AI Bug? Influence base spam? Minor civ confused?

from GalCiv2 Forums
In a game I'm playing now as the Yor, there's a minor race (the Andians) who seem to have gotten it in their head that it's a good idea to build a few influence starbases right next to my capital. Okay, fine. Only one problem. I've never met them, and they are nowhere near me. I've demolished two influence bases already, and there's a train of three or four more constructors going right to the same area that I've also wiped out. I can't figure out what the point of this is at all, though they are devoting some serious resources to do it. It's not like their going to convert my planets by doing this... Wherever their home planet is, it's outside my range, so I don't even know where the train of constructors is coming from...

Such behavior would make sense if they were doing it around their homeworld... Maybe they think my homeworld *is* their homeworld or something?
7,146 views 12 replies
Reply #1 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I can't figure out why the Minor Races build influence bases at all. They do not have any sphere of influence, nor have I ever heard of any of them being culturally converted. I think they sometimes build them to get more range for their ships, but I can't figure out why they would choose influence bases for that.
Reply #2 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
That hadn't even occurred to me, actually (that the minors don't even get influence).
So that makes it even *more* pointless of a strategy. I was thinking that they did have
an influence sphere, but that they were just building the bases too far from their own
civ for it to have any effect. But I guess it wouldn't have an effect wherever they built it...
Sins of a Solar Empire II
Reply #3 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I have seen this as well. Minor races also tend to gobble up all the space resources, but that is generally OK; I would rather one of them have it than a major civ.
Reply #4 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Yes, I too have seen minor races construct Influence starbases. This is very illogical as they have no sphere of influence. Seems to me like the AI code for the minor civ's needs a tiny touchup here. This thread needs dev's attention!
Reply #5 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Seconded . Minor races have no business wasting resources on influence starbases. If they want to extend range, then build a military one since it would atleast have some use if they get into a war.
Reply #6 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
Yeah I've seen alot of the different minor AI's do this. They will build these influence starbases not just in my territory but in other major races also. Its the oddest thing. It must be some bug or a programming line gone wrong. Either they should get their own influence spheres or they should just disable minor AI's ability to construct starbases.
Reply #7 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I've also seen minor races react strangely to influence. This weekend in a game, a minor race complained about one of my starbases; however, the starbase in question was on the other side of the galaxy from them, while they ignored the influence base one sector away.

I've also seen a minor race cover their planet with influence boosters. When I captured their world, it put the entire map under my influence for 3-4 turns before other borders reappeared.
Reply #8 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
I have seen all of these as well and agree with the above posts. If the Minor get to build SB then I still sya I should be able to trade stuff for them.
Reply #9 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
maybe they build starbases so they would not be gobbled up by other's influence.
Reply #10 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
maybe they build starbases so they would not be gobbled up by other's influence.


Have you ever tried to turn a minor civ's planet with influence? It doesn't work. They're completely unaffected by influence and have no influence of their own.

I mentioned in another thread that this happened to me. The minor was on the opposite side of the map, but had influence bases in my territory.

In another game I had a planet in the same system as a minor and noticed in my planets stats a 0.0 in brackets beside its influence. In other words: the minor's planet had no influence on it.

Going further, there were several resources held by the minor in neutral territory. Those bases had no influence border around them, as would normally be the case.
Reply #11 from GalCiv2 Forums Top
They may be completely unaffected by influence, but they most definately do NOT have no influence of their own, just no influence borders on the map. I have had a planet culture flipped from me by a minor before.
Reply #12 from Stardock Forums Top
Could it be that the minor race AI is unaware of its immunity to influence, and is not aware of the influence it generates? That would explain how it sometimes goes overboard in influence responses.