what is cultural linking?

[ak]

[Todd Hawks]

It means that civilizations which are culturally linked in reality (e.g. Romans, Greeks, Egyptians... French, German, English...) will start near each other.

So if you alway play as Rome, you can be quite sure the first civs you encounter will be the Greeks and the Egyptians (only if you turn on this option, of course).

Maybe you can check and change which civs belong to the same "culture" by looking in the editor.

[ak]

thanks

[JohnM2433]

No, you can't be sure another civ from your "global culture" will be the first civ you encounter at all. I almost always play with this option, and it only makes related civs more likely to be near you. They may well not be your nearest neighbors. They will be far more likely to be on your land mass, though, or one nearby.

And yes, you can change this in the editor ("Culture Group" in the Civiliztions tab). However, I've read that setting this option to "None" causes the game to crash when the palace view comes up (presumably because the game doesn't know what type of architecture to use as a default).

[Ethelred]

What it is, is interesting for a while then it gets old real fast if you play the same Civ a lot. I like France (except for the poncing BLUNDERBUSS armed Bleepeteer and PINK) and I got sick and tired of the Wicked Witches, Catherine and Elizebeth REAL fast. So I have it turned off and its going to stay that way unless I really feel a desperate need to oh say play Rome and but heads with the Greek Phalanxes.

[Todd Hawks]

John: That's why I said "QUITE" sure. Meaning "very" sure, not "absolutely" sure.

[JohnM2433]

That's what I thought you meant. But the first civ I encounter is only from the same global culture about half the time, so it's not "very sure" at all.

But then, I usually play on a Huge map, with continents. It's probably more "homogenizing" than with smaller maps or land masses. So your mileage may vary.

[Todd Hawks]

Interesting. I always ended up with the same neighbours before I turned off the option.

But then I still played on smaller maps so it might have to do with map size.

Or they tweaked it a little in one of the later patches.

[ChrisiusMaximus]

Usually playing as the Romans I never really tire of kicking Cleo's ass all across the map.