Should influence be capped?

My view is that it should be capped. As well as military and social production. But that is just me.


~SDC~

It does seem high. Capping it will certainly alter some strategies out there if it does happen.

There is one report of someone overflowing the influence, so 4 billion isn't entirely inconcievable as it stands right now.

~SDC~

We all know that culture victory is worth less points than alliance or military. And some people always turn off culture victory to exploit this extremely high influence ability. I think the cap on influence should be lower than the billions it is currently set at so that the so called culture bombers that always turn off culture victory have to fight a lot. If they want military victory, make it mean military and not a lot of flipping sometimes punctuated by invasions. Just my 2 BC.

Or do what Pontius suggested - disable culture flipping for humans once cultural victory is switched off.

I think things should be capped depending on the quality and status of the planet. If the amount is still excessive then all that really means is that the empire worked hard to have the capabilities they have reached and therefore deserve to gain much influence, ect.

Another approach to fix this would be to have the A.I. agressively build its own culture starbases to counter the yours. This would also make the game more interesting and get you involved in a true culture "war".


[Message Edited]

What Qui-Gon Jinn says is a good idea. Combine it with cap and its excellent!

If you both have reached the limit in cultural buildings/upgrades/points then someone willhave to move more aggessivily to destroy or damage the other ones capacity to create culture points. Hmm, perhaps also with some sabotage missions?
Or..if you could pay the pirates to attack a specific sector (with danger that they will go wild) to destroy the base that creates culture points for the enemy. Or with each building starbase upgrade you have an increase in the limit /cap of points (cultural/otherwise) you can get....Yes, that sounds good!


~SDC~

Well, the far more simple solution is to fix the bug that is causing Influence starbases to MULTIPLY, as opposed to ADD, like all other bonuses do.

I myself use Party Palaces to help flip planets, to help speed up military victories. It would take forever, otherwise, so I'm not a fan of turning off flipping when cultural is turned off. Even if it means the AIs can't flip us, either.

I do, however, limit myself to one cultural SB per sector.

I also use the flipping to quicken military victory on the larger maps. But I agree that the culture bonuses should just add, not multiply. That would help considerably.

The problem is NOT that influence needs to be capped. The problem is that multiple culture starbases in the same sector have their effect MULTIPLY, not add. They really should just add.

The other problem is that each races' intrinsic cultural restance rating should be something like 50% higher. Plus, the AI does not effectively use culture starbases.

Many races culturally flip very easily. Sometimes it's difficult to slow down your cultural conquest. Raising cultural resistance would help.

If I want to help an AI combat culture. I have to build the starbase and give it to them. It would be nice if they knew how to do combat culture by building starbases rather than cultural resist projects.

Sorry fellas -- I don't wish to sound rude, but you're all wrong. Okay, lets have the influence bonus add instead of multiply. That's fine by me. But I can still flip planet after planet with little or no resistance, it will just take a little longer, that's all. This will just add tedium to the game, not strategy. The best way to fix it is to have the A.I. counter agressivily with it's own starbases. Isn't that what a human opponent would do, short of engaging in open warfare?

Have to agree completely with Qui-Gon. Strategy/Tactics > tedium every time.

I'm a big fan of the single bonus solution. Only the best starbase bonus should apply.

If you build 10 party palaces within a single sector, why should you get 10 times the bonus? You're competing for the same business!

I believe the same should also be true for all other starbase upgrades (except resources). Why should you be able to build 20 trade cntre in a single sector and gain 20xbonus? Surely those freighters would nto visit all of them? Makes game too easy being able to employ this tactic.

You could still culturally flip most systems, but it would take proper effort (starbases in all surrounding sectors, high cultural influence systems).

Paul.

~SDC~

No, it won't, unless you are just playing "cultural victory in military clothing", and really never actually attack the AIs. For those who play like me (using cultural pressure to flip some planets while mopping up), it won't extend the game (or tedium) at all, since I'm not using the cheese tactic of multiple party palaces in a sector.



Well, using cultural pressure to hasten a military victory IS a valid strategy.

Crushbone,

We just said the same thing heh. All I am saying is that it would be tedious to have to place even more cultural bases near your enemy when you are clearly ahead and they also clearly can't stop you. All that adds up to is time wasted, not a more intense session.

Then why would you do it?


~SDC~

*boggle*

Mad Prophet wrote:


Wdll wrote:


By "time wasted" I believe MadProphet is saying that having the culture bonus add instead of multiply would lead to time wasted.

I would still do it because in many game situations it still may be the quickest way to victory.

Yes, succinctly put.