How does influence really work?

[OZGOD]

I thought I understood how it works, but now I'm getting confused.

 

My initial understanding of it was that influence played a part in being able to turn your NPCs into Jedi by unlocking dialogue options that would direct them to that. But I was told something different by someone on another forum, which confused me:

 

By the way, you don't have to get +influence, -influence work as well.

 

Positive influence turn the npc to your aligment, Negative one send him the opposite way. This won'T prevent you from turning the character in a Jedi.

 

For example, in my evil game I decided to be an ass with Bao Dar. Every time I got the chance I was mean and annoying to him, I would also do the opposite of what he wanted.

 

I was Dark Side mastered, so he became Light Side mastered. When I talked to him later in the ship, he still gave me the "Jedi" dialog.

 

The problem with this is that you can end up with characters that are your opposite aligment, but I think that's how the game should be really played. Evil characters will become more evil, good one will become more good.

 

It's a lot easier to get -influence than +influence, btw. There are a lot more oppportunity.

 

Is this actually the case? I'm confused about how it works if I'm Dark Side and I want to turn a Lightsider (eg Bao Dur or Atton) to the Dark - it seems as though most of the ways to gain positive influence with them involves Light side choices (eg spare innocents, help the Republic, etc). Does this mean that I need to make Light Side influence choices to turn them to the Dark Side? That doesn't sound right from a roleplaying POV, does it?

 

I'm confused!

[Derc]

Originally posted by OZGOD

Is this actually the case? ... Does this mean that I need to make Light Side influence choices to turn them to the Dark Side? That doesn't sound right from a roleplaying POV, does it?

To an extent, yes.

 

Being a darksider and influencing your party members to be just as evil as you can be tricky, especially with Bao-Dur. Atton is actually easy. With Atton, all you need is some initial influence with him, so start with the options at Peragus and the Harbinger. After he is aligned on your side, he starts to act evil as well. For example, killing random innocent people will gain influence with him.

 

But this isn't what Bao-Dur likes. You have to sacrifice darkside points to be nice. Of course, it's only temporary; you can get evil again later.

 

Just remember that not all influence options are lightside; some of them are just neutral options, such as agreeing with them.