The <AI civ name> game developers have created a new game of Civilization !

[sorinache]

Anyone encountered this random event before ?

Something strange happened in my game (where I am approaching a space race victory thanks to the mega hammers from Mining Inc.).

As I said, playing an archipelago with the carthaginians as neighbors - we are generally best buddies having traded and exchanged techs all game long. They joined my war against Isabella a century ago and when Shaka, Bismark and his vassal Justinian declared war on me around 1950, Hannibal joined on my side again.

On the other hand, at some point (around 1940) I notice a tile belonging to the fat cross of one of my cities changes color and becomes carthaginian ! Oops !? What's that supposed to mean ? 50% Carthaginian, 49 % English ... since when ? Hey, this is MY land ! I check two turns later : 51% Carthaginian, 48 % English ... hmmm, this is definitely rotten !

To cut a long story short, two of my best cities (the military-unit one with Heroic Epic and West point and the commerce-one with wall street - which I finally got around to build) have been culture-BLITZKRIEGED by the Carthaginians ! I never had something like that happen to me in Civ IV vanilla : I am currently running free speech with my slider at 60% culture (finished researching the tech tree), these 2 cities have each 4 artists AND I built the Cathedral+Hindu Mandir+Jewish Sinagogue (+150% culture) in each of them yet I am constantly losing ground (I only managed to slow down but not stop let alone reverse the carthaginian cultural onslaught) - one of the two cities is now bordering directly carthaginian territory, i.e they managed to flip a tile right next to my city ! All the while being "pleased" and chummy and helpful against the germans !

But wait, this is not all : at some point the koreans have spread Sid Sushi's to my capital. I instantly thought "Ha, ha, Hannibal, watch me coming !" - spread Sid Sushi's to most of my cities (this corporation is truly amazing, too bad I had no great merchant to found it ...). Which added (depending on the marauding german or zulu destroyers sinking my fishing boats) +24 to +38 culture per turn to each of them (and that is before +100% for free speech and + gazillions % for various buildings). My two cities are producing 450 - 500 culture per turn ! Btw, I know this is no record, my capital and my ermitage city are doing even better. But still, this is far from ridiculous. I frankly don't understand what happens ! The phenomenon is being localized - because of this, I am vastly gaining ground in other places, including against a Carthaginian city (which happens to be next to my Ermitage city and is now almost completely engulfed by english territory). A "coal-mine" tile became english on the remote side of another carthaginian city (meaning the city itself is more than 50% english). And still I can't seem to be able to stop his progression on these 2 cities of mine ...

Trying to understand what is happening, I took to combing through the event list ... the only likely candidate is the one that gives the title : around 1936, I was informed that "the Carthaginian game developers have just developed a new game of Civilization !". At the time I smiled and thought nothing of it ...
Does anyone have more info on this ? I mean, what is causing the massive localized increase in carthaginian culture ? Does it have anything to do with said random event ? And, most importantly, will it stop ???

Thanks for your help

[wodan11]

Do you have espionage against the Carthaginians? Double click on the city to see if it's producing culture. If no espionage, go into WB and look at the Carthaginian city which is on the border pushing against you. See how much culture they have and what buildings etc.

If the city isn't producing the culture, then perhaps they are using spies to do a culture mission, or using Great Artist bombs. Otherwise, I would agree something strange is happening.

[sorinache]

Culture blitzkrieg

Do you have espionage against the Carthaginians?

Well, yes and no ... I do have some, enough for "see demographics" - I see their power graph ... but that's about it - I've tried to send a spy in their city, waited a turn there, then tried to double-click - nothing happened. Among the espionnage mission proposed I chose "perform counter-espionnage" which was the only one I saw that could possibly allow me to see the city (just maybe ...). In the event, the mission succeeded, I got a message that for 10 turns Carthaginian's espionnage missions against me were going to cost 200 % more but my spy was captured and I still couldn't see the city screen. I'm definitely of the opinion that BtS espionnage sucks, compared to the Civ IV vanilla implementation.

Double click on the city to see if it's producing culture. If no espionage, go into WB and look at the Carthaginian city which is on the border pushing against you. See how much culture they have and what buildings etc.

Sorry, what is WB ? I read a post from Jaybe where he says he can guess a lot about the ennemy city by just looking at it from close on, in full zoom mode - I'm not that used to the look of the various buildings - but anyhow, I can't see how they can be producing so MUCH MORE culture than I am as to continue pushing the border deep into my fat cross. I mean, I finished the tech tree (the Carthaginians didn't yet, so they probably keep some spending for research) and run the slider at 60% culture AND have Sid Sushi in this city AND all the culture buildings that exist in the game (including 3 monasteries which still add culture points if I remember well even after they stop adding beakers) AND the 3 Cathedrals (hindu/jew/christian) ... I know the city that pushes against mine 2 has Forbidden Palace (the little silver star). It might be it has Ermitage also, but still, hey !

If the city isn't producing the culture, then perhaps they are using spies to do a culture mission, or using Great Artist bombs. Otherwise, I would agree something strange is happening.

I thought about the spies - but I suspect the spies would diminish the english level in my tiles, which is not what I see, it really looks like a culture push from one of their cities (Hadrumetum) - while I'm losing ground from the east, my city is gaining ground against another carthaginian town, Thapsus, situated to its south-west (not like it can make up for what it loses though).

And I looked after carthaginains great artists when combing the event log - they had, if I remeber well, a great spy and a great general but no great artist during this period

[wodan11]

WB = World Builder. Go to the menu and you'll see it.

[joncnunn]

I've never had the AI get the create a new game of Civilization event, but I've gotten it twice. I think the choices are receive gold one time, science boost to Universities, or an extra happiness in all cities.
I suspect the AI city is building culture and has a lot of cultural multipliers as well.
Technicaly the World Builder would be cheating.
Legal modes though are check the Victory screen; if cultural victory is enabled then the Rival civ closet to cultural victory has his top 3 cities cultured listed; it may be on the list.
Another is the City Info / Wonder advisor lists the five best cities in the world. That AI city may be on that list.

[wodan11]

Technicaly the World Builder would be cheating.

Not if you're trying to discover if it's a bug. Or, even simply to educate yourself on a tactic the AI is using that you'd like to learn yourself.

[Theben]

The best answer to the Carthaginian problem is to attack and take their border cities, and perhaps raze them.

[Blaupanzer]

Just because you feel you can justify the use of the WB, that action is technically cheating, as joncnunn noted. Opening the WB invalidates the legitimacy of any results received post that point. It's okay to be curious, it IS single player, but don't mistake capability for legitimacy.

[sorinache]

The best answer to the Carthaginian problem is to attack and take their border cities, and perhaps raze them.

I'm not a warrior kinda' guy ... besides, they are sensibly superior in firepower (I guess the two are linked ...). Especially on the land - I've chosen to build mainly ships and planes (my map being archipelago ...) I would need probably about 20 - 30 turns to assemble an army that could challenge them. Above all, I launched my spaceship already, five turns from now I won't bother anymore.

Although, while I'm thinking, I could keep going for another 20-30 turns and then try to take this city, see what's in it ...

[Blaupanzer]

If you take it, you will only see a subset of what was there as the culture amount and all culture-supporting buildings will be destroyed. Somewhat randomly, other buildings may also be destroyed in the attack.

However, once you win, THEN you can open the WB and look at anything you want. The game is over in terms of recording, so looking at that time is NOT cheating.

[sorinache]

If you take it, you will only see a subset of what was there as the culture amount and all culture-supporting buildings will be destroyed. Somewhat randomly, other buildings may also be destroyed in the attack.

However, once you win, THEN you can open the WB and look at anything you want. The game is over in terms of recording, so looking at that time is NOT cheating.

Good, I'll do that, I'm really curious about this - I've increased my culture percentage to 70% and I still can't get back the land I lost, although now I've noticed that in other parts white (english, me) tiles are popping up in the middle of the orange (carthaginian) territory like measles

[wodan11]

Just because you feel you can justify the use of the WB, that action is technically cheating, as joncnunn noted. Opening the WB invalidates the legitimacy of any results received post that point. It's okay to be curious, it IS single player, but don't mistake capability for legitimacy.

I totally disagree.

If playing in a tournament, then yes strict rules are required. There are a ton of things that are cheating in a tournament. Some tournaments don't even allow you to refer to the manual during play. Clearly, such rules do not necessarily apply in a non-tournament format.

If playing for your own enjoyment, then a more liberal interpretation is called for.

It's not like there are CIV police who will storm your house.

[Blaupanzer]

I totally disagree.
It's not like there are CIV police who will storm your house.

Just because they haven't stormed YOUR house, that doesn't mean they are not out there. They take away your playing privelege for a sentenced period of time AND crank up the AI so that Noble is almost unplayable. And here you come along, suckering poor Sorinache into being the next one hit.

[Shogun Gunner]

Just because they haven't stormed YOUR house, that doesn't mean they are not out there. They take away your playing privelege for a sentenced period of time AND crank up the AI so that Noble is almost unplayable.

LOL

Yikes! I think the Civ Police must have been to my house!

[wodan11]

That's like the sex police we joked about in college. The Commonwealth of Virginia still has laws on the books that only missionary style is legal.