When can I remove a frontier outpost?

[Ordo]

Far as I'm concerned, once I colonise a planet in the area, my borders will permantly remain around that area. But what if I don't find a colonisable planet?

Don't want to lose all of my mining/research facilities. First game, and I'm on ironman btw.

[Army Pea]

You will have to keep the outpost at that location till your borders increase to overtake it

[Botji]

And dont be like me and think building a Habitat is the same as getting a colony, Habitats have 'tiny' borders but if you build one in each star in the area it should be ok, though that is a massive mineral investment.

[Ordo]

How do I know when my borders have officially taken over from the outpost?

I've not gotten a habitat either yet.

[Army Pea]

Your borders will expand with population, ascension perks and tech.

Youll notice when they start to push past your original frontier post borders and should be able to delete the outpost at that time

[Ordo]

Ah ok, thanks!

Any other general tips?

[Army Pea]

Generally speaking i expand very quickly at the start of the game, utilizing a second science ship immediately.
By surveying twice as fast with two ships, i know exactly where to colonize next (best planets) and place a frontier outpost to gobble up all the best space resources.

Dont be scared to really push your borders out using them. I normally have 3-4 early game.
Additionally I will put a outpost down to protect a planet i want to colonize LATER and want to deny the AI from stealing it from me.

This is a very "aggressive" style of play so be warned that it will create border friction with non-allied nations.
Always keep your fleet close to its cap

Most of all , have fun! Stellaris isnt always about winning more than creating a great story!

[Old Ben]

Originally posted by Ordo Skirata:

How do I know when my borders have officially taken over from the outpost?

I've not gotten a habitat either yet.

Hold down the ALT key and you will see the area around all your planets, if it overlaps the outpost area, you can remove it.

[Sentient_Toaster]

Originally posted by Army Pea:

Dont be scared to really push your borders out using them. I normally have 3-4 early game.
Additionally I will put a outpost down to protect a planet i want to colonize LATER and want to deny the AI from stealing it from me.

*frown* Doesn't having multiple outposts drastically slow down accumulating the influence needed to colonize? What steps can one take to avoid that problem?

Originally posted by Old Ben:

Hold down the ALT key and you will see the area around all your planets, if it overlaps the outpost area, you can remove it.

Good to know.

Game should have an official manual. Prima guide is presumably well out of date given all that's changed since release, judging from the news posts (rather than personal experience; only picked this up during this sale).

[Army Pea]

Originally posted by Sentient_Toaster:

Originally posted by Army Pea:

Dont be scared to really push your borders out using them. I normally have 3-4 early game.
Additionally I will put a outpost down to protect a planet i want to colonize LATER and want to deny the AI from stealing it from me.

*frown* Doesn't having multiple outposts drastically slow down accumulating the influence needed to colonize? What steps can one take to avoid that problem?

Originally posted by Old Ben:

Hold down the ALT key and you will see the area around all your planets, if it overlaps the outpost area, you can remove it.

Good to know.

Game should have an official manual. Prima guide is presumably well out of date given all that's changed since release, judging from the news posts (rather than personal experience; only picked this up during this sale).

There are many ways to gain influence early in a game.

Factions being the most obvious. Make them happy with policy changes and enjoy a never ending supply.

The biggest one is fulfilling a mandate for a democratic president (normally building mines/research stations) which nets 250 influence ever 10 years.

Also researching different aliens (in your situation log) in intital Contact nets you 40 influence.

Also certain leaders can boost your influence.

I’ve never run out of influence because I build closer first then quickly push out maximizing your border to influence cost.

[Peter34]

Factions give Influence. It’s often best to pick a main Faction and focusing on pleasing them. I usually play as Fanatic Materialist Pacifist, and then the Materialist Faction is easy to please. When at peace I can also get some Influence from my milk drinkers, but any kind of war tanks that income both during the war and years after.

One game I tried Fanatic Spuritualist Authoritarian. I was able to become great pals with my fundie POPs, and the Ethics attraction was super strong. I also figured out how to mostly please the Authoritarian Faction, so I was swimming in Influence.

Another game I tried FanMat Auth. That didn’t go so well. I tried having 1 Robot or Droid per planet, but my POPs didn’t feel that being Materialist was cool. I had 4 or maybe even 5 different Factions. Yeah 4. I tried simultanously pleasing the 4 most reasonable of them (I gave up pre-emptively on the Egalitarians) but that wasn’t pretty. Nor efficient.

One more thing: Protectorates also give 0.25 Inf/month each. That ain’t much, but if you TechUplift primitive planet-bound civilizations, you might be able to get several.

BioUplifting pre-sentients gives a one-time Influence lump sum.

You might be able to create a one-planet Sector, release as Vassal, then set it totally free, then offer Protectorate status.

Finally, one of the picks in the Expansion Tradition halves the Influence cost of Frontier Outposts.

[ThatOneGuy179]

New player here as well; this thread has helped me out a lot. Influence was also an early wall for me... until my first faction formed and quite happy to boot.