True, I did not fully understand what the influence option was doing and though It put other effect aside than shorting the time to colonize (Like maybe the colony pop up with more population by default) but seems like does nothing.

Hey :)

This option increases the Food sent to the Outpost by the Colony and thus affects the Food quantity shown on the left and not the counter directly.

Plus since your ships can be intercepted, slowed down and whatnot it would make the counter change seemingly erratically.

Thank you still, for your involvement :)

The counter does show the number of turn before turning into a colony - which will happen even without Food being shipped to it: they have their internal growth.  Food shippedby colonies acts more like a speed booster that ticks upon arrival of a civilian ship.

The main problem is that the roads between  an outpost and a colony can be quite long: a change to the counter made because of something happening on the system is easy to understand for the player (ex: a ship delivering food, enemies blockading etc...). Something that happens 2 constellations away.. not so much.

Of course I understand where you're coming from, but don't forget the counter is accurate at the moment you're looking at it: if it says 5, it'll grow in 5 turns. If a ship delivers food it'll go down to the new accurate measure. If the ship is destroyed on the way however, the counter will remain at 5 and will still be accurate :)

WeaponizedCaffeine wrote:

The counter does show the number of turn before turning into a colony - which will happen even without Food being shipped to it: they have their internal growth.  Food shippedby colonies acts more like a speed booster that ticks upon arrival of a civilian ship.

The main problem is that the roads between  an outpost and a colony can be quite long: a change to the counter made because of something happening on the system is easy to understand for the player (ex: a ship delivering food, enemies blockading etc...). Something that happens 2 constellations away.. not so much.

Of course I understand where you're coming from, but don't forget the counter is accurate at the moment you're looking at it: if it says 5, it'll grow in 5 turns. If a ship delivers food it'll go down to the new accurate measure. If the ship is destroyed on the way however, the counter will remain at 5 and will still be accurate :)

Ok fair enough.

Still a bit problematic if for nothing else: due to the unrelyability when comparing with enemy outposts. In order  to correctly asses the situation the player would thus need to check how far the next transport to the enemy transport(s) is located and guess how long it will take to get there + what the effect is going to be. Failure to do this correctly may lead to large amount of dust, influence and  the system lost

Generally we should ask ourselfes: how many players noticed this mechanic? This being the first step of using it and hence the button

But agree..not a bug. Rather something abouth Game Design then