You are pretty much missing the point.
Nobody said Hungarian is Slavic, but to deny that just because they don't speak a Slavic Language, they dont have cultural ties to their neigbhours is weird.
While languange can often be similar to culture.
It doesn't have to be.
If you wanna talk Ethnicity or Genetics, even then Hungarians are still very close to their Slavic neighbors, being closer to their neighbours than most slavs are.
Hungarians are unique as they were a conquering elite who conquered a potentially slavic speaking group before them and integrated with them into what we consider the Hungarians.
When we see all the historical ties, there is a definite basis to group the Hungarians together with West Slavs.
When we look primarily at the current game situation, then the issue is there already:
Carpathian Group makes no sense and splitting Slovak away from the rest of the West Slavs is rather odd.
So that leaves you with an option, Either you make Hungarian an isolate, based on language family or you make a more satisfying group based on historical ties, in which things like the Visegrad Group, the Union of Crowns, the Slovaks being with the Hungarians for around a 1000 years etc. And you say, it's fair to add Hungarian to a Central European Culture Group.
The precedent has been set in the past and is in game now,
Ottoman Turkish doesn't form a turkish culture group or its own group but is with the Arabs.
The Bretons are with the French and not the Welsh or Irish or other Celts
And the Basque are with the Iberians.
So what makes you feel that the ties between Hungary and it's neighbours is far more different than those?
Good points and I completely agree with you. Language groups absolutely do not dictate culture. They are a component of it. As is cuisine, art, music, traditions, values etc. They all come together to make the up the whole which is what culture is. I'm sure we can agree on that right? I don't think ethnicity or genetics plays into culture at all. Enter the United States, Canada, Brazil etc. Race does not dictate culture, racism excludes from culture.
The fact that the game has set a precedent of grouping together cultures under one banner does not mean the game is right. I don't think that the "ties between Hungary and it's neighbours is far more different than those". On the contrary I think it is exactly the same and the game has modeled those other culture groups poorly as well.
So to answer your question more directly;
1. Language
does have to be a part of evaluating a culture,
but not the only component of it.
2. I do not want to talk ethnicity or genetics, because culture is not ethnicity. Enter USA, Canada, Brazil, Australia.
3. Hungarians are unique and what they achieved was great and needs to be modeled better.
4. Historical ties play into diplomacy not culture. Enter England/Portugal. What if two hypothetical nations shared friendly relations for centuries and then went to war? I do not agree that historical ties give a basis to dictate culture.
5. The Carpathian group does make no sense, and splitting the Slovaks away from the West Slavic group is indeed rather odd.
6. I propose a third option. Grant countries including Hungary, Spanish tags, England etc (you get the point) a bonus that grants them a permanent accepted culture on the appropriate cultures without taking away from accepted culture slots total.
7. The precedent has been set, and it sucks.
8. The Turks, Bretons, Welsh, Irish, Celts, Basque, Slovaks _______ (insert other applicable culture here) are all being modeled wrong too.
9. Like I said in my last paragraph. I don't think it's different, I think it is the same.
It seems as though everyone here agrees on one thing. The way the game is modeling this right now is terrible. What we all have trouble agreeing on is how to fix it. At least we are having a discussion about it
Maybe we can come up with something we all like. I know my ideas won't suit everyone either.
