Please someoen to explain how the empire borders are calculated?

[Handel]

I have 3 tiles between my border city and the enemy city. Judging by the defence ratio I have 1 level more culture (I have 60% and theirs is 40%) and nevertheless all the 3 tiles between both cities are in enemy teritory.

[Jaybe]

I don't know that "defense bonus from culture" is related to culture expansion. If you mouse-over the intervening tiles, you will see percentage values (e.g., 54% Spanish). Any civ with over 50% gets the tile.

IF it is early in the game, then plopping down a Great Artist in the city may give you more territory, and you might even keep it long term (or maybe NOT). I once squeezed in a city near another's borders but ended up giving the city away -- I didn't know that it was 4-5 tiles from the other civ's Capital!

[Manuel]

It's important to keep in mind that tiles have a memory of what culture has and has had a presence on them. If your city is relatively new compared to your rivals city the surrounding tiles will not have had enough time to absorb (so to speak) your culture.

Give those tiles time to catch up to you. It doesn't have to take an incredibly long time especially if your city is outproducing the other in culture, which it sounds like it is doing.

[Handel]

Jaybe, thanks for the advice, but I know all this. It is not the question how to build culture, but the question is "why"
Why the enemy has all the three tiles when my city has more culture then his. And how the tile "possesion" (the percentage) is calculated?

[khearn]

Has his city been there longer that yours? Culture takes time to diffuse out from a city into the surrounding countryside. If his city has had more time for its culture to spread, it will have control of the tiles. If your city is new, even if you've cranked up its culture by a culture bomb or just putting in lots of culture buildings, it will take time for your culture to spread.

Mouseover the tiles that he controls that are closest to your city and check the percentage. Watch it from one turn to the next and see if his percentage is falling. If so, you'll eventually get control when his percenatge falls below 50%. It just takes time.

[Arrian]

Their city is evidently more cultured than yours, or yours is significantly newer and your superior culture hasn't had enough time to saturate the tiles in between the cities and "flip" them over to you. If you're out-producing the AI's city in culture, you will get those tiles eventually.

-Arrian

[The diplomat]

Re: Please someoen to explain how the empire borders are calculated?

Originally posted by Handel
I have 3 tiles between my border city and the enemy city. Judging by the defence ratio I have 1 level more culture (I have 60% and theirs is 40%) and nevertheless all the 3 tiles between both cities are in enemy teritory.

The defence bonus will either be the defence bonus granted by culture or the defence bonus granted by terrain/city improvements whichever is higher. So, the defence bonus will not necessarily be an indicator on how big your borders will be.

[Handel]

Re: Re: Please someoen to explain how the empire borders are calculated?

Originally posted by The diplomat


The defence bonus will either be the defence bonus granted by culture or the defence bonus granted by terrain/city improvements whichever is higher. So, the defence bonus will not necessarily be an indicator on how big your borders will be.

Well, my bonuse is entirely from culture, so theirs doesn't matter - either way their culture is lower. But 40% defence bonus is typica; for culture only defence.

[Aeson]

If you want to see the actual numbers involved, use Ctrl-Shift-D and allow debug tools, then hold shift and hover over the tile to see the exact cultural values for the tile.

[Bluefusion]

Someone also highlighted how cultural borders may also be calculated by how much culture neighboring cities receive per turn. In effect, cities with more culture/turn take over more land, even if it has a smaller amount of culture.

I don't know if this has been verified or debunked, but it would explain why culture bombing has no effect in certain cities, even after a number of terms.