maybe one last thing: for those of you in the betas, when it could still flip, do you really think it was overpowered? I remember it was an issue you definately had to guard yourself against, but that's effectively a good thing. but overpowered? not really, since it only really worked with bordering planets and if you weren't cought totally offguard, a quick strike to take the stations out would give you enough time to get your own stations up and stabelise the situation.You know, to be honest I don't exactly remember why it was changed to not flip. I think part of the reason was that it made it way too easy, and the other for "in-game reasons" - mainly that your culture only affects the general population, so when the allegiance drops to 0 the population rebels against their government, but you still don't have any of your own presense there to establish your own, which is why you need to "colonize".
One of the main things though that changed is that when the planet is NOT flipped (as it is now) the player who lost it can still send capitals, which do push back culture from neutral planets (the beta, when planets were flipping, did not). So the defender can still try and recover it with his fleet, because back in the beta if you built all labs, and the other guy built all culture, you were more or less screwed because short of scuttling all your buildings and building broadcasts there was nothing you could do.
In any case, I don't expect complete planet flipping to come back, since it was tried and scrapped when culture was re-worked.
well, I didn't say we should bring it back exactly the way it was, implying the exact same balance, but rather that something more could and should be made of it. I interpret your post that you also cant quite pin down, why it was changed, maybe other than to keep it from being it a too strong strategy, but seriously, there are other ways. granted, the fact that it was potent and advent getting it even earlier would be troublesome, but it doesnt mean that there cannot be a good balance.
for example, with the same basic balance now, capships could be more effective in repelling a culture attack. but that would also mean your cap(s) is/ are tied up there and that leaves you somewhat vulnerable to attack somewhere else. or, you could link it to population or infrastructure, so that not all planets are equally strongly affected by culture. maybe even fleet size in the grav well instead of just capships can have an influence, or defensive stations. I see lots of possiblities.
and lastly, as I pointed out. in the past, culture attack was powerful, but investing in three civic labs and the logistics and strucuture cost for any meaningful effect could mean a lack of military to protect it. so yes, there was something you could do other than scrapping buildings and building your own. well, not on the long term possibly, but in sum it sometimes proved to be a very bad investment for the culture player after all.
