My Thoughts

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mtgian
Posts: 1
Joined: Mon Nov 21, 2022 9:05 pm

My Thoughts

Post by mtgian »

Hello,

First, I am new to the forum and have not followed the development of Terra Invicta at all, so please forgive me if any of this has been hashed/rehashed. I purchased the Early Access blindly on a recommendation of a YouTuber that I respect, then played it extensively for the last month.

Let me start off by saying "Congratulations!" to the developers. The game in its current state is an incredible accomplishment. Well done. I had a lot of fun playing it. That said, I am an opinionated sort and have some thoughts:

1) Orgs as councilor possessions / Control point sameness / Country sameness - I am going to combine these into one category. Orgs have the potential to bring a lot of flavor to the game. Right now, they provide stat bonuses and special abilities, but they could do a lot more. There could be stories attached to orgs. I saw in the roadmap that maybe orgs could be levelled up. Just lots of stuff. The thing that is strange about all of this is that they are treated like permanent councilor possessions (assuming they aren't stolen). This strikes me as odd. Shouldn't the "CIA" org be in some way connected to the United States? Hold that thought.

Additionally, both control points individually and countries themselves have a sameness to them. For example, as far as I know, there is no difference between controlling the Legislature control point versus the Mass Media control point for a country. And the same goes for countries themselves - it doesn't feel much different to control different countries that are in roughly the same development class.

One thing that could make countries feel different is to tie all of this together in some way. Expand upon the connection between the org and the country in some way. A game where you control large parts of the USA would feel different than the same amount of development in Europe because the USA brings different orgs to the table. With the USA, you would get the long arm of the CIA, aerospace/defense industry, etc, while control of say northern Europe would bring its variations (for example, chemical/materials industry in Germany). The point would be to connect the gameplay mechanics with immersion/replayability mechanics. If it feels different to play as the USA instead of northern Europe, then the player is incentivized to try both out.

What about new orgs? Rather than have them randomly generated, what about having them integrated in some way with country development?

If these ideas are abhorrent to the design (which they might be), then that is understandable, but these are the areas where I would be looking to add over time in expansions / TI 2 (I am certain this will be a big enough hit for sequels). More details on orgs, what they can do, who controls them, etc. More differentiation between what it feels like and what options are available when you control different countries / control points.

2) Technology effects - In a way, I am going to kind of say the same thing about technologies as I did about orgs / countries. The technologies kind of run together and don't feel consequential enough in gameplay effects. You discover advanced sources for power, but the world doesn't seem that changed by it. Colonization of foreign planets begins, but there is no sense that there are real people doing the colonization. There is reference in the technologies to resource conflict between individuals living in space and Earth, but it doesn't actually happen in the game. I have seen the assumption in places that full-colonization of Mars is likely in the plans for down the road. That's an inspiring idea, but I think all of this needs a lot in the way of immersion mechanics. If you colonize Mars, then will it feel like a variation of Earth? If that can be pulled off, it would be pretty cool.

What about having space stations / colonies at some point become like countries complete with control points, orgs, and personalities/cultures? Somehow integrate technology into all of that so that the discovery of technologies solves problems, expands the station, etc. It would mean making development of stations / colonies more complicated (the player doesn't just overwrite the entire station when they want), but that seems like a good thing as a hodge-podge developed station would have more character and would be more interesting. You could argue that players have too much control at the moment.

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I'll stop there. There is definitely room for a 3) Alien interactions with much the same thoughts. More interconnectivity of mechanics. More immersion. How about some aliens start living with humans in the alien friendly factions' countries? What about an alien space station where interaction between humans and aliens is possible? What about trade with the aliens? The aliens could be hostile and intend conquest, but still take a slow and steady approach. Use the history of colonization as inspiration.

Thanks for reading!
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