Is CULTURE a useless game mechanic at present??

[♠ Thomas Cochrane ♠]

At present, culture can change so quickly in a province that no negative effect is ever experienced. Once I take a region, If i get a temple or something, by the time I take the rest of the province, it's already 100% my faction's culture.

Does culture impact anything else? Ability recruit certain units?

[GnaReffotsirk]

Diplomacy I think. But not sure.

[karamazovmm]

it serves as another thing that tries to hamper players expansion and gives another possibility of unrest

for example, if I send 2-3 diplomats in a province that I don't own, I can cause significant unrest just by culture I can proceed to cause cultural unrest (ability), and pave the way for lightning strike against that colony or just to screw the AI there

specially at the early stages of the campaign were builds that provide the needed bonus are not that efficient or for cultures that have significant cultural penalties like egypt, you have to send diplomats before hand otherwise you are going to tie significant portions of your forces to avoid and combat rebellions

[chris10]

for example, if I send 2-3 diplomats in a province that I don't own, I can cause significant unrest just by culture I can proceed to cause cultural unrest (ability), and pave the way for lightning strike against that colony or just to screw the AI there

LULZ... I imagine a couple of roman diplomats roaming the streets of a major german town trying to convince people that they should uprise against themself...and all that without getting hung up on their balls...

[karamazovmm]

LULZ... I imagine a couple of roman diplomats roaming the streets of a major german town trying to convince people that they should uprise against themself...and all that without getting hung up on their balls...

you must not speak those things, im already imagining the not really poor diplomats that were hung, well not really the romans didnt had diplomats anyway

[♠ Thomas Cochrane ♠]

Yeah - use dignitaries to "pave the way for a lightning strike". So when you get to a foreign land with your army it's already full of your people!

[karamazovmm]

thus by logic dignitaries = casanova

[SirRobin]

Culture/religion has always been disappointing in TW games. Disappointing because it hardly has any real effect on the gameplay.

[Slaists]

A related question: do we know if the +X cultural influence buildings spread culture to neighboring regions too or just the home province? If the latter: they're pretty much useless since it is very easy to replace a culture with characters.

[SKSlave]

The fact that culture only encompasses the entire province and not individual regions makes it kind of silly. If Rome owns one region in a province and Carthage 3, it is very easy for Rome to achieve 100% Latin culture in every region. Really stupid.

They could have done so much more. Make units and buildings dependent on the culture of a region. Celtic culture = Celtic units available for example.

[krisslanza]

Culture is the same as Religion in every other TW. It's not meant to be tied to what you can DO, but it's there to hamper expansion. It's never been a mechanic intended to tie into units. That is done purely by location (You can recruit Celtic Auxilla's as Rome, in any region considered Celtic, for example).

[SKSlave]

Culture is the same as Religion in every other TW. It's not meant to be tied to what you can DO, but it's there to hamper expansion. It's never been a mechanic intended to tie into units. That is done purely by location (You can recruit Celtic Auxilla's as Rome, in any region considered Celtic, for example).

I don't care about previous TW games, and comparing culture to religion is pretty dumb too. Culture should change very slowly over time and I think it would be better to have different ethnic units depending on the culture.

[karamazovmm]

I don't care about previous TW games, and comparing culture to religion is pretty dumb too. Culture should change very slowly over time and I think it would be better to have different ethnic units depending on the culture.

you already have that, its tied to the settlement that you build your auxilia barracks

[Tredlador]

I wonder if there is a useful way to re-employ culture as an effect in the game that has a meaningful ... effect.

Someone is developing the idea of recreating squalor as a means of creating a supply and demand mechanic. Buildings that create squalor would in this mechanic be supplying a commodity, or service perhaps, which if the demand is not met then unrest would rise. It's related to trade and diplomacy also, whereby (as far as I could gather) some commodities are valued more highly than others and would become the primary item(s) of trade, so factions would seek trade for a domestic peace. Seems kinda fun... one blockade and a whole faction could burn via domestic insurrection for want of "something".

I wonder how it would work, but as far as culture goes as an effect in the game, unless it could be strengthened, if desirable, perhaps approaching it as "something else" might create an interesting mechanic both domestically and as as something agents could continue to affect abroad in foreign territory.

Culture as a changing face, overnight, would seem too malleable, where people seem to suddenly change their customs and even the architecture of their city, rather too quickly. Then again, when Rome went to Britannia, they brought with them the toga, and built houses too (to start with) in a Roman style, and the Romans left numerous feats of architecture behind them that future generations, free of the Roman yolk, wondered at for centuries, and thought them the works of giants.

Could culture be renamed/revamped as religion if so desired, to create a different dynamic in the game? Or could culture be made stiffer, y'know? more difficult to alter? Spice up those rebellions, create a bit of chaos?

I really liked the seepage of religion in Barbarian Invasion, having to construct religious buildings to combat influences from neighbouring enemy regions. I know R2TW and BITW are different creatures, but it seems to be an opportunity, a bare bones feature? that might allow some reworking.

Seems to be a lot more work than I would realise as only a user of other people's mods, but it's all so easy at the moment, waltz on in and Veni Vidi Vici! then voila! Subjects worthy of citizenship, just like that!

[Americanus Supremus]

Just another massively underdeveloped part of the game... Once again hoping modders make this and other parts of the game an actual CHALLENGE

[GnaReffotsirk]

I think the barbarian tribes were attracted to Roman Culture, in particular their goods. As such, the Tribes traded with Rome at the frontiers, where trade centers and markets allowed the tribes to be influenced by Rome. They offered labor in exchange for gold or goods, etc.

I think having cultural aversion diminished because of cultural influence buildings is good. However, a region or province attacked or sacked by a culture should have a different mechanic.

How long a certain province converts or retains its own culture should be affected by the actions of another culture and even their own.

Say, if a Chieftain neglects building his own culture buildings, he will have to constantly be under pressure of another culture nearby who has a strong culture impact due to buildings. Construction times will increase, growth decreased, etc. Depending on what a culture provide as bonus or penalty.

But maybe this is asking too much.

Culture as a game mechanic can be developed and could provide interesting game scenarios.

[Ichon]

CA allows culture to change too quickly but also has quite high public order penalties from different culture so... I just figure the people changing their culture are the elites who adopt conquerors or large neighbors culture more quickly while the base population changes much more slowly over time but require elites access to organization and warrior training to mount serious resistance.

[BSGfan]

no it isn't
you ever tried to pacify the whole of gaul and spain after a lightning campaign
it took me longer to quell all those rebelions than actually conquering it while playing s Roman it was actual easier to pacify and assimilate the greeks becaise of their culture

and constant enemy agents activity do not help much either

[wulfgar610]

Only if you control the entire province. If you only got a region of that province then you got lingering cultural problems.

[camper-futter]

if u watch closely you will realize that your observation applys for the whole game

- politics ? in fact not existent

- technologie system ? shallow & boring

- army traits ? shallow & boring

- economy ? seems byzantine at the beginning....steamroll buisness as usual after couple of rounds

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