very slow.

I'd really like to know more about this as well. Does anyone know the answers to these questions?

[Kull]

Governments and colonies. And conversion is supposed to be slow. The alternative is to make use of the existing native culture and build an Allied Government, and recruit their troops. The population will be a lot happier if you do this. If you want to immediately convert the province to your own religion, well, be prepared for lots of unhappiness and limited recruiting for a long time.

And when I say, "be prepared", that does not mean "suck it up pansies", but rather to plan ahead based on this reality. If the new province has a huge difference between your religion and theirs, don't fight it. Build the Allied Government. Recruit the Allied troops. AND. Build as many happiness improvements as possible. When you have a goodly number of those AND the province is no longer on the frontier of your empire, well, now is good time to convert. Demolish the Allied Gov, get one of yours in place, and start converting.

Edit: There have been a lot of complaints about the advisor, but he's giving you REALLY important information. Telling you to go build a colony. Which he won't, unless you can. That's really important information, if you are interested in religious conversions. Which you should be.

[Lindorn]

Governments and colonies. And conversion is supposed to be slow. The alternative is to make use of the existing native culture and build an Allied Government, and recruit their troops. The population will be a lot happier if you do this. If you want to immediately convert the province to your own religion, well, be prepared for lots of unhappiness and limited recruiting for a long time.

And when I say, "be prepared", that does not mean "suck it up pansies", but rather to plan ahead based on this reality. If the new province has a huge difference between your religion and theirs, don't fight it. Build the Allied Government. Recruit the Allied troops. AND. Build as many happiness improvements as possible. When you have a goodly number of those AND the province is no longer on the frontier of your empire, well, now is good time to convert. Demolish the Allied Gov, get one of yours in place, and start converting.

Edit: There have been a lot of complaints about the advisor, but he's giving you REALLY important information. Telling you to go build a colony. Which he won't, unless you can. That's really important information, if you are interested in religious conversions. Which you should be.

Thanks dude,

Can you give us any insight into how colonists are generated, if that can be controlled, etc?

[Kull]

Thanks dude,

Can you give us any insight into how colonists are generated, if that can be controlled, etc?

Not really my area, so I'm not clear on all the details. I think you need a city of a certain min size (large town maybe?)

[Kull]

Yeah, we kind of need a guide for the whole features of the game and how they work. I also don't know what is in and not in that are "must have" stuff.

Guides regarding governments,cultures and reforms would be nice to have. I think for now, the priority is to fix initial bugs though, and the balancing.

The mod is really complex, but many of those mechanisms have been tweaked right up to the release. It's a polite question, and I understand the desire for these, but in order to have released guides AND the mod....well, lets just say you wouldn't be playing it today and for quite some while to come.

I do expect some fans will work out the details and post guides to these things in the weeks and months to come. The team is sort of hoping for this since there really aren't that many of us.

[Lindorn]

The mod is really complex, but many of those mechanisms have been tweaked right up to the release. It's a polite question, and I understand the desire for these, but in order to have released guides AND the mod....well, lets just say you wouldn't be playing it today and for quite some while to come.

I do expect some fans will work out the details and post guides to these things in the weeks and months to come. The team is sort of hoping for this since there really aren't that many of us.

Maybe we should get a wiki started. Does anyone know how to kick something like that off

[bzhou]

The mod is really complex, but many of those mechanisms have been tweaked right up to the release. It's a polite question, and I understand the desire for these, but in order to have released guides AND the mod....well, lets just say you wouldn't be playing it today and for quite some while to come.

I do expect some fans will work out the details and post guides to these things in the weeks and months to come. The team is sort of hoping for this since there really aren't that many of us.

Would it be possible to open a subforum for strategy/guides/game mechanics, with a sticky listing all of the completed/highly rated ones?

[Kull]

Would it be possible to open a subforum for strategy/guides/game mechanics, with a sticky listing all of the completed/highly rated ones?

That makes sense, but I'm not sure when that will happen. At least we got the bugs subforum for now.

[Geleco]

Personally (having played Rome and Macedon) I think conversion is fine the way it is. From what I can tell building temples doesn't work. You need to build colonies and (for the Greeks) poleis.

[Walincas]

the smaller a settlement you conquer, the smaller a garrison you will need to get the "max" 40% public order bonus. I think the slow conversion of culture is pretty EPIC!

It's really immersive imo and demands that I carefully scout ahead and plan the conquering of new territory (which you need to do anyway, if you wan't to conquer a city while your general still has imperium/so he don't get stuck in winter ( like a nub, getting bad traits)).

The toughest cities to convert, will require the 40% max garrison bonus as well as a governor, with public order bonusses, in order to get to around 75-85%.

This really makes it obvious while Caesar put so many civilians to the sword, when he conquered new lands during his campaign in Gaul

Thanks for thinking/working out this culture system devs!

[Walincas]

oh yea btw, the 1% conversion bonus you get for colony building (as rome) is triggered every year, so that means you will get an increase in mediterranean culture every 4 turns..

[nasher168]

So if I understand correctly, governments will grant a small culture increase over time, as will colonies. The process is deliberately slow and intended to take several decades (which I expected and fully support) to get to the point when you can start building highest-level governments.

Specifically regarding the Romans, can colonies be built within Italy, or are they reserved for provinces?

[Poppis]

Specifically regarding the Romans, can colonies be built within Italy, or are they reserved for provinces?

I think they can be build in any province?

You get an adviser pop up telling you when you can build one. I just got my first one in my roma campaign and build it in capua. It requires the road garrison building(or whatever it was called).

[Guidrion]

Thank you for the information. However I built the regional pacification building in a newly conquered city but then... Nothing. No option of government whatsoever. I thought I needed to raise a bit my culture but I would need government to do that. Not sure if it's a bug or a feature in the case of Bosporos.

In any case, I'm still having a great time playing this. Thank you again for your work, devs!

[nasher168]

I think they can be build in any province?

You get an adviser pop up telling you when you can build one. I just got my first one in my roma campaign and build it in capua. It requires the road garrison building(or whatever it was called).

Ah, right. I assumed those buildings weren't all that important so didn't prioritise building them. Clearly that's a mistake, then. Cheers.

[Turael]

I like this system. Empire building should take time. I think the problem is that lot of people are used to typical vanilla total war gameplay, where you conquer city after city very fast. If you don't want rebellions everywhere then slow down with expansion.