Culture flipping in DA

from GalCiv2 Forums
I was just thinking; with the special planets in DA we'll probably see much more intermixed empires as races who can colonise special planets will be able to waltz in and claim worlds in your systems which you're not yet able to use. So:

Will there be any way to warn off other races from taking planets inside your borders? Or maybe some method of claiming a planet before you can colonise it?

Will the AI be a bit smarter about where it colonises? Right now the AI almost always takes Mars or whatever crappy PQ4 world I have in my home system which gets flipped in no time at all and basically gives me a free colony and can sometimes start wars due to close borders/alarming influence. I don't think I've ever seen any of the AIs build the noflipping improvements on any good worlds they take inside my borders either, although they do sometimes try to shore them up with influence starbases.

With the new diplo options is there any chance of a no flipping pact so you won't take flip each others worlds? It always annoys me when I start crippling friendly races by fliping his worlds - often I'm forced to build them some influence bases.
9,177 views 11 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
It's true that "flagging" a planet in diplomatic options would be nice. Ye know "This planet is mine or suffers the consequences". If the AI doesn't really care about it, "Fine", if the AI wants it, "Okay, if you pay me 1000 BC".
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
It would be great to be able to deal with that diplomatically. If you can use influence to weaken military production, and you can use ships to intimidate other races, why not use diplomacy to change influence rules? At the very least, you could pay another race to not flip a planet.
Galactic Civilizations III
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Another aspect is, can you flip a world that you do not have the tech to colonize? I would hope not, but we'll see.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Yeah- I see problems. Perhaps influence shouldn't work on a planet you can't colonize fully, and there's a penalty after that depending on tech.

Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
how about you can make deals where you can say to an alien civ

okay ill give u X if you quit putting your influence of planet Y

with this agreement between the two civs that planet cannot be culture flipped by the opposing civ and maybe you can allow a very limited area of influence around the planet as well (one square in all directions or something like that)
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
there's a few points missed in these thread

first the flip is not decided by any race but directly by people
it's somewhat of a revolt against the original owner in favor of the new owner

I don't see how could one leader (either side) have any power on that directly (other than by propaganda & such

I agree though that races who have alliances and very close relations shouldn't flip that easily to each other (what's the point for people to revolt to a friendly race that people could have travelled to freely if they wanted ...)

also special worlds, could be flipped like any other world :
-if it's a terraforming problem, well since the planet is already colonized (albeit by another race) there's no more terraforming to do
-if it's a question of who can live there (a race with a specific resistance to hostile worlds), well they can still choose to flip, it won't change the fact that they are resistant

the only thing that could prevent these special worlds to be flipped is
if it's some special equipement which allows people to live there (and that this equipement have to be replaced/repaired) and you don't have the tech for that
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
there's a few points missed in these thread

first the flip is not decided by any race but directly by people
it's somewhat of a revolt against the original owner in favor of the new owner

I don't see how could one leader (either side) have any power on that directly (other than by propaganda & such

I agree though that races who have alliances and very close relations shouldn't flip that easily to each other (what's the point for people to revolt to a friendly race that people could have travelled to freely if they wanted ...)

also special worlds, could be flipped like any other world :
-if it's a terraforming problem, well since the planet is already colonized (albeit by another race) there's no more terraforming to do
-if it's a question of who can live there (a race with a specific resistance to hostile worlds), well they can still choose to flip, it won't change the fact that they are resistant

the only thing that could prevent these special worlds to be flipped is
if it's some special equipement which allows people to live there (and that this equipement have to be replaced/repaired) and you don't have the tech for that
These are good points and I imagine that influence flipping will work regardless of the techs required to colonize. Remember, when planets culture flips, it's still the previous residents living there... they are all magically replaced with your race.

However, this doesn't quite cover invasion, since Invasion seems to always be mass genocide .

If it's just a matter terraforming, then yes, invasion would still be possible, but if it's a special ability of the race to be able to inhabit the world type... *shrugs

Really, I'm kinda hoping for a seperate between Racial and Tech colonization: Racial abilities to colonize can't be invaded without the proper tech, but if the faction controling it has the technology for the planet type... then you can invade without having the technology yourself.

Just my 2 cents.
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
first the flip is not decided by any race but directly by people
it's somewhat of a revolt against the original owner in favor of the new owner

I don't see how could one leader (either side) have any power on that directly (other than by propaganda & such


Simple, the leader can just refuse to let them join his empire. By letting them know this beforehand any incentive to revolt should be removed.
Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Simple, the leader can just refuse to let them join his empire. By letting them know this beforehand any incentive to revolt should be removed.


Maybe then they could still revolt, but join another empire instead. This way there would be an unpredictable cost (or benefit) associated with rejecting a planet.

In the diplomacy screen, there could be an influence section with 'protect planet' and 'ignore planet' treaties. It would go along with a military section, with agreements like 'demilitarized zone' and 'defense alliance'. You could just trade them like any other commodity, and it would really give some power to the diplomacy side of things.
Reply #10 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I don't see why they would still revolt, their only reason for revolting is because they think the high influence empire is so much better than their own they would like to join it. If they know they can't they'll stay with their current empire, they don't dislike their own empire, or if they do they can perform an unhappyness revolt instead of a culture one.

It's like an office accross the street offering a better paid job but they turn you down when you apply. You don't quit your old job and live on the street.
Reply #11 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I don't see why they would still revolt, their only reason for revolting is because they think the high influence empire is so much better than their own they would like to join it. If they know they can't they'll stay with their current empire, they don't dislike their own empire, or if they do they can perform an unhappyness revolt instead of a culture one.


I see influence as more of a destabilizing influence in the game. Planets flip because of the disparity between two cultures, if one is better by comparison, than one is worse by comparison. The citizens do dislike their own empire, otherwise I don't see why they would revolt in the first place. I don't think there's a single historical example of a contented populace overthrowing their leadership. Perhaps a better possibility is that they can declare independence if you reject them. Or to be more realistic, influence can impact morale directly, and there won't be any direct culture-flipping.

It's like an office accross the street offering a better paid job but they turn you down when you apply. You don't quit your old job and live on the street.


No, but if everyone around you has great jobs and you have a good one, it could eventually make you discontent enough to quit.

In any case, it's more of a gameplay point. There needs to be some way of affecting influence rules through diplomacy, and the game needs a way to reject a converted planet.