KickStarter Terra Invicta - sci-fi grand strategy from Long War mod creators - now available on Early Access

[Alpharius]

The tech browser in this is so bad... Are there any hab/platform modules that give mission control? And if so what are they called?

I'm currently sitting at 150 boost, 100s if not 1000s of every space resource, but 22/22 mission control (I would have more but I got an event that reduced it by 25% for 6 months). So I can't really use any of it.

Its called operations center, needs a t2 orbital and augmented reality techs. Its inefficient in Earth orbit and on Mars though, the orbital itself costs 3 mc and provides 12 building slots, each operations center gives +1 mc but needs one t2 solar collector in Earth orbit or t2 fission reactor on Mars surface or in orbit to power it. So with all slots used the orbital gives 3 free mc + 3 used mc costing about 120 cash per month and a bunch of other resources. And alien hate meter depends on used MC. So not sure it is worth it, i've started scrapping mine.

On the other hand, in Mercury orbit a t2 solar collector provides 280 power instead of 40 in Earth orbit.

 

[Jaedar]

Just shot down my first alien spaceship . And it only cost 2/3rds of the fleet. And somehow aliens estimated threat from me is still 0.

On the other hand, in Mercury orbit a t2 solar collector provides 280 power instead of 40 in Earth orbit

Brb, designing a colony ship destined for mercury.

 

[Alpharius]

Captured an alien agent then two Mars habs from Servants and Protectorate in one turn and the aliens got butthurt and destroyed 3 of my orbitals in Earth orbit.

Two of the orbitals were already being decommissioned though so it was all a feint, just regoooping. Jokes on you xenos scum.

I was at about 70 MC since i think i've built too many asteroid mines.

 

[Jaedar]

Jokes on you xenos scum.

Playing 3d chess.

Meanwhile, in my game the servants have started taking CPs from me in russia and germany through pure fiat. Thankfully I have a strong crackdown/purge game, but it's only a matter of time before some faction I have non-agression with takes the point before I can recapture it. Also it's really annoying to have to crackdown/purge/defend every 4 months.

 

[The Brazilian Slaughter]

Meanwhile, in my game:

- Project Exodus Brazil is being ganged up by Initiative and Protectorate Countries both. Initiative has the EU, North Korea and a few other minor countries, Protectorate has Russia and is almost taking control over China. Brazil is being attacked by like 6 countries right now, surely I am dead by this point of the timeline, fighting off random ruskies and european invaders and now even fucking NORTH KOREANS. I'm surprised its still holding so far. Is it common for the AI to gang up on countries like that?
- My space expansion is starting to get off the ground. My orbital hab got expanded somewhat, but for the moment I'm saving up boost. I just started buiding my Mars base, especially because my Moonbase is so shit in resources. Think I will focus on Mars and Belt for now. I'm going to need more Boost and MC. This time there are already bases built but only a few, I got some pretty good spots.
- Orgs, orgs, orgs. MORE ORGS! ORG FOR THE ORG GOD, ADMIN POINTS FOR THE ADMINISTRATION THRONE! Ok maybe not more, I am tapped out on space for orgs. But damn, I love orgs. Already got one councillor with 25 ADM, am currently levelling it still, because right now her real ADM stat is like 9 and she's getting ADM from, you guessed it, Orgs. So the plan is to start swapping her ADM orgs for propa orgs with better effects and pass the ADM orgs to the guys with lower ADM. Its a pity there's a point limit for orgs, really wish I could slot someone with 15 high level orgs.
- Servant-owned India is still worrying me, so far I have no way of dislodging them from there. I think I got a game plan, but first I need to get done with my plans in Africa. I think I will have to take some countries near to it like Afghanistan, Bangladesh and Pakistan in order to increase my odds to start shit up there. I got some of Thailand, so I should work up my way from there into Myanmar in case I have to. I would like to nab India for myself, but I'm not sure if I got what I need to retain it. At the very least, I need to get rid of those damn nukes or keep them in my hands only.

- Already unified all of the East Africa Federation except the Great Lakes States, that one will take an extra year. Sudan has a claim on South Sudan so I think I can snatch Sudan up into the federation, too. Then I will focus on getting Indonesian Unification done.
- East Africa Fed confirmed something I've been suspecting some time now: Don't bother with Africa until you can get federations there. The moment you start the research, start doing purges and taking over the parts you need. Most African countries are too poor, too unequal, too chaotic and too populated or depopulated to be worth it except as easy spoil money. The exceptions might be a few stronger and bigger African countries - like Egypt, Argelia (I got it, no problems so far except the odd crackdown), South Africa, maybe Nigeria. Unifications will make those little shitty african countries far more viable and will help your cap.
- I'm using Singapore as my MC country, as its small and wealthy. I intend to unite with Indonesia in the future, but probably only when I get my hands on another small rich country. I'm thinking South Korea or Taiwan, but both of those have rivals who may attack them, especially Taiwan because China is now under the Protectorate.
- The Aliens now have bases as close as the Asteroid Belt, fug.

 

[Joggerino]

ORG IS KING!! I've never seen such a gangup, maybe you really pissed all the factions off?

 

[The Brazilian Slaughter]

ORG IS KING!!

Org is King and ADM is Queen, indeed. Pump ADM until its done. Its actually weird that the way to go is to pump ADM until your concillors' natural ADM is 25 (perhaps get some trait to get extra orgs like Government), ORGs will supplement their other stats.

I've never seen such a gangup, maybe you really pissed all the factions off?

Not me, Project Exodus (I'm playing Resistance). I haven't been attacked so far, only some crackdowns. Good thing too, I don't have the military muscle to fight, say, Protectorate Russia.

My current nations are:
- Indonesia
- Malasya
- Singapore
- Pacific States
- East African Federation
- Great Lakes States (EAF)
- Argelia
- Thailand

 

[Jaedar]

Org is King and ADM is Queen, indeed. Pump ADM until its done. Its actually weird that the way to go is to pump ADM until your concillors' natural ADM is 25 (perhaps get some trait to get extra orgs like Government), ORGs will supplement their other stats.

I am less sure. You can pick up 1 star orgs with +3 or +4 admin, whereas 1 star orgs for other stats tend to be +1 to a single stat, maybe a total of +2. So as long as you can get ahold of admin orgs it seems more efficient to pump the stats you need. Either way you are going to have to get decent base admin scores though.

 

[The Brazilian Slaughter]

Org is King and ADM is Queen, indeed. Pump ADM until its done. Its actually weird that the way to go is to pump ADM until your concillors' natural ADM is 25 (perhaps get some trait to get extra orgs like Government), ORGs will supplement their other stats.

I am less sure. You can pick up 1 star orgs with +3 or +4 admin, whereas 1 star orgs for other stats tend to be +1 to a single stat, maybe a total of +2. So as long as you can get ahold of admin orgs it seems more efficient to pump the stats you need. Either way you are going to have to get decent base admin scores though.

Perhaps, but you won't have so many of these showing up for all your Councillors. Orgs also give other bonuses, such as extra missions, and income to things like influence, money, boost, research, etc. XP takes time to accumulate.
ADM also has other uses, such as helping your councillors Advise Nation. Just get more ADM and give your Councillors the Orgs with skills bonuses and missions they need the most.

Orgs are as good as Nations, maybe even better.

Early on, your main choke on resources will be influence. Orgs are the way to get more influence, Councillor traits and popular approval aren't as good. Orgs are also the way to get more Ops and Boost, especially early on.

 

[Jaedar]

Orgs are also the way to get more Ops and Boost, especially early on.

I never had much luck with getting significant boost from orgs, but orgs are the only(?) way of getting ops. Still, I'm in 2032, and at this point I have effectively infinite ops, influence and boost. I have -600 negative cashflow, but since I'm sharing some countries with the initative (I'd kick them out, but I'm already 20 points above my control cap), and they insist on running maximum spoils so I'm still making like 3k cash per month.

Don't sleep on orgs that give projects: each one gives +5% research speed and it seems that research and mission control are the bottlenecks in the midgame. But mission control orgs seem very inefficient...

Perhaps, but you won't have so many of these showing up for all your Councillors

Correct. This is why I prioritize stealing them from the other factions

extra missions

This is actually really important, orgs that give missions are amazing, since very few classes start with all the mission types that rely on their primary stat, and having multiple councillors to cover basic tasks is amazing for flexibility. Especially since it seems you'll have to send them on space missions at some point and that's probably going to have them busy for a year or so before they can return to earth.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

tried an europe run.
not worth it, to be on par with usa you need to unify the whole europe, by the time you get it you could have got twice the usa, which has already a bigger army, a bigger navy, a bigger nuke reserve and perhaps even a bigger dick.
somehow russia attacked my ally greece. two evangelists, two spies and two phases later, i was in control of russian army and government, then dismantled all their nukes and armies, left them to the vultures.

 

[Joggerino]

You can always go both.

 

[Jaedar]

So my factions estimate for how threatening the aliens found me was 0. After capturing one, it was revealed my actual threat rating was maximum. So I keep expecting them to blow up a bunch of stations, but so far they seem content with being passive...

The world has devolved into an endless series of wars with servant usa enacting regime change wherever it feels like in south america and europe, but so far they're not targetting any of my nations (india+china+russia alliance too stronk).

 

[thesecret1]

- unify EU and Eurasian federation, then merge them after researching claims (giga country)
- take over Japan and Korea and half of middle east (servant scum forced my hand there, kept researching nukes, had to be stopped), have foothold in the US too
- massive army, massive economy, daily research points at around 75, plus 120% bonus from engineering projects, plus 30% modifiers for labs in orbit for every research group
- 2033, alien threat low, life is good, I'm just cranking out research projects and slowly taking over the world
And then, suddenly FUCKING SERVANTS just HAND OVER Pakistan to the aliens. Out of the fucking blue. Luckily I disarmed the nukes there before, but I still couldn't allow such a thing to exist. My armies made short work of the alien administration there, but predictably, that pissed the aliens the fuck off, so now they're starting to land their armies, send their ships to fuck up my habs, etc. FUCK! I'll have to deal with the invading armies somehow and start building a fleet of ships ASAP (I haven't yet so as to keep aliens placated). And hope those ships manage to actually do something to alien ones rather than just melt at mere sight of them.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

well, at least your experience is still inside the rules. once i got the whole europe and neutered russia, i expanded a bit, took brazil. i have all 4 points, they're shielded, 80+ pop support, i made sure to kill all the servants men, and yet every turn one of my points gets converted. no breaking first them, i get only the message "hey dude, one of your points changed, because fuck you".
meanwhile someone else magically steals my starships like they were bikes parked in front of a basketball field.
i've even witnessed the computer cheating its own rules: when you leave a previously sieged region you lose all your progress as soon as the last troop gets out, so what did it do? when it was out of fresh reinforcements, he issued the leave command to the last troop, on the last day it cancelled the command and reissued it, ensuring the troop didn't suffer damage but didn't leave the region either.

speaking of which, how the hell does siege damage work? having more troops apparently didn't raise it, and at the same time all the troops got damaged. wtf, really?

 

[Jaedar]

no breaking first them, i get only the message "hey dude, one of your points changed, because fuck you".

I think this is alien hydras doing missions. Do a surveil and then deal with the alien. There is also research that gives them negative modifiers, but it's expensive.

speaking of which, how the hell does siege damage work? having more troops apparently didn't raise it, and at the same time all the troops got damaged. wtf, really?

Yeah, I would like to know this as well. I have also noticed that sending armies one at a time has better results than sending everything at once. There's a lot of randomness as well. I keep getting "lol your armies are papier mache" event that makes one of my armies take 40% damage.

 

[The Brazilian Slaughter]

I never had much luck with getting significant boost from orgs, but orgs are the only(?) way of getting ops. Still, I'm in 2032, and at this point I have effectively infinite ops, influence and boost. I have -600 negative cashflow, but since I'm sharing some countries with the initative (I'd kick them out, but I'm already 20 points above my control cap), and they insist on running maximum spoils so I'm still making like 3k cash per month.

Don't sleep on orgs that give projects: each one gives +5% research speed and it seems that research and mission control are the bottlenecks in the midgame. But mission control orgs seem very inefficient...

Yeah Orgs seem to be the only way (or one of the few) ways of getting ops, its actually kinda weird - you would think Nations would give Ops from military investment, too. I mean, every country nowadays worth anything has a special forces unit for such things.

I think I'm close to the "Have as much influence as I want" stage, I haven't run short for years. I had good ops but I think I changed some orgs and now I'm running low again. Boost is still a choke, I suspect because I haven't gotten my space economy going on yet, so my bases still depend on Earth.

I have pretty good cashflow myself, but I haven't been spending much. I should start investing in more boost in Singapore.

Orgs that give projects, huh? They seemed underwhelming to me, I will pay attention to them.

Mission Control Orgs are kinda inneficient, althrough I think I got some good ones. I have like 5/9 MC now, I should be good for a while. Right now I'm pretty much in the "take position so I don't lose out on good spots" stage of my space expansion.

Correct. This is why I prioritize stealing them from the other factions

Hmmmm... perhaps, looks worth it if you have high espionage councillors who can yoink them for you.

This is actually really important, orgs that give missions are amazing, since very few classes start with all the mission types that rely on their primary stat, and having multiple councillors to cover basic tasks is amazing for flexibility. Especially since it seems you'll have to send them on space missions at some point and that's probably going to have them busy for a year or so before they can return to earth.

Yes! It really helps with the flexibility!
Also always having some can be really good, like having everyone with Advise because you will be fishing for highest ADM as possible no matter what (through orgs or stats), making them strong advisors. Having at least two Councillors able to Stabilize Nations and execute Purges and Crackdowns is great, too.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

Do a surveil and then deal with the alien

i've had also a guy permanently surveilling the area, no one else spotted, that's why i was complaining. don't give me tools to deal with stuff if those tools don't work.

 

[Joggerino]

One ship one MC. MC is the real choke

 

[The Brazilian Slaughter]

So, progress on my current run (its 2028):
- My EAF plans hit a snag when FUCKING KENYA decided to become a breakaway state because lolz and FUCKING SERVANTS couped my regime in the Great Lakes States... again. Had to take over control, rigged a fake Independence War with Kenya in order to get them out of Breakaway State status - I would have done a war but I don't have an army to kill them with. So now the plan is to Federalize Kenya again and annex them. By then I should have the Great Lakes States.
- Guess who just took over China? That's right, THE FUCKING SERVANTS. And now they're fighting a war against Protectorate Vietnam and Japan. FML. Hopefully no nukings will result.
- I'm actually surprised Protectorate Russia isn't attacking China, but I guess its too busy in its strange war against Brazil (STOP PICKING UP ON MY COUNTRY YOU FUCKS!)
- I've decided to start Operation Get Servants Out Of India. Earlier than I wanted, but the threat is becoming too big to tolerate.
- Took over Thailand entirely, wasn't hard, actually.

- The fucking Initiative managed to Purge one of my Control Points in Indonesia and that's deeply annoying because I can't get them out even with 19 Espionage Operative. Looks like I will have to increase public opinion and then wipe the fuck out of that annoying pest. Might even have to raise some Unrest, sigh.
- I just discovered you can "aim" for Control Points on the map. This might be useful to me in my anti-Servant campaign.
- My plan to get rid of Servant India is to control all countries all around them and start running all sorts of Campaigns to weaken their hold. Taking big countries is fucking hard, tho.
- Took over the Himalayan States, Servants somehow took them back. MOTHERFU-
- Took a point in Myanmar, fucking Servants took it back somehow. Fucking hell.
- Laos and Cambodia are held by Humanity First. I got no beef with them, but I think I will take one of those, see if it will help in my plan to fuck over the Servants. Sorry, Castillo dudebro. Promise I will NAP you once I wipe Servants from my presence.
- Researching Greater Indonesia in order to unite Indonesia, Malasya and the Pacific States. Probably not Singapore, Singapore might be kept inside the Federation but otherwise independent, its a fantastic spot for Boost and MC.
- The Spaceplan: I have three stations on Earth's orbit. Two for peaceful intentions, the third is going to be my Supply and Space Dock Base. The latter is where my plans for Brazilian Empire Resistance Conquest of the Solar System will begin. First step: Making my space presence no longer dependent on the Earth, allowing me more boost to send further probes and bases across the solar system. My lunar base would be vital for that if its spot didn't suck dongs because I got one of the last spots. I wonder if I should expand outwards or inwards to Mercury, I heard Mercury is great for keeping a later game space presence.

 

[Jaedar]

Hmmmm... perhaps, looks worth it if you have high espionage councillors who can yoink them for you.

Yoinking is admin based, although you do need to investigate them first to reveal their orgs (which is investigation based). With high INV you can do it in one turn with some luck, usually you need to hound them for 2-3 actions.

every country nowadays worth anything has a special forces unit for such things.

Those special forces units are modeled as orgs (that require the government feat to have). I guess that's what happens when you have mostly unaccountable guys running around the globe

Do a surveil and then deal with the alien

i've had also a guy permanently surveilling the area, no one else spotted, that's why i was complaining. don't give me tools to deal with stuff if those tools don't work.

What's the investigation stat of the person surveiling? I have 25 and I always spot an "unknown councilor" immediately (unless they already left, the aliens tend to be pretty shy except for when they have just landed).

One ship one MC. MC is the real choke

Only the bad ships take one MC. The good ones take up to 6 or something.
MC is the real chokepoint indeed. But apparantly high MC also makes the aliens go berserk and send death fleets.


In my game I managed to increase my control cap enough (6th councilor helped a lot) that I could comfortably boot the initative out of china, so now I own 5/6 of it, which means I can get down to fixing it. After about a decade of fixing (and not fully finished yet) india is producing 4 digit science for me, and I fully intend to make china at least as good. Not much other stuff happening, I'm just trying to do objective research so I can know what my next goal is, so I can redirect global research to fulfill it.

 

[thesecret1]

Alright, the danger is mitigated for now – if you manage to have your armies in the province before the aliens unboard from their UFOs, their armies will start at half strength, making them easy pickings. Since Ayys seem to be fixated on middle east for some reason, I am managing to put everything in position every time for now. I've also researched The Caliphate and am now uniting middle east under it, inshallah. It actually has ridiculous claims – not just all of middle east, but also the northern half of Africa (all the way to Morocco to the west, and nigeria to the south). Looking at the tech tree, it can get even more claims in two subsequent researches that let it spread towards India, and take most of Oceania... more importantly, it has cores on Ethiopia, which has a research to unify most of Africa... meaning that it too could then be unified under the Caliphate, making another superstate. Very tempting, it only to get some strategic depth from all those worthless shitholes.

Things are looking much worse in space. Aliens got pissy and genocided basically everything – stations gone, mining bases gone, all that survived are shipyards which I've fortified with 4 layered defenses each. Aliens actually tried to take one out but got wrecked, and haven't dared come close since. Might try to fortify every base and station like this in the future, but it's expensive as fuck, especially with how many reactor arrays I'd need to build. Might need to focus on more efficient energy.

Ships cannot deal with any serious enemy force. I specced into missiles, which are fun in that even a single one can destroy an enemy ship if it hits, but alas, enemy point defenses mean that that just doesn't happen. Plus, they are slow so the aliens can dodge most of them anyway. Might have to refit everything to lasers and stuff. More worryingly though, the costs of moving ships anywhere are exorbitant. Over 1k water just to move 3 ships from the Moon to Earth.

 

[Jaedar]

if you manage to have your armies in the province before the aliens unboard from their UFO

How can you manage that though?

More worryingly though, the costs of moving ships anywhere are exorbitant. Over 1k water just to move 3 ships from the Moon to Earth.

Sounds like you have bad engines? I wouldn't know though, I basically halted my ship research after I shot down the first alien. At some point I'm sure I'll need to resume it but so far I'm focusing on civil research (I'm hoping "automated X" means "x but lower mission control cost").

 

[RobotSquirrel]

probably the most helpful video he's done on this game. I had noticed the correlation between MC and Alien Hate so the moral of the story is don't consume MC too quickly otherwise the aliens will attack you, you want to bank it up and try to creep your way to being able to defend yourself. This would explain why my campaigns ended around 2030 because its around that point you go over your MC cap, I basically speedran it so the results were predictable.
Getting inner planets can help with this a bit since you buy a bit of time before the aliens show up there, so rather than push Mars heavily, I'd target Mercury as the Aliens will have a much harder time bombing it. Otherwise, if you rush mars and colonize the whole planet early you anger the Aliens too soon and they just end up killing everything on Mars anyway. To that extent Ceres and Jupiter aren't worth going for early as the Aliens will just bomb it and you can't defend it easily.

My thinking, go for Mercury, put a few station habs around the planet with Operations Centers around it, then the Aliens will leave it alone due to the high MC. This would mean you'd have a higher cap then to go for Mars properly and the aliens won't do anything about it then. Turning Mercury into a fort seems to be a good strategy.

It's interesting that what you do to the servants effects this mechanic so I'd say go as far is just to prevent them from getting high GDP Nuclear states and leave it at that, don't attack them too much unnecessarily, the AI will probably screw you over there.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

i repelled my first alien invasion. they landed with 3 troops, protectorate added 3, servants added 2. but they landed in my turf, and i nuked the shit out of them. but now aliens bombed all my outposts and someone else stole my shipyard while i have no way to get it back. looks like it's game over, even if i fully own europe, russia and usa.
such a fail state is pretty bullshit.
the extent of the alien invasion should be customizable. why have all that big solar system if we can't play with it? well, because the amount of micro this game requires is beyond retarded.