Influence Calculations and Flipping Planets

Planet IP, Total IP, and Zones of Control

I haven't been able to find any rigorous explanations for how the influence system works, just my general observations.

Cultural Centers don't seem to be that useful, since they only give a bonus on the planet+population IP (which is likely smaller than the civ-wide bonus, and generally insignificant). Projects that give a civ-wide boost are worth it however, as are morale resources.

The civ-wide bonus (given to all planets) seems to affect the projection of the IP field around planets. It seems to increase as you reach multiples of the nearest AI's total influence (so 200%, 300%, etc). However, I think base influence is used for the calculation of this multiplier, not including the actual bonus (or you would get a bonus from the bonus). I believe the base IP is what is displayed in the graphs.

IPs as seen in the trade screen I think is your voting power in the Galactic Senate. However, I don't know how this is calculated. I think your base IP is added to this power each turn (planets only go up to 100-200 IP normally under extreme conditions, so having millions of IPs is an order of magnitude higher than all planetary IPs combined).

Flipping planets is a roll each turn, but I see little difference between 4x influence and 100x influence for this purpose (does it max out, or is SQRT of the value?). Right now the MCC seems to be like a Loyalty +100% bonus for the opponent, but it's confusing as the numbers aren't known for the flipping calculation and the MCC is likely to be fixed at some point. Maybe it will change to double the chance on the flip rolls?

Has anyone done some research on the Influence System or have some formulas to calculate flipping?

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No research, just observational evidence from a series of influence wins (or conquest wins where the conquest was cultural).

Very much greater-than-minimum Influence advantages over planets DO improve the likelihood of flipping, but as you surmise it has to be some sort of limit function which never reaches 100%. Possibly it only approaches something like 75% as a limit. Its definitely difficult to feel an increase in likelihood between ratio of (6.2) and (16.9), but at a ratio of (169.4) the planet will flip REAL soon. Maybe not NEXT turn though.

You forgot to mention that minors NEVER flip. I wasted a LOT of constructors learning that the hard way (I'm gonna be real embarassed if it turns out to be in the manual.)

IPs in the trade screen is in fact the same as your UP votes (just try a minor trade of money for ip right after a UP vote to prove it.) And it does increase by your combined planetary ip production each turn. Seems to increase by the number that is indicated at the top of each Planet screen (with the tool tip explaining the calc). I've confirmed this when playing games on Rare with only one or two planets, checking a turn or two after the UP vote clears the ip slate.

I believe the influence "field" around each planet is based on the same planetary influence value, but even after the planet essentially maxes out it still grows a tiny bit over time. So I think there may be some sort of longevity-of-colony, or average-population-over-time factor added in, per planet; that would explain why your original homeworld can often have a bigger disk than well developed, more populous colonies, even late in the game.

Cultural centers can be a great help if you get a chance to grab a planet in an enemy controlled system. You can rush buy them, which you can't with I-SB. Also, build one on an Influence bonus on your homeworld sometime, then later in the game over build it with, say, a stock market. Your Influence disk will measurablly schrink (couple of squares of radius). Late in the game that can be a lot of territory coverage around a big old Influence disk. It takes a tile though; I tend to build Culture stuff only on bonus sites.

Why were you citing the usefulness of Morale resource mining for Influence? Did you mean Influence resources?

drrider

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Um.. yes. My mistake.

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