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[Chiefwaffles]

Terra Invicta is a game with the same general "aliens slowly invading" plot as XCOM and the like. You play as one of six human factions; not as a united human race. The game is as much about fighting with the other factions to steer the progress and direction of humans as a whole, as it is about actually fighting aliens.
The scope reaches out to the entire solar system. Starting on Earth in (roughly) modern day, you and the other factions progress to eventually building and maintaining orbital stations and interplanetary outposts. As well as spaceships. With guns. That you also have to design. There are.... a lot of systems. The game is extremely long -- you won't be participating in spaceship battles until a while after you start a game.
The game is a stand-alone release by the developers of Long War, the popular mod for Firaxis' 2012 XCOM: Enemy Unknown. You can see a lot of the same DNA as the original mod, but the game is completely independent from XCom.

Steam Store -- Terra Invicta
As of September 26th, the game has entered early access on Steam.

Spoiler: Screenshots (click to show/hide)

[Il Palazzo]

I can't figure out why in Terra Invictus sometimes I can unify fully controlled federation members (e.g. EU states) and sometimes I can't. There's no rule that I can readily see. In the end, I'm just wasting 10 influence every couple months hoping it'll let me do it this time.
Anyone understands how this works?

Maybe there are some dice rolling behind the scene, with a roll sometime pass so you can unify or fail and you can't ?

Seems unlikely. When the button for unification is active, it's always 100% success. Here, it's not even active.
It wouldn't be so bad, if I could at least find out beforehand if it won't let me do it.

Oh, well. There's obviously a lot of ironing the developers still have to do before release. But the whole thing is already strangely addictive.


Btw, since SotFG/SBtT were mentioned in the other thread - this game is very similar, concept-wise. Sending shadowy operatives to the four corners of the world to gain influence, corrupt, and stab your enemies in the back etc.

[axiomsofdominion]

I can't figure out why in Terra Invictus sometimes I can unify fully controlled federation members (e.g. EU states) and sometimes I can't. There's no rule that I can readily see. In the end, I'm just wasting 10 influence every couple months hoping it'll let me do it this time.
Anyone understands how this works?

Maybe there are some dice rolling behind the scene, with a roll sometime pass so you can unify or fail and you can't ?

Seems unlikely. When the button for unification is active, it's always 100% success. Here, it's not even active.
It wouldn't be so bad, if I could at least find out beforehand if it won't let me do it.

Oh, well. There's obviously a lot of ironing the developers still have to do before release. But the whole thing is already strangely addictive.


Btw, since SotFG/SBtT were mentioned in the other thread - this game is very similar, concept-wise. Sending shadowy operatives to the four corners of the world to gain influence, corrupt, and stab your enemies in the back etc.

I'd say the two games have a comparable level of depth. Sort of a "boardgame with some extra complexity" type vibe. Not enough for me but happy to see intrigue getting a bunch of different takes. The CK games are too simple for me as well so TI was probably always a slight miss. I want character relations to exist and matter and even CK games have neither. Agents are just stat blocks in these games. SoFG technically has families but it needs a few DLC.

[Rolan7]

Posting to watch, this certainly sounds interesting so I'll hopefully give the trial version a go tomorrow.

[Il Palazzo]

Jesus, what a glorious mess this game is. Like, I'm not sure it even works as a game. I don't quite know how to put it. It sort of gives you these many items to juggle, and the juggling is very absorbing, but you don't really do anything smart with it. It's always the same process. Still fun, though.

There are these systems that are kinda undermined by other systems. To the point where you ask yourself what purpose do they serve.

E.g. agents have stats, and they also can equip 'corporations' that provide various benefits. You can spend XP to increase any stat by one. But since you can get more of the same effect from a corp than from a stat, it becomes almost a no-brainer to dump all XP into that one stat that increases the number of corps you can have. Which makes the whole XP-spending system kinda pointless.

Or, the game is real-time with pause. But nearly everything of import you can do, you do in a special phase once per fortnight. And then you just watch the orders resolve at max time acceleration. Those things you don't have to do in that phase, can just as well be done bi-weekly (hardly that important if you manage to shave off a few days off the time it takes to launch a probe, build a habitat, or research a tech). All of it could have just as well been turn-based - and it'd be much clearer. Possibly less resource-intensive too.

[axiomsofdominion]

Jesus, what a glorious mess this game is. Like, I'm not sure it even works as a game. I don't quite know how to put it. It sort of gives you these many items to juggle, and the juggling is very absorbing, but you don't really do anything smart with it. It's always the same process. Still fun, though.

There are these systems that are kinda undermined by other systems. To the point where you ask yourself what purpose do they serve.

E.g. agents have stats, and they also can equip 'corporations' that provide various benefits. You can spend XP to increase any stat by one. But since you can get more of the same effect from a corp than from a stat, it becomes almost a no-brainer to dump all XP into that one stat that increases the number of corps you can have. Which makes the whole XP-spending system kinda pointless.

Or, the game is real-time with pause. But nearly everything of import you can do, you do in a special phase once per fortnight. And then you just watch the orders resolve at max time acceleration. Those things you don't have to do in that phase, can just as well be done bi-weekly (hardly that important if you manage to shave off a few days off the time it takes to launch a probe, build a habitat, or research a tech). All of it could have just as well been turn-based - and it'd be much clearer. Possibly less resource-intensive too.

That was actually my number one and earliest complaint. It has some weird hybrid time format that is just horrible feeling.

[Chiefwaffles]

Yeaah. I feel like the game has a lot of systems with a decent amount of thought put into them, but they all try violently conflict with each other. The way I see it, it would be massively benefited by the developers just sitting down and focusing on shaving down the existing systems and make them all play nice with each other. It feels like each system was designed in a vacuum then thrown in without thought. The systems themselves are generally fine but... sheesh. And I have zero clue why the game isn't turn-based, yeah.

I do like the game though. It just needs plenty of polish. Has surprising hook to it but as it stands you'll still plenty of time being hooked still confused why systems are the way they are. I'd buy the game as-is but it could be a lot better.

E.g. agents have stats, and they also can equip 'corporations' that provide various benefits. You can spend XP to increase any stat by one. But since you can get more of the same effect from a corp than from a stat, it becomes almost a no-brainer to dump all XP into that one stat that increases the number of corps you can have. Which makes the whole XP-spending system kinda pointless.

In my opinion the agents would be better served by just plain leveling up and getting one corp slot per level. Could have traits give a similar effect to what they are now, but without adjusting stats. Rather than "+2 persuasion if knowledge level < 6" it could be "Doubled effectiveness of Public Campaign if knowledge level < 6. Stuff like that.

[axiomsofdominion]

Does anyone else just buy diplomats and activists and take over all the governments. I usually have a single "operative" and then all political people.

[Nirur Torir]

I fear this will be a game that I want to like, but can't. There's too much micromanaging agents on Earth. I want to focus on colonizing the Solar System and fighting aliens, not be tethered to babysitting the spy game on Earth.

It's a very tantalizing scenario though.

[axiomsofdominion]

I fear this will be a game that I want to like, but can't. There's too much micromanaging agents on Earth. I want to focus on colonizing the Solar System and fighting aliens, not be tethered to babysitting the spy game on Earth.

It's a very tantalizing scenario though.

I think the mix is pretty weird. You basically have two different games and you transition from one to the other. Not good design focus I think. I've played myself out on the demo. The best move I think is to brute force your way to control America/Mexico/Canada. Takes until Feb 1, 2023 in most cases, so not long at all.

[EuchreJack]

I am impressed by the screenshots on the game page.

But from what people are saying, this looks like one of those games where the sequel will be the better game.

Then again, if the developers don't make enough on this, there will be no sequel.  So, let's see if it is in my price range...

[axiomsofdominion]

I am impressed by the screenshots on the game page.

But from what people are saying, this looks like one of those games where the sequel will be the better game.

Then again, if the developers don't make enough on this, there will be no sequel.  So, let's see if it is in my price range...

I suspect unless the game is a total flop that HoodedHorse will stick by them. We'll see what happens after a few DLC.

[Journier]

best luck ive had in the game is creating european union federation, grabbing france first and working out from there joining all eligible nations, and then taking over russia, joining all eligible nations to that as well, then jumping over to the USA and doing the same.

This Demo with no save feature is a slap in the face to anyone wanting to find out the transition to space combat and mining tho.

The actual planet side politics is terrible so far imo, the AI will coup you constantly if you dont defend your nations, its just a headache. Especially when your limited on agents to defend with. if you have many independent states its a real headache, forget all the minor nations you cant join into a federation quickly. Go for the big boys.

Anddd, I dont have 5-7 hours in a sitting to play out the demo, and I lost interest. Why dear god would you not put a save feature into the demo when you already in game time limited it... :/

[Malus]

Seems unlikely. When the button for unification is active, it's always 100% success. Here, it's not even active.
It wouldn't be so bad, if I could at least find out beforehand if it won't let me do it.

There's actually a little icon you can hover over that'll show you the cooldowns and which actions you can take. Pretty hidden (like a lot of things...) but you can find it here.

[Il Palazzo]

Does anyone else just buy diplomats and activists and take over all the governments. I usually have a single "operative" and then all political people.

Pretty much the same here. Seems like the most sensible choice - at first, it's a scramble for control; then they all switch to propagandising while the sole operative runs errands and occasionally expands control.

There's actually a little icon you can hover over that'll show you the cooldowns and which actions you can take. Pretty hidden (like a lot of things...) but you can find it here.

Yeah, I did find that eventually. Though swear to god I did not see any cooldowns there. As far as I understand from reading elsewhere, there's a one year waiting time after leaving (or joining?) a federation before unification can be attempted. However, I'd swear the goddamn Denmark was under my control longer than that and still wouldn't budge. But then again, can't go and check if that's how it actually was, because no saves lol.


Also, the game tries to fry my laptop.