SatsukiShizuka
commented
5 years ago On participation: A city's culture is cumulative in an object/repository/treasury of culture equalled to all culture points accumulated by its citizens -- and people can choose to participate in cultural activities of another city. If say a person from Town B goes to City A for a concert, then citizen of Town B will earn points for his/her own city, probably with a small bonus for both cities in different degrees: A bit for City A in recognition of its superiority, and a lot for City B as a sign of "adopting/importing/learning from a superior culture." The collective participation bonus would also encourage (virtual) face-to-face interaction between players in physical character proximity, in short but regular periods of time.
On its use and upkeep: Culture points are perhaps needed for legislation and border upkeep, and can be TRADED by cities (via objects, see below) like a commodity.
On technological advance: To that end, culture might even have to be stored like objects in bookshelves, with advances in technology (and infrastructure) increasing its holding capacity -- for example, scrolls (of leather for parchment, or wood strips) take up more space > books are more compact > digital servers hold massive data, which its contents can then be upgraded/converted over time.
Technologies (especially of later eras) can be gated by culture threshold requirements, and more advanced government functions and legislations (eg. nation/global government) could be gated similarly as well.
Short summary: Culture is an activity chain involving infrastructures of production (eg. halls, schools, churches etc.), storage (repositories, libraries, databanks) and consumption (eg. legislatures, upkeep, trading it away). By integrating this into the government features as demonstrated with the Eco 9.x release, this will add an entire new facet of life to the game and encourage more players making full use of a game world as competing teams (but in collaboration), perhaps extending the life of a world session beyond the current domain of technological victory (ie. the meteor) and increase attention span via PvP interaction.
Random idea for "Culture" category of roadmap:
Introduction: The purpose of culture, like Civilization (the game), it could be a factor in territory (since we are most likely competing with several collective bodies), or just another factor we can burn excess material and calorie sink (which we do have an excess right now), which could be a post-meteor late game goal.
The definition of cultural activity, as with art, music, religion, and philosophy in human history, can be summed up as the materiel and infrastructure dedicated to the perpetual congregation of people and ideas for the purpose for its own sake, in purpose of affecting human behaviour and its relationship to the exterior.
On cultural production: If there are worktables where we have to devote resources, calories (ie. food) and stuff to contribute to culture, which in turn generates land or political power/influence... Say "culture generation is a communal effort by pitching calories in worktables, calculated/multiplied by tier and size of room" eg. "culture is generated by number of players performing and listening to a concert in a hall, measured by people sitting in chairs/sofas and performers throwing calories on instruments" -- or even using chat/voicechat in the room for the event Using a similar formula, you can also generate multipliers (eg. artwork and furniture), and social events (eg. sermons, town halls, exhibitions) which also generate culture -- in short, ROOM QUALITY x ROOM SIZE x ART INFRASTRUCTURE/FURNISHINGS (w. room softcap) x NUMBER OF CONCURRENT PLAYERS PARTICIPATING (in active/passive roles).