Sphere of Influence - Too Extreme?

[Stylus]

Not sure if anything is having this issue or if it is strictly limited to Vodyani, but it has been difficult to maintain a hold on my own territories.

I've had a game where the Sophon's empire was located on the northern most part of the galaxy and was able to overwhelm my own space located on the western most part. This prevented me from moving my ships outside of any area I did not own, due to closed borders.

Fortunately, there seems to be a bug that allows me to unanchor the Ark ship and re-enable it before the system is converted or else the game would have ended way sooner.

I've waged war in an attempt to destroy their systems but even after the system is gone, the rate at which the influence disappears is annoyingly slow.

CHANGES (possibly?);
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- Restricting the max range of each system's sphere of influence. It just doesn't make sense that 2-3 tightly packed systems can produce a galaxy spanning influence... even if it does, it shouldn't have such a profound impact on the galaxy map

- Once a faction has an advantage, it is almost impossible to catch up and prevent this issue from snowballing unless you make extreme changes to your focus (ex. applying 4x Influence boost modules onto an Ark). I notice I have a lot of Influence currency in all the games I play and perhaps that can be utilized to combat outside influence? Perhaps a civilization spanning anti-influence campaign of some sort.

- Closed borders should only apply to systems that the faction actually owns, not unoccupied systems that the influence happens to also cover.

- Systems that are destroyed or conquered should have their influence removed immediately, not gradually.

- Sphere of Influence is too much of a factor on the galaxy map and should be more focused on altering the way systems work from the inside. I see my systems completely within another's sphere of influence and it doesn't affect the overall happiness level at all.

Please share your experiences!

[Sovereign246]

i had the same exact issue playing as the lumeris but against the vodyani. I could not defend my border systems because it was under their influence, so technically i was in their territory and was unable to attack. The thing is their nearest system was 3 jumps away and our territory had a massive gulf of no mans land between us.

No joke their influence coverd almost half the galaxey before i got sick of it and started ark hunting. there does need to be a limit to how far influence can spread away from a planet. I should still be a large one so that you can grab asteriods and such but 4 arks should not be able to cover half a galaxey.

[Torben Espersen]

I just played a game that has similar happen; one of the AIs sphere of influence engulfed more than half of the galaxy.

This is clearly a bug.

Luckily, I was at peace with that empire so I could move my fleets around but I was at war with another empire and I could not attack any of their fleets nor invade any planets if those were within the first empires influence.

There was a single system outside the influence creep, and I could attack fleets and invade just fine.

[Astasia]

It's not a bug, it's a gameplay strategy. You are losing an influence war. It's like GalCiv2/3. If you see an empire expanding influence like that you need to take action before it's too late. Same as if they are approaching a science victory, or quest victory.

You are also playing on a very small map. It's a lot harder to cover the galaxy with just a few systems on a huge map.

[Tiberious_Of_Elona]

Originally posted by Astasia:

It's not a bug, it's a gameplay strategy. You are losing an influence war. It's like GalCiv2/3. If you see an empire expanding influence like that you need to take action before it's too late. Same as if they are approaching a science victory, or quest victory.

You are also playing on a very small map. It's a lot harder to cover the galaxy with just a few systems on a huge map.

Then it needs adjusting either through a future mod or patch. It takes way too long when I invade and capture an enemy system for their influence to be reversed without completley destroying their empire. I'm talking almost half the game time if not more. Also victory by score needs to be disabled ASAP. No 4x game should be restricted to 120 turns because an AI across the galaxy you cant reach wins by a score count.

[Sovereign246]

i'm playing on medium size and unless i've missed it no where does the game tell you what increaes the radius of influence.

[Kemwer]

Influence generation, individual to each system, increases your influence radius. I've run into no problems with runaway sphere of influence in any of my medium size galaxy plays, Lumeris, Vodyani, or Sophon. If you're getting overwhelmed, switch planet specializations to Influence along with your System Improvements to bolster your output. Assign heroes (Vodyani are good for it) who increase influence generation to your systems.

[Torben Espersen]

Correct it is not a bug, I just played another game, and this time I am generating much more influence and can see how it works now.

[Tophat]

Just throw an influence boosting hero as governor for a few turns. Paint the galaxy your color, that way.

[Aric The Mad Doktor]

had the same thing happen to me, but I think the vodyani ships are pretty strong, because I was able to wipe out my systems sophon infestation after they had 180 points over my faction(pretty sure it was from all of their colony's), but did have a faction I couldn't see or travel to sphere of influence start pushing back all of my arks influence, so that got annoying, but I didn't know influence could be boosted, so that'll come in handy.

[Sovereign246]

Originally posted by Kemwer:

Influence generation, individual to each system, increases your influence radius. I've run into no problems with runaway sphere of influence in any of my medium size galaxy plays, Lumeris, Vodyani, or Sophon. If you're getting overwhelmed, switch planet specializations to Influence along with your System Improvements to bolster your output. Assign heroes (Vodyani are good for it) who increase influence generation to your systems.

I feel a bit stupid now but at the same time it doesent say that political influence increases your influence radius. anyways thanks for the clarity. I do put influence governers on systems but i'll switch out the eco spec on some of them next time and see what happens.

[Stylus]

Glad to see people are having similar experiences. Regardless of if it is a bug or not, you have to generate equal to or greater than the opposing influence to actually overcome it and that is a problem. Especially when the sphere of influence can convert your systems to theirs.. which is way too powerful in my opinion. What also doesn't make sense is the range it can expand and how much it influences movement on the map.

Like others have said, we are seeing the sphere of influence push well beyond areas of unconquered space. When I declared war to prevent the influence expansion, I wiped out 5 systems closest to me and their influence still covered my entire civilization. You would think that each victory would increase my sphere of influence or something, but it does not.

I also loaded up a game before the influence got out of hand and it had no results. 9 systems with Arks equipped with 4x50% influence booster modules and all the influence generating buildings and STILL I couldn't hold back the opposing influence. They probably had 11 systems, all of which were not within 10 (yes 10) jumps from any of my systems.

[Loremaster]

One Example of this happening
http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=776772725

[SubjectThrone31]

Sooo, the influence rings are not linked to POP and FIDS anymore like in ES1? That explains why I got outdone. No diplomacy and assimilated minor faction super quick so I saw zero use for influence as a resource.

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=779089244

Xacor has 2 huge Unique Planets and Lumeris got it early (while I got Bellatrix), blobbed out, and no amount of FIDS boosting made any difference. Then I stomped them and took Xacor and Ker and still their blob is all over.

I understand the system, but what is annoying that taking over planets makes no difference. Xacor was their main influence pumping planet and yet when I took it their influence continues to expand.

Have to admit I prefer a Stellaris-like system where borders are more linked to planets and losing a planet has a tangible effect.

[JH]

Originally posted by Gyumaou:

http://steamcommunity.com/sharedfiles/filedetails/?id=779089244

That surely cannot be working as intended. Amplitude would never be so sloppy with their game design.

[Astasia]

Ya it's almost certainly a bug that they aren't flipping their borders right after capture.