I was playing around in a 1v1 multiplayer with a friend to test the sync issue and some defensive structure arrangements. For the hell of it I made a starbase with maximum alligance and culture upgrades. The planets culture spread rate was a 26 points per tic (full culture research, and a communications structure was present in the garav well). Suprisingly after about 30 minutes my adveraries negboring planet's allegance was lost. My culture quite literally ran roughshod over the 2 nearby planets. In small games I doubt this would be particularly usefull but in longer ones it might give the Advent a new edge. The game I was playing was in no way realistic but I was wondering if anyone has had success using the Advent Starbase's culture upgrade verses the AI.