Picture presented without comment. There are other factions in there, somewhere, slowly being eaten.

For mother empire!

Sublustris wrote:

That just illustrates how bullshit influence area values are from just one system. They should depend on covered circle area, not just influence radius.

I agree. I think they need to work on the influence system a little. As a militarist player I find sometimes systems are overtaken by my influence before I get a chance to invade them and on endless difficulty you seem to be swallowed up by your opponents influence faster than you can muster a defense against it.

TangerineMantis wrote:

Sublustris wrote:

That just illustrates how bullshit influence area values are from just one system. They should depend on covered circle area, not just influence radius.

I agree. I think they need to work on the influence system a little. As a militarist player I find sometimes systems are overtaken by my influence before I get a chance to invade them and on endless difficulty you seem to be swallowed up by your opponents influence faster than you can muster a defense against it.

Yeah, big time. It's a very easy way to win, which feels lazy...

Hello,

We're going to rework the formula which computes the influence circle in order to make it harder to grow. We still want the influence to be rewarding at the beginning of the game, and thus it needs to grow; but you're right, the numbers are off in mid-late game.

Cheers,

Don't know how you're calculating this, just let me make a suggestion:

Assuming each 10 influence increases 1 radius unit, you'll get a constant increase in flat and cumulative line.

Assuming each 10 influence increases 1 surface unit, instead you'll get this numbers:

As I don't know how actually you calculate influence, assuming this is a radius unit vs a surface unit, I think going for the second will - at least partially - solve the actual issue. See comparative costs:

Blue is the cumulative cost per radius unit (in influence) and orange its corresponding cumulative costs for same radius if you instead calculate it per surface unit.

If you want to play, here is the .xlsx sheet (sorry for people who find it obvious): Influence costs per area.xlsx.

Also note the good points from @Sotek. I found them very of common sense, except for having negative influence, but if you stop generating influence it will allow another faction to eat your area quickly.

the border radius is calculated in function of a variable that computed the net influence produced since the creation of the system. It then uses the disc area surface formula to transform it into a radius

i switch this formula for the sphere volume area (so instead of ^0.5 we ^0.33 the influence which is lowering it's progression a lot after a while (i did give it a multipler so it's still more or less the same in early (could even be faster at the start of the game))

you can always try this formula and give me returns on your experience

SimulationDescriptors[ColonizedStarSystem].xml

Sotek wrote:

I think that the main problem is that influence seems to sum up each turn.

Maybe it just have to be linked to the log of the current production of influence , whatever the past ?

What happen if, suddenly, my capital system produce 0 influence per turn ?

1) Did the influence circle just stop to expand ?

2) Did the influence circle start to retract itself ?

3) Did the influence circle disappear ?

I imagine that solution 2) is the best, but 3) can be good also...

Great idea.  I think the "memory" influence of option #2 would be the best, i.e., have a weighted sum over the previous X turns with a predefined falloff.  Then, perhaps, in late-game there could even be a tech like "Endless Influence" which changes the predefined falloff to have a larger area-under-the-curve, thereby yielding a higher influence radius.