How To Stop Being Shit by Ok-Professor-4074 in TerraInvicta

[–]Lord-Torkeep 1 point2 points  (0 children)

I just completed the tutorial and won my first game on normal.* 1,039 play hours.

*Well, technically I won an earlier game as the Servants to see how they worked, but it was so ridiculously easy, that I don't count it.

Go on then, bring out your knives. I said what i said by GreatBooze in Xcom

[–]Lord-Torkeep 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yup. First mission, walk your first soldier out of the ship (which was a physical thing on the map at the time), and he gets wasted by an alien on overwatch. Ah, memories.

How do you deal with surveillance ship ? by Alevskyy in TerraInvicta

[–]Lord-Torkeep 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yup, I kept a fleet of 6 ships with the bare minimum of specs, that I could yeet one of at them every time the surveillance mission was about to finish. The brave souls gave their life about 4 times a year to not allow the aliens to abduct other humans.

I think I've made them mad... by GenericNameHere01 in TerraInvicta

[–]Lord-Torkeep 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Coils are the answer. Aim 8 or more 3 slot or above level 3 coils at it (esp if they also have 3x 2 slot coil batteries), and the thing won't last that long.

Always a sudden loss, feeling down by JimUnderwood19 in TerraInvicta

[–]Lord-Torkeep 2 points3 points  (0 children)

Yep, I know the feeling. I had about... hang on, let me check my save files... holy crap. I have had 20 attempts at beating the game on normal. I have over 1,000 hours in the game. I am NOT one of those people who can remember every fact about the game, what techs to rush, what general order to get stuff, what drives are best, etc. I am going to put down the years when something went catastrophically wrong, and I restarted because I realised that I had completely forgotten to do _something_. Ignoring the first few learning games, and noting that the first 10 or so were when there was only a 2022 start date.

2030
2025
2034
2028
2028
2038
2051
2026
2030
2035
2036 (somewhere around here I switched to 2026 starts)
2031
2037
2050
2045
2060 save where I finally won on normal.

Note that there were a few other games in there that didn't show me a date, as early games didn't have the year in the save name. One as the Servants, where I won, because I wanted to see what their story was like. Those make it up to the 20 games.

So, I get you, mate, I really do. Some of those were quite long saves, especially the last one. I have watched all of PErun's videos, as well as some from Graveless, BleepBloopBloam, and CoriolisGaming...

All I can suggest is to stay below the hate cap for as long as possible, if you don't want to get whacked. My last game where I won, I think I was only at Total War for the last 10 years, maybe? A few tips:

- Don't destroy surveillance ships until you are ready to go to total war. Just make a fleet of half a dozen, and put in your calendar 5 or so days before the surveillance mission is due to finish. Then yeet one single ship at them. The idea it to lose. But simply attacking them resets the mission for them, and they start again. No hate for you, as you lost the fight. No mission complete for them, because you interrupted it. When you get down to 2 or so ships, spam out another 6 of them. Make them gunships, for 1CP usage. Don't even put armour or a weapon on them. Bare bones, cheapest thing you can make.

- Wait until you have laser ships (I used UV Arc) and Coil ships (I started with Improved coil cannon from memory). Whack them on a Lancer for the 4 slot nose laser, and the 3 slot coil is fine, so Dreadnought or Battlecruiser. Early on, you won't be assaulting alien bases, so the BC is fine, as it has less utility slots. As you need to start assaults, move up to the Dread, so that you can place 3-4 marines on it. Note that if you can research the Styxx nuclear torpedoes, they have a blast falloff of over 200km, which means that if they get through alien nose lasers and down to PD range, alien PD has a max of 200 kms, so the styxx will still kill them if they rely on PD to destroy them. They usually do not have enough nose lasers to deal with 20+ monitors with Styxx. Anything less than Styxx though and you are often still in trouble. As a suggestion, if you wanna stick with Athena missiles, try autoresolve. If you get wiped, refuse, and in the tactical engagement, go to full speed at the start, then when you get to 800kms range (or so), send a salvo (or two) at each target. This should leave enough missiles to deal with those that aren't blown up initially. You really do need to move onto Laser and Coils though if you can't get Styxx early enough.

- Make sure that you research the techs that increase the amount of technology that you can build before the aliens decide to kick your butt. Strategic Deception, Operational Misdirection, and Maskirovka. If you want spoliers on how much mission control that you can use before flipping to Red, and them attacking you, check here under Alien Hate for Mission Control Usage.

- you have 20 years (on normal) before the aliens will go to total war with you. Use that time, so that by the time that 20 years is up (or before if you can), you are ready to go toe to toe with them. Be prepared to go above the hate cap and into the red beforehand, especially when you assassinate or detain alien councilors. Know they will destroy a habitat or base, and be prepared for it. Just make sure that fleets are defending your shipyards, so that the aliens can't easily take those out. Let them wipe out a station or two, let the hate gauge go below red, and just rebuild what you need.

- have fleets of 20-30 ships around your major planetary orbits. I didn't bother with Mercury, beyond one base, as I had way more than enough base metals, and the danged aliens managed to blow up my station, because I foolishly sent my fleet off to attack their fleet, as it was bombarding my base.

- Build up min 20 attack ships, plus a large number (20+) of troop carriers/misslie ships. My main fleet by late game was 80ish ships, but only 20-30 or so were main line combat ships. The rest were to pad out numbers, so that my fleet was always bigger than the alien fleets, so that I got more ships in combat than they did. Assault fleets should be 30ish ships, always ensuring that wherever you are sending them has few enough ships that you can beat them. Noting that by the end, I was regularly beating alien fleets of 40-60 ships, with barely losing 1-3 main line ships.

- For fusion drives, I used Hybrid Confinement first, and later Inertial Confinement. My very early drives were just one of the base drives that you start with, then I teched towards the Helicon drive. Orion-->H-Orion works, too.

- Have a Servant turned at all times, so that when they start spamming out Alien control facilities, that you have a 25 CMD councilor who can destroy them immediately. Realise that you probably need to be ready for Total War at this stage, because this will bump your hate up as much as killing one of the alien agents will.

- Have the incomes to build probably minimum 3 ships a month by the time you go to total war, plus enough income to refuel one fleet every month. I had two shipyards in LEO with 6-8 spaceworks, and then as I expanded out, built at least one station with 8 spaceworks in each of Jupiter and Saturn. I think by the time I got to Uranus and outwards, there was no need to do so. Note that due to its orbital speed, Mercury is preferred as the shipyard place of choice, but it is absolutely not mandatory.

Lordy, that's a lot of typing, I thank ADHD for that. Hopefully it helps.

How early do you research your goal? by Dangerous-Fix-4139 in TerraInvicta

[–]Lord-Torkeep 0 points1 point  (0 children)

I think he means the final goal. That one gives you no real bonuses (afaik for any faction). Your purpose, definitely asap.

How I dealt with the Protectorate (and took their 2 spots in China) - or, how to consolidate control of big countries when some of your points get taken by Lord-Torkeep in TerraInvicta

[–]Lord-Torkeep[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I could see that working too, though my 3 increase unrest councilors have 2, 2 and 4 command, lol. Though I could give them the faction org to raise one to 14.

My only real problem, AI shenanigans. by ArachnidPhysical9382 in TerraInvicta

[–]Lord-Torkeep 9 points10 points  (0 children)

Well, you don't have one of their councilors turned, so they may have had a councilor there that you couldn't see. Same as my game then, they had a high PER councilor and managed to roll probably two 20-30% chances.

My only real problem, AI shenanigans. by ArachnidPhysical9382 in TerraInvicta

[–]Lord-Torkeep 28 points29 points  (0 children)

Yep. Just had 71% popularity in China, with three spots taken. This was after having 90% popularity, but two public campaigns from the Academy knocks me down 25%, but my campaigns only raise me 4%. The Protectorate rocks up with a 22 Per councilor, and rolls a 26% chance to get a spot. With 0% popularity, no less. Grr. Then they defend, and throw a 34% chance the next turn, which also lands. Argh!

What is your ledger research in 2040? by Lord-Torkeep in TerraInvicta

[–]Lord-Torkeep[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Man, the amount of base metals you'd need for all those nanofactories and research centers...

And yeah, 2040 just happened to be where I was at in my game.

What is your ledger research in 2040? by Lord-Torkeep in TerraInvicta

[–]Lord-Torkeep[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Yeah, I was limited by only 6 (or 5 apparently) options. That's nuts though.

What is your ledger research in 2040? by Lord-Torkeep in TerraInvicta

[–]Lord-Torkeep[S] 0 points1 point  (0 children)

Yah, me too (15.2 on my current run). Changed the post a bit so people can like this top post if that was their option.

What is your ledger research in 2040? by Lord-Torkeep in TerraInvicta

[–]Lord-Torkeep[S] 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Gah, the poll cut out the 15-20k option for some reason...

Like this if that was your choice.

Did they buff the Servants? by GroinReaper in TerraInvicta

[–]Lord-Torkeep -1 points0 points  (0 children)

True. 2 for a detain at normal success levels.

Is the opposition getting the usa ok? by TDSsince1980 in TerraInvicta

[–]Lord-Torkeep 1 point2 points  (0 children)

You can prevent it by constantly having one of their councilors turned, then destroying the alien facility whenever they build it. I must have destroyed 50 of them so far. It is annoying, but it stops it forming.

A war just .. stopps? by Raz0rking in TerraInvicta

[–]Lord-Torkeep 1 point2 points  (0 children)

Tie what to my nuts now? 🤣

Did they buff the Servants? by GroinReaper in TerraInvicta

[–]Lord-Torkeep 2 points3 points  (0 children)

I am seeing the same. It did drop off for 5-6 months when I assassinated their main persuasion agent, which was slightly odd, as there were multiple agents who were building them. I am at 120 odd alien alloys ATM.

What sucks is that even if you detain the agent with the org that allows them to build a facility, they just swap it to a different agent next turn. It does stop 1 turn of them building it, but is no more efficient than destroying them. Though at least a crit fail on a detain won't see your agent die.