Alright, I'm not going to post the long log of me influencing, but after being diverted (Which I assumed just started the ego battle all over) Arilyon was able to win Mrs. Trundle from me in two attempts. I'm just curious if it's supposed to transfer the previous efforts or was that buggy?

Of course I could be underestimating the strength of a City Rank 6 person.

No, I'm not whining. It's a legit question.

Not sure but I've been wondering about that myself. I've had denizens "stolen" from me in 1 hit before after being diverted. I'm thinking it has something to do with the influence being diverted -to- the one that did the diverting, or at least that's what it seems to do.

If it were like.. stealing and reaping the benefits that would be neat, but then again your influence skill just might be that strong. A CR4 person came in later and handled Trundle like she was a cub, and all I could say was meh. I'm boggled.. maybe only certain strengths appeal to certain denizens? That or the CR2 influence skill is way underpar.

I would guess it's because each denizen has their own Ego rating, much like they have health (And, I assume, Mana).

Let's say, for the sake of arguement (And just to give an example), the person you're influencing has 3000 Ego.

You're hitting them for about 250 ego damage a shot, and get them several, before someone else comes along, and diverts them.

They're down to 500, 1000 ego. Now, this person is a much more charismatic, more skilled influencer. He influences for 750 ego damage a shot. Only takes one or two hits to beat them, because they've already been weakened.

Normally, it'd only take them four hits to beat the guy anyways, so it -still- looks fantastically fast.

Now, these numbers probably aren't at all accurate, but they still demonstrate the point I was attempting to make.

diverting doesn't reset influence, just makes them not attack you and they are still down on ego, and they become stubborn often, but anyone can start where you left off as long as it is soon after the denizzsen is diverted

That was true, but it is no longer.

While we're at influencing bugs...one thing I've observed is that sometimes various denizens just get bugged and can't be influenced, or my skill WILDLY fluctuates. Because at several points I'd influenced Hopliti or one of the leaders in a minute or two, but spent at least 3 times more (I counted) on a regular Furrikin guard and still not won her over...I -think- they have a bugged ego counter or something, because that just doesn't seem righ to me.

Influencing is not the same as physical combat. Each time you do the influence command, the NPC builds a resistance to it. The more resistant, the less likely your influence attempt will actually help sway the target. This is why you want to switch around. If the NPC has a high resistance to begging, wheedling will work better for a while. It is possible that an NPC can build a 100% resistance to it and you will never get anywhere. I wanted it to be less deterministic than normal bashing, which is why it is designed this way. It also means that the number of hits it takes to sway an NPC will vary each time. If you get lucky on a high level NPC and unlucky on a low level one, you could indeed have more success with the high level on than the low level one. What counts is the trend over the long term, not what happens in specific incidences.

Thing is, though, I was using nothing but lectures on both...

EDIT: Oh, I can see how that would work anyway. Nevermind me. *cough* 100% resistance, right.