does anyone know what exactly increases/decreases the influence cost for assimilating independent peoples?

Whether your Civ is Aesthete or not, and how close you are to thier Ideological axis based on what policies you adopt, and how much gold/ influence you aready paid them depending whether you took the policy to link outposts with money instead of influence.  Is there somethng other than that?

JImboNerd wrote:

Whether your Civ is Aesthete or not, and how close you are to thier Ideological axis based on what policies you adopt, and how much gold/ influence you aready paid them depending whether you took the policy to link outposts with money instead of influence.  Is there somethng other than that?

Aesthete has a cost reduction to assimilate? Nice. 

How does the bribing thing work in relation to cost? 

To sum up, Aesthete has a perk that always maxes out ideological proximity for independent peoples and that mechanic (i.e. ideological proximity) seems to directly influence the cost of any actions towards the independent peoples. It seems that when a bribe is in effect that cost to Assimilate is also increased, but it should go back to normal after the bribe ends or you hit 100 relations. 

I kept trying to figure out the formula for patronage and assimilation.
I thought it depended on my era, or the independent city's era.
But in the end I gave up as I couldn't find a pattern.

The only predictable thing is that the cost keeps going up. So I try to patronage/assimilate ASAP.
If the price is crazy high I sometimes adopt the civic Independent Peoples that gives a 50% discount.

Or Land Rights so I can pay with Money instead of Influence.

If you pay with influence (patronage) make sure to Assimilate after your influence per turn has expired. (the cost is inflated while it's active)

Bribe (money) will not inflate the price to assimilate (if you're paying with influence).

Ansive wrote:

I kept trying to figure out the formula for patronage and assimilation.
I thought it depended on my era, or the independent city's era.
But in the end I gave up as I couldn't find a pattern.

The only predictable thing is that the cost keeps going up. So I try to patronage/assimilate ASAP.
If the price is crazy high I sometimes adopt the civic Independent Peoples that gives a 50% discount.

Or Land Rights so I can pay with Money instead of Influence.

If you pay with influence (patronage) make sure to Assimilate after your influence per turn has expired. (the cost is inflated while it's active)

Bribe (money) will not inflate the price to assimilate (if you're paying with influence).

I think you're right, era does influence the cost.