I think this could be a new option of attack in the space portion. Instead of raiding the cities, we could use propaganda as has been done in other games. Maybe we can have our planets focus on producing culture, and we could build space stations for that. You select which city you are targeting when producing culture, and the big slider begins moving. This way we end up defending our planet (and possibly our space stations) from attack rather then razing their cities. Already this sounds better then attacking as the cities will be unmolested, so we need some advantage to attacking as well. Maybe attacking is much quicker, or the cities get damaged in a revolt with religious attacks.

Red = Combat = Conquering
Blue = Trade = Buying systems
Green = Peace = Alliances

I understand what you're suggesting, but it sounds really close to being the traders route to expansion.

There's fanatical frenzy... just be careful who you crusade nearby.

I think this has been done very well in both RTS and TBS games with a kind of cultural border... in Spore's case it would probably manifest as a sphere extending out from colonized systems. Culture could be done easily by making it dependent on the amount of happy faces on the colony; the more happy faces the wider the radius. However I don't think cultural conversions could be done fairly in this game. Instead culture should just boost the speed of existing processes, the stronger your culture output the less destruction you would need to conquer a nearby planet or the less time to finish progress on a trade route.

Honestly, I always thought cultural conversions were a copout; when in history do you ever hear of a city just saying "To hell with our nationality, we want to be like these guys!" I do however, think that a strong culture in real life just makes the other functions way easier, and this system would really reflect that.

whitedevil wrote:Honestly, I always thought cultural conversions were a copout; when in history do you ever hear of a city just saying "To hell with our nationality, we want to be like these guys!"

City? How about something bigger: Texas

Trafalgar wrote:

whitedevil wrote:Honestly, I always thought cultural conversions were a copout; when in history do you ever hear of a city just saying "To hell with our nationality, we want to be like these guys!"

City? How about something bigger: Texas

For that matter, it may not be peaceful conversion of culture. The Romans were pretty forceful with their culture; they used their culture like another weapon. Changing local myths, showing the benefits of being 'civil', and so on to encourage the locals to accept their rule. Some Chinese dynasties attempted to control the different rival dynasties or prior dynasties by forcing a change in custom; by changing what they were and what they did, they fostered a distance between the conquered and their past and strengthened the commonality between conquerer and conquered.

That doesn't mean it's a total conversion; obviously not everyone will change, but it doesn't matter. If a critical mass of the population changes, it carries it's own weight.

trafalgar wrote:

whitedevil wrote:Honestly, I always thought cultural conversions were a copout; when in history do you ever hear of a city just saying "To hell with our nationality, we want to be like these guys!"

City? How about something bigger: Texas

lol nice reference