Prominence 3 not working?

[starrynite120]

Perhaps I'm not understanding it correctly, but Prominence 3, where you get to take control of starbases and planets based on your influence, doesn't seem to be working. Am I missing something? I've had these starbases in my borders for awhile now and they're still not under my control, and I'm puzzled.

[Red Earth]

There's a malevolent trait that prevents influence flipping. They might have that.

[ColorsFade]

The flip happens only at the moment you unlock the trait, not later. So if the starbases were not in your influence when you unlocked, then they won't be later on when your influence spreads and they fall into your influence. It's a one-time event.

That's why it's a good idea to wait on using Enticing until you have a lot of planets and starbases inside your influence, and then unlock it. It's okay to hang onto Ideology unlocks and wait to use them. Some are better unlocked immediately, and some are better to wait. For instance, it's a good idea to save Benevolent => Outreach #1 and #2 and use them together, and unlock them at the same time, one after the other. You then get a new planet and a colony ship immediately available to colonize it.

As for Enticing: it's a good unlock to save for when you are elected United Planet chair and can be elected to have your home planet host the U.P. As the host you get a huge bonus to Influence, which almost immediately increases your borders and put borderline planets into your influence.

The trick is getting to be U.P. chair. In order to make that happen at the first election, you need to lay down Embassies and increase Diplomacy, which means you need to dedicate some Research to unlocking those things early on. The earlier you can lay down Embassies the better, and then you will have the necessary good will to land yourself in the U.P. chair.