New game mechanic : Influence.

[Ze_PilOt]

Influence is now implemented in GW.

Every 5 minutes, each planet will lose occupation depending of the neighbor planets occupation. (0.5% for each influence % you don't have).

It's probably not clear, so here is an example:

ie. if a planet has 3 links.
Let's say 2 of these links are planets with 100% cybran. One of these is 100% aeon.

It means that the planet is influenced at 66% by cybran and 33% by aeon.

Meaning, in our example :
Cybran will lose 0.17% every 5 minutes.
Aeon will lose 0.335% every 5 minutes.
UEF & Seraphim will lose 0.5% every 5 minutes.

So if the planet was owned at 100% by one faction, they will lose total control over it after :
UEF & Seraphim : 1000 minutes (16 hours and 40 min)
Aeon : 1495 minutes (24 hours and 55 minutes).
Cybran : 2945 minutes ( 49 hours and 5 minutes).

So a planet can be become "neutral" over time.

Numbers are open to balance.

That's the first step toward the final influence system :

This week, Depots will be implemented.
Depots are special planets.
Some planets will be depots by default, but your faction will be able to convert some planets to depot for some money.
Your faction can also dismantle depots they own for money if they think they will lose it.
(only higher ranks of a faction can do that).

They have 3 basic "powers" that can be upgraded.
- Influence.
- Reinforcement.
- money.

Money : The faction will earn money when owning these depots. It will depend of how many friendly planets are linked to it, and the upgrade of the money variable.
ie. a Depot linked to 3 friendly planets with a 100% multiplier will bring 300% more money than the normal amount for that depot.
They will also determine the amount of money your faction can hold, like a bank (you will understand that later).

Reinforcements : The closer your attack/defense is from a that depot, the faster reinforcements will come.
If upgraded, it can decrease even more. (needless to say, default time will be hugely increased).
They will have 4 links of influence (but closer = faster).

Influence : Without upgrade, for each planet linked to it, it will convert the lost control from these linked planets to your control (ie. you are cybran, aeon lost 5% control, you gain 5% for Cybran).
The influence will go further with each upgrade (up to 3 links around the depot).

Also, "overcharge" can be bought for these planets.
Each overcharge last for some hours :
Money : Will boost the money generation.
Reinforcements : Reinforcements times are dramatically decreased, can reach 0.
Influence : Not only you suck influence from nearby planets when they lost it, but you also decrease it more, even for planets that wouldn't be decreased without (ie. you are cybran, all planets linked are 100% aeon, that planet will still lose aeon influence toward cybran).

[pip]

I think it's a good idea for the metagame. Maybe depots can have special maps.

I was thinking about having some kind of mapping contest to create GW maps for the homeworld of each factions. The homeworlds would then be depots able to increase money for instance, or maybe all types of depots at once, since there will be only 4 homeworlds.

[Ze_PilOt]

Good idea!

The homeworld will indeed be special depots with influence all over the map, these are setting the minimal time for reinforcements and minimum money for each faction.

[Myxir]

how i understand Influence:
- planets surrounded by just one faction are not affected
- once planets are linked to other planets owned by more than just one faction, they start becoming neutral over time
(means only planet at the front will be affected)

assuming this is true, and gaining 5% of a planet for your faction makes the others share the loss, the one with less occupation also loses relatively the same as the big one
-> longer fights for planets
-> if the number is too high, the frontline will barely shift at all, because players fight the neutral occupation more than the other factions

some other stuff to think about:
- when a planet became 100% neutral, who do you fight there, or is it just freewin?
- not sure if it's still impossible to attack planets which have <10% occupation, but these would trigger the Influence effect (also somewhere far away from the front)


maybe influence should only make factions lose occupation on a planet when they own less than 50% (number variable) of the linked planets occupation (3 planets = 300%, means that they need at least 150% on them to prevent the effect hitting them)

i'm not against this idea (if it looks like it), but i want to be careful and think about side effects, because it looks like something that can easily go wrong

[FunkOff]

You should probably think of another name for your overcharge idea.... overcharge means something else already

[Astrofoo]

If a planet is neutral will it have a Nomad's AI on it or something? Not entirely clear on that. All in all your influence idea is just like Culture in Sins of a solar Empire. The only problem there is that sometimes you can stack enough beacons and get so much culture that you take every planet just with culture which is lame. But I don't think that will happen here. Just be careful not to make influence too powerful and it'll be a great addition.

[Ze_PilOt]

No idea about Sins, I was thinking about how frontiers are working on Civilization.

[Ze_PilOt]

Influence is now in place. If you have more than 50% on a planet, you are not affected by it.
Planets under attacks are not affected by it.

[DeadMG]

Is that why practically all the planets on a faction border are 0% controlled?

[Sulo]

Sorry for necroing old thread but this needs to be cleared, 1294 is connected to 2 sera planets and 1 cybran, couple minutes ago it was 57,1% cybran and ~37% sera, now it dropped to 53,8%.
I thought influence is not dropping if you have over 50%...

Second planet: 127
Was 65,7% cybran, connected to 1 cybran (87,6), 1 UEF (100) and 1 neutral, dropped to 64,6% now
(so it's not caused by hostile influence still on planet, at least not only by that)

Third planet: 128
Cybran stays at 82,2% for the whole observation, connected to 2 cybran and 1 sera

Could it be that only links to 100% planets stop influence from dropping?

Will continue observation but Zep, it would be nice of you to explain how it works now in detail to us


EDIT:
Fourth planet: 1045
UEF: 87,5%
Cybran: 12,1%
Connected to 1 UEF and 1 cybran (both 100%)
Influence is NOT dropping.


EDIT2:
For now I'm only sure that the first thing that is checked is connected planets, if faction has at leat 50% no matter how low the influence is it will NOT drop.
And like I said I'm not sure if connected planets has to be 100%, cant seem to find situation like that on the whole map at this time :/