This is a problem. I think influence should be changed or removed. It forces fake roleplay or unrealistic situations on players. It doesn't happen ALL the time, but it causes unnecessary problems. (Not something that can just be ignored away or dealt with IG) If I have no problem with members of a cabal that I'm not vendetta'd against everything sounds peachy right? But when that cabal has a good amount of influence and it's starting to gain influence in my land and claim it without having any of their own units in it, against what the players IN the cabal are trying to do, it pretty much makes them look bad for jacking "my" cabal's territory, without (possibly) meaning to. It's a coded game mechanic that detracts from rp. Characters in a vendetta should fight, so if I am vendetta'd with somebody, just so I can take land, that's not even near them, I'm forced to fight those players for no reason other than a code forced them and I to fight. If this is confusing, here's an example.
Let's say Knight is fighting Nexus for some land, they take half of the bastions in an area and warmaster influences and takes control. Knight is not vendetta'd against warmaster and has no qualms with any of them, but the game made warmaster interfere greatly because knight cannot pass through warmaster (the influenced) territory, because there is no vendetta. So Knight is stuck at that spot... unless they want to vendetta against warmaster and have a bunch of enemies for a little bit of land.
My suggestions are to remove influence altogether, let cabals take land without disruption from afar, or let cabals choose to influence or not to. So that if I'm a army leading Knight against NExus armies being stopped by warmaster from afar, it's the warmaster choosing to halt me because... well because they choose to, (and the reason is their own) That way, if I want to vendetta against them, it's because the players did something to cause it, not a game code messing it up for us both.
