Influence Starbases

I've had such a hard time NOT winning with influence planet flipping that I've had to resort to never building influence bases. Depending on the race and the game difficulty you should have no trouble plant flipping with even one starbase in a system.

Remember though, the starbases are only effective within the sphere of influence they show when you slect them.
So, if you have those three starbases and they dont' all overlap the same system you are trying to influence, they will only really function as expensive sensor outposts.

so...I should have put them inside their territory?

On this vein, how does one increase the racial influence? I'm currently play a game,(Gigantic, Normal) started with 9 other civs, but planets that I have captured or colonized that were originally only under my influence are now totally engulfed in another civ's color. This is even with two influence starbases per sector along or slightly on their side of the border, all of them maxed out at 287 influence. The bases have been there for over a year, and the border has only moved marginally. There are currently no other races planets in my systems, and the nearest other systems are almost a sector away! Why won't the border shift back in my favor?

'Influence pushing' is my favorite tactic.

First off, I tend to try to clump my influence bases together, and as close as possible to the enemy's worlds. Having two or three of them spread out results in a 'thin' spread of your influence, which is no good. Having three or four of them practically adjacent to each other (heavily overlapping their spheres of influence) is the way to go. If you are able to get a handful of them built up near enemy worlds, you'll be pushing back their borders and flipping their worlds in no time.

Quality *and* quantity are the key here.

Set every colony to build constructors, then send the constructors to a rally point. Use 10 constructors to build one influencer, taking the franchise HQ route first (the 25% one), then adding defence or the 5% modules later.

so...I should have put them inside their territory?

ayup, not just inside their territory, but as close to the world(s) you want to flip as is feasible.

By the time I'm attempting to influence other systems like that, I also have an upgraded constructor I've built with vastly increased range. That way I can build up uber constructors on multiple planets, launch them all at once, and have a fully influential and defended base in as little as two turns.

I am a culture player and I haven't built a culture starbase in over a month.

They are way too expensive now
They piss off the AI if you build them where they will do any good
Influence mining and culture tech is far more effective.
Overall, I just haven't needed them to win.

I really preferred thr GC1 starbases that could be diversified to do econ, military and culture on the same base. I also enjoyed flipping minors more than majors and that is no longer possible

so...I should have put them inside their territory? ayup, not just inside their territory, but as close to the world(s) you want to flip as is feasible. By the time I'm attempting to influence other systems like that, I also have an upgraded constructor I've built with vastly increased range. That way I can build up uber constructors on multiple planets, launch them all at once, and have a fully influential and defended base in as little as two turns.

Yeah, the defenses for these starbases are important as well, the AI gets a little upset about me building starbases ajacent to their planets for some reason...

They should, really...otherwise it's be completely lame.

This is even with two influence starbases per sector along or slightly on their side of the border, all of them maxed out at 287 influence. The bases have been there for over a year, and the border has only moved marginally. There are currently no other races planets in my systems, and the nearest other systems are almost a sector away! Why won't the border shift back in my favor?

I've had a lot of problems with influence not working correctly. HUGE spikes for th AI for example, with influence borders going weird. I think its something in the coding/equations of the game thats screwed up.

Since influence is based in large part on population, make sure your planets have a high pop. Sometimes a farm can do more good than an Embassy.

Influence starbases add their influence to any planets in their radius, for purposes of borders, and inducing/preventing rebellions. You can see the ratio of an opponents influence on your planets (it's the number in ()'s next to the planets IP), and on their planets if you have enough espionage on them.

Since you need 4x as much influence to cause a rebellion, and most planets have in the ballpark of 40-50 IP, you need to put up to 160-200 influence pressure on a planet to cause it to flip, often more like 300.

I *think* your borders are based on how much influence is in each sector - when it reaches a certain number, it starts filling up the next sector, and pushes your borders out. No idea what those levels are.

Best way to ensure you don't get your borders pushed back is to make sure you have the highest population planets in a system/sector...

Restaraunt of Eternity.
Buy it early in the game.

Put an embassy on each world, except for the really low PQ planets.

Try to snag at least one influence resource instead of puttng in starbases.

With that combination you should keep pretty much at the top of the influence tree. And adding modules to the resource starbase will yield far greater results than quite a few influence starbases.

(this is with beta4)

I've found that placing an influence starbase next to an enemy planet that is already inside my influence is very effective in flipping that planet. I use them to *get the ball rolling* so to speak. Once you start the influence take over cascade it seems to take on a life of its own.

Also as mentioned high population is key. If you can get the majority of your good PQ planets producing upwards of 50+ ip a turn then you are certainly on your way to a cultural win provided no nasty war gets in your way first