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

[Norfleet]

Korean doesn't look very Korean. Is that just one of the rare anomalies, or is it very common for national origins and names to become disconnected from visible ethnicity?

 

[somewhatgiggly]

Korean doesn't look very Korean. Is that just one of the rare anomalies, or is it very common for national origins and names to become disconnected from visible ethnicity?

Have you not seen the K-Pop boys and gals? They glam up.

 

[Hooded Horse]

Personally I don't understand why you don't need an extensive naval warfare system for a Cold War start but need one for a WW II start.

Navies were important strategically in the Cold War period. We model naval power strategically right now in a way that would work well for the Cold War or modern period, but wouldn't be quite enough for WWII, especially WWII in the Pacific.

If you guys want to implement specific naval warfare in the future, I remembered a good link: https://toughsf.blogspot.com/2017/10/anti-orbit-laser-submarines.html

ToughSF is a site the team absolutely loves. Absolutely agreed on your praise of it, and I will certainly enjoy checking out the submarine article, I had not encountered that idea before.

Of course, that depends on how much you guys can get done. If anything, seems like good DLC/Expansion material.

Yep, you have great ideas, they all sound enormously fun.

But you are right--those are DLC/Expansion material. We have to avoid feature creep, as in the end, things like good AI are more important than more features. Plenty of time after releasing to consider adding additional fun stuff, and that way we will avoid the path of some past Kickstarters...

is it very common for national origins and names to become disconnected from visible ethnicity?

Councilor appearance does track national origin, but there are some mixed-race people as well, and character art is still being worked on. I'll look into this one in more detail.

Thanks for all the support everyone! We've hit the $140k stretch goal, and the Cold War scenario is in.

New stretch goals announced:

 

[Luka-boy]

Do the aliens always attack Earth and be hostile? Factions focused on peaceful relations with them (Except the one that wants to submit to them I guess) would have a hard time making their point once they reach Earth if that's the case.

 

[Hooded Horse]

The aliens are hostile, yes. That makes the Academy, the faction that seeks to build an alliance on equal terms, one of the most difficult factions to win as, as the aliens are not initially receptive. The 7 factions are intended, to some extent, to operate as a choice of difficulty level, instead of just having difficulty reflected in percentage bonuses or penalties, their differing goals offer a natural range of challenges.

 

[Xamenos]

I am underwhelmed by those stretch goals. I don't know about you guys, but voice acting and 3d models aren't really high on my priorities when playing a grand strategy. Can't even remember the last time I zoomed in a paradox game enough to notice the details in the models.

At least the Expanse scenario is interesting.

 

[Hooded Horse]

Those two are pretty small stretch goals--15k and 10k.

Voice acting probably has more potential than you'd realize at this stage. There is a strong connection with the council members in the game, to an unusual extent for a grand strategy title. They are the instruments by which the player exerts much of their influence, and their names and identities become part of the procedural story element. And in that respect, I have to say I still remember the Civ 2 council fondly from my childhood, especially the anarchy scenes: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XqPC08cPGJw

3d models for the land armies have been requested by many players. It's true not everyone would value them, but people have different preferences, and anything that lets us market more effectively to a group of customers means more sales and more funding for things that other customers care about.

Worth noting, stretch goals aren't intended to just fund what's covered by their little bracket, but rather also provide the kind of funding that makes everything better across the entire game. A lot of things--additional development, UX work, etc--just don't work as features inserted into a stretch goal list, but those are critical, and become more so the more expansive a game gets. The big one is indeed the far future scenario, and one of the reasons it is set so high (50k above the previous) and comes after the others (25k combined), is to ensure we can do it right while still making the entire game better.

 

[Luka-boy]

I am underwhelmed by those stretch goals. I don't know about you guys, but voice acting and 3d models aren't really high on my priorities when playing a grand strategy. Can't even remember the last time I zoomed in a paradox game enough to notice the details in the models.

At least the Expanse scenario is interesting.

I don't care about the 3D models, but never underestimate the potential voice acting or voice overs have to make a strategic-level game more atmospheric. In some cases, even memorable.

 

[somewhatgiggly]

I am glad about the new ship models, though! Hard Scifi/Mundane scifi ships? Oh yea keep it coming!

Would had liked the foothold scenario but maybe it'll be DLC down the road after a few rounds of dividends and sales.

 

[Hooded Horse]

I don't care about the 3D models, but never underestimate the potential voice acting or voice overs have to make a strategic-level game more atmospheric. In some cases, even memorable.

Alpha Centauri's tech description quotes from faction leaders were truly unforgettable, agreed.

I am glad about the new ship models, though! Hard Scifi/Mundane scifi ships? Oh yea keep it coming!

Would had liked the foothold scenario but maybe it'll be DLC down the road after a few rounds of dividends and sales.

Thanks!

We still hope to reach those stretch goals, including Foothold scenario! 7 days left may seem short, but late surges in Kickstarters are a feature built into how the platform works. Some people back right away, many others instead "follow" the project, which serves one purpose--they get a reminder email 48 hours before the project ends, and then they go to the page and decide.

 

[Tytus]

I am underwhelmed by those stretch goals. I don't know about you guys, but voice acting and 3d models aren't really high on my priorities when playing a grand strategy. Can't even remember the last time I zoomed in a paradox game enough to notice the details in the models.

At least the Expanse scenario is interesting.

I like they aren't overpromicing stuff like many Kickstarter campaigns do. All these stretch goals seem achievable and aren't going to be disruptive pushing the game out the gate. Feature creep that sounds nice but ends up undercooked is much worse than an underwhelming stretch goal.

 

[Hooded Horse]

That's our thinking as well Tytus, in the end, more features are nice but can also come after release, but a solid game in terms of UX, AI, and such is something that really has to be in from the start.

We've hit the $155k Voice Acting stretch goal:

We also added a new Creator backer tier, that involves working with us to create an event (likely including event art from our illustrator) or a research project.

 

[Hooded Horse]

3D Earth armies stretch goal has been reached!

Far-future Foothold scenario is next:

 

[Infinitron]

We are happy to give you a first listen of our upcoming soundtrack for Pavonis Interactive's grand strategy game TERRA INVICTA. This piece incorporates a lot of the elements we are going to draw from as it builds tension with electronic elements and a (prepared) piano to then resolve into an orchestral motif foreshadowing the player's endeavours in space as they struggle to prepare earth for an imminent alien invasion.

 

[zapotec]

Factions leaders looks to young, they will hurry back to earth after losing the internet signal.

 

[Hooded Horse]

Thanks for posting Infinitron!

Dennis and Patrick also composed the music for Battle Brothers, we were glad to get them signed on to the project.

Zapotec, are you perhaps looking at the Voice Acting stretch goal pics? Those aren't the faction leaders. These are:

 

[Hooded Horse]

$210,738, 45 minutes left. About 4k away from the far future scenario. Nice suspenseful end to the campaign...

 

[coldcrow]

This seems awfully ambitious considering the budget, I have yet to see a a good modern 4X in space besides Endless Space 2. Stellaris really does not count.

 

[Hooded Horse]

The Kickstarter funds aren't the budget for the game--the game's almost at Alpha, and had been funded through to release at current scale before the Kickstarter.

The Kickstarter funds are just for the extras, basically, the stretch goals plus a bit more enhancement to some other aspects.


Happy to announce, final stretch goal reached, far-future scenario is in!

 

[thesecret1]

Is this thing still alive? It's supposed to release this year, but it seems like the whole thing entered radio silence. I even checked their forums, and the latest dev diary they have there is from October

 

[Hooded Horse]

Is this thing still alive? It's supposed to release this year, but it seems like the whole thing entered radio silence. I even checked their forums, and the latest dev diary they have there is from October

We have monthly updates on Kickstarter reporting on progress (https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/terrainvicta/terra-invicta/posts). Dev Diaries are very time intensive to produce, and as Terra Invicta's dev diaries are in-depth presentations of mechanics, there are a defined amount we will end up doing. The next one will be on space travel and orbits, likely sometime in a month or two. The Discord is also very active (https://discord.gg/XBVqMZU).

Hundreds of testers are currently playing Terra Invicta (we had something around 100 alpha testers and 700 beta testers sign up during the kickstarter, the alpha testers got keys months ago, and the beta testers have just gotten them). The patch notes are confidential and only on the closed tester forums, but we've been releasing new patches on steam very frequently these past weeks, with fixes, enhancements, etc, as we work closely with testers on improving and polishing the game.

 

[Grotesque]

I am very interested in what this stretch goal will actually mean, aesthetically speaking, and how it will be implemented.
Can you give some pointers?

 

[Hooded Horse]

View attachment 19052

I am very interested in what this stretch goal will actually mean, aesthetically speaking, and how it will be implemented.
Can you give some pointers?

Sure! You can view some WIP versions here: https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/terrainvicta/terra-invicta/posts/3088141

 

[Grotesque]

what's the word on this game?

 

[Joggerino]

what's the word on this game?

Delayed
https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/terrainvicta/terra-invicta/posts/3265495