Cultural Victory. Does the AI recognize to stop you?

from Stardock Forums
I've beaten the AI at the two lowest difficulties and I'm moving up into Normal now. So far the AI has been oblivious to my cultral expansions and I am able to walk all over the galaxy touting my beliefs and converting planets left and right.

Does the AI get smarter in the higher levels and stop your constructor brigades from building fleets of starbases?
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Reply #1 from Stardock Forums Top
Well, on a bright game, it did. I was getting near the end and thought I was going to finish the game without ever having gone to war when the Arceans, at friendly status no less, declared war and pulled the Altarians into the fray with them. At war = no cultural win so I wound up having to win militarily.
Reply #2 from Stardock Forums Top
Sometimes they do, sometimes they don't. As Code Monkey says, it happens when the AI is smarter.

~SDC~
Siege of Centauri
Reply #3 from Stardock Forums Top
I know that on normal level they do not see it coming, so if one can be both culturally dominant and at peace with any major resistor, you win. I manipulated a cultural win in my last game by convincing the Toreans to go after the evil Yor to "soften them up a bit". (I just wanted their fleet distracted a bit so that my transports and escorts could get to the last Yor planet.) Once that last planet fell, I was a good guy with two good major empire neighbors left. They were not about to try and war with their good guy neighbor providing all that trade income on normal level, so I was able to complete the culture bombing. I have no experience with smarter than normal empires, but I know how to trade and culture bomb dumber folks into submission!
Reply #4 from Stardock Forums Top
At higher difficulty, I believe they do turn hostile if you attempt to culture bomb them (though it could be because of my pure evil alignment :) ).

However, combined with huge military superiority, the culture bomb strategy still works too well.
Reply #5 from Stardock Forums Top
Just a thought that perhaps the AI is "smart" to not resist a militarily and culturally stronger race rather than to face genocide.

Perhaps a good race should submit but a evil race should just declare war and fight to the last man.
Reply #6 from Stardock Forums Top
I'm playing on normal and I got spotted by all the races I tried to culture-bomb with starbases (Drengin twice and Altarian once).

They told me to hand over starbase X or die. Unfortunately, the starbases also had some nifty production and defense bonuses, so I told them: 'Three words. kiss. my. ass.'

They only made a threat when they had a better military might. The altarians also noticed me buiding up the offence assist on a starbase and told me to stop or they'd kill me, but didn't actually ask me to give them the base.