Uhm ... what does influence do in EB?

[EoE]

Hi

This may sound like a weird question, but what exactly does influence do in EB? In the original vanilla RTW I guess it was used to select the faction heir, and to simulate the strength of the 3 Roman factions.

Does it do anything but affect diplomatic actions?

thnx/EoE

[Pharnakes]

Well, it affects bodyguard sizes, public order and (presumably) diplomacy, though it has to be said I have never seen any clear cut evidence of that being the case.

[Red_orbiT]

Far as I can remember, influence increases order in cities and size of the family members bodyguard. So a high influence family member will be more useful in battle and better at keeping an unruly city calm.

[hoom]

Ahhh, I always wondered what caused the family members to have such variation in bodyguard size (but never really tried to work it out) :balloon2:

[Poulp']

Well, it affects bodyguard sizes, public order and (presumably) diplomacy, though it has to be said I have never seen any clear cut evidence of that being the case.

back in the vanilla 1.0 days, it was noticeable that high influence made bribing attempts cheaper; with the patches, bribery was made more expensive, and now, the difference is pointless.
Why bribe those rebels 25000 when you can send a few troops and settle the problem for half as much ?

[Long lost Caesar]

i always knew it kept the lil plebs calm, but i had no idea about bodyguard size. time to roll out the big guns:beam:

[konny]

The size of the bodyguards is also effected by other triggers. One is the age, older characters have more bodyguards than younger ones, regardless of the influence. And there must be something else, what I haven't figured out so far, because I often have characters who should have about the same bodyguard but do differ by up to 50%.

[Puupertti Ruma]

Bodyguard size has been researched in Ludus Magna, and their findings were IIRC: Bodyguard size is affected by unit size (normal/large/huge you know), influence and personal security, and nothing more.

Old character's have bigger bodyguards because they have more traits giving influence and personal security.

[Cheexsta]

Influence keeps cities happy and affects bodyguard size. Diplomats need a higher Influence rating than any character they want to bribe (though note you can't bribe a leader or heir). It also acts as a requirement for certain traits - you can't make Consul without being influential.