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

[Taka-Haradin puolipeikko]

 

[Galdred]

Is it immersive, well thought out simulator?

I would say it potentially is.
But a lot more work would have to go in, especially into the UI.

Not sure how far the devs consider their game to be, but to me it feels like an early access of something that could be really great.

Either way, though, one thing it does nail is uniqueness - I don't think I've played anything quite like it.
The closest might have been Shadow Empire, but that was an unreadable, (thanks to UI) barely playable spreadsheet.

is the UI better than in Shadow Empire? I really loved the game, but UI fatigue got the better of me in the end.

 

[Forest Dweller]

I never played any 4X games as their mechanics always seemed too abstract and unrealistic. Too tabletop like.
I played CK2, Vicky 2, and Imperator. They’re a bit better in this regard but always seemed to lack something.

How is Terra Invicta? Does it have anything to offer? Is it immersive, well thought out simulator?

Is this really a 4x game though?

 

[thesecret1]

Spam public campaigns to get the population on your side, and you'll be able to do some crackdowns or even a coup

 

[Raapys]

For the tough ones you probably need public campaigns, increased unrest and near-maxed investigation stat to do a crackdown if they have defenses up.

 

[Jaedar]

And just as I write that the servants decide fun time is over and instacouped (good thing I tripled up on independence granting this turn) the american executive and one of my sacred indian control points. This instacouping feels kinda bullshit (I have even researched lots of anti alien subversion tech). Although it might be related to being vastly over admin cap with "aliens just grab stuff randomly" being the penalty once you go more than 50 over cap or something?

Getting over CP cap gives enemies bonus to success on all missions against you, and it scales really fast with each point over. In my experience, so long as I am within the cap or like up to 5 points over, nobody even tries attacking my control points (all I gotta handle is them trying to do public campaigns on my turf and shit like that). But if I go 20 or higher, everyone starts purging away at me.

It's just the alien lovers though and it doesn't say "they successfully did a purge", it just says "they are in control".

Meanwhile, in my game the aliens have landed, and they went for a landlocked country which I can't reach (30 days is not enough time to declare two wars and then move in armies) so there's no way I can stop them from disembarking. The resistance also decided our NAP was over, and refused to give me another one even after copious bribes. The alien growth have also gone from 0 to 2 per month to constantly 10+ active.

So earth I no longer feel I am doing so hot. I considered nuking the alien armies, but it's not even allowed. Not sure if it's cause they have defences or because I am not technically at war with ethiopia?

Either way, the aliens are rampaging through africa and conducting orbital bombardments on launch facilities there. At least they aren't targeting economically important regions.

So what I decided to do was wait for the aliens to inevitably overextend (they moved two of their three armies to south america, leaving one to defend their african holdings) and then I declared war, gaining naval superiority and preventing them from returning to africa, where I dogpiled 6 human armies of varying tech levels at the alien. It actually went down pretty easily: I think I could down the remaining two in one go as long as I can repair first. The resistance has also declared war upon the aliens, but they're just fighting servants in northwest america instead...

This whole lets have peaceful cooperation with the aliens the academy set out to acquire seems further away than ever...

 

[thesecret1]

After fighting off 4 landing attempts, the aliens gave up and decided to try to starve me by destroying everything I own in the solar system. Joke's on them, I have 2 layered defenses in every colony, and 3 or 4 on every station. Aliens lost dozens of vessels now, I only lost some easy to replace modules. Price of all these defenses is high, but I manage. I might start building a fleet soon-ish to take over all the stations and colonies of other factions.

 

[Malakal]

So actually whats the end game for this game? Can you strike back at the alien homeworld or something?

 

[thesheeep]

is the UI better than in Shadow Empire? I really loved the game, but UI fatigue got the better of me in the end.

I don't think any game could have a worse UI than Shadow Empire.

But still, the UI in Terra Invicta is not great.

You got these endless lists of stuff to scroll through in order to find anything. To be fair, it does give you the possibility to apply filters (to some of these lists), but I'd prefer a properly filtered view by default instead of having to set up my own each time.
Generally large portions of the UI is lists of things in different views (some tiled, some normal) without proper categorization.
The game should have more menus that offer a more specialized view instead of fewer menus that show all the things at once in a single list.

There are also some unnecessary clicks to go through menus.
Some information is not properly reported to the player (such as what got destroyed in an attack on your stations, you have to check manually).

Nothing that couldn't be fixed, really, and I'm certain the devs are aware of the feedback.

 

[Jaedar]

So actually whats the end game for this game? Can you strike back at the alien homeworld or something?

that's massive spoilers. You should assume every factions wincon is that they win, which can certainly include bad news for the aliens. Or not.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

another loss. while i wasn't watching servants literally magically burned a hole through a fully controlled china, got 1 point and total control the following turn (total bullshit), and let the aliens land right there, but they grabbed only 2 regions. i brought its unrest to 9, then they swallowed japan and australia, dropping unrest to 6 (more total bullshit), and my chance to raise unrest with a 25 command dropped further. i brought it up back to 8, then they ate kenya and ethiopia, lowering unrest to 5 (extreme maximum bullshit) and nullifying my chances to raise it again.

this is exactly like the crusader kings 2's aztec dlc: completely retarded, ruins a working system, only way out is to game the game and hope for the best.

 

[Malakal]

another loss. while i wasn't watching servants literally magically burned a hole through a fully controlled china, got 1 point and total control the following turn (total bullshit), and let the aliens land right there, but they grabbed only 2 regions. i brought its unrest to 9, then they swallowed japan and australia, dropping unrest to 6 (more total bullshit), and my chance to raise unrest with a 25 command dropped further. i brought it up back to 8, then they ate kenya and ethiopia, lowering unrest to 5 (extreme maximum bullshit) and nullifying my chances to raise it again.

this is exactly like the crusader kings 2's aztec dlc: completely retarded, ruins a working system, only way out is to game the game and hope for the best.

Unlike Aztecs you can assume that space faring aliens would have bullshit power and tech tho.

 

[thesecret1]

All the other factions are completely wrecked. Several are actually in debt and only control some african shitholes, only the Initiative and Protectorate manage to have some decent holdings, but even so they cannot hope to compare. Academy is the worst off – several thousand in debt, 20 control points total (LOL!), and shit councillors (after I murdered all of their veterans). I'm not even sure what they're doing at this point because they don't even dare to come near my nations – skills are probably too low to attempt anything. Means they don't really help with global research much – it's all up to me to push the scientific progress of the world. Once I manage to finally get my hands on some better power source than fission reactor arrays, I'll be able to start colonizing everywhere (as well as wipe out any remaining space holdings of the other factions), and once I also get some decent ship drives, I'll take the fight to the alien.

What I've noticed so far is that you should more or less ignore the "power" of enemy fleets – the number is super simplistic and seems to only take into account the damage your weapons do, and your ship's combat speed, and similar surface level bullshit. Meanwhile I'm merrily going around destroying fleets with my 180 "power" ship. Letting your ship be autodesigned leads to terrible builds because of this, naturally.

From what I've seen of combat so far (tech-wise, I'm at green arc lasers with other forms of weaponry more or less on par with that), there's several key things. First of all, point defenses are a must have. It's just non-negotiable, you HAVE to have those, preferably at least two of them, else you're going to get pulverized even by weak enemies. Exception could be if you build yourself a really fast and nimble ship (which is what the aliens are doing), but even so, you're sort of relying on dodging, whereas if your point defenses are up to snuff, enemy projectiles won't even be able to touch you. As for weaponry, the rule of thumb is that the slower the projectle, the more powerful it is. The slowest are missiles, which, if you develop them, mean you can start firing nukes on the enemy, and a single hit from one of those kills absolutely anything. The negative is that they're slow as fuck, meaning anything except some low-tech faction jokes are going to shoot or dodge all those missiles with ease. In other words, the entire missile tech tree is an absolute waste of research, and something you may as well skip entirely. On the other end of the spectrum are lasers. Those, unlike projectiles, cannot be dodged or shot down, meaning they're guaranteed damage. The downside is that they're pea shooters that deal next to no damage, and if you rely on them alone, the enemy is going to murder you five times over before you deal enough of it to hamper him. What's been working out for me pretty well are rail guns. They're much faster than missiles, enjoy a decent rate of fire, and pack a solid punch. The enemy can shoot them down, but they're usually so many and so fast that they'll overwhelm his defenses. Still, it's obvious that if I plan to take the fight to the alien, I'll need something more powerful, not sure what yet. But railguns are definitely a solid choice for mid-game (just don't forget to invest something in lasers too to get those point defenses!).

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

how do you people manage to keep humanity alive for so long that you develop ships? once they land, bar some extreme case (like landing on a shithole which is going to take just a little push to revolt, or taking one of your provinces, only one, and a very poor one, and you have nukes, which means pretty much only for russia, or perhaps your 25 command man manages to pull that 7% shot while they land. woe on me for not having savescummed), it's game over, they go conquering, no one can stop them. no one actually even tries. if the other factions were to be instructed to stop whatever they're doing and focus on raising unrest, maybe, just maybe, perhaps, they'd be helpful for once.

my last game was nearly perfect, i spent so long beating the shit out of the servants (while i owned all the north and center america, fused in 5 nations, and had just started going the caliphate way) they owned only brazil (are factions railroaded into taking always the same nations?), i routinely turned one of their agents and then murdered all the others while stealing all the useful orgs. the corpses piled up so tall that alien descended from them, and then i started murdering them too. i had 2/5 hate just from that. but then, as i said, two bullshit phases and servants controlled china, aliens landed, game over, they can't be stopped and factions don't even try to.

it's amazing how this game can be so good and so absolutely terrible at the same time. luckily it's a matter of balance which can be easily solved just by shuffling numbers around. will it ever be done? doubt. no, losing is not fun, fuck off.


i went to read some patch notes:
- SimulateCombat() : Starting distance between combatants now equal to the range of the longest range offensive weapon in the combat.
- a coup in a nation will cancel all pending coup missions in that nation
- Hostile Takeover attempts no longer gain benefit from councilor being detained
this game is hopeless. it's going the neocron way: awesome beta, get shittier and shittier, to an absolutely unplayable underwhelming launch.

 

[thesecret1]

how do you people manage to keep humanity alive for so long that you develop ships? once they land, bar some extreme case (like landing on a shithole which is going to take just a little push to revolt, or taking one of your provinces, only one, and a very poor one, and you have nukes, which means pretty much only for russia, or perhaps your 25 command man manages to pull that 7% shot while they land. woe on me for not having savescummed), it's game over, they go conquering, no one can stop them. no one actually even tries. if the other factions were to be instructed to stop whatever they're doing and focus on raising unrest, maybe, just maybe, perhaps, they'd be helpful for once.

I've been lucky that they've always picked a province that was on the coast, or just 1 province away from coast to land every time. Always managed to get my army doomstack in position thanks to that. Otherwise, you'd probably need to let them overextend and pick off their armies one by one. Or use nukes.

my last game was nearly perfect, i spent so long beating the shit out of the servants (while i owned all the north and center america, fused in 5 nations, and had just started going the caliphate way) they owned only brazil (are factions railroaded into taking always the same nations?), i routinely turned one of their agents and then murdered all the others while stealing all the useful orgs. the corpses piled up so tall that alien descended from them, and then i started murdering them too. i had 2/5 hate just from that. but then, as i said, two bullshit phases and servants controlled china, aliens landed, game over, they can't be stopped and factions don't even try to.

Yeah, servants China is a nightmare. They probably public-campaigned a lot there, and had an easy time taking control points as a result – I noticed they like to follow this modus operandi when trying to take strong nations, the clever bastards.

 

[MadMaxHellfire]

They probably public-campaigned a lot there, and had an easy time taking control points as a result

nope. they went the magic route.

 

[RobotSquirrel]

Go play Superpower 3 for a second, then realize how bad it is, then go back to Terra Invicta and count your blessings LOL. THQ Nordic this is not a release this is Early Access you lying sacks of shit.
Terra Invicta is the superior game.

You can't even speed up time in SP3 that's how bad it is. Somehow it even has a worse UI than Terra Invicta.

 

[thesheeep]

Go play Superpower 3 for a second, then realize how bad it is

The 8% rating on Steam kinda gave it away to me.

But a salute to all those brave souls who suffered to give us that rating.

 

[Raapys]

I'm in 2032 and haven't had any alien armies landing yet. I don't know if it's because I've investigated every alien activity event and purged all the fauna and flora maybe? They do have a couple of ships in orbit around the planet, but they don't seem to be doing much.

 

[Forest Dweller]

So actually whats the end game for this game? Can you strike back at the alien homeworld or something?

that's massive spoilers. You should assume every factions wincon is that they win, which can certainly include bad news for the aliens. Or not.

Hmm. Are you ever allowed to change your strategy (for instance from wanting to wipe them out to surrending, or vice versa)? Or will you always win or lose based on the ideology you chose at the beginng?

 

[Forest Dweller]

Also, maybe this is too spoilery, but do they give a good explanation of how humans would be able to fight off a supposedly much more technologically advanced race?

 

[Jaedar]

So actually whats the end game for this game? Can you strike back at the alien homeworld or something?

that's massive spoilers. You should assume every factions wincon is that they win, which can certainly include bad news for the aliens. Or not.

Hmm. Are you ever allowed to change your strategy (for instance from wanting to wipe them out to surrending, or vice versa)? Or will you always win or lose based on the ideology you chose at the beginng?

No, the ideology you choose is the one you get. A bit unfortunate I think, since you might want to change your opinion as you learn more about the aliens.

Also, maybe this is too spoilery, but do they give a good explanation of how humans would be able to fight off a supposedly much more technologically advanced race?

I think yeah. It's not even much of a spoiler: the aliens are obviously not interested in just wiping humanity out, even though they could.

As for what they actually want, that is a spoiler

 

[thesecret1]

I'm in 2032 and haven't had any alien armies landing yet. I don't know if it's because I've investigated every alien activity event and purged all the fauna and flora maybe? They do have a couple of ships in orbit around the planet, but they don't seem to be doing much.

For me, they always arrive around 2033 or 2034, so you still have time

 

[Alpharius]

In my game the aliens landed in China which i controll and were quickly wiped out by 5 armies with minimal losses. I guess i might have been in trouble if they landed in US or something. Perhaps its a good idea to keep an executive point in all big nations so that they are all allied.

About instantly taking control of points: the are several projects that give -2 to enemy "enthrall leaders", perhaps this is it. Not sure how much of a difference these projects make though.

 

[Jaedar]

In my game the aliens landed in China which i controll and were quickly wiped out by 5 armies with minimal losses. I guess i might have been in trouble if they landed in US or something. Perhaps its a good idea to keep an executive point in all big nations so that they are all allied.

Eh, the aliens landing is not such a big deal. You just have to make sure to dogpile them with LOTS of armies, and maybe let them take a bad nation or two. They're not your nations anyway, and the ai getting upset with the aliens can only be good for you