how much influence can one have?

from GalCiv2 Forums
I'm playing at 'normal' level as the Terrans (my third game) and have run into the Iconians - being a nice fellow with no desire for war I chose to try and use influence to win their border planets over. In two places we shared a system and there I laid down three influence starbases each, fully loaded with 200+ influence points. On each world I put two embassies. Yet still their influence zone is expanding and it's my planets who are in danger of defecting. What could these guys have going for them that is that strong?

pnich of the hapless newbie Terrans
4,408 views 8 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I heared that besides embassies and starbases the population is a rather important factor for influence. A mining starbase on an influence resource also is extremely helpful for that.

Other than these two things i dont really have an idea, what they could have in their favour.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
They could have some racial abilities, political party, random events or galactic woners ( like restaurant of eternity) be sure you research the influence tech line ( starting from xeno bussines)
Sins of a Solar Empire II
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
It's probably population like AIL.ST said.

I always have better luck taking over with population than I do by throwing Starbases around them. Usually once they are IN my influence boundaries THEN I pop a couple Starbases to make sure they go to 4+ influence.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
thanks for the input - it must be population then, as I've finished researching the influence tech stream and have the restaurant of eternity already. Both my border planets have 5B population so maybe that's the problem.
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
There are things that up influence, like the blue influence resources, the restaraunt of Eternity, the Political Capital, and embassies. I think there was another reward in there too, but I can't think of the name right off hand. Some of them work planet wide like an embassy, and some work as an overall increase like the first three.

Those overall increases don't just add a certain number of points to the influence score, they add a percentage to the overall score. As the overall score increases so does the effect of those rewards.

The Restaraunt of Eternity is one of the first things I try to get. And I won't wait to have it built. I may start it building in one of me first colonies, if not the very first, but I will buy it as soon as I can afford it. It is just to valuable to keeping my head above water, and too detrimental to me if someone else has it.
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
all the things that increase influence are multipliers. the thing they multiply is based on population. So population is a huge huge part of influence. Remeber that more people means unhappy people so dedicate some room to moral buildings too.
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
No kidding. Once I hit over 20B they are really hard to keep happy.
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
In my game I found that a single influence resource mining facility was enough to turn the tables on me. They had not researched more than the first in the line for influence, and were still winning me over. I had three starbases and the Star Federation government (it gives you a bonus too). I bought their fully upgraded mining base and then their planets were mine.

You won't necissarily get the planet just because you have over 4x the influence. I once couldn't overcome their infuence on one planet despite the fact that I had over 112x the influence! They did not have the re-education center either.