SAME. I formed my own kingdom, never having been a mercenary, OR a vassal and took my first castle. When I took the castle, after the battle it said that I gained 30-40 influence. But my influence pool remained at ZERO. I killed an army coming to take back the castle... and gained influence after the battle, only to look at my counter and my influence pool remained ZERO. I went to the kingdom management tab and EVERY law/policy I can institute requires INFLUENCE that I cannot get by any means. So, I have a castle. I have a garrison. I've fulfilled all the conditions to make, and HAVE made my own Kingdom via the quest giver, and nothing. All battles give me influence .... but none of that influence given increases my influence pool over ZERO.
I've pretty much stopped playing. I've stuck through all the crashes. The slide show that started for me after the patches (which seemed to cause a memory leak). So every hour I shut down and restart the computer to keep things semi-playable. But my eye was on the kingdom as the prize, and poof. I'm sitting here with the best part of the game bugged.... unless I'm missing something that I can do to fix it, or start filling my influence pool?
Thoughts? --Thanks