So, today as I was playing i noticed that culture seems to be broken or something is very wrong with it. There are 4 planets:

A--B--C--D--E

         F

A and B are my planets. Planet A was a desert planet with 7 culture centers on it. Planet B had 3. I know that culture decreases 50% every time it goes through a gravity well, so planet B effectively had 6.5 culture centers on it.

E is a dead asteroid. Planets C and D had 1 culture center on each. With no capital ships. And yet, for some reason my culture spread down the phase line to planet C and went no further. It did not begin to convert the planet even though I had maxed out culture upgrades and had 4 more culture centers than him. I even used 4 simultaneous Kostura shots to disable culture centers on C and D as well as the two Terran worlds connected to E.

And what effect did over 30,000 credits and 5000 resources and the pride of Vasari weaponry have on the spread of my culture? Almost nil. By the time the Kostura effects wore off my culture hadn't spread a quarter of the very short phase line connecting D to E.

I even captured planet F (which is connected to C) and built 6 more culture centers on it. No effect. At all. Whats going on here?