1. So basically we are back to the original concept of the civs being a wonder? And then we have it have it produce a free building (like a "good") that enables for the units and buildings of that culture?
Yes but the "good" wouldn't spread the way goods currently do.
If you look in your city top left, just under the commerces, you'll see a list of cities that your city is currently trading with. These are not just all the cities you CAN trade with but are the cities you are ACTUALLY trading with. Now, if you are looking at the city screen from the city that built the world wonder for a particular culture, those cities in its trading list there would currently be able to CHOOSE TO BUILD the "good-like" culture building.
So it would be very different than just being connected by the opportunity to trade, aka the network of roads, rivers, and coastlines that allow for trade to take place with a given city. By this
ability to trade with route establishment, you freely spread "good" buildings now, even freely build them in connected cities. Thus, cultures would not be so conveniently spread as goods.
On the other hand, this means that cultures can quickly spread ACROSS national borders too if international trading is being engaged in.
This CAN be a bit manipulated by clever players choosing who to adopt open borders and free trade agreements with in hopes that a culture access may suddenly appear where they wish it in their own cities.
3. Goods already spread via trade routes (like resources do). So I think we are on the same page here. My problem should i make them into a "wonder or a "good"? If I make the current culture building into a "wonder" and make a new "good" building then SO will have to reassign every unit and I every building to a new tag. But if I make all the existing buildings into a "good" then I will have change all their requirements and apply them to the new "wonders" which would need them.
I got a little twisted around in the last part there so I can only answer what I think I'm answering here and let me know if it covers the question.
I would create new world wonder seed buildings for each culture, give those seed buildings the same qualifications to build as we currently have for the Culture (x) buildings we currently use, then remove the current requirements to build the Culture (x) buildings we are using now from those buildings.
The new requirement on the Culture (x) buildings would be derived from an XML field I think we would need to develop still and I've been thinking on how to do that. It would be something along the lines of a field that states a prerequisite of: "can build when this building exists in a city we currently have a trade route with" (then we just put the world wonder cultural seed building in this slot.)
I was going to talk to our dll guys about this. I have a vague idea of how such a field could be derived but they might be able to code that in minutes where it could take me many hours to figure out. Still... it should be relatively easy to set up.
It should be important to note that there should be no change to the current 'continental' level cultural buildings, nor how they work to help to qualify for the development of other cultures (just that the development of another culture is a real achievement under this concept). These work nicely to set up some great game strategies and starting points and just makes having the Assimilation on a very fun option.
Speaking of Mexico... how about making it also require Culture (Aztec) or Culture (Mayan), seeing as the majority of Mexicans are mestizos (culturally and ethnically mixed between Spanish and these groups) and Article 2 of the Mexican constitution defines it as a pluricultural nation. Or is that what the Native Culture (American) is meant to represent?
We could certainly give some more thought to cultural evolutions here and it could really help to 'build' to modern nations this way... the level of realism could really get nicely layered with such a system. In some ways, Aztec culture could be derived from Mayan culture which was derived from American culture. Mexican culture could thus be born where Aztec culture and Spanish culture exist in the same city.
some questions on this.what if i have conquered a foreign culture city.will m y culture spread
'Your' culture is going to be a pretty subjective term in such a system. Due to this reason the answer is both yes and no.
Yes, provided that you have an immediate trade
connection such as a road or a river or a coastline etc... to the newly taken city and its not cutoff from your trade
network, you would immediately spread to that city your founding continental level culture (as these spread like goods). This would be freely placed in your newly conquered city.
But the culture(s) you have captured with world wonders are not so automatic. Only if by chance one of your cultural birthplaces begin direct trade with that newly captured city would you have the
opportunity to build the Culture (x) building that would mean that cultural heritage has taken root there.
Neither the US, Canada nor Australia are majority mixed indigenous-European though, nor are the indigenous cultures of their homelands represented in any significant way in their culture.
But we could certainly say that the US culture is only foundable where you have British and American culture overlapping, Canadian culture where you have French and American cultures (think of the founding Canadian culture, US culture has become so thickly imbued that original Canadian is greatly diluted throughout most of the nation today).
With such a system you could also reflect Kurds, Creol, and lots of other peoples that have never had a real nation to call their own. Example: Creol culture born in Haitti, Haitti is so small it only trades with New Orleans in the United States, thus only New Orleans has built Culture (Creol). If Haitti grows in future influence, the culture may spread a bit wider eventually.
Some cultural emergences may only be qualified to take place if a particular religion exists there, or even only in the holy city of a particular religion: Jewish Culture born only in the birthplace of Judasim, Creol only in the birthplace of Voodoo, etc...
I mean we could have a LOT of fun getting very accurate with real world evolutionary causes for each culture that really exists.
Current game I'm playing as dutch, but after European the only other Cultures available for me are Celtic, Roman, and German. And the cities they 1st appear in need 70-90 turns initially to have That Culture. Seems Waay to long.
How do I get Dutch if I have to have so many preq resources for it to "happen"? I've got too much else going on to worry about where I need to place my city for a culture, when in the long run it's what Valuable resources can I get If I settle here. Not what culture I "might" get in this spot. And in the early stages of the Game not all the resources are exposed to help make that kind of decision. So in the long run it all boils down to "Luck". At least that's how it's working for me.
If we do our job right, the player that knows their 'Dutch history', that understands fundamentals about what it is to be Dutch and how the Dutch emerged, or the player who simply does his research in the civopedia, should be able to work themselves into becoming fully Dutch at some point.
It shouldn't be completely luck based or haphazard at all, but this system
would benefit from having more than just Great Farmers to help give players the power to self determination on resource placement and thus foundational cultural achievments.
I've brought up discussion asking for more of these resource spreading agents (Great Prospector, Great Lumberjack, Great Fisherman) and with the way cultures are largely qualified for, such units would be critical to making it less a matter of Luck and more a matter of forethought and planning to accomplish the building of a desired Cultural Wonder.
Knowing what it will take to achieve a complex set of goals so as to bring about the emergence of the Dutch culture in your lands before its done by an AI player would be one of the greatly enjoyable challenges such a system would present.