Cultural planet takeover does not work ?!

from GalCiv2 Forums
One of the fun things I used to do in CIV4 (used to do because I am addicted to this game now. Thanks Stardock;)) was try to take over cities with culture.

So, knowing I could do the same here I tied my old trick. Here is the setup: I played as Humans on "normal" and on a second or third turn Mars was colonized by the AI.

I was a bit upset over that and started a program of building a cultural star base right next to Mars. i researched deeply in to diplomacy (3-4 techs) and built a base up to +65 of infuence. My "cultural" border expanded and a red icon was displayed on Mars (skull and bons indicating that the planet was about to switch sides).

And then.... NOTHING. I played the game for another 40 turn or so and nothing happened.

Did anyone else see this happening? Did anyone else take over a planet with that red icon and if so, how long did it take to flip.

I also wanted to note that I updated the game with the latest patch.
THANKS
15,278 views 12 replies
Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
Which race owns the planet? Some races have high Loyalty stats, and thus it can take forever for their planets to flip.

Peace & Luv, Liz
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
Yep, I was able to take over two Yor planets during my last game... it took long, I din't count the turns but quite long... which didn't come as a surprise to me since the Yor have an insane Loyality bonus, stubborn robots that they are.

Haven't made any further experiments with cultural takeover, so can't they more than that.
Elemental: Reforged
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
I don't remeber. But I've been reading up on other people's experience and seems like that planet's IP was 18 when I started culture assalt and remained 18 for the rest of the game.

I'll try to be more careful not expand my efforts on planets you "can't" convert.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
The AI did that to me too on my first game.

I pretty much researched down the "yellow" branch of the tech tree (culture, history, etc) and Mars flipped back by the end of the game (which was on a tiny map and didn't take but 3 hours to play).

Cultural conversions do work, but they do seem to work much differently than in CivIV.

(Edit: It was the Altarians that had settled Mars.)
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
well if the ai built a reeducation center on the planet you will never filp it.
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
If Mars goes to a minor it is probably lost forever. In GC2 they are next to (if not totally) impossible to flip.

If it goes to a major it always comes back to me with or without culture base. It's just a matter of time that close to an influence giant like Earth
Reply #7 from Stardock Forums Top
You really need to crank a base up in order to get anything to flip. I only managed to subvert my first alien world after building up a base with an influence value of +175.

I usually pick one race to go after militarily and then steadily build up cultural bases against a second race, as an auxiliary strategy.
Reply #8 from Stardock Forums Top
On gigantic maps, I'll reach a point where I'm flipping 3-5 colonies a turn, so it definitely works, but as has been mentioned, some races have bonuses that make flipping them very hard. There's also improvements that affect flipping, including one superproject that prevents flipping (of the planet it is built on).
Reply #9 from Stardock Forums Top
I find flipping in Gal Civ 2 easier than in Civ3 or Civ4. The thing you've got to remember is that you need to be providing 3/4 (or maybe it's 4/5) of the culture for a planet before there's even a danger of flipping. You can take a look at the tool tip for the culture of a planet and it will tell you what percentage you're providing. Once you have the cultural domination tree all researched out, influence starbases flip planets like mad.

-Dewar
Reply #10 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
thanks, i'll try!
Reply #11 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Remember takes four times what their culture is to begin the process of flipping a planet.

Just a friendly master of the obvious statement from your local straykat.

W/R
Suralle
Reply #12 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Also remember that the red skull means you are 4x the influence. But that just means that the planet starts to roll against the flip. As long as it is successful it wont flip. The greater your influence the harder the roll. It is in a sense partially random. There are no guarantees. I have had planets flip with ease and some take forever like your mars. Also I would like to point out that a +65 cultural base isnt s--t. You can get them over 150 easily.