Strange Bug with Population

I've never heard of a minor being able to win any type of victory. It's an interesting experiment.

Re the UP vote, the behavior sounds odd, but I'd be a little surprised if the internal testing plans included a scenario like the one you're attempting. AFAIK, the votes are not 'citizens,' they're more abstract points and you keep them until you trade or give them away.

But it seems like you should have had a much smaller number of 'votes' for the second UP session after you tried to elevate the minor.

Oh, I definitely did have fewer votes the second time!

Hmmm, you're right, though.  I needed to include all my Influence points in that gifting.  I wonder if I did?

I just may have to go back and try!

Can a Minor win?  Or, rather, can a Player lose because a Minor meets the victory conditions?

I'd guess that on each turn the game checks to see if any Empire meets the victory conditions.  Does that check include the Minor races?  HeckifIknow!

Also, there was one thread some time ago in which someone commented that the game continued if a non-Player reached the Research Victory.  I may have to try that, also.  That is, get to the brink of a Research win and gift it all away.  Then, reload and gift it to a Minor!

You're right as far as the Influence points as opposed to in game influence.

You gain Influence points throughout the year based on your population.  At the end of the year, you spend these points by voting.  The tally then restarts for the next vote based on your population for the next year.

You can also buy or sell the Influence points through the Trade screen.  If you buy them, your voting power will be increased by that amount while the selling party will lose that amount of voting power for that one vote.

Minors also accrue Influence Points, but they don't have a vote. 

The Influence points only count toward the UP votes and don't affect your actual influence for tourism money or the influence victory.

I did end up with an Alliance victory.  The Minor I gifted my Empire to just kept researching and building ships, and even got into several wars on its own.  They remained the true dominant power.  I'm not sure any Empire invaded another or flipped.  Perhaps the Minors cannot flip another's planet under any conditions?

Eventually all got tired of beating against the Minor, so that I could get Alliance with just one or two holdouts.  I then bribed the Minor to attack them, and suddenly they all were willing to do an Alliance!  Game over!  Heehee!  I had about the lowest score of al the Empires but won anyway.

Influence is entirely non-functional for minors. They cannot flip or be flipped.

UP voting is based on the influence output of your empire each turn, which just accumulate during the year. The first vote you still had all the accumulated points from before you gifted the planets to the minor. When you voted teh second time you had only the one planet's influence points to vote with.

As far as I know minors cannot win in any way. Certainly they are left out of all the conditions for you to win; it only makes sense they are excluded from all victory condition checks.

I was pretty sure that a Minor's homeworld/capitol cold not be flipped, but i was not sure about colony worlds gifted to them.

I got an interesting message on the Victory Progress screen.  It said something like, "Research Victory Conditions Disabled"!  But I had all Victory conditions enabled when i started the game.

What nay have happened was that the Minor ran out of things to research and "won" a research victory.  Since it was not entitled to win, the game disabled the victory conditions?!

I have only been playing the compaign so far, but I have an idea.  To get a minor to win have your tried this.  Destory the last AI planet with a Terror Star and on the same turn give everything to a minor.  If you cannot give all your planets to the minor use a Terror Star to destory the system your last planet is in.  I don't know if that will work or not, but basically I was trying to think of away to destroy the last AI and you on the same turn.

I just play DA (so no Terror Star), but there is a way to do the same thing w/o it.

Conquer the last AI then, before hitting the Turn button, give every planet to a Minor.  I may have to try that!

I haven't tested it since Dread Lords, but that is *exactly* what happened when anyone but you (including majors) competed a tech victory. Anyone tried that with a major recently?

No, but I just put it on my list!