Culture is a very important component of
Civ III. It is the general social cohesion of your civ, as well as the impact
of your nation's philosophy and arts on the world. Culture is reflected in Civilization
III by the great works created by your peoples, and when they were completed relative
to other civilizations in the game.
Culture's effects are most visible in
the expansion of borders, but it also affects how other civs interact with you
in diplomatic sessions, and can be a major factor when dealing with conquered
cities. One of our goals in developing the culture system was to provide a powerful
alternative to war and conquest. Like diplomacy and trade, culture is intertwined
so closely with the other major game systems that ignoring it will have dire consequences.
Culture also represents your influence over the lands that
surround your cities. As the culture of a city increases, it enters a queue that,
when filled, causes the borders of a city to expand. As borders expand around
your cities, they can eventually join to create a unified national border. Culture
also helps decide border disputes; if two cities are equal distances away from
a resource square and that resource could fall inside either city's borders, the
city with the higher culture will win out. Finally, a smaller city bordering a
larger city with a substantial culture will sometimes be assimilated into the
Civilization with the more dominant culture.
Other civs will treat
you differently depending on your culture. Civilizations that are "in awe"
of your culture, for example, would be more inclined to accept a deal than a civ
whose culture is on par with yours. Having a culture advantage essentially allows
you to tip the scales in favor of yourself during diplomatic sessions.
In Civilization III,
each citizen in a city has nationality. When a city is conquered by a civ, the
citizens in the conquered city will retain their nationality, even as new citizens
are born with the nationality of the conquering civ. For example, if the Greeks
capture Paris, a pop 5 city, all five of those existing citizens retain their
French nationality, even though new citizens that appear in the city will be Greek.
These "foreign nationals" may "resist" for many game turns,
depending on the cultures of the conquering civ and the conquered civ. Resisters
do not generate any output and can throw your cities into revolt.
In extreme
cases, a city with substantial culture can actually fight off its conquerors and
return to its original nationality, but in most cases, resisters will eventually
rejoin the rest of the population and contribute to a city's production. Finally,
over time, foreign nationals can assimilate into the culture of the city in which
they live. How fast this happens depends both on their national culture and the
culture of the city they currently reside in, as well as the government type of
their current city.
Culture is produced in your cities. The most common way to produce
culture is by building city improvements like temples, libraries,
coliseums, courthouses and cathedrals. Wonders and small wonders
(small wonders are less-powerful versions of wonders that each
Civ can build, but only one can be built per civ) also produce
culture.
Each
city produces a number of culture points (cp) per turn, depending on the wonders
and city improvements you've built. These culture points are added to your total
culture value, which represents the sum of all your cultural influence since the
beginning of history. Also, there is an "age bonus" for cultural buildings.
The longer a building has stood in your cities, the more culture that building
generates per turn. This means the Oracle wonder you built in the ancient era
can still be a powerful generator of culture in the modern era, even though its
effects have long since been negated.
Your total culture points
will never decrease when a city is captured, however your culture per turn will
decrease. When a city is captured, the conquering civ will gain no culture from
any of the buildings in that city. If that city is reclaimed by its original founders,
however, culture will once again be generated, but all age bonuses are lost.
For
example, I am Greek and my city of Athens houses the venerable Hanging Gardens,
which have stood for 500 years. I might receive 50cp per turn from the Hanging
Gardens due to their age. I might also receive 15 total cp per turn for all my
other culture-producing buildings. If the Americans capture my city, they will
receive 0 cp per turn from Athens, since all the buildings in Athens were built
by the Greeks. If I later reclaim Athens, I will once again receive culture from
it, but I might now only receive 20cp per turn for my Hanging Gardens because
I no longer get the "age bonus" for having a 500-year old wonder. My
other city buildings might also now only contribute 6 cp per turn.
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