Newbie Question: Culture Modifiers

[Purna]

I'm still waiting for UPS to deliver the retail game, so I only know what I've seen in the demo. Perhaps this will all become clear when I get the manual, but I am really curious...

Does the 'culture' setting do more than apply the cultural modifiers to the characteristics as indicated in the table? If not, some of these culture choices make no sense to me.

Why would you choose Xenophobe over Schemer, for example, when Schemer has the same bonus to Intel and no penalties?

Similarly, why choose Neutral over one of the many cultures that only has positive bonuses, like Traders, Artisans, Scientists, Workers, and Schemers?

And why choose Merchant or Engineer, when you can make the same characteristic changes "by hand" on the next screen and get more racial points to distribute (50 for Merchant and 450 for Engineer!)?

I am befuddled.

[Suicide Junkie]

If you want REALLY good repair rate or REALLY low maintenance, the engineers or merchants might be required.

Some of the cultures are imbalanced, and are commonly altered in mods.

[Purna]

So, for example, you would pick engineer if you wanted to exceed the repair cap of 150? Even getting to repair 150 with the same bonuses and penalties as an engineer only costs 2925 racial points when applied "by hand," whereas it costs the engineer 3000 to get to repair 145. Is it really fruitful to go above repair 150, or is engineer not commonly played?

Of the unmodified cultures, which are generally considered superior? Is it simply a matter of total racial point costs/bonuses, or is it deeper than that?

Solely based on racial point costs/bonuses, I get the following ordering:

+525 Berserker
+525 Warrior
+375 Worker
+350 Zealot
+250 Artisan
+125 Scientist
+125 Schemer
+125 Trader
+75 Politician
0 Neutral
0 Renegade
-50 Merchant
-125 Xenophobe
-450 Engineer

(I am assuming that Space Combat culture modifiers apply to both attack and defense.)

I know that some traits are more important than others, but except for going outside the normal allowed ranges, it seems that you can just pick a high point-bonus culture and "undo" the cultural modifiers to start with.

Maybe you don't think productivity is important. You could still pick Worker, for a +5% productivity bonus, and then set mining/farming/refining aptitude to 95. You're back to a "neutral" culture, but you have 375 extra points to spend on whatever it is that you do consider important!

So, what am I missing? Do people pick a culture solely so they can exceed the normal attribute caps, or do they just choose the ones worth a lot of bonus racial points?

[Fyron]

Traits get more expensive per 1% past 120 (though it is 110 for some, like Maintenance). Look in Settings.txt for the specific changes to costs. For example, it costs 500 points to get Maintenance to 110. To then raise it to 115 costs 1000 points. However, of you take Merchants, you can get 115 maintenance trait and save that 1000 points.

Berzerkers can be a very deadly culture. Take it and 125 aggressiveness and defensiveness, and you get a base bonus of 35% to hit enemies and to your ECM rating. This stacks with training, Combat Sensors and ECM, Stealth and Scattering Armor, and ship hull bonuses. With equal levels of technology, your ships will still have those 35% bonuses, and will be hit far less often than you will hit the enemy.

[ August 20, 2002, 05:39: Message edited by: Imperator Fyron ]

[Purna]

Berserkers, huh? :-)

I guess that answers my question. Not only do berserkers have the highest racial point bonus, but they also allow the highest Space Combat Ratings if you max out the attributes. You get to have your cake and eat it too.

I can see how merchants easily work off their mere 50 point deficit if you cross that 110 boundary on maintenance, but engineers are harder to justify.

I'm also still really curious as to why anyone would pick a xenophobe over a schemer.

[Fyron]

Roleplay purposes maybe.

[Puke]

Xenophobes are mainly there for the AI. normally, the computer will capitulate when you reach 10x (i think) its score. If the computer is xenophobic, it wont give up until you have 60x its score (if i remember correctly).

but to answer the question of if people pick traits for the point value given, or to get high ranking attributes: a little of column A, a little of column B.

if you truely dont care about combat bonuses, because you dont like shooting things or you're confident in your superior technology and numbers, then taking Berzerker wont help you. you are going to minimize your combat scores anyway, and you might as well pick a trait that gives you some points in something you do care about. On the other hand, you might pick some tree-hugger trait with further penalties to combat, because it gives you points in another place (that you can in turn lower and respend elsewhere).

[capnq]

For solo games, I always pick culture purely for roleplaying reasons; I only hit Display Values to remind myself what I'm getting into.