influence + approval theory

Two questions relating to influence and morale:

1. In my most evil game to date I had the pleasure of acquiring a Mind Control Center (as you will recall, this apparently forces foreign colonies to rebel "nearly instantaneously" when their influence is exceeded by a factor of four). Having a natural predilection for the power of Influence I immediately set about building starbases to try out my new toy. Unfortunately it didn't work as well as I'd hoped; though my influence over one enemy colony was over 7, it stubbornly refused to revolt. Until the end of the game it sat there with its skull-and-crossbones and absolutely did not assent to my (obviously) superior culture. This seems to be the modus operandi in influence takeovers (or rather, lack thereof) -- my enormous influence and their colony that just doesn't revolt.

Now, considering the possibility that the Mind Control Center is not a gigantic paperweight, there must be another factor that I failed to consider; and what I came up with is this: planetary Approval. Could it be that foreign influence has to contend not only local colonial influence but also native morale and approval? Thus, though the "other culture" might be very strong, the local populace is just so damn happy that they don't consider switching sides...

2. Speaking about approval, I'm having some trouble with unhappy planets. Generally all my planets tend toward 100% approval, but even when the majority are in ecstacy, I still find three or four with approval ratings of less than 40%. I theorise that this has to do with the size of the local population; generally, those colonies of 6 to 12 billion are happier than those 12 billion and above. One of my planets produced 24 mt/w in food, had a population of 23,9 billion and an approval of 36%. The problem is I nearly covered it in morale boosting improvements, until it had a morale bonus of 390% -- but the approval would not go above 36%. So, could overpopulation really affect one's approval so severely?

Ta for any input.
J.
6,577 views 9 replies
Reply #1 Top
Did you check to make sure that the planet that wouldn't rebel didn't have that improvement that prevents it rebelling under any circumstances? Also, what was the other race? Some races have bonuses to "Loyalty" that make their planets harder to take over - Yor for example (I think the description is "Almost impossible to subvert culturally").

Reply #2 Top
The MCC actually makes planets more resistant to influence (despite the description). To the point where you are very unlikely to have enemy planets flip (although it does still happen every now and then). On the plus side, it gives a 100% boost to the economy making it the most valuable building in the whole tech tree on larger maps.

This should answer your morale question....And the questions getting that answer is going to create!

The Death of Morale Buildings
Reply #3 Top
If you want reasonable morale on a planet you don't want to produce more than about 20 megatons of food. I personally never build more than two farms (or one on a +100% tile) on any planet, because otherwise the population will never have high morale no matter what I do. This is just how the game works, so its better to learn to work with it than to try and find a way to work around it.
Reply #4 Top
though my influence over one enemy colony was over 7,
End of quote

7 really is not all that high. I have seen planets with a rating of over 20 stick it out for well over a year.

Reply #5 Top
I think someone had said the MCC seemed to be a decimal point issue. It makes flipping planets 3.0 times harder to flip, whereas it maybe should have been 0.3 times harder to flip.

The Yor get a racial bonus of +100 Loyalty (impossible to reach with purchased points). So, if you had the MCC and it was a Yor planet...all the luck in the world to you.
Reply #6 Top
Well, looking at the XML files for TA & for DA, the MCC gets an AbilityAmount of 100. The problem with that is there is NO specified AbilityType in the xml.

Perhaps this is the reason it's not working as expected?
Reply #7 Top
A lot of discussion on the MCC issue here in previous posts. Although it mitigates the ability to flip planets, it provides a 100% economy bonus which, as Purge said, makes it the most valuable building in the game. Another biggie is the Artificial Slave Center which provides a 50% bonus to military production. One lister jokingly said that the MCC is so powerful, it almost needs the influence hit to balance it out. Personally, the effect on influence is dissapointing for me. I do agree the economic bonus is extrodinarily powerful, but I enjoy flipping planets and have to play Neutral to execute that tactic. When playing evil, it's all about invasion. Needless to say, I'm very interested to see what happens there with TA.

Reply #8 Top
Muwhahaha. You've been duped. The Mind Control Center adds an awesome econ bonus, but makes it nearly impossible for planets to revolt.
Reply #9 Top
I love playing an influence-heavy evil, and I have to deprive myself of the MCC to do it. It's still winnable at masochistic, but probably not any higher than that. Really wish they'd fix this in TA, even if they need to downgrade the econ bonus to do it.