Do influence starbases affect planet's influence everywhere or only in circle?

[Strategist83]

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[Badtz Maru]

The influence bonus from an influence starbase only applies within it's radius. If you build an influence starbase far from any of your worlds, it's influence will never extend beyond the base's range no matter how much you improve it.

Now, there is some kind of influence generated by all starbases, I'm not sure if that's different or not.

[psrz]

but isn't that the point ? to spread your culture away from your planets ? for example, the AI really likes to build influence starbases near my planets

[Hansolo88]

There's been a lot of discussion on this and I still don't completely understand what they do. The game is very clear that they don't affect anything beyond their starbase range.

I guess the basic question is, do they generate their own influence or merely amplify influence from your planets, or both?

It seems to me they generate their own influence because they can create pockets of influence all by themselves. I would love to understand more of the mechanics behind these.

[Badtz Maru]

Originally posted by Hansolo88
There's been a lot of discussion on this and I still don't completely understand what they do. The game is very clear that they don't affect anything beyond their starbase range.

I guess the basic question is, do they generate their own influence or merely amplify influence from your planets, or both?

It seems to me they generate their own influence because they can create pockets of influence all by themselves. I would love to understand more of the mechanics behind these.

They definitely generate their own influence. I've got the influence win by using influence starbases all over the place, far from any of my planets. They do not require nearby planets to spread influence, and I'm not even sure if they have an effect on the influence generated by nearby planets.

[bonscott]

An influence starbase generates influence in the sectors in it's radius and lesser effect beyond it. Planets have nothing to do with it.

Now if you build a starbase on an influence resource that will effect your entire civ influence across the board.

[Hansolo88]

Ok, that is helpful.

What makes it confusing is the nature of the upgrade modules; they add X% to influence. X% of what? The starbase's own base influence value? As you guys are saying, they don't amplify the influence of nearby planets by X%, the way starbase factories do. So are the X% modules simply values for the influence created by the starbase?

[Topgun]

Originally posted by Hansolo88
Ok, that is helpful.

What makes it confusing is the nature of the upgrade modules; they add X% to influence. X% of what? The starbase's own base influence value?

Yes, the starbase's own influence. Double click the starbase to get a report on all the modules. In the upper right corner there will be stats including the amount of influence points that starbase is generating.

They have several purposes. You can prevent your own planets from flipping by relieving cultural pressure being applied to them. Say you have one planet with 30ip surrounded by 4 AI planets each generating 40ip. That's 160ip for the AI and only 30 for your planet which is a 5.3 to 1 ratio: Your planet is now in danger of flipping. (Any ratio above 4 to 1 can cause your planet to flip)

Drop an influence starbase there and crank up the modules and now you have a base exerting 250ish IP of its own. The pressure on your planet is now 160ip vs 280ish, a 0.57 ratio with no more danger of flipping.

Watch the AI! If they colonize several junk planets within your own back yard (and they always do) the AI tries hard to build influence starbases as a -defensive- meaure to hold off your culture. The AI does a terrible job of upgrading them tho so they usually don't work. What I normally do is let the AI build them up a little bit, then buy them and drop a whole fleet of constructors on them. Even on Intelligent the AI values money more than starbases - which is a really silly thing since by selling me that base they doom 2 or 3 planets. Oh well.

The reverse is also true of course, you can "encourage" AI planets to flip by placing your own influence bases to reinforce the IP your planets generate. If you have a high enough espionage level you can double click an AI planet and review it just like you can your own and see the IP and influence ratios.

BTW - don't expect to be able to take a fully upgraded Influence base deep into enemy territory and "culture bomb" their core planets into flipping. (I tried it, with two influence bases each generating over 300ip - the AI only needed about 10 turns to eat up the hole I made in their influence) In the above example a 280ish IP up against only 4 relatively small AI planets manages to get the ratio up to 1.7ish, and you need 4 or higher to get a flip.

Work from the outside in flipping fringe planets, as the planet + starbase + border pressure combined is far greater than that of a starbase alone.