Beta 5 Culture Flips Still Overpowered

I believe the AI is powerless against mass consules. it doesn't react at all to generate counter-culturen points.

I've seen this even in taking over systems with 3 enemy colonies + a class 8 barren world. Even if the AI has 100 culture on each of the other 3 planets his culture generation is pathetic, while that class 8 with 5-6 consules reaches +12 to +22 and flips the entire system after some time.

I think the biggest problem with culture is that you only need one planet to win with it.  Culture needs to be weaker at large distances than it currently is.

I tend to agree. At the least I think a culture being overtaken by another, should put up some sort of military fight to sustain their home world. I was quite surprised last night  the home world planet did nothing as i watched my culture annex it. Even more surprising was the diplomacy menu, they were still happy with me!

Maybe a two tiered solution.  Overwhelming culture flips normally (ie if they colonize a planet in the heart of your empire you should have a decent chance of being able to flip it without issue) but flipping planets at the current strength requires something like a declaration of war that comes with a large diplomacy hit.

You could call it a cold war or a culture war or something like that.

Another possible solution is that once espionage is in current strength flipping requires espionage actions against the planet you're trying to take.

Edit: It would also be nice if my culture didn't take planets from my allies.

All good points.  A clear problem is that the AI just doesn't react to massive cultural centers, making them overpowered in solo play.  I kind of like the idea of defending a planet before it gets flipped, but it would be hard to implement and balance.  Maybe make it a factor of the planets resistance times the planets defense?  So you could protect your planet by adding defensive installations to it?  That would probably help the AI problem a little, too.  I still think cultural gain should be at least halved, though.  Otherwise a single large cultural center engulfs too much of the galaxy too quickly.  I like the espionage idea as well.  Maybe you can use espionage both to protect and to try to flip other planets.  Then once a flip would actually take place give the planets defense a chance to put down the rebellion.  

The thing we're all missing here is, if you're taking them over culturally, and they are happy with your culture, then of course, they aren't going to respond militarily, in fact, they'll tighten the relationship between your two people, until, at its logical conclusion, the two become one.

I reject the seeming primary assumption of this game that the entirety must revolve around combat.

I keep reading something along these lines on the forum; "if they're happy with you, they stay happy with you?  That's crazy!"

Personally, I find the super-snarky, dripping-with-violence "benevolent" civilizations "crazy"... aren't they supposed to be the "good guys"?

Is this "american politics"-style "good guys", do as we say or we'll drone you?

Can we take a brief moment, and look at "lawful good" in Dungeons and Dragons, and then review "Benevolent" in the dictionary?

Pretty sure this "friendly-type warfaring race" doesn't fit the bill.

The people on the planets enveloped by your influence want to change sides, but its doubtful their government wants to lose the planet.

A race joining you because of good relations is what happens when they sign an assimilation treaty with you  (I think, I've never actually done it since its in the last tech age).

As stated above, I like that you can win by culture.  For me, in an ideal game, all possible victories would be as close to equally achievable as possible.  I find that culture is a far easier way to win than any other method.  That is my problem.  In fact, I have trouble enjoying the game because I keep accidentally winning cultural victories, including over my allies.  And I think Yeller puts it perfectly, the people of a planet want revolution, its government certainly does not, especially if they're already at war with me.  Keep in mind, I never WANT a cultural victory. In fact, I intentionally stifle my culture most of the time so i don't spontaneously take over the galaxy.  

Also, using the influence line of perks in the benevolent ideology tree at all is basically instant cultural victory.  If the +100% influence to home world doesn't make things one sided then the third perk where everything in your influence instantly swaps (including entire minor races) definitely will.  The last time I used that perk the galaxy went from being roughly a third mine (out of three players) to being completely mine in maybe 5 turns.  No fun.

Maybe in multi player this is more balanced because humans are smart enough to generate counter-culture and correctly use ideology, but as the AI are currently it's no longer any fun to play against them because I know I'll end up with another cultural victory. 

As it stands, it's too easy to flip over enemy planets.

1. It doesn't provoke the necessary AI response.
2. The AI does not respond with its own culture or something else like a massive military response after a certain point.
3. The issue is that it's possible to win a culture victory without really trying - you have to suppress culture for other types really.

The first problem is that the AI intelligence needs to be improved here.

The second is that culture itself needs to be nerfed somewhat. It should be harder to flip planets.