Broadcast center versus Trade center

Except that culture raises *all* of your planets' allegiance by 10%, not just the one (it does take a while to spread). Of course, this means there's no need for a broadcast center at every planet, leaving you free to stuff them with trade ports

Your own culture gives positive "allegiance income", which grants allegiance growth.
However, planets have an allegiance maximum dependent on the distance from the capital.

Planets start 10% below maximum allegiance so culture can bring them to the maximum or help recover losses from hostile culture.
Additional culture does not increase allegiance any further.

You cannot use culture for "additional" income like trade ports, but only to offset the starting penalty and the allegiance losses due to hostile culture.

Of course culture also gives fighting benefits.

Allegiance also affects your metal/crystal extraction rates.

You wouldn't expect the broadcast centre to be as credit-effective as a trade port; it has other benefits.

Finance wise, the trade ports become increasingly effective later in the game, when you extend a good distance from your homeworld. Trade ports are not subject to the alligence penalty, so when you get to maximum distance (35% alligence with a BC), a single decent trade port will earn more than any planet, other than a fully populated terran planet.

Okay so the broadcast center doesn't even raise the allegiance cap, it just increases the rate at which you reach it? So basically unless you're specifically trying to flip planets or are getting owned by enemy culture this building isn't really worth building.

the broadcast center raises it by 10% ONCE and also raises all planets allegiance cap where the "culture" stream moves to.

It does NOT raise the cap.
Planets start 10% below max and the growth without culture is zero, so every planet gains an economic boost by culture.

The economic benefit of culture is big, but you only need a few culture buildings for it.

it DOES raise the cap, advent can raise it by another 10% :V

Yeah, Advent can raise the cap by researching another technology that does raise the cap...

Culture itself does not raise the cap, only the allegiance growth rate.
Which is capped too.

dude have you even checked what you are saying? culture DOES raise it
your home planet gets 110%, planets 1 away get 100% instead of 90% like it was before.

Did you check what I was saying?

Every planet starts 10% below the cap (aka maximum allegiance).

Start a new game and look at your homeworld.
It starts with 100% allegiance. However, its maximum allegiance (aka the cap) is 110%.
Depending on the distance to the Homeworld planets have different caps for maximum allegiance, and they always start 10% below it.

Culture gives allegiance growth, which helps/allows getting to that maximum, but does not in any way directly effect the reachable maximum.

Ok I think I got it now. So culture raises the cap by 10%, but you don't necessarily need the broadcast center in order to get culture, however if you're near enemies you'll probably want one.

heh... perhaps we use the word differently...

"Cap" mean the highest attainable level for me.

The highest attainable level is influenced only by distance from the capital and by "max allegiance" increasing technologies.

You need culture to reach your maximum allegiance, since the base growth is zero.
The highest attainable level of allegiance is completely unrelated to having culture or not.

Culture does not raise the cap.

You need at least 1 broadcast center.
and i stand corrected, they actually DO start at 10% below max.
thats a really weird gameplay mechanism that goes against logic imo.

I guess it was implemented that way so culture does not "only" offset losses due to enemy culture, but gives a direct boost to income.

so is there any point in having more than one broadcast centre?

i'm at a point where i don't need any more income (have like 900K credits)

900k? I assume singleplayer then...

Depending on the size of your empire a single broadcast center might not be able to reach all your planets in your lifetime.

You will also need more then one if the enemy has any if you want to avoid economic losses (long term you can even lose planets to it).

Yeah, they slowly reduce the allegiance of enemy planets to 0%, right?

And will the planets not reach their maximum "extra" 10% allegiance if there is no broadcast center nearby? Of course more than 1 broadcast center will grow your allegiance on friendly/enemy planets faster, right?

Allegiance growth is diminished for planets it has to cross.

There also is a natural decay.
If you sell all broadcast centers you can see your culture shrink, even if the enemy has no culture.

So yes, in a larger empire a single broadcast center on one side will not be able to reach planets on the far end.

But aren't they also cumulative for/against friendly/enemy planet allegiance growth?

And does a broadcast center far away give as much culture as one that is close?
I will be pretty dissapointed with this game if there is no real strategic option in choosing how to max out your logistic slots, other than quanity in frigate factories and trade centers/refineries! ;:/

Yes, two broadcast centers on one planet will give double the culture production there, increase the "range" and the allegiance growth rate/loss for enemies in the affected systems (up to the respective growth rate caps).

Distance is important though.
Broadcast centers on one end of your empire will have much less effect on the other end because of the natural decay and the range penalty.

Massing broadcast centers can be useful on frontier worlds to either fight enemies with a culture push, or counter an enemy culture push.

Massed broadcast centers in the middle of a huge empire however have less of an effect
(Depends on the actual amount though).



There are other factors however.

If you look at the planet info card you will see that a single broadcast center gives a different amount of culture on different planets, I would assume based on population of the colony.
So a maxed desert or terran world one or two jumps away might be more effective than an asteroid as cultural nexus.

In those huge maps of multiple star systems(usually for comp stomp games), it may be a good idea to build broadcasting centres to speed up your conquest of new systems. Instead of expanding my production and fleet cap, which can push the upkeep so high.
I like to spam broadcasting with planetery defenses in new planets i occupy for the sake of denying my opponents from recolonzing them.
Once you have taken full control of one star system, you should have multiple fleets,research labs and huge income that you will have little need of extra resources. Having culture all over the place can
1. drop enemy planets or at least restrict ther productivity
2. give tactical advantage to your fleet
3. prevent your enemy from colonizing anything near your territory.
Culture gives you the extra helping hand to suffocate your enemy.
Especially when they are always fleeing .....

I use broadcasting stations alot once I began getting far away from my capital. Planet far out can only have so much allegiance, but havign strong culture helps get them as high as they can go.

Problem with using culture to deny the enemy planets is that capital ships push back culture. The enemy can jump in, idle a minute with his caps and wait for your culture to clear and then grab the planet. One culture build placed there by himself and all your culture effort was for nothing and the planet will be able to hold itself. If you really went massive with the culture production then he may even need 2-3 culture hubs of his own but that's really it. And those 3 will counter like .. 10 of yours

Best thing is to simply place one hub on every 3-4 worlds. That way, all colonies get the 10% income raise from the culture (and a 10% raise on all income, mining and taxes, on 3-4 worlds is worth more then the 3 credits via trade) and all other logistic slots can be used for trade.

Good thread. I got on here wondering what exactly those do and how to use them. Now I can add their abilities to my dominance!