Frontier Forums

I remember early in PP it was theorized that the rating 2/5 influence bonuses for Winters, Aisling, and Antal could be used to manipulate the BGS in a way to reduce the cost of upkeep for a control system in order to make it more efficient to fortify a control system. Was this ever confirmed and analyzed to find the exact relation between % control by a favorable govt type and reduced upkeep cost? Or is the cost only related to the distance from the capital?

What other benefit could the rating bonuses for influence have for CMDRs? Any? It's hard to see the benefit of these rating "bonuses" in any case because influence increase seems to only benefit the power and minor factions which does nothing for actual players.