Can someone explain the Culture victory once and for all?

[Stringer1313]

(Note: I'm still playing through my first game, I am not a hardcore gamer min-maxer, I have never beat Civ on a level higher than King/Monarch)

I thought that owning the game would finally clarify things for me but I find the culture victory to be so incredibly confusing.
- The culture victory description says you need both culture and tourism to win it, but I have no clue how culture plays into the victory calculation. If it works defensively like in Civ 5, there is not interface or indicators saying exactly how it plays into it.
- I have no clue how domestic tourism is calculated versus foreign tourism, or what wonders/art pieces attracts one of the other
- The number next to the luggage on the top of the main screen doesn't match any of the numbers in the culture victory screen
- The tourism overlay shows a bunch of random numbers on the map, some of which are zero, and yet each of those hotspots displays a total tourism accumulated so far
- I have no idea how or why the amount of tourism collected so far matters at all
- No idea how the total number of tourists needed for a culture victory is calculated
- The culture victory screen needs to show all the modifiers without me having to scroll over each other Civ to see a tooltip. And I have no idea which Civ to prioritize to enhance the modifiers (i.e., should I direct my limited trade routes to Civ X or Y to get the biggest bang for my buck?)

Don't get me wrong, i'm not a complete moron, I realize that if I need to win the culture victory I just have to keep building wonders and great works and resorts and stuff like that. And I guess keep sending trade routes to people generally I guess. But none of the numbers match each other or make any sense to me. It would good to know exactly how all the numbers are generated.

 

[oddtail]

I would also appreciate an explanation of how exactly the cultural victory is supposed to work. I know it has to do with tourism, and you have to have more foreign tourists than any other civilization has domestic tourists... but I have no idea on what basis those domestic tourists are added/changed/taken from other civilizations' domestic tourist pools (because I... guess that's what happens?).

 

[demidyad]

+1 for this request - was going to make this thread myself. the in-game documentation is extremely poor on this subject. What determines your amount of domestic and visiting tourists?

 

[Stellastruck]

Also, do wonders generate tourism? The description of France's UA says you get "extra tourism" from Wonders, but I don't see where or how tourism from wonders is calculated.

 

[Stringer1313]

I love how this thread has immediately been pushed to the bottom of the screen. This basically means that no one understands the system. (Jk lol)

 

[cutelilduck]

France's UA confused me too. Then I realized it applied to great works in the wonders themselves. A lot of the cultural wonders have slots.

Domestic tourism seems based off of culture output. Still unsure how. "Real" tourism seems far more direct, but still uses the nebulous system from CivV, which I believe never got explained either.

 

[KrikkitTwo]

I love how this thread has immediately been pushed to the bottom of the screen. This basically means that no one understands the system. (Jk lol)

Its true, no one understands it... Firaxis is pathetic at revealing systems to the player

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

You have a Suitcase number right at the top of the interface. When you build a Wonder, that number goes up. I assume that is what France's UA modifies.

 

[Kouvb593kdnuewnd]

To win a culture victory you pretty much only need to spam out national parks and costal resorts. Great works are nice but not needed but given that they give culture and culture give you parks it is pretty nice to get some theater districts.

Faith is an important resources because faith is what you pay to found parks.

 

[Manst]

Interesting note on tourism from wonders: they seem to scale with eras. For example in my last game as france Ruhr Valley was giving me 6 tourism (so normally 3 tourism) in the inustrial era, while the great library was giving me 10 (normally 5) and the oracle 12(normally 6). So wonders seem to always give 3 tourism + 1 per era.

 

[Kouvb593kdnuewnd]

Earlier era wonders give more tourism then late wonders and every time you advance in era the tourism value of all wonders increase.

 

[KrikkitTwo]

Earlier era wonders give more tourism then late wonders and every time you advance in era the tourism value of all wonders increase.

Is that based on when the wonders were available (their tech/civic era) or when they were built?

 

[Kouvb593kdnuewnd]

Im pretty sure it is the era it is available that counts.

 

[dexters]

My question is the numbers on the top of the screen don't add up with what I'm seeing in the VC tab.

I get something like 408 tourism per turn but my VC screens says I have 321 from other nations.

Is this because if multiplier buildings ?

 

[Eramas]

There are negative modifiers for different religion, government, etc.

 

[MrRadar]

My question is the numbers on the top of the screen don't add up with what I'm seeing in the VC tab.

I get something like 408 tourism per turn but my VC screens says I have 321 from other nations.

Is this because if multiplier buildings ?

Do you see 408 on top of your screen? That's only your tourism, but not tourists. 321 then is probably visiting tourists you attract.

In CV screen you see your tourism + your culture (just mouse over) = your domestic tourists number = your defence. If you have the largest number, you're the last barrier before someone else wins culture.

Then on the very right you see fraction number x/y, where x is how many visiting tourists you attract from other civs, and y is domestic tourism (tourism+culture) of the leading civ.
y for everyone will be the same except the leader, which will have to overcome the second largest domestic tourism.

Then there is Tourism lens, where you can see your visiting tourists to your sights and how many tourism each object generates per turn and lifetime accumulation

In short as I understand, you must generate culture + tourism as defence, and at the same time your wonders, theater districts, great works, artifacts, while adding to your defence, also attract tourists from other countries. This is further modified by various factors: same or different government, presence or absence of the Enlightenment for religious tourists etc., haven't figured it out completely yet.

 

[DocRock]

I'd also like to know this. I'm in the middle of my Emperor game with Greece and I am far more advanced than everybody else. I have maxed theatres everywhere with maxed Relics and Artifacts. I have build every relevant wonder for the past 2000 years.

And still the tourism counter says 16/138. I mean, wth? I'm the only guy in the world that even has a relic. I even have one National park, where I still have no idea why I could place it there, what's the meaning of it and why there are no more places for my other Naturalists. And what are coastal resorts?

I'm kinda getting fed up by the lack of information the games gives us.

 

[Eagle Pursuit]

National Parks have some very strict placement ruled that are actually pretty well documented in the Civilopedia.

Seaside Resorts are another kettle of fish. The documentation states that they can be built on desert, Plains, and grassland tiles with Breathtaking appeal. What it doesn't say is that they can't have hills or floodplain. And probably other limitations that I haven't discovered yet.

I'm building the Eiffel Tower in hopes that it will open up some tiles for Resorts.

 

[EpicWestern]

I'd also like to know this. I'm in the middle of my Emperor game with Greece and I am far more advanced than everybody else. I have maxed theatres everywhere with maxed Relics and Artifacts. I have build every relevant wonder for the past 2000 years.

And still the tourism counter says 16/138. I mean, wth? I'm the only guy in the world that even has a relic. I even have one National park, where I still have no idea why I could place it there, what's the meaning of it and why there are no more places for my other Naturalists. And what are coastal resorts?

I'm kinda getting fed up by the lack of information the games gives us.

Likely you need better multipliers. Various effects in the double or triple your tourism or specific parts of it, and you basically need all of those. Even if you have 20 pieces of art or writing that's only 40 tourism generated per turn without any multiplier. Late game for my cultural victory I was generating 500 tourism per turn. The amount of tourists you generate per turn is based on your tourism but its generally between 2 and 5 late game.

Naturalists are annoying and it took me a while to figure it out, buts its completely worth it since it grants a huge tourism bonus. Your naturalist can only be activated if its within a four tile diamond, none of the tiles have any improvements, all of the tiles have appeal of charming or better, and all of the tiles are within the same city. The last part is key, what counts as being "in the city" means the tiles are workable (but not necessarily worked) by that city. So to use a naturalist you need to first mouse over various (non-district) parts of your city to check their appeal. If you can find a diamond (4 tiles together) all with appeal charming or better, great. Next make sure are the tiles are workable by the same city. If necessary, swap tiles so that they are. Then use a builder to remove any improvements on any of those tiles. Then if your naturalist is within one of those tiles it should work.

 

[redwings1340]

lol, this thread.

I also have no idea how the culture victory works. I mean, get tourism in various ways, and watch the numbers rise before winning. Building seaside resorts helps. Building wonders and getting great works helps. I haven't gotten one yet though, my first victory was religious, my second is probably going to be space.