Question about Influence

I would suggest building your influence starbases next to enemy planets which are on your borders. These starbases will expand your influence into their territory, meaning that your influence area should start to cover their planets. Provided you expand your starbases enough with extra constructors, you should soon see their planets flipping over to your side. A great way to take over planets without the need for conflict.

Also, build them near your planets that lie in the enemy's sphere of influence. This helps to keep them from flipping over to the dark side.

If you are going for an influence win, it also pays to put them in areas where no one has influence. This expands your own sphere of influence to those areas.

Influence starbases create their own infuence, not simply provide bonuses to your existing influence in the area.

i think they act like planets, but the influence they generate is based on the modules you add, not population. your total accumulated influence is a factor too, so just a empty starbase would apply that i believe. now, i am no expert on this. i only use influence to police up spare planets, but i ~think~ that's how it works. hopefully someone will wander by that can confirm or correct me.

It also works to build influence starbase near your ally's core worlds. They won't mind (eh, you're allied) and you'll eventually win their planets.

If you're trying to steal planets via influence, it is easiest to steal the ones sitting by themselves in a system. In my current game i've been trying to steal all of the Arceans planets and they have one system with five PQ10+ planets with another two systems with two planets each near by. I've got six maxxed out influence starbases and haven't managed to steal one yet.

Then where do i place my influence starbases? next to my planet to boost their influence output? do the starbases help me create MORE influence points or do they amplify what points i have in their sphere of influence, or how does this work?

the galciv wikia is pretty sparce on this subject too.
https://www.galciv.wikia.com/wiki/Influence_starbase

i'm not sure if an influence base will boost one of your planet's influence, but i'm inclined to think yes. when i've plopped 4+ bases around a system, at first it creates an "influence bubble". ie, my influence in dominant, but only in the bases' areas of effect. a starbase's influence doesn't appear to extend past its radius. i'm inclined to believe a SB on its own generated only enough influence to color the space around it.

so i start with a bubble, but as soon as a single planet flips over, even a relatively unpopulated one, my influence in the area goes insanely high, and the sphere of influence extends way past my SB bubbles. that should only happen if the planet is producing a lot of influence, since SB influence doesn't extend past their area of effect.

in other words, i think influence starbases do both, generate their own infleunce and boost that of your planets. i've never sat down and systematically tested it, however.

personally, i'd rather get the bonuses from an economy base on my planets. influence bases are great because it only takes 6 structors to make a mean one. i usually don't bother with the diplomatic SB modules, unless i'm trying to prevent planets from flipping. it's more efficient simply to build another SB using only the modules from the cultural conquest path. after i've flipped the planets, i often take the SB down (makes it cheaper to build the next one).

From what I've found, star bases do affect planets but not too much. I just finished a game where I won a military victory without firing a single shot using culture bases. One of the best things to do is to sell a flipped planet back to it's civ for a lot of stuff. A few turns later, I own the planet again. Rinse and repeat.

Nice trick, have to try that one.

Porcupine had it right. Bases are make thier own Influence based off the modules you add. It would be worthless to add them next to your planet since you already have influence next to them.

Thier is one exception, when your planet under the influence of another race, a starbase can put a curtain of your own influence over your planet, protecting it.