How does Influence Spread?

3) RoE is a civ-wide bonus; it applies to all of your planets and (I believe) all of your starbases.

1) It should make it spread farther, but your civ's influence is more so a function of your combined influence of your planets (and starbases) than anything else, so either explanation should give close to the same result.  I'm sorry if that's not very clear.

2) I've always seen this to be the case; however, I have not done sufficient testing to determine how much of a factor it is.  Additionally, the influence that population provides appears to increase the influence listed in the tooltip as coming from the planet, so this is one instance where the game won't technically give you an accurate breakdown of numbers.

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1) Influence starbases have their own influence, not related to your civ's influence.

2) Related to one, yes.  It steadily drops off to 0 at 8 tiles out.  It is the only type of starbase to do this-all other starbases simply become 0 at 8 tiles out.

3) Should be additive, within the radius, but should be ignored outside the radius.

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-See 1) above.  Probably not terribly useful, though.  As an aside, influence tiles only come in 100% values, so we're talking essentially an extra tile here-doubling a stock market from 5% to 10% or doubling an embassy from 15% to 30% or doubling a cultural exchange center from 25% to 50%-doesn't seem like that much difference, personally.

-No.

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If there's anything I've missed, I'm certain Willy will correct me-he seems to be our resident influence expert. 

Thanks Sole!  Lots of great info there.

As a followup, I'm also curious about how my Influence interacts with the Influence of my opponents.  Do the Influences actually "push" on each other, or do they just stack and the highest value controls the square?

Is it a simple matter of "in this square my IR is 10 and your IR is 6 therefore I control this square"

OR

Is it like "my nearby Influence is stronger than yours, so I am reducing the amount of Influence you exert on this area over time"

Again, there is a practical question here.

- Suppose I have a planet that is mainly contained within my opponent's area of Influence.  If I wanted to help my planet stay in my control, is there any reason to "bridge" the Influence gap to my nearest border with an Influence Starbase?  Or is it better to just slap down Influence Starbases right next to that planet?

Thanks again!

Planets

1) Does having a higher Influence rating on my planet ( via embassies, etc. ) make my planet's influence spread farther, or does it just make more influence in a fixed radius?

Kinda both. Embassies increase the total influence output of the planet, which increases both the area covered by influence and the intensity of the influence in that area. Influence declines linearly from planets.

2) Does having a higher Population increase my Influence rating at all?

Yes. Influence is directly proportional to population.

3) Does a "Restaurant of Eternity" increase my Influence rating accross the galaxy, or only the region around the Planet it is built on?

Empire-wide.

4) Do the Influence Regions of two of my Planets interact, and how so?  Is it additive or multiplicative?

Additive.

Starbases

1) Do Influence starbases only effect my Influence rating in the circular region displayed, or do they spread it outwards like planets do?

Again, kinda both. Disregard the ring entirely - it's irrelevant. While starbases do radiate influence like planets, that influence declines with distance *squared*. Also, the modules on starbases do *not* affect anything other than the base they are attached to. When a module says it adds x% to influence, it is adding that % to the influence that the base itself is generating.

2) Does the Influence region generated by an Influence starbase taper at the edges?  IE: does it generate more influence one square away than it does 4 squares away?

Very much yes. Like I said, influence from a base declines with distance squared. One space away is about 16 times better than 4 spaces.

3) Do the Influnce Regions of my Influence starbases interact with my Planets, and how so?  Is it additive or multiplicative?

Again, additive.

- Suppose I have a high-influence multipleir tile on a planet waaay on the edge of the galaxy, far from any opponent's planets.  Is there any reason for me to build an Embassy on it, considering how far away it is?  Would it somehow "push out" my Influence accross the galaxy?

Not really. While you might get a *very* marginal bump in tourism, it would have no effect on the influence map at any distance more than a sector away. Make sure to put a stock market on it, but that's probably what you had planned anyway, isn't it?

- Will I get any benefit from building Influence starbases where my own planets are inside the visual radius, but my opponent's planet's are not?  Would this help "push out" my Influence accross the galaxy?

An influence base should only be used in friendly territory to help hold a border area where your planets are in danger of flipping. It will have no effect on anything beyond half a sector away.

If there's anything I've missed, I'm certain Willy will correct me-he seems to be our resident influence expert.

What can I say, it's what I know best.

Yeah you sorta do Willy.

And there is something everyone here missed.

Although it's somewhat idiotic, you'll get more influence points from building that embassy or cultural exchange center on that tile. And if that planet is an economic planet, you will get more IP, not to mention a slight bump to tourisim, but not anything fantastic.

And that's about all I have to say.

Willy covered mostly evrything there was to comment on.

Once again, EF signing off.

I most definitely build Embassies and Cultural Centers on almost all Influence bonus squares, regardless of where the planet is.   Embassies are cheap:  only 30bc.    Culturals aren't that far behind, at 100bc.  Regardless of where the influence is coming from, there is also civ-wide influence; and that matters.   I have noticed that all of your planets/starbases have a stronger aura about them if you have a strong civ-wide influence.  

That's not to say I don't have higher priorities sometimes, though.  If it's my tech capital, I'm building a lab on that influence square.  Or if it's a PQ4, it's getting a factory.

I just realized I missed your second post. As far as borders, it's pretty much stacking. Your influence is 10, theirs is 6, that's pretty much the same as you having 4 right there. The difference is when calculating influence for planet flipping. In that case, it's the ratio of your influence to theirs that's important; in the 10:6 case, that planet would show up as having 1.66 or 0.6, depending on who's planet it is. That ratio is what you need to get above 4 to get a planet to flip.

As in all other cases, an influence base is most effective when in contact with the target - either friendly or not. Build it close to the planet and you should be able to hold open a "bubble" of your territory.

tetleytea - all of these influence numbers exclude your civ's influence ability. Techs, anomalies, and structures can all affect that ability. If you meant that having strong influence output in one area of your empire can affect distant areas - no, it can't. Each source of influence is calculated independently.

To toss one final influence question in here to try and round off an "all you need to know about influence thread":

-What planetary improvements that have an Influence bonus to them are actually affected by an influence tile? (please respond with consideration to TA if possible).

Embassy, culturual exchange center, stock market, political capital.  Shrine of tandis, precursor archive, dark influence, consulate, temple of Krynn, order of Krynn, oracle of Krynn, brain washing center, temple of memories.  Slave pit and slave canyon may also double their malus, although I haven't looked into this.  I'm not sure why someone would do that, anyway.

For all intents and purposes, everything that says influence on it except restaurant of eternity, as that one's a civ-level bonus.

Really?  I didn't think the other capitals were adjusted by the appropriate tile, so I didn't think this one did either.

That's because the other capitals provide a percentage boost to something that's based on absolute numbers (tech, manu), while the political capital provides a percentage boost to something that's essentially percentage based.  Econ capital would be affected by an econ tile, too, if there was one.

Thanks for all the clarifications Willy!  Also, this one specifically:

Regarding the "bubble".  Sometimes that bubble doesn't end up where I want it to be.  For example, the bubble might not cover the asteroid fields, or a planet I'm trying to flip.  Often, it doesn't even cover my planet, it's off to the side somewhere.  The bubble doesn't really seem to pop up right where I have my planet and starbases, and I'm guessing that it just pops up more based on where my opponent's Influence is the weakest, as opposed to where mine is the strongest, and probably the only way to get it to expand to where I need it is to keep pumping Influence producers, right?

There's a side question I have, in relation to this.  It's about the "Bridge" I mentioned in the earlier post.  I think I'd heard that having military ships in my opponent's area of Influence makes them very angry, and as such it's better to move them through little passages of your own Influence whenever possible.  This is particularly an issue ( if it's true ) when I'm trying to get a defense ship to the planet to prevent an unexpected troop attack.  Is it wise to put an Influence starbase out in the middle of space to create such a "Bridge", in order to provide a safe passage?  Or will I be OK if I'm only in their territory for a turn while scuttling into my bubble?

Thanks again!

Where does  one see these influence numbers on space tiles?

jujumbura - the bubble is indeed based more on where the other civ is weak rather than exactly where you place it, but you can often plan for this. Put the base on the far side of the planet from your influence - that is, closer to the enemy than to your space. Putting more modules on it will generally correct for this, as well. So will building another starbase.

Usually the AI will not object to ships just passing through, although I have had problems with transport fleets. Warships shouldn't be a problem. Occasionally building a bridge or island-hopping is necessary if the Yor or another super isolationist civ is in your way. The speed limit doesn't affect you if you are in a bubble of your own space at the beginning of the turn.

Loup - any building that gives an influence bonus to the planet will benefit from an influence tile. Anything giving a civ-wide bonus will not (RoE is only one I know of, but I have only played a few races in TA, and you could make modded building that fall into the catergory). Morale buildings are the same way - political capital benefits from the bonus tile, harmony crystals do not.

One doesn't. Part of what made figuring all of this out so frustrating, and why many people don't understand it on their own.

I would need to see documented proof, because in my experience, your civ-wide influence matters.   When I own 75% of the galaxy, I can flip an entire system of 5 habitable planets just by getting one of them; and that's when I get the 1 by invasion.   RoE and blue SB's alone can't do that.   If I colonized a 5-planet system at the beginning of the game and the Torians got the other 4, I would get eaten up in no time.   Something else has to be going on there.

In fact, I have seen surrenders happen--such as, the Arcaeans will surrender to the Drengin (real story)--and their entire empire space flips from yellow to MY color.   No casualties occurred, very few if any social improvements changed.   I took over the space, solely because the Drengin owned the planets instead of the Arcaeans.  And the Drengin (of all people) had the sole blue base in the galaxy.  The only other possible explanation I can think of is maybe the Drengin lost the farm improvements when the took over, but...Galactopedia says both races have Xeno Farms. 

You may be seeing effects of racial abilities. The Drengin don't have particularly good influence as a race. Also, they could have lost other buildings that were contributing to influence, like stock markets.

How intermixed were the races in your true story? Did you have planets you took from the Arceans in that area? What were the influence abilities of the races in question? These things matter.

Depending on the environment around the 5 planet system in question, mining bases and RoE actually can explain that. If the system was entirely isolated, or deep inside either your territory or theirs, or even a third party's space. Again, makes a huge difference. Two maxed mining bases can double your base influence (more or less, depending on race and available modules).  If you don't think THAT makes a difference, you're wrong.

I can't give you rigorous proof, but I have done tests on this. Isolate a civ in a corner, and pin them in with your influence. Then take over the rest of the galaxy without changing the area around the pinned civ, and guess what? The border doesn't move much (it's almost impossible not to change anything, and you can't control what the pinned civ is doing on its planets anyway). It's not rigorous proof of my theories, but it is a powerful disproof of total civ influence affecting isolated areas.

If you had taken out the highest influence planet in that system (especially a homeworld or political capital), the others may not be able to offset it's influence, or your influence from outside that system may have just needed that edge to push in.

Saying that, when you are looking to maximize your troops and have the TA's MCC, take out their highest pop planets and leave the others to flip to you.  Combining the MCC with the Korath's Dark Influence building on new planets makes for a real nice domino effect.

Well as long as we're here, are there any other "not immediately obvious" factors that can affect the spread of Influence?  What about:

- Approval Rate?

- Economy?

- Military Presence?

- Non Influence-specific Starbases?

- Asteroid Mines?

Thanks as always!

No.

No.

No.

Should be no, but may be very, very, very little, but only within the AoE.

No.  But asteroid mining bases flip really easily.

I'm actually pretty surprised that Economy doesn't affect it.  I was just in a game where we had a massive Econ Boom, and during that period my Influence increased greatly.  After it ended, my Influence shrunk back down. 

But I suppose this might just be because during that time I was making more money, and hence spending more money on Production, which I assume affects my Embassies.  Is this what was happening?

Economy shouldn't affect your influence at all. Perhaps you had some population boosting going on during that time? An entirely separate influence boom event in the same time frame? Production doesn't affect your embassies at all.

Approval SHOULD (IMO) but doesn't. Military and asteroid mines do nothing. Mining bases will give a minimal amount in a pretty small area, just enough to help locate them on the map.

I'd theorize that econ boom = lowering of taxes = approval rate growth bonus = more population grown than normal = higher influence.

But we don't know if he lowered his taxes or not.

I think you have it though - I was going "Actually no, economy *does* affect that but it's not a direct thing" earlier and couldn't remember the connection, but I've noticed exactly that on my games.

Jonnan