Global culture

[Polonius]

You may not have spotted this yet (which is another way of saying that I only just found out how it works – no doubt it’s old news to most of you!) but the game uses a concept of “Global Cultures”. There are couple of main effects of this:

1) You tend to get better reactions in negotiations etc from civs in your group (not that you’d notice it much!).

2) Civs in your group tend to be clumped more on the map. (Which explains why that Civ you just had a fight with turned up next door again in your new game.)

The groups are:

American (America, Aztec, Iroquois)
Mid East (Babylon, Persia, Zulu)
Mediterranean (Egypt, Greece, Roman)
Asian (China, India, Japan)
European (Russia, Germany , France, England)

So, knowing who you are likely to wind up next door to, and/or get a slightly better deal out of, may be a factor worth considering when choosing which civ to play.

Thanks to the Strat Guide.

 

[Bretwalda]

I usually play the Aztecs (religious+militaristic) plus virtually expansionistics because of the fast jaguar warrior...

I have never met the Asian civilizations in game, unless I set them at startup! Asian (China, India, Japan) never showed up even with maximum players on large map (of course they would be there on huge - 15 players)

 

[bakant]

Post - Patch you can turn off culturally linked starting locations. You can do this from the game options menu on the main menu before you start a new game.

 

[oriel94]

Do civs from the same group also assimilate more quickly?

 

[Polonius]

Originally posted by bakant
Post - Patch you can turn off culturally linked starting locations. You can do this from the game options menu on the main menu before you start a new game.

Thanks very much bakant - that's handy to know. That's one more nugget of info that I can move from the long list of things that I didn't know about Civ into the small but growing list of things that I have finally discovered.

Since posting the above I've been watching the other civs attitudes to me in the game I'm now playing. The other civs in my "culture group" have definitely responded more quickly to my attempts to get them back on side with trade deal, gifts etc.

 

[loki]

Originally posted by Polonius
American (America, Aztec, Iroquois)
Mid East (Babylon, Persia, Zulu)
Mediterranean (Egypt, Greece, Roman)
Asian (China, India, Japan)
European (Russia, Germany , France, England)

This is weird because on my current game as the americans, I began with Rome, Zulu, India, Japan, and France.

Almost one of each.

Loki

 

[Moulton]

I like a continent to myself, or at least some elbow room. I'll live with the foreighness of non-group cultures, and keep out the others of my group to make me some starting room.

 

[Polonius]

Originally posted by loki


This is weird because on my current game as the americans, I began with Rome, Zulu, India, Japan, and France.

Almost one of each.

Loki

Great to see that can still happen. It appears to have a random element (like so many things in the game) so it's a tendency rather than a rule. I have had France, Germany, Russia etc next door several times while playing mid east civs. But overall the pattern of seeing familiar civs more often than not does seem to be showing up for me. I was starting to wonder why when I saw the reference to it in the Strat Guide.