Terra Invicta (Updated plot at OP) - Part XCOM, Part Paradox Map game intrigue, part Kerbal Space Station

[Shovelbird]

Anyone playing?

You have council members like Illuminati running around the planet organizing countries and infiltrating them "OUR GREATEST ALLY" style, and organize the planet in face of an Alien Invasion that is slow and insidious. You got characters like Crusader Kings 2 nobles and do shit to expand and shape the world to your liking.

PLOT:

OTL Ukraine war flares up in 2022, and suddenly there is an energy spike in worldwide telescopes at the edge of the solar system. This time aliens are here and they are undeniably coming towards us. Humanity goes "oh shit" and an alien ship undeniably (as in everyone admits it happened) crashes at a random country and an alien is seen running off into the wilderness.

Then everything quiets down and people go about their business while our factions start seizing countries' leaders and try persuading governments to advance their agenda.

You get a myriad of factions, thinkers and opportunists form up cabals of interests to respond to the threat. Soon, abductions are reported. Then the abductees return, but look normal and healthy. Some of them end up infiltrating military depots and drop data disks at dead drops for aliens to pick up. Shit goes complicated.

As governments start printing money and firing up the space programs, extraterrestrial mining starts up slowly. Then we realize that Aliens are kinda hostile, but not too much. If anyone gets out of the line, they raze the space station though.

Eventually, Aliens start tropping terraforming plants and start shaping the planet to their desires. Their xenoflora strangely drains CO2 and cleans the environment.

Then you realize they want your planet, and start cleaning it for an invasion force.

Good: Aliens have a tiny portal which can take only a cartful of materials at long intervals from their solar system. So they are dependent on local production from kuiper belt materials and tiny amounts of manpower coming in short intervals.

Bad: Aliens' got antimatter and fusion torches that travel the solar system in weeks, and have armor that puts mountains to shame. I wouldn't hold it against you if you suicide slammed your ship against them after a massive nuclear missile barrage to take down just one. I did it once to a giant troop carrier that was going to land.

Good luck, whichever side you are on.

 

[TrinityReformed]

How's the human supremacy faction?

 

[Shovelbird]

How's the human supremacy faction?

Meme level funny, he is the only guy that can hire ISIS or Al-Qaeda to boots council member stats (organizations work like stat boosting artifacts attached to your personnel)



Basically council members are like CK2-3 characters, organizations are magic items and you use XP to boost stats and make actions every two weeks as turns.

There is human supremacy 40k. Led by some Argentinian fascist general that has no moral limits and will use WMD's at the drop of a hat.
There is lighter blue "Resistance" like ww2 Allies led by Fiona Ayoade, SAS Nigerian British who hopes to retire when its over and turn power to civilians. (FAIL)
There is Academy led by a Chinese nerd girl hoping they can be friends, gets her teeth kicked in at the first sign of hostility and manages to rebuild and threaten aliens with WMD's for peace.
There is Illuminati with Orange pyramid and eyes led by Amoral Afrikaner arms mogul Soren Van Vyk who hopes to GET FUCKING RICH AND CONTROL BOTH SOLAR SYSTEMS FOR PROFIT
There is Exodus with Dubai Oil Sheik intending to flee to another system using alien tech.
There is Protectorate with simp (literally) gay Hindu SAAR WE SURRENDER SAAAR fuckwit Kiran Banerjee(t) who tries to beg aliens for good terms (and fails miserably)
There is Servants, Alien worshipping Karen Christofascist crazy who actually is a surprisingly deep character. Meeting Aliens and talking to them, she balks at Aliens' harsh demands and psychoanalyzes them, realizing they are survivors of a genocide and persuades them to embrace humans as a respected vassal species and forms the Alien Empire as a multiracial combine with humans as artists and cultural producers.

 

[TrinityReformed]

Meme level funny, he is the only guy that can hire ISIS or Al-Qaeda to boots council member stats (organizations work like stat boosting artifacts attached to your personnel)

View attachment 8193164

There is human supremacy 40k
There is lighter blue "Resistance" like ww2 Allies
There is Academy led by a Chinese nerd girl hoping they can be friends
There is Illuminati with Orange pyramid and eyes led by Amoral Afrikaner arms mogul
There is Exodus with Dubai Oil Sheik intending to flee to another system
There is Protectorate with simp Hindu SAAR WE SURRENDER SAAAR
There is Servants, Alien worshipping Karen Christofascist crazy

Based
Maybe
Maybe
Heretical
Heretical

Might give the game a shot

 

[DeeDee Megadoodoo]

I was looking forward to this one and then forgot about it. It seems like its got such a high learning curve... is it easy to get into, or is it more like CK3?

 

[The Foxtrot]

How's the human supremacy faction?

Just a side note, the Resistance is led by an ex-SAS woman who's of course a goody two shoes, while Humanity First is led by an Argentinian who fought the British during the Falklands War...and his lore blurbs make it obvious he's a war criminal who barely escaped prosecution.

Basically, Humanity First is the best faction in the game. Duh!

Meme level funny, he is the only guy that can hire ISIS or Al-Qaeda to boots council member stats (organizations work like stat boosting artifacts attached to your personnel)

In one game I had the CIA attached to one of my Councilors, the FSB to another, and ISIS and Al-Qaeda and Hamas to my obligatory sandnigger councilor.

make actions every two weeks as turns.

It's every week for the first 3 months of the game, every 2 weeks for the majority of the game, and I think 30 years in or so it goes up to every 3 weeks.

Might give the game a shot

It's worth it. I'd recommend playing an "accelerated" game as the Resistance in 2022 for your first run.

I was looking forward to this one and then forgot about it. It seems like its got such a high learning curve... is it easy to get into, or is it more like CK3?

It's not "easy" to get into, but it's not quite as hard as CK3. Designing spaceships might be the most challenging part until you learn what the different stats actually mean.

Also the Aliens are going to completely annihilate you if you try and fight them as soon as you have your earliest warships. Like, worse than UNSC vs. Covenant, at least for the first 20 years of the war.

 

[Shovelbird]

Just a side note, the Resistance is led by an ex-SAS woman who's of course a goody two shoes, while Humanity First is led by an Argentinian who fought the British during the Falklands War...and his lore blurbs make it obvious he's a war criminal who barely escaped prosecution.

Basically, Humanity First is the best faction in the game. Duh!

In one game I had the CIA attached to one of my Councilors, the FSB to another, and ISIS and Al-Qaeda and Hamas to my obligatory sandnigger councilor.

It's every week for the first 3 months of the game, every 2 weeks for the majority of the game, and I think 30 years in or so it goes up to every 3 weeks.

It's worth it. I'd recommend playing an "accelerated" game as the Resistance in 2022 for your first run.

It's not "easy" to get into, but it's not quite as hard as CK3. Designing spaceships might be the most challenging part until you learn what the different stats actually mean.

Also the Aliens are going to completely annihilate you if you try and fight them as soon as you have your earliest warships. Like, worse than UNSC vs. Covenant, at least for the first 20 years of the war.

Listen to the guy. Her last name and skin also suggests she is Nigerian British: Ayoade. muh strong woman of color leading UK

For Newbies:

The Aliens are as divided as you are (there is a political fight in their ranks), so you just stay under the radar, give blowjobs to world leaders so you can take "boost", basically capacity to fire material to orbit, plop down your first extrasolar mining rigs and start hoarding water in space until you can make a relatively survivable shipset with carbon nanotube armor, some sort of pulsar engine that sprays water behind your ship electrolyzed with a reactor, and do-or-die suicide MLRS racks.

Then you advance to coilguns and railguns until you can make a huge Bri'ish firing line that will lay down a fusillade of godawful storm of railshots.

Bad thing is, space has zero traction. So get ready to fight as if both sides are fleets of rink ice skaters with guns. Try thinking as if two schools of fish are shooting at each other and do not stop. Then you'll figure out the movement.

mg is how fast you go in map (I know physics its acceleration but you get it-because you turn around and fire during return phase)

dV is basically map range (in reality it isnt but you get it)

 

[SIMIΔN]

There is Servants, Alien worshipping Karen Christofascist crazy who actually is a surprisingly deep character.

I haven't played for years, but the servants lead Earth to a far better position than the Rule-in-Hell collaborator Bandajeet.
I'm tempted to give the game another go, but it'll be tough without my Mercury "dyson sphere" giving me near unlimited research power.

 

[Shovelbird]

I haven't played for years, but the servants lead Earth to a far better position than the Rule-in-Hell collaborator Bandajeet.
I'm tempted to give the game another go, but it'll be tough without my Mercury "dyson sphere" giving me near unlimited research power.

Yeah they changed the command limit stuff. Now you have to branch out and pay the space agencies of multiple countries for command limits.

Which makes me think sometimes its stupid to nerf reality. Any faction dominating Mercury will be wealthy beyond compare IRL. Its surface is just heavy metal sea.

 

[Snekposter]

Yeah they changed the command limit stuff. Now you have to branch out and pay the space agencies of multiple countries for command limits.

Which makes me think sometimes its stupid to nerf reality. Any faction dominating Mercury will be wealthy beyond compare IRL. Its surface is just heavy metal sea.

Good luck with that considering the mining modifier they put on the place. Talk about harsh.

Still the only place in the solar system you can try and get any sort of large-scale antimatter production going on account of how much solar energy there is.

Its 750 power for a supercollider and gets you way, way more AM than you could ever get naturally from the rest of the system.

But you have convinced me to make my next run a Servants run, at least. Done Resistance, Academy, and Exodus, wanted something new for the RC update we just got.

 

[Shovelbird]

Good luck with that considering the mining modifier they put on the place. Talk about harsh.
View attachment 8196704
Still the only place in the solar system you can try and get any sort of large-scale antimatter production going on account of how much solar energy there is.
View attachment 8196712
Its 750 power for a supercollider and gets you way, way more AM than you could ever get naturally from the rest of the system.

But you have convinced me to make my next run a Servants run, at least. Done Resistance, Academy, and Exodus, wanted something new for the RC update we just got.

I dont think I used AntiMatter ever in my all runs. Plus new update made nuke and antimatter weapon usage ineligible for salvage which sucks balls. Is AM such a game changer?

 

[Snekposter]

I dont think I used AntiMatter ever in my all runs. Plus new update made nuke and antimatter weapon usage ineligible for salvage which sucks balls. Is AM such a game changer?

Maybe for antimatter particle beams, but that's it, really. For drives you're going to be wanting to use the Protium Convertor Torch or a Helion Nova Fusion Torch boosted with a Hydron Trap or Slush Tankage, both Inertial Confinement Fusion drive anyways. The Pion Torch needs five units of antimatter per tank and both the regular and advanced Antimatter Plasma Core drives have abysmal exhaust velocity compared to those two fusion ones.

EDIT: So, I went on Wikipedia to look at drive stats, and hoo boy...

The one we've got in TI is way, way underperforming. Look at that thrust output! You only get that with a NERVA x6 drive, and the exhaust velocity is low, too. And here's an experimental pebble bed:

 

[Shovelbird]

I'm around 40 MC in new game, got any tips for a reasonably serviceable ship, or should I wait until I get WAY more MC before I hit back vs the aliens? Because they got a ton of ships and even with Tier 2 mining bases I'm still around 40 MC filled, maybe I should get operations centers all around but dear god they will cost me a fortune.

 

[30+GameOvers]

I've been meaning to play this one, looks like a good autism simulator and one of the few games that gets politics right. It does look complicated to look into and I know not everybody wants to look at spreadsheets for entertainment, but I've seen enough to know there is good payoff and a lot of replayability. How is the modding scene?

 

[Snekposter]

I've been meaning to play this one, looks like a good autism simulator and one of the few games that gets politics right. It does look complicated to look into and I know not everybody wants to look at spreadsheets for entertainment, but I've seen enough to know there is good payoff and a lot of replayability. How is the modding scene?

Its very complicated and the modding scene is pretty small. Its one of the more niche games out there, but at least there's some decent stuff on the Workshop.

 

[Shovelbird]

fuck me, I lost Russia to the Alien's Servants because Resistance couldnt keep it..

Better coup them. I'm NOT letting alien lackeys keep a superpower with 30 region razing nuke arsenal

 

[Shovelbird]

fuck me, Russia has an Alien facility in Nizhny Novgorod and the country became a merry go around of coups.

fuck

 

[Snekposter]

fuck me, Russia has an Alien facility in Nizhny Novgorod and the country became a merry go around of coups.

fuck

No Green Lasers or Railguns to nail it from orbit, yet?

EDIT:

Kinda surprised TI Fusion isn't just boiling water again.

 

[Shovelbird]

No Green Lasers or Railguns to nail it from orbit, yet?

EDIT:
View attachment 8229448
Kinda surprised TI Fusion isn't just boiling water again.

Nailing alien buildings last update brings tit for tat alien attacks even at low Alien Anger level. And I keep losing my main fleet. Nah man I reloaded early, keeping them quiet and alone until I can get a 2000 combat strength missile monitor rain. Assaulting Alien compounds and alien bases is very dangerous now. You need a massive coilgun fleet to discourage ayy raids.

 

[Kane Lives]

Looks like a good autism game to tide myself while waiting for EUV to be patched up lol.