Kreia and Atton: Influence....!?!?!?

[Manzo]

Alrighty, here comes the number one newbie question but PLEASE be merciful and don't kill/censor/ForceKill me.

I have been playing for a while, now I'm on Telos with the Hag and the *** (Kreia & Atton rofl).
Whereas being successful at gaining influence over Atton and T3-M4 (social influence over droids, now that's the future!) even "by chance", have you got some general suggestions for improving it?
I have also tried to reload the game and change conversation topics, still in certain situations (the couple situations I could influence Atton, before and after talking to Kreia on the Ebon Hawk), it does seem like there's just one way (or, alas, I have missed some critical conversation choices already, but all in all I've been playing consistently with my idea of the character and trying to make everyone happy, being friendly, positive and smiling at Atton and being respectful and low-ear-like-faithful-puppy to Kreia).

And, about Kreia... what the heck?
Nothing I can say will make me gain influence...
It just happened the once that I gained and lost influence over her at the same time.
On the other hand, it does seem like I can ONLY lose influence most times...
Is it because I am very light-sided already (even if I am in the first parts of the game) and she would react badly to any position to far off from neutral greyness?

Thank youuuuuuuuuuuuuuuuu

[Tricky]

There are three types of situations in which you might get an influence gain with npc's. The two obvious ones, good and evil, work for the most stereotypical characters like Handmaiden and Hanharr.

However, some npc's like Atton respond to BOTH good and evil dialogue choices. These are the easiest characters to gain influence with.

The 3rd type is the most trickiest one and harder to name. It can be evil or neutral, but it usually is never good. What this type of dialogue signifies above everything is utter, self-serving insidiousness. Kreia and Visas belong in this category.

Note that like Atton, Visas is also a mixed character who will also respond to certain good-aligned choices.

Edit: Also you can't gain influence for more than one person in your party at a time, with the exception of Kreia who under certain circumstances will take a negative hit while making a 'dumb-evil' choice. When this happens, certain other NPC's will take a positive hit instead, at the cost of Kreia.

The best tactic is to take 1 specific npc in your party through a dialogue sequence, and park Kreia or anyone else far away (or just remove them from your party if the map allows it).

[flounder]

Possible spoiler

Kreia responds mostly to "cunning" moves. She likes it when you manipulate people, but not too much. She is tricky. She responds negatively (for the most part) to the die hard LS actions, but will chastise you for being a psycho and just killing everyone. In her dialogue options you get the most influence (by volume) with her by choosing DS pointed conversations.

[MalaksBane]

Atton's the rogue, chaotic neutral to chaotic good, he appreciates you being straightforward and doing the 'right thing' but not because it's the law or something - and he likes you to appreciate him being there. But there aren't many influences for him; and they are spread out, except for an important conversation on Nar Shaddaa.

Kreia, well, she's hard and not always consistent and you can get LS Mastery and full influence wih her. Kreia is not keen on the Jedi Ways (nor the blunt Sith ways I am told) but sometimes you can avoid loosing influence by saying that you'll consider her words, she wants to be right about her teachings more then anything. And yes, she appreciates when you play your cards smart.
Getting influence with Kreia is worthwhile and she'll tell a lot about the background on the story.