what are the chances.....

[hIdDeN_eViL]

i recently moved to monarch and suffered my first cultural flip....
i'm always laughing at AI for losing so many cities to me because of culture, and i'll say that it isn't quite as funny being on the recieving end.

anyways. i assumed that the stronger the garrison, the less chance of a flip.
but in that game... i had one opponent left, and i was at war with them. i had several MA armies marching thru their territory, and one happend to capture an almost undefended city. i left the army there for defence.
NEXT TURN THE CITY FLIPPED!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! I LOST THE MODERN ARMOUR ARMY!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

what are the chances of that?
there i am, quite proud of capturing a city without losing one HP, and the next turn, AI doesn't lift a finger and i lose a city, lots of gold, and a whole MA army......

i was just wondering if something like this has happened to anyone else?

 

[douche_bag]

i dont think having alot of military in a city is important to prevent cultural flip, if the city adjecent to the city you captured was alot larger, well that's probaly the reason it flipped, or he might of iniated propaganda. thats why you should leave most of your important units one square outside of the city and leave a few defensive units in.

 

[BasketCase]

At higher difficulty levels, it's only going to get worse. The growing discounts the AI's get at higher levels will allow them to build more stuff--i.e. more stuff that generates culture. More culture for them. More flips for them.

 

[tR1cKy]

Another one has been hit by the culture flip disaster... welcome to the club!
The culture flip formula is quite flawed. Yes, in theory garrisoned units would help in keeping the city. The problem is that the formula generates ridicolous results, like 100 or more units needed to keep a size 10 city safe, or 30 units for a size 1 city...

In a few words: don't rely on garrisoned units to avoid cultural flips. You may feel quite sorry later.

 

[Turner]

Use CRPSuite, specifically MapStat. It will tell you exactly the chances of it happening. Link's in my sig.

 

[henry k c]

Try to rush a library or temple, and starve the population to prevent flips. Also, I found out an undefended city can't flip for some reason. Put units around the city instead.

 

[tR1cKy]

Also, I found out an undefended city can't flip for some reason.

Are you SURE? That would be a very important thing. Can someone confirm or deny this?

 

[Tomoyo]

Are you SURE? That would be a very important thing. Can someone confirm or deny this?

I'm pretty sure undefended cities can flip... They've flipped on me before...

 

[Theoden]

I've just had an undefended city flip to me. They definately can.

 

[tR1cKy]

Thanx Tomoyo and Theoden. I was very skeptical about that... but as Murphy said, there's always one more bug, and a bug can explain almost everything. Anyway, your counter examples settle the question.

 

[Slax]

Well I can testify to, on at least three occasions, having a flip, reloading the game save, taking all my forces out, and having no flip happen. I don't reload often, but I have never done this and had the undefended city flip, even when it did before the reload.

 

[gmaharriet]

Use CRPSuite, specifically MapStat. It will tell you exactly the chances of it happening. Link's in my sig.

I just downloaded it a week ago, and MapStat is WONDERFUL!!! I wasn't even aware my own cities built near another civ could flip, but MapStat shows that they ARE threatened and how many defenders are needed to prevent it happening. I only play on Warlord (so far), so maybe that's why I've never actually had it happen.

It also helps prevent unhappiness problems before they occur. How did I EVER play without it? Maybe I can finally get above warlord now.

 

[Theoden]

Well I can testify to, on at least three occasions, having a flip, reloading the game save, taking all my forces out, and having no flip happen. I don't reload often, but I have never done this and had the undefended city flip, even when it did before the reload.

That is because you have done something different, in this case you've moved your troops. This will confuse the preserve random seed (you have it on, right?) and it will treat it as a different case. If you are lucky the new case will be that the city doesn't flip.

 

[Renata]

I'm not sure that just moving troops will change the random seed, but different battles would, which could easily happen if your troops are in a different place. The flip calculation parameters would also be altered due to the lack of a garrison; depending on which random numbers produce which outcome, this might account for it in and of itself.

Renata, who's had more than a few undefended cities flip ...

 

[777]

Poor lucky, dude. IMO whole culture flip idea is laughable

 

[citizen001]

Don't capture unless it has a wonder, or you can destroy the AI quickly. Better to raze and replace.

 

[CoolioVonHoolio]

Don't capture unless it has a wonder, or you can destroy the AI quickly. Better to raze and replace.

Yes thats usually what i do but im the one with most of the wonders so its hard to find enemy cities that do have wonders

 

[rysingsun]

usually in my games i dont defend cities except on the turn of capture or after the ai is eliminated. curiously ive never had a city flip on the turn after capture and now im being told that they can indeed flip. but my empty cities certainly do flip. all the time. ive had four empty cities flip on one turn ... to an ai with no cities left and a mia settler

 

[Elrohir]

Something like this happened to me: I was at war with the stupid Celts because they were invading my friends the Spanish. Using my advanced technology (Tanks and MA against Calvary) I thrashed them royally and took a good 1/4 of their Empire before they sued for peace. I granted it, (They had to give me some gold though) and the very next turn....BAM! I lose one of my cities with an army with 3 Tanks and 1 MA in it. So of course I reloaded.


I feel your pain Hidden Evil.

 

[citizen001]

Reloading is a sin punishable by DEATH.



only kidding