No Culture Points Being Accumulated

New to Galactic Civ IV, but have played prior games and well-versed in the 4X genre. I've started a new campaign with the Festron, and am about 20 turns or so into the game. I realized I'm not accumulating any culture points per turn, not even the default one from my capital. Is this possibly a bug or am I missing something completely obvious here, like a civ behavioral trait that reduces points earned? Which, in fairness, would make sense considering the Festron aren't so much a culture as they are a plague swarm.

Not sure what, if any, info/screenshots would be useful. Please let me know and I'll provide. Thanks community!

 

Edit: After some more investigation, it appears that with other civilizations you don't start accumulating culture points until you place the "Capital City" on a tile in your home world. However, the Festron don't have the Capital City improvement, so it seems like this is by design? I was looking forward to playing a rolling-tide infestation war campaign, but not having access to the cultural upgrades seems like a MASSIVE crutch...