Dealing with cultural penalty

[BelzebuMaio]

Hi everyone,

Before anything else why would like to adress a big THANK YOU to everyone who has worked to put out such a fantastic mod. I've been playing EB I for several years now and, still today, I keep playing it regularly. I'm eagerly waiting the release of EB II, so I can enjoy the historically accurate features that the team has been working on, as well as learning more about history.

I'm a great fan of the Hellenistic factions, such as Arche Seleukeia (AS), Baktria, Makedonia or the Koinon Hellenon.

In my AS campaigns, being Seleukeia my capital city, I found it very hard to keep good order in my outlying cities, namely those in mainland Hellas. I've realized that, apart from "distance to capital" penalty, which is about 80%, there is a "cultural penalty" as well, because the buildings in those cities are from a different culture (western greek).

I've read somewhere that the building which causes more cultural penalty is the government one, which, for instance, is an undestructible one. So, if I conquer a city and if the government building the is from a different culture and is already at maximum level (L5 - Huge City) then it is not possible to change it anymore.

Is it possible mod the game to make it possible to "convert" or to "replace" that building with the equivalent one of your faction?

Sorry if my English is not very good, I hope I had expressed myself clearly!

BelzebuMaio

[Boriak]

Is it possible mod the game to make it possible to "convert" or to "replace" that building with the equivalent one of your faction?

Not in EB. There are others mods (XGM comes to mind) that used colony buildings to change the culture of a city. If you conquered a huge city, your best bet is to build a type IV government in it - if it's huge, it probably has plenty of buildings so no need for you to build your own. Also, train a hired general and leave him in the city so he turns into a governor. Other than that: build every single building that adds happiness and law and focus on the law giving temples, the bigger the better. You could also try to lower the city's population by inciting it to rebellion, retaking it and slaughtering the population (I will get ugly looks from the community just for saying it out loud) or just destroy all population growth buidlings in the hopes you generate negative growth.

[QuintusSertorius]

The biggest element of cultural penalty comes from the governor's building. Once a settlement grows large enough that you can replace it with one of your own, it makes a big difference.

Otherwise, station a spy there, if it's bordering another faction, chances are you're being infiltrated.

[BelzebuMaio]

Thank you both for your quick answers.

I've been checking the EB Sub Mod forum and I found there a "City Mod" and, in one of its versions, the barbarian factions were unable to build L3 and L4 government buildings, being allowed to build only L1 or L2 government buildings. I have no skills in modding, unfortunately, but I was wondering if it is possible to restrict other cultures in the same way the barbarian factions were in the "City Mod"?

In that way, for example, if I would decide to conquer Greece with AS in late campaign, even though I would probably find L4 settlements, I would always be able to upgrade the government building, bringing down the cultural penalty percentage.

BelzebuMaio