I agree, influence was a good idea that was simply poorly executed
for example I really liked the influence system because it forced me to bring other characters off the ship from time to time, where as in k1 I used Jolee and Bastila on almost every planet
but they really screwed up with the amount of influence hits they put in the game.........
there are so few influence hits for some characters you are literally "forced" to use them at certain times........they should really have taken a look at the game and added at least 3 times more influence hits
it was also a bit odd how once you had turned good characters too the darkside, they would still preach LS ideas...........instead of having dark side line of thought
so generally influence was a good idea but it simply wasnt develloped enough