
Part of a player's influence.
Influence (or area of influence), is an element of gameplay featured in both Black & White, and its sequel. It is represented by colored fog surrounding your buildings and population. The area inside a player's influence is called a "realm".
Influence is the boundary of a god's realm. Inside it, a god is able to interact with the environment, and cast miracles.
Outside the influence, however, the player has a limited amount of time (and distance) to interact with things, being soon unable to do anything (represented by a red cross on the cursor/hand), aside from interact with his/her creature. This is sometimes referred to as "virtual influence", although no official name is given to this exception to the limitations of the mechanic.
Mechanics[]
Influence has several sub-mechanics related to it, such as the following:
- Influence is always the same color of the realm owner's. It cannot be seen if the player zooms in, too close to it.
- Influence size is determined by two major game aspects: population of villagers living in villages, that are under control of the player, and belief itself (in the sequel game, Impressiveness plays a huge factor). The larger the population and belief, the larger the area of influence will be.
- Every influence ring originates from either a temple building, or village center, always being at the center of a settlement.
- Upon crossing your godly hand beyond your influence barrier, out of your realm, the player will hear a high-pitched whirring sound, that will gradually become fainter and fainter, until it stops, indicating that the player will no longer be able to influence most things their hand interacts with.
- The time which the player has, to interact with the world outside the area of influence, is related to distance. The further the player's hand strays from their realm, the faster the player will lose virtual influence.
- Having breeder disciples, building homes, and casting impressive miracles, will all increase a player's influence; alternatively, killing villagers , and miracles from enemy gods will shrink the influence ring (in the original game, at least).
- The sky (and, in the sequel, the surrounding land and buildings) within the area of influence, changes based on the player's alignment: it becomes brightly colored and clear if the player is good; it shifts to darkness and clouds, if the player is evil.
- As with the above, music within the influence reflects the alignment, becoming eerie if the player is evil, or peaceful, should the player be a good god.