What is Culture? Might be a mod, that's up to the mod creator.
Or do you mean the Crusade expansion? The latest base version now is Retribution, I imagine it will fix any issues you have with Crusade (while creating a bunch of new issues).
As of Retribution, starbase modules and many buildings still do cost strategic resources, but those resources are also quite plentiful. Planetary Defense Domes are somewhere late in the tech tree for most races on that version. That's another thing, races all have the same basic tech tree now, with each race just differing a little bit, with some extra or locked out techs and buildings for variety.
Whoops, I did mean Crusade, my bad. Edited my initial post to fix, lol.
Thanks for the reply. But I do not have Crusade, nor any other DLC.
I have the base game without any DLC.
Yes, the base game has been updated and iterated, but that's been in parallel with the DLC's releases.
The "buildings and starbase modules now cost strategic resources" mechanic was introduced with the release of Crusade. Since I didn't have that DLC, they continued not to cost strategic resources for me at the time.
Now, after a few years, I've come back to the game and found that, even though I do not have Crusade or any other expansion, buildings and starbase modules do cost strategic resources now.
In other words, a mechanic that was once exclusive to Crusade was put into the base game at some point in the past few years.
What I am wondering is, did any other DLC-exclusive mechanics find their way into the base game at some point?
About the other thing, I have noticed all the tech trees being pretty similar now, which seems like kind of a shame, honestly. But apparently you need a DLC (Crusade, Retribution, or something else) to have the tech tree versions that give Planetary Defense Dome now, since the tech trees in my non-DLC base game do not have access to it.
