Culture Slider?

[Pinchak]

I hardly EVER bump up the culture slider. Really, the only use I see for it is to prevent a city from flipping, or giving that extra nudge to make an enemy city flip.

To me, that seems like an expensive means to an end, when GAs or even just plain ol' troops will do the trick.

And yes, I am aware of how it works with certain buildings... but again, an expensive option IMO.

What I really want to know is, does anyone here use the slider on a regular basis? Perhaps there is some obscure stratagy that makes use of it? Only thing I can think of is going for a cultural win.

Or is it truly a "only in emergencys" utility, like I use it every once in a blue moon.

[Blake]

It's useful to run it during wars to keep war-weariness under control. As a bonus the cities freshly out of revolt have a huge amount of culture to instantly pop borders and quickly gain multiple culture levels for defenses.

[Croup]

Similar to what Blake says, I've used it before to keep war-weariness back, pop borders for newly taken cities as well as beat back the culture of a newly acquired vassal, or a former Civ's neighbor that is pushing in on my borders.

[Pinchak]

Interesting. I'll have to try those approaches.

I've just always regarded it as pretty much a tool for those going for a culture win.

[Blake]

Btw it's also worth using on higher difficulties when you are very low on happiness...
It's sort of like this.

Lets say your cities are stuck at size 5.
You build theatres and assign 10% culture, giving +2 happy.
Going from size 5 to size 7 represents 33% more tiles worked, at the loss of only 10% of your commerce (probably in reality 20% of your research rate).
It's also worth going up to 20% culture, especially with colos giving +5 happy. But beyond that, diminishing returns kick in in a pretty bad way.

Basically running the slider to get your cities up to ~ size 10 is worthwhile, as new happiness sources come online you probably want to drop the slider.

[Will9]

I have my game modded to let me change sliders at 5%. This lets me sacrifice less science for some extra culture although I still rarely use it.

[Blaupanzer]

Civs that create extra culture anyway benefit more from the slider. So called "Creative" civs really pop the overall borders with the help of the culture slider. At levels above Prince, the slider is a Godsend for creating happiness. Worth it to Beeline from alphabet to theaters just to keep those angry citizens from popping up. Of course you can use slavery to sacrifice those people, but it's better to keep them working.

[Tiberius]

Re: Culture Slider?

Originally posted by Pinchak
What I really want to know is, does anyone here use the slider on a regular basis? Perhaps there is some obscure stratagy that makes use of it? Only thing I can think of is going for a cultural win.

I use it on a regular basis, but the reason is not obscure at all. I like to flip cities and when I have the chance I go for cultural win at the end of the game.

[Pinchak]

hmmmm...

I don't know, all of these stratages mentioned seem like they would work, but I can think of such cheaper ways of getting the same effect.

Overall though I have a much better understanding of various alturnate uses for the culture slider.

[rjmatsleepers]

I use the culture slider under two circumstances.

Firstly after someone has gone for emancipation, I sometimes use the culture slider to keep the population sweet while I stay in another civic.

Secondly, when I'm building the spaceship and I've finished researching all the technologies I need, I put the culture slider on maximum until I launch. It seems to increase the score somewhat, although I'm not sure many people take much notice of the score.

RJM

[uffe]

Similarly to some others here, I use the slider often during wars to keep my core cities happy. As mentioned, this also has the advantage of bumping the borders quickly after the unrest in the captured city is over.

Another instance, when I use the slider, even if happiness wouldn't be a major concern is in the end-game, when I'm aiming to domination victory (which is 95% of my games). When you are rolling over the AIs with your tank-bomber-gunship army, you can achieve domination somewhat quicker with the culture bumping your borders to the 64% limit.

[MrWhereItsAt]

Originally posted by Pinchak
hmmmm...

I don't know, all of these stratages mentioned seem like they would work, but I can think of such cheaper ways of getting the same effect.

Overall though I have a much better understanding of various alturnate uses for the culture slider.

Again, in wartime is when I most use it, when I want my big cities with lots of WW to stay productive and not starve - they have built all the happiness improvements they can, and often I am at war partly because I am out of new happiness resources to hook up.

[Nugog]

Originally posted by MrWhereItsAt
in wartime is when I most use it, when I want my big cities with lots of WW to stay productive and not starve

ditto.

[guermantes]

Originally posted by Blake
As a bonus the cities freshly out of revolt have a huge amount of culture to instantly pop borders and quickly gain multiple culture levels for defenses.

So if I capture a city that will go through 7 turns of revolution and if I immediately upon capture use the culture slider to produce culture, will the captured city produce culture for 7 turns and first on the 8th turn 'apply' all this culture to the map or will the city only start to procude culture on the 8th turn?

I was under the impression that a city in revolt does not allow any activity at all, but Blake's comment seem to imply that culture can be produced 'under the blanket' so to speak during revolt, culture that then is 'realized' after the revolt.

[Kloreep]

Originally posted by MrWhereItsAt
Again, in wartime is when I most use it, when I want my big cities with lots of WW to stay productive and not starve - they have built all the happiness improvements they can, and often I am at war partly because I am out of new happiness resources to hook up.

Indeed.

Even if I've grown my cities without using the slider, they're often on a thin edge with regards to happiness - after all, it's the only hard cap you have to growth. As a result, I often need the extra happiness boost once WW kicks in.