While playing the Sins: Rebellion beta as Advent, it felt to me that they (the Advent) lacked territorial control abilities that were similar to the TEC or the Vasari.  For my post, I will focus on the use of culture with the Advent loyalist ability to spread culture from controlled planets.

I like how the Advent can spread culture.  However, I do not feel that it provides comparable benefits the TEC economic strength or the Vasari military strength.  When playing the beta for Rebellion, I rushed an early build for the ability to have culture spread from controlled planets.  The ability was nice for establishing an early lead in culture, but did not provide any strategic incentives to pursue it.  As a result, I came up with the following proposal.

"The spread of culture for the Advent race will allow for the colonization of controllable bodies governed by minimum threshold value of culture"

In key points, my idea is broken down as follows:

-  The Advent race would be granted an ability to automatically colonize uncontrolled bodies through the presence of culture on that body.

-  A minimum threshold value for culture and time will be required for culture-activated colonization of a controllable body.  This value will require that players maintain culture on an uncontrolled body above a minimum threshold and for a minimum period of time.

-  Culture-activate colonization of a planet will be identical to the colonization of a planet through a basic colony ship.  No upgrades will be possible.  This will allow players to leverage culture, but still require them to invest funds into benefiting materialistically from the acquisition of a controllable body.

As this mechanic is culture-based, it would affect and be affected by currently existing culture mechanics or abilities in the game, such as the deliverance engine.  Below are some thoughts for integration into existing mechanics and abilities.

-  When Advent culture removes a controllable body from control of another faction, a 120-second timer (adjustable) is started.  At the expiration of the timer, if no actions have been taken that would otherwise reduce the level of Advent [player] culture on that controllable body, the body will be colonized under control of the player.  The level of colonization will be equal to that of a basic colony ship.

-  When a space station that is cable of preventing the loss of the planet through bombardment is present at a body being overthrown by culture, the defending faction may bribe the local populace into remaining loyal.  The amount to be paid will be proportional to the quantitative value of culture threatening the body.  The bribe will be paid from the resource pool.  It may be paid either in full credits or a mixture of credits and raw material resources.

-  The deliverance engine system will be able to deliver exactly 1/4 of the amount of culture required to overthrow control of a controllable body, scaling to the target body.  Players would be required to fire all four [required] deliverance engines within a time period equal to the cooldown of a single deliverance engine ability activation.

-  Defending players will have the option to bribe the population of a controllable body that is the target of an organized deliverance engine salvo.  The bribe required will be a scalar amount greater than the cost for a body being overthrown through the linear spread of culture.

To help counter the projection of power that this concept is proposing, the following ramifications for an Advent player should be considered:

-  When utilizing the culture mechanic for expansion, Advent players are susceptible to "wavering faith".  "Wavering faith" will be a passive effect.

-  When a planet that is colonized through the use of culture is overtaken by a hostile faction, the defending Advent player experiences a loss of culture spreading from the body which was overtaken.

-  The loss of culture will effectively repel, or reverse the spread of, the culture of the defending player.  The "anti-culture" will act as an opposing force to any existing established friendly culture around the body.  No replacement culture will be gained by any other factions.  The "anti-culture" will behave as a neutral culture.

-  The rate at which neutral culture spreads and the starting strength value will be dependent on the strength of the defending player's culture at the time of loss.

The objective of this concept is to provide the Advent a means to utilize the culture as a respectable threat that can assist in establishing an early-game presence.  The concept should not allow Advent to exert entire map control without requiring a military presence.

As this is simply a surface-level conjecture, this proposal will likely need additional work for implementation and balancing.  I would greatly appreciate additional comments and feedback regarding this proposal.

Saber