OK. I know exactly what you are asking because I wondered about this too. The influence starbases work the same as military and economic starbases. Meaning they provide bonuses to whatever you have built on a planet within the starbases range.
So...You build the influence starbase so that your planets are in its range...not so its range is "pushing" or influencing the opponent.
I think this should be mentioned better in the game.

-Wade

Well, I usually position them between my opponent's planets, the more it covers the better.

But the bases provide an influence bonus to your planets. The bases do nothing directly to your opponents.

All influence emminates from your planets only...not your influence starbases.

This should be stated better in the game.

-Wade

This is directly opposite what I just saw in my game - an influence victory on Normal. Influence starbases would generate a "circle of influence" which corresponded to a military/economic starbase's area of effect. I would build them next to enemy planets, add enough modules so that the 'circle' would turn my color, and then wait until the planets (hopefully) flipped.

Yes, exactly, influence starbases do have an influence emanating from them, and you enhance it by upgrading them. Just think of it as having souvenir shops selling you culture!

So then I've been using influence bases wrongly then? Ive assumed so far that they worked to amplify your homeworlds influence 'resource', and that the overall bubble of your influence border is just overlapping individual planetary circles. But I guess this is wrong??

I guess gamewise it makes more sense to build a marketing and advertizing starbase in orbit over an enemy world so as to better... influence them!

but does it really work like that? is it a influence YOUR planets score kind of base, or an influence the 4:1 ratio of influncial takover over an enemy world kind of base? or both?

I agree that this really does need to be explained better!

Achronous said: Well, I usually position them between my opponent's planets, the more it covers the better. Then having researched the influence tech tree I send as many constructors as needed to build the Cultural Conquest module, and then all I have to do is wait a few turns and their planets are mine!

Wade said: All influence emminates from your planets only...not your influence starbases.

I could be talking out of my rear end here but sorry Wade, I think you are wrong(at least partially) and Achronous is correct. If you see a pirate flag by an opponent/enemy planet then I believe it is ripe for an influence take over, achieved by placing an influence SB by it. You do know about the pirate flags, right?

And as Franco fx said they royally piss off the AI, and I believe he means when you place it in the territory of their planets. Because unless I am mistaken it directly effects not only your planets within it's in range, but any opponent planets as well. It certainly makes sense to me that an influence SB will project your civilizations influence on whatever planets are within it's range. Hence the reason for concern when you see a pirate flag.

For instance,

There were two opponent planets just outside my border in a game I played. They were two planets right next to each other but were colonzied by two different civs. I wanted them, but I didn't want to start war with them. I was even pretty friendly with one of them. I decided to see if I could influence them into joining my civ. I built an influence SB just outside my border and within range of those planets. The only thing that happened was my border expanded back into my own territory, so now the SB was within my territory instead of just outside of it. But I wasn't expect much from just making an influence SB with no upgrades on it. I researched some tech that gave me some influence modules. I sent out constructors and added the modules. My border expanded right up to edge of the first planet. I thought Ah-ha! I'm starting to get somewhere. Then a couple/few, maybe even several turns later my border expansion was pushed back to where it had previously been. Obviuosly one of them built an influence structure on their planet. I put a couple more modules on the SB. When I next looked on the foreign relations screen, the civ near that SB that I was not friendly with was starting to show as hostile.


EDIT: wow, several more posts while I was typing all that... lol.

That's how they work for me too. They are very powerful fully upgraded but only within thier circle of effect like a military starbase. I tried building a few in random spots deep in the enemy territory as well and my borders stopped at that circle, even when not encountering much opposing influence. While near planets however, when fully upgraded 1-2 often provided enough influence to cause revolt, even the Thalans with +40% loyalty. I can't say if their base influence has anything to do with your empire's overall influence, but it was quite obvious to me that they only work within that small area of effect.

OK. I guess I need to pay more attention. But do the influence starbases work better by providing a bonus to your planets in the area of effect?

No. They only have an effect on the influence in the area. If you have a high-influence planet in the area, you'll get a pretty strong magnification of that planet's effect, but only in the area of the starbase's area of effect.