Culture flipping ROCKS.

[Jimcat]

Just had to post this in order to get in the face of all those who hate culture flipping.

In my latest game, I am playing the Americans on Regent level, large map, 12 civs. I'm stuck on a continent with the @#$% Persians, which is always a challenge until the age of gunpowder. Other continental neighbors are the Japanese, Chinese, Germans, and Iroquois.

The b*****d Persians have been running their Immortals all over the continent. I can't use my favorite "gang up everybody against your enemy" tactic because I have already fought small wars against everyone else on the continent (they started it. Honest). They've already wiped out the Germans. A huge honkin' pile of Immortals is tromping through my land to abuse the Chinese and Japanese. I was forced to give Chivalry to Persia as the price of my survival.

BUT... as I did my fanciest diplomatic footwork to stay out of war with Persia... one fine day in about 600 AD, not one but TWO Persian cities culture flipped to me on the same turn! One was a small former German city nestled in some hills, but the other was a population 7 Persian city with flood plains, mountains, hills, Gems, and Horses within its radius! I laugh at Persia's pitiful culture!

Scientifically the Persians are even with me now. But culturally they're hopelessly behind. And they won't be able to pull ahead of me in the tech race as long as they're supporting their huge army of Immortals. They'll have to either stay in Monarchy or go broke. I've just switched to Republic, completed the Great Lighthouse, and discovered England and France. If the gods smile, I can humor bonehead Xerxes and let him extort a few techs from me until I reach Gunpowder... then bring Lizzy and Joan into the war if he starts throwing his weight around!

Let Xerxes build all the stupid Immortals he wants, I'll overwhelm him with the awesome American culture.

(If you got the impression from this post that Persia is my least favorite civilization, give yourself the kewpie doll...)

 

[Supercilious]

Too bad you feel the need to "get in the face" of people. You must be very popular.


At least someone likes that culture baloney. Many hate it. Civ 3 is not the right descendant of Civ 2 which had none of it.

 

[Ren]

Damn right

 

[Dark Sheer]

I have to agree that Cultural flip rocks!

In most of my games I usually build temple and library pronto and sooner or later those cities around me will just flip, flip, flip.

And flipping during war is not a probelm either. What you need to do is see which is the next biggest city that can be the capital. If the next biggest city is far away, just quickly knock out the capital and the new capital will be so far away that flipping become much much unlikely.

 

[Greadius]

Culture flipping needs a toggle or to lower percentages.

My rounds on Marla's map take a good hour a piece. I had about 1/3rd of my African expedition force in one city I captured two turns prior to make a run at the Zulu capitol and it culture flips taking about 35 units with it. Poof! The entire force just VANISHES because a governer was disposed and I had to reload for about 25 minutes, and could only move 20 units out. Left me with the wonderful choice of going back two turns which would take another two hours and a bunch of clicking or putting off my sacking of Zimbabwe for two hours. Culture flipping has no place in warfare.

 

[loki]

Be careful though, because Persia will probably want that town back since it's got ressources and luxuries. They can declare war just for that.
If they ask you your territory map, you're screwed

Side note : die anyone notice if an AI civ ask for your territory map (not in the very early ages), it usually precedes a declaration of war?

loki

 

[Mr Spice]

I agree with Jimcat. The so called culture-flipping is a good thing and makes the game much more interesting.

 

[eyrei]

Originally posted by loki
Be careful though, because Persia will probably want that town back since it's got ressources and luxuries. They can declare war just for that.
If they ask you your territory map, you're screwed

Side note : die anyone notice if an AI civ ask for your territory map (not in the very early ages), it usually precedes a declaration of war?

loki

I have also noticed this. One time, the declaration of war happened immediately after I traded territory maps (on the same turn). Sometimes, I am suspicious that, when an AI civ you are at war with wants your territory map, it gets one of the other AI civs to get it from you and share it.

Culture Flipping Rocks!!!!!

 

[Moulton]

I am playing on Kitten-of-Chaos variation of Marla's map. Egypt. Probably 12 civs, but have not met them all. No one has discovered America yet, and Aztec and Iroquois are probbly there. There is only a short delay--like a10 or 15 seconds while it runs through the AI civs. Last time I played on this map the delay got serious, but toward the end, when I had over 100 cities. I am at 1000AD, now. No flips yet that I know about. IE, none of mine, or none to me. I am curious indeed to see what effect his changes had on flipping.
It is generally not a problem for me, just something to watch out for.

 

[animepornstar]

i think culture flipping would be a good thing if it wasn´t because it can eliminate your entire army in one turn.

 

[Sodak]

I, too, am a fan of this feature! I've lost cities twice, but have gained about 8 this way. DanMagaha of firaxis explained that huge armies are not (at least at that time) a factor in flipping. In other words, you simply should not put 35 units into any city. There is always the risk of a flip! Whether you like it or not, it must be considered while playing.

BTW, I don't agree with the vanishing unit part of this. At worst, a few units could be lost, the rest expelled or damaged.

To the marla map players with serious lag time: RAM RAM RAM. I had 64mb, and the turns took forever! I read books, filed papers, did dishes, etc, while waiting for the AI to move. Sure, this was the most productive game time I've ever spent, but not much of it was gaming. Anyway, I bumped my pc up to 256mb, and the wait between my turns has never been more than 30 seconds.

 

[Moulton]

RAM is surely a part of it, but I have 512--and have had since before CivIII came. Maybe virtual memory needs to be tweaked also.

 

[loki]

Originally posted by Sodak
I, too, am a fan of this feature! I've lost cities twice, but have gained about 8 this way. DanMagaha of firaxis explained that huge armies are not (at least at that time) a factor in flipping. In other words, you simply should not put 35 units into any city. There is always the risk of a flip! Whether you like it or not, it must be considered while playing.

According to the README, the new patch will correct this. Large garrisson will prevent culture flip.

I also like culture flipping.

loki

 

[siredgar]

I wish I could just TURN OFF culture-flipping!

Do you think if Vermont wanted to join Canada, they could just do it like that? And if so, I ask you how often does this happen in the real world? It should be very very rare indeed!

 

[muppet]

I do not dislike it either. Depending on my mood, sometimes I think it's and awesome concept. Sometimes, I wish it could just be turned off.

Maybe there could be compromise. Like there could be some kind of read out meter with guages like (best to worst):

Born in the USA! (too many temples)
Proud Nationalists
Conservative Nationalists
Happy Immigrants
Too Many Immigrants
My D*ck Feels Smaller Than Their Army
Not Happy With My Government
Separatists Here There Everywhere
Quebec! (not enough temples)

 

[Kryten]

To siredgar,

For 'real world' culture flips, take a look at my thread called "Culture flipping; you may not like it but here are some historical examples". It happened more times in history than most people think (and if, like me, you like 'historical' scenarios in civ3, then culture flipping is the only way that some real world events can be simulated).

 

[siredgar]

Originally posted by Kryten
To siredgar,

For 'real world' culture flips, take a look at my thread called "Culture flipping; you may not like it but here are some historical examples". It happened more times in history than most people think (and if, like me, you like 'historical' scenarios in civ3, then culture flipping is the only way that some real world events can be simulated).

Okay, but where is it?

 

[Kryten]

I've bumped it to the top of the General Discussions pages.

 

[Jimcat]

Originally posted by siredgar
I wish I could just TURN OFF culture-flipping!

Do you think if Vermont wanted to join Canada, they could just do it like that? And if so, I ask you how often does this happen in the real world? It should be very very rare indeed!

Actually, it's the other way around. It's a good example of real-world modern era culture flipping. Canada (except for Quebec) has already culturally flipped to the US. Politically they may think they're a separate nation, but culturally they're American.

 

[lawren8]

Originally posted by siredgar
I wish I could just TURN OFF culture-flipping!

Do you think if Vermont wanted to join Canada, they could just do it like that? And if so, I ask you how often does this happen in the real world? It should be very very rare indeed!

Vermont might not join canada, but quebec might join france !