I have been asked by First Minister TAO to come here today to state my opinions on the issue of influence and how it affects feeder regions, from my experience of being the Delegate of The North Pacific for the last 112 days. I certainly hope that my statement here will be of use to the Senate, who I understand is trying their best to figure out a way to keep the stability of your region in tact, while allowing for democratic freedoms such as the right to endorse and to be endorsed.
Firstly, influence as we know has caused many great changes in the game. It affects the way we play; it destroyed old game plans and forced the development of new ideas. I am reminded of when regional controls were first implemented, or when founders were established, or even the development of UN Delegates themselves. These changes force the progression of new ideas on how to best adapt to the realities of the new situation that we face.
Was influence a good idea? Some, especially in the userite realm, believe so. It allows added security for natives, especially in smaller regions, to keep out invaders/raiders from their sovereign territory. UN Delegates and those who have lived in those regions since the dawn of time, if you will, keep the region safe even with the lack of a founder, as they have enough influence to sap any raider from banning too many people. Similarly, if a raider does take over and gains enough influence, they are pretty much assured victory in any liberation attempt, even if they are asleep at the wheel.
What of the Pacifics, though? The Pacifics are 5 regions of roughly 4500 nations (though, I remember when each had 8,000 or even 10,000), where the soul guardian of the state is the UN Delegate. In pre-influence Pacifics, any nation could run for the Delegacy, and be able to hold it and certainly lose it just as easily. Undetected, an invader nation could try to sneak up and snatch the Delegacy while an incompetent Delegate wasn’t watching. Then, they could easily ban as many nations as they want, so long as it wasn’t “griefing”. Events such as the Francos Spain takeover in The Pacific, Great Bight in The North Pacific, or any of the other notorious and infamous feeder Delegacies relate to that..
I’ve only been a feeder Delegate under the influence rules, so unfortunately I cannot really compare the stability of the state/Delegacy from pre-influence to post. I will be able to state the following. The Pacifics are extremely vulnerable in post-influence era without having a support network of high-influence people to back up a low-influence Delegate. It took me most of my first term (3 months, from February to May) to get past Minnow influence, even with having Chodean Kal in the region for an additional 4 months prior, along with maintaining 200 + endos prior to my Delegacy and 330 endos while being Delegate. You in The West Pacific just experienced the problems of influence to the low-influence Delegate, that being you can’t banject many people, regardless of who they are or what their intentions are. I will state that only in the last few weeks that I’ve been able to banject anyone in The North Pacific, although I still will lose quite a bit of influence if I try to remove a certain few people from the region.
Once the Delegate is passed the growing pains of being a Minnow-Delegate (an appropriate term used to describe me in my first few months as Delegate), things in my opinion do change. Invasions are much more difficult in all regions when the Delegate of all people has a high level of influence. That being said, long term clandestine operations will be and are the norm, those who sit and wait for the right time to strike. Those who gain the right amount of influence (I normally estimate roughly between 100-150 endos in a feeder is the level of when one can start slowly gaining influence) can sit and wait, watching for when the Delegate is say on vacation or when there is internal disorder in the government. Then they are able to swoop in and grab the Delegacy.
If this does happen, there is a greater chance in my opinion of State Restoration, that being when the legal Delegate can avoid being banned due to high influence (remember, Delegates gain influence faster than normal nations due to the high endocount) and restore the state. I have never seen what I’m going to say, and I certainly hope I will never see it either, however I predict that unless one of the nations vying for the Delegacy (the legitimate government Delegate and the invader) starts losing endorsements and influence, then there is a good possibility of simply switchovers. I will state again that that is a very hypothetical situation and although I believe is possible, it would be rare to happen because most Pacific Delegates are competent enough to know a security risk when they see one.
The above hypothetical situation, along with the initial installation of an invader Delegate is in my opinion a rare event in my home region for multiple regions. Multiple people keep a watch on the endorsement situation in the region, those people being Security Council members, the NPIA, good ordinary citizens who care for the welfare of the region and especially I as Delegate. Identifying potential threats, even those who may not be but are suspicious in the first place, is key to keeping the region safe. Failure to do and you may as well kiss away your region. Next, communicate with them. Get to know them, understand where they are coming from and disarm them that way. That has been a core tenant of North Pacifican policy during the stable periods, and most of the time it has worked. Indeed, many productive citizens are former “threats”, who simply have been talked to and now understand our region, the rules, and us. If they continue to be a pain, issue a warning and then banject them. I find fewer animosities that way.
I’m not going to comment on the endocap, as frankly you could place any number up there and it could work. However, I would like to make a recommendation to the Senators if I may. I understand you have 2 nations who act as Regents. Wonderful. Are they both high-influence nations? If not, that is a big problem. In fact, they are basically useless in my opinion, as any invader delegate would just ban them on sight. My recommendation is as such: Designate 5-7 additional nations, preferably previous Delegates and Regents, to be Guardians. These high-influence nations are the wall that will keep your house safe, because an invader Delegate cannot banject a Delegate and 6 other high influence nations all at once. Should the Delegate and Regents be taken out, a Guardian would be able to try to take it back, eject the invader, unban the Delegate and the Regents and clean up the mess. In the event that some of the Guardians are banned, then there are certainly others (5-7 in total) in line to take up the cause. If an invader delegate has enough influence to ban all the Guardians, the Delegate and the Regents, you never had any hope left really to get back your region. Someone in the top would have to be really incompetent to let that happen, and frankly would deserve it in my eyes. As a note, we do have an unofficial and de facto version of the Guardian system, where former Delegates and Vice Delegates are expected to keep a relatively high level of endos, to do the above functions if the time comes. They are why I couldn’t banject everyone in the region, and I frankly am glad for that. If I can’t as a legally elected Delegate, neither could an invader Delegate.
In conclusion, influence presents new challenges for us. While it would be perhaps nice for us to take a step back, we must adapt or die. It is difficult on everyone, be you invader, defender, or Pacific Delegate. However, it isn’t extremely game shattering as some individuals have painted it, I don’t believe.
I used to be on that list, too 
), I still had no influence. However, I believe people will still elect those whom they believe can best serve them instead of simply the "vote for X because he/she has high influence." However, I will point out that all potential candidates should gain endorsements well in advance, probably a month or so before elections, just so the process of endotarting isn't so difficult, the transition smoother and also they will gain influence faster. It isn't a position to declare candidacy at the last minute, but to plan well in advance about.