"Influence"...what does it do?

OutlawDr · 2012-06-13, 11:03 AM

Last night I was watching the Totalbuscuit E3 videos again. Some random guy was looking at the map, but something caught my eye. For each territory section, there was something called "influence" along with a pie chart showing a percentage for each empire. Here are some pics
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/6636384/PS2/influence1.png
https://dl.dropbox.com/u/6636384/PS2/influence2.png

I was planning to write up a huge ass thread about an idea to integrate territorial control of the map and resources on the map to a more persistent metagame. I was going to call it "influence", but then I saw this. At first I thought I'll need to change the name, but when I tried to figure out what influence does, I couldn't come up with anything solid.

So does anyone know what influence does exactly? I couldn't find any info on it through forums search or wiki. Maybe Im searching for the wrong things. Someone should know.
It doesn't correspond to who owns the territory, since Vanu has control of one with a clear TR majority in the influence pie chart. Its doesn't represent ownership of surrounding territories. And it doesn't correspond to current ticket count for base ownership. The Zurvan area was even 33% split, but current ticket count at the time of the screenshot was no where near that.

NewSith · 2012-06-13, 11:06 AM

My best guess - reinventation of the classic PS tactical map mode. Just showing how many enemies are in the area.

Mechzz · 2012-06-13, 11:07 AM

I don't recall anything official describing influence. It came up in another thread and we decided it was the "fuck spec-ops" button to give away infil teams before they've hacked the first term. I'm only half-kidding btw.

RovingDeath · 2012-06-13, 03:55 PM

Originally Posted by Mechzz

I don't recall anything official describing influence. It came up in another thread and we decided it was the "fuck spec-ops" button to give away infil teams before they've hacked the first term. I'm only half-kidding btw.

I always hated that crap... Reveal enemies too

Meriv · 2012-06-13, 11:08 AM

Easy one, it is just how many hex of which faction are confinant to calculate the time for cap, higher the influence faster will be it

Did i got a beta key?

Edit: for that reason the E3 hex that has the NC at left and Vanu at right of the map goot an equal amount 33% each

NewSith · 2012-06-13, 11:10 AM

Originally Posted by Meriv

Easy one, it is just how many hex of which faction are confinant to calculate the time for cap, higher the influence faster will be it

Did i got a beta key?

not sure, check the mouse cursor position on the second screenshot. In that case your suggestion is quite illogical.

Mechzz · 2012-06-13, 11:19 AM

Originally Posted by NewSith

not sure, check the mouse cursor position on the second screenshot. In that case your suggestion is quite illogical.

Yeah, hence my concern that "influence" is also impacted by the number of players in the hex. So the more OCD elements of the player base can sit in the map screen and watch for "twitches" in influence that indicate infiltrating squads taking up position for spec-ops work.

Hamma · 2012-06-13, 11:32 AM

Originally Posted by Meriv

Easy one, it is just how many hex of which faction are confinant to calculate the time for cap, higher the influence faster will be it

This is correct.

OutlawDr · 2012-06-13, 11:36 AM

Originally Posted by Hamma

This is correct.

Thank you for the confirmation. I'm guessing the system was not fully working at E3, since one section had 27% NC influence with no adjacent NC hexes. Or are there other factors that contribute to influence as well? Please do tell : )

Hamma · 2012-06-13, 11:37 AM

Yea as Malorn said E3 is not a good gauge of how anything actually works. For example, MAX's piloting Liberators and Vehicles.

Brewko even said the drop pod system was tweaked for the E3 demo.

Newsith - which comment are you referring?

EDIT: I am fairly certain influence is calculated by both adjoining hex's and population within the current hex. I'm not 100% on that though.

NewSith · 2012-06-13, 11:38 AM

Originally Posted by Hamma

Yea as Malorn said E3 is not a good gauge of how anything actually works. For example, MAX's piloting Liberators and Vehicles.

Brewko even said the drop pod system was tweaked for the E3 demo.

Newsith - which comment are you referring?

EDIT: I am fairly certain influence is calculated by both adjoining hex's and population within the current hex. I'm not 100% on that though.

/thread.

OutlawDr · 2012-06-13, 11:41 AM

Originally Posted by Hamma

EDIT: I am fairly certain influence is calculated by both adjoining hex's and population within the current hex. I'm not 100% on that though.

Hmm interesting. Im not sure how I feel about the bolded part if its true. Something to ask the devs when we can.

Mechzz · 2012-06-13, 11:42 AM

Originally Posted by Hamma

EDIT: I am fairly certain influence is calculated by both adjoining hex's and
population within the current hex. I'm not 100% on that though.

heh - so I wasn't wrong. Influence could well be the "fuck spec-ops" button if it changes every time a spec-ops squad enters an enemy hex.

This may prompt me to go and learn the programming I'd need to do to scrape the hex influence every 15 seconds and display it as a line graph over time.

Anderz · 2012-06-13, 11:09 AM

Could that just be a pie graph of who currently owns each control point within the base?

That being said, a pie graph seems like a weird way to display that....

willaguy · 2012-06-13, 11:09 AM

Exactly what Meriv said, it is just a way of telling who owns the most territory around that hex, and how fast the capture of the points will be based on the amount of territory surrounding it.