Rujikin

I just finished a civ4 space scenario and had a lot of fun with the space scenario so I wanted to try out a space version of Civ. I recently tried out GCII and found the game to be really interesting, especially the tech tree and custom units. The game seems pretty realistic, in its universe, except for one thing. For some reason the eastern coast of the USA, Moscow, India, South america, and Canada are all uninhabitable [e digicons]o_O[/e] . When I started colonizing

So their not very effective in solar systems eh? Do they do anything when not around a planet or solar system?

I've been reading a bunch on starbases but nothing seems to tell me what Im wanting to know. I know all about econ and mining bases, the military ones i got down too. It is just the influential ones that I don't entirely get. I cannot tell if, when you put an influential module on your base, the base produces its own influence or if the percent will only affect planets. I got a bunch of IFBases around my borders, but I don't see them expanding or doing much and Im thinking they only help planets