How to increase influence output with the available policies

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Oberlus
Cosmic Dragon
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How to increase influence output with the available policies

#1 Post by Oberlus »

This could be a seed for a tutorial on influence and policies. But for now it's getting shaped and is mixed with ideas to change current policies.


From late game perspective, going backwards. The examples assume 30 planets with average 30 pop per planet and average species traits.


Chapter 1: the "religious" path.


Divine Authority (Social)
- Very late game due to policy prerequisites (Indoctrination, late policy itself).
- It's so easy to unlock (Xeno Archeology, or Transcend Arch) with respect to the prerequisites, that Xeno Archeology could be removed from unlockers with no effect in gameplay.
- IP cost is moderate: 2*sqrt(owned population). E.g. 60 IP for a 900 pop empire. This means one can not try this route if the empire is already deficitary on IP. Must plan in advance.
- Can't be adopted with Alg. Research (not a sacrifice) or with Liberty (that is more of a sacrifice, but still OK).
- The bonuses: +4 stability everywhere, +1 IP for planets with stability>=10. E.g. +30 IP for a 30 colonies empire. Assuming average influence and pop 30 per colony, this allows the empire to go from 11-12 planets set to influence (nearly 33%) to 6 planets set to influence (20%), equivalent to increase overall PP&RP output of the empire by 27% (from 19 to 24 colonies set to PP/RP).
- The maluses: -5 RP per planet. That is huge, it removes all RP output from non-RP-focused planets and a sizeable portion of RP-focused planets. E.g. -30 from Nascent AI and -20% to -80% from RP-focused. This means only empires with some great research powerhouses can afford Divine Authority AND technological development.


Indoctrination (Social)
- Relatively late game due to unlocking (tech Psionics, faster for telepathic species) and policy prerequisites (Propaganda and Conformance, both social).
- Same IP cost than Div. Auth.
- Can't be adopted with Artisan Works., Diversity or Liberty. When artistic species are available, not having Artisan Works. is a liability.
- The bonuses: stability +10 (over time), +5 IP for IP-focused centers (capital, IRAs).
- The maluses: -1 IP per planet. That is aweful for influence deficitary empires, it's like "I'd like to see my empire in flames". Can be compensated with enough IRAs. E.g. -30 for all planets, +30 from 6 centers IP-focused. However, I've played around ten games until turn 100-200 in the recent months and I was never able to have more than 1 center per 8 planets. So -30 from the malus and +20 from the centers, including the capital set to influence (which is always an ugly choice because of its high population "wasted" on getting 5+sqrt(pop) IP). If minimum distance between centers was 4 instead of 5, I think this policy would be more effective.


Conformance (Social)
- Mid to late game due to unlocking (tech Psionics, faster for telepathic species).
- Same IP cost than Div. Auth and Indoctrination.
- Can't be adopted with Artisan Works., Diversity or Liberty. Again, when artistic species are available, not having Artisan Works. is a liability.
- The bonuses: +2 stability and less stability maluses from disliked stuff.
- The maluses: none.
- If the empire is aiming at the Indoctrination/Div.Auth. strategy, this policy is good to keep unless there are other more-needed social policies that require the slot.


If this path is taken late (if you get Conformance when you already have many planets, specially if there are few IRAs), it could be impossible to finish it. Total IP requirements could be greater than 200 IP.




Next chapter, the "artistic" path (Diversity and Artisan Works.), which can play well with Liberty.

BlueAward
Vacuum Dragon
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Joined: Mon Aug 08, 2022 3:15 am

Re: How to increase influence output with the available policies

#2 Post by BlueAward »

Eye opening, great info, thank you!

Not sure if that is intended, you supposedly cannot adopt Divine Authority without Indoctrination, so its bonus seems to offset Indoctrination malus. But then, once adopted, you can remove Indoctrination but keep Divine Authority, so they no longer cancel out and Divine Authority becomes pure IP gain rather than offset to Indoctrination. Huh.

I did not realize in my games, that you can drop Indoctrination should you desire, once adopting Divine Authority!

Going by my calculations on another thread, for artisan workshops, I can try something similar for divine authority:

U - total upkeep
x - amount of planets on influence focus without divine authority
d - amount of planets on influence focus with divine authority
I - average influence on an influence focused planet
n - number of owned planets

U = x * I
U = d * I + n
=> d = x - n / I

In other words, with Divine Authority, you get to put n / I fewer planets on influence duty. Going with I = sqrt(30), it's like d may be 1 fewer every I planets, so every 5 or 6 planets (sqrt(30) is about 5.477) in your example. Though this bonus is linear to the number of planets, while upkeep grows exponentially, so you get diminishing value.

Per my other calculations, upkeep being function of n planets:

U(n) = 0.4 * sqrt(n) * (n-1) - 3

(0.4 sqrt(n) cost per planet, but (n-1) planets because capital doesn't get that cost, and -3 for bonus from capital)

If you go with I = sqrt(30), this leads to soft cap of 83 planets total giving maximum possible productive planets (any new planet after that stops being able to pay for itself), 55 of which are set to influence focus, 28 being "productive".

Divine autority puts that soft cap at 116 planets, with 69 (nice!) being on influence focus, 47 productive.

Just a bit of different perspective than setting number of planets at 30 and going from there. The latter may be more practical than achieving the theoretical soft cap, indeed

I was not sure if you wanted comments on this thread or continue with your chapters. Decided to post in the end. I can remove this and put somewhere else if you wish to

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Oberlus
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Re: How to increase influence output with the available policies

#3 Post by Oberlus »

Your post is more than welcome.

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