Developer Diary | Domains & Culture

[Fried-B-man]

I feel like you need to be very lucky to have your culture bar fill up at just the right time

That feeling intentional, some powers are more universally good (creating towns, raising armies, gaining small boosts to knowledge), and some are better based on context (forcing a truce, armies can become more important both offensively & defensively when you're at war). The variety in utility helps break up the powers so that you're less likely to feel that some powers are just always better than others, and means that you're going to use different powers depending on what's going on in your game that turn.

I just hope that you can "save up" those cultural actions to be unleashed at a later

You don't have to use the Culture Power that turn it's available, but you won't gain any progress towards your next power until you've used up the meter. Sometimes it's worth waiting a few turns to get a town in just the right spot.