Aurora 4x
Other Games => Other Games => Topic started by: Feujak on January 07, 2021, 11:04:06 AM
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Hello Aurora players,
I found this game, it look like Aurora with graphics. But with only the Solar system.
Youtube : Steam Page : https://store.steampowered.com/app/1176470/Terra_Invicta/
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This was brought up a couple months ago during their kickstarter campaign. I have been trying to avoid spoilers about the game since then but im too curious to see what they are doing to not check. Thanks for reminding me.
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This currently has a demo out, though I think only for a few more days, and it's limited to 7 years of play so doesn't really get into the lategame stuff. That said, it is indeed a lot of fun and definitely reminds me of Aurora in some ways.
I like how the space economy is handled - Earth has plentiful supplies of most resources, but using them in space requires you to get them into orbit with a rare resource called boost, representing orbital launch capacity. Meanwhile if you build a mine on the moon you're mostly producing pretty low value stuff like water or common metals, but you can launch it into orbit with a mass driver and thus don't need to use up your limited boost.
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It isn't bad, but I expected something else. Feels a lot like there's too much abstract elements in it, at least for me.
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It seems decent enough, unfortunately demo does not have save function, so I did not have enough time to finish a game.
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I was literally just about to come here and start this thread myself, since I played it yesterday for 6 hours straight. Of course Aurora fans would find this too. :) It had been on my wishlist for a year or so, but the devs who aimed at a 2Q2022 release moved it back last week and gave this demo instead.
I only got through the first 3 of the 7 years allowed in the demo, and didn't get to see any ship battle or even ship construction. From the things I did see however, I was very impressed. It very much resembles Solar War in that you get funding from the nations you please/convince/take over and that there are some slowly inward moving regular Alien threat attacks that move between the planetary orbits and you can track falling towards the inner system, eventually building some new bases closer and closer too. Of course this is a much more fleshed out version, with some X-Com vibes to the UFOs (actually identified though) landing and terrorizing and [!spoilers!], and then perhaps also Crusader Kings or Europa Universalis principles applied, which vastly expand on the nation game.
Just to explain by example, in my game I went to quickly take over Russia, since they seem to be the easiest nation to control who already has a space program. Then I moved from there through Scandinavia, turning public sentiment in Finland and Sweden around so that they would follow (great science countries), and eventually crackdown on an enemy cabal out of Norway too, but later.
Then managed to find my way into Germany through sheer luck, and from there got standing to also purge opposition in France. With these extremely scientific countries under my belt, and access to rocket lifting right at the start, I turned into a science leader and managed to have the first new space station, then permanent moon base, as well as the first Mars outpost.
The best thing however, once you control nations enough: You can set some public policies. So one thing I did was end the Ukraine war, because I had Russia (lol. too late though, because I already had to pay reparations for atrocities), but the very best thing was that once I had control over France and Germany together, I could move them to unify and officially found the European Union as a country. That was a moment of awe for sure. :o
My main character to do all this was a lucky roll from the start with 8 high espionage + defensive stealth traits and security despite being a diplomat, and also all other stats around 4-6. I renamed him the "Man in Black", since his portrait and skills fit (he was never found out, operating and advising from the shadows). He came to first lead some Russian intelligence service, then much later also FBI and NSA once I finally managed to get standing in the US by brute force media propaganda (kind of what the last 6 years were), making him an all-stat, all-mission-types monster that played grabby Kraken with the world.
Funny fact: The first of the two operatives you start with will always be of your home country, so I always got a German scientist or diplomat.
On another note, I really love what they did with the science progression, and the space game. You really feel like humanity still does its first humble steps out there, in no where near what the alien threat fields. Your first station is basically just another ISS tech level floating box with some solar panels and the labs perhaps specialized to really further space research or alien defense (but only by surveillance). The moon and mars bases are not much more, and it will take long before you can even mine there on site, so your first outposts are basically just "this seat is taken" markers to secure the best landing sites for much later exploitation. (btw. you don't have to do the Moon and Mars base thing, but it just seemed like good RP, and the moon also gives a tiny reward if you are the first there)
(Here one official picture with all the landing sites on just one moon:)
(https://abload.de/img/ss_81977c485beb179ad8kcj02.jpg)
Despite all this humble tech, it takes really long to do, and you will also need to wait for launch windows to get your probes and modules out there. The whole atmosphere is humanity slowly inching its way to using the solar system, one tiny technology improvement at a time. I absolutely love this, because I am one of those, that always plays Civ in Marathon mode to spice out all the eras.
I have removed the game for now, because there is no savegame in the demo, and this is as far as I could go without sacrificing my laptop to the angry sun god that pushed a heatwave at this time. As far as I can see, this is already the best game of 2022 for me, even without improving any further. Of course, they still plan to make it better, so I will watch their career with great interest.
(also perhaps check out the studios other planned Sci-Fi game "Falling Frontier". More on the tactical combat side, but looks really good and atmospheric - especially in matters of sound design. Damp hollow hull bumps, crackling radio transmissions, and basically loud silence of the void. These people have vision.)
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For those interested, there is series by PerunGamingAU with quite a successful run: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCPYJiiMoA0yOMHI-aiB44RQ
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The demo just went up again. It is still the same one meaning you can't save. I had my fill to know this is gold and will be waiting, but maybe some still want to see and try.
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And the game is out, albeit in early access.
I've been loving it, but I stand by what I said elsewhere about this: This game isn't for everyone, but it's extremely for me. That said, considering this is the Aurora forum, I expect there will be considerable overlap between fans.
If you're looking for one of the best complex and innovative strategy games we've seen in awhile, but one somewhat lacking when it comes to UI or intuitive mechanics, consider giving TI a shot. I see SpaceMarine is doing an LP series so that or one of several others I've seen going up might be a good place to learn more.
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I've also been playing around wit the early access. Its an interesting game with a very slow start, and my first few restarts have been figuring out what I've been doing wrong and starting over to do better.
So far at least in the very early game, you want councilors with high persuasion so that you can take over control points far easier. Unfortunately, mine have been... less good at that. I also can't for the life of me see why you'd want a scientist early game.
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I've also been playing around wit the early access. Its an interesting game with a very slow start, and my first few restarts have been figuring out what I've been doing wrong and starting over to do better.
So far at least in the very early game, you want councilors with high persuasion so that you can take over control points far easier. Unfortunately, mine have been... less good at that. I also can't for the life of me see why you'd want a scientist early game.
Yeah councilors with good persuasion are good, but you are more limited with control point capacity than in the demo. And when you get over the cap, other factions will start to butcher your control points even when they are defended. I think that it is important to get good councilor that can hunt down enemy agents. If you kill them, they will have to get new ones with worse stats and start to improve them again. And when you start to hunt down alien agents, you will definitely need good councilor that can handle that.
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I’m enjoying it as well. I went into it basically blind, so my first game has been some what slow with plenty of mistakes. I haven’t actually built any ships yet, but I have mines on the Moon, Mars, and 1951 Lick. Time to start designing that first ship!
My most satisfying accomplishment so far is killing an alien agent. It took a lot longer than I intended, because I had no one who could do assassinations. I had to fire my most redundant agent, hire someone with a bit of espionage skill, level them up enough to buy the Criminal trait, wait for an org to show up that granted the Assassination ability, buy it and 8 or 9 other orgs that boost the espionage skill, and then spend a year or more trying to find alien agents. (Apparently the ones I had detected earlier went home for a vacation!) Finally, with 21 espionage skill, and spending 64 ops, I was able to bag one.
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I’m enjoying it as well. I went into it basically blind, so my first game has been some what slow with plenty of mistakes. I haven’t actually built any ships yet, but I have mines on the Moon, Mars, and 1951 Lick. Time to start designing that first ship!
Ceres is also important, because it has great water deposits. But there is risk if you expand too much that the aliens start to attack your outposts.
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Picking which nation to control is also important. I’m still working out how to spend to achieve the best results, but currently India fully supports the Resistance, and that gives multiple armies to handle terrestrial threats.
My biggest bottleneck is generating boost. No orgs so far that grant it, and nations should do better at producing it than they do. I imagine it’s something that will be tweaked more.
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Picking which nation to control is also important. I’m still working out how to spend to achieve the best results, but currently India fully supports the Resistance, and that gives multiple armies to handle terrestrial threats.
My biggest bottleneck is generating boost. No orgs so far that grant it, and nations should do better at producing it than they do. I imagine it’s something that will be tweaked more.
If your goal is a terrestrial military force, what you can do is do the perun strat of controlling mexico and canada so that you get enough bonuses in the US that it becomes feasible to take it over.
At which point you get 6 modern armies all with naval capability. Always fun to stage dive megafauna with the US armed forces.
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Picking which nation to control is also important. I’m still working out how to spend to achieve the best results, but currently India fully supports the Resistance, and that gives multiple armies to handle terrestrial threats.
My biggest bottleneck is generating boost. No orgs so far that grant it, and nations should do better at producing it than they do. I imagine it’s something that will be tweaked more.
Kazakhstan is relatively easy to get from the start and has good boost. So that is also decent option to grab at the start of the game.
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One thing to note about boost is that you are supposed to wean yourself off of it through the spaceconomy. Construction modules and outpost mines are your friend and you'll only need boost for the first hab you put into mars if you play your cards right.
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Another way to reduce your reliance on boost is to start with a station at the planet you want to colonize. You can send it as soon as you finish the unlock, before you have probe results. then send it a construction module and power. . and bob's your uncle. I am very much enjoying Terra Invicta!
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Another way to reduce your reliance on boost is to start with a station at the planet you want to colonize. You can send it as soon as you finish the unlock, before you have probe results. then send it a construction module and power. . and bob's your uncle. I am very much enjoying Terra Invicta!
Yep, I wish I had known that. I sent a fission pile to Mars but didn’t have enough boost to send the actual mining facility. I ended up paying for about 9 months up upkeep on the reactor after it arrived, which was a lot more expensive than I had expected. Lots of mistakes to be made in ones first game :)
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Has anyone actually finished a successful playthrough of this game?
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There is guide on the reddit that seems decent for those that do not like to watch videos, link to the first part:
https://www.reddit.com/r/TerraInvicta/comments/xq5che/guide_how_to_defeat_an_alien_invasion_in_10_easy/
Edit: There is actually part zero: https://www.reddit.com/r/TerraInvicta/comments/xpbhxq/guide_how_to_defeat_an_alien_invasion_in_10_easy/
Has anyone actually finished a successful playthrough of this game?
Not from what I saw on youtube and reddit.
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I've been playing for a week and I'm only 13 years in on my first campaign.
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Yeah, I think the pacing could use some tweaks.
Honestly, the mission cycle should be slower (I shouldn't be able to swing control of an entire nation in a month!), and UI improvements would speed up play (needs summary screens for targeting missions and stuff instead of scrolling around on the very pretty maps), but the biggest thing would be an aurora style event log+"skip to next mission cycle"+interrupts.
They already sort of have the event log (it summarizes the outcomes of your missions from the last cycle), and they already do interrupts in the form of autopause on certain events. Just need to be able to skip time as fast as your computer can compute and things would speed up dramatically (the max speed, 5x, is still kind of slow).
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I would love if there was an option to only have the map auto pan to a selection on double click. It gets annoying getting thrown around the solar system.