I tried heading to http://wiki.galciv3.com/index.php/Influence today. The page... does not exist. Am I like the only one that's bothered by that? I'm sorry to say that territorial progress is NOT intuitive in this game for me. Or maybe my brain is just that feeble: I don't see how x influence per turn is allotted to galaxy tiles.
There are SO many questions that would be good and should have good answers within this narrow topic. What must happen for a tile to lean toward my empire, vs a neighboring empire? Do the 6 adjoining tiles next to a planet collect exponentially more influence than 3 rows out? Or is it divided linearly, among 6, 12, 18 tiles &c?
Other, more far out questions might come up. Do planets operate completely independently for inf purposes, or does their influence become some factor for starbase influence? That's an example of what happens when you completely gloss over a topic. People don't know. I guess for some of us this "should" be simple, but I tried muddling through and find there just isn't any satisfaction, staying ignorant about how to proceed with something. Rly rly helpful content would say like this for instance: "it's possible, for a middling empire struggling to keep up and not especially geared toward influencing, to isolate and swallow up a planet of an opponent, with x cultural bases built in such and such configuration." But I'm desperate for any and all specific, apply-able insight.
Maybe this point escaped the devs, but when I've blown through my treasury as will inevitably happen, then knowing if I'm looking at a 400 buck investment vs a 600 buck one could actually make or break my decision to commit. I don't think that's abnormal. And lets not forget the worst game experiences I've had in 4X involve my chugging along for ~200 turns, only to see that my gunboat has sailed, and everyone around has outstripped me and will soon invade and enslave me. 
If I must fail then it would be nice at least knowing the wherefores, as opposed to wondering whether I had thrown away huge towering slices of resource on failed projects!! Thx for viewing :>
