Bugs and Suggestions

For updates and discussion of Terra Invicta, a grand-strategy alien invasion simulator
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Nentrinax
Posts: 5
Joined: Thu Oct 20, 2022 12:47 am

Bugs and Suggestions

Post by Nentrinax »

First, these are not crash bugs (I sent a direct email and save-file for one of those I found).

Bugs:
It seems if a ship refit is queued (after a prior project; mine said 9 days to do it), but when it reaches the queue (particularly if the queue is delayed due to resources being unavailable) the refit time when it actually starts jumps up to the full ship construction time (71 days).

Also, the "Use materials from Earth" check box on shipyards value is not saved between game loads (they all reset to "allow" each time loaded).

Game Balance Suggestion:
For Heavy Fusion Reactor Farms, which get so numerous later in the game (when you need so many Battlestations), I suggest reducing the Noble Metals monthly cost to 0.8 (from 1; a 20% reduction) since Noble Metals are much rarer and lesser in amounts than normal metals. This would help reduce some resource starvation.

UI Irritation:
The game pause/unpause mechanic can cause an irritating event. In particular if I try to pause the game manually just as an event pops up, instead it unpauses the game instead (which can lead to enemy fleets bombarding before you react to them).
My suggestion is to make the "pause" and "unpause" keybinds separate. If they are both "Spacebar" then it would toggle (as it does now), but for those experiencing this issue they we could change "unpause" to something like "Alt-Spacebar" so we don't accidentally unpause when we want to pause.

UI Improvements:
For the Combat UI - Fleet control, it would be nice if some controls (such as the Posture controls) lit up (or changed the circle border color) when that mode has been activated for all ships. Sort of a fleet status. Similarly the "Retract/Extend Radiators" could do the same, or show/hide as they do for the individual ships. If the fleet is mixed, the buttons could show in their normal default state.

For the Fleet List, it would be nice if it could filter the list by area and faction like the Habs list does. Presently it is a massive list to find that one fleet in. For fleets in transit, they could be included in the filter by their destination. (So you could find all Alien fleets orbiting Mars and transiting to Mars, for example).
It would also be nice if the fleet list was sorted alphabetically. Right now it seems random and re-arranges every different time I look at it.

This one I know is more uncertain, but for fleets that have just finished a combat, it would be nice if we could "queue" a transfer (or land) order to take effect once they are available. Having to catch that the fleet is available again to order it to base to refuel (and/or repair) has led a great many times to the UI Irritation described above. It doesn't need to start the transfer right away, but this way doesn't have to be manually caught a few game-hours later.

Game Oddity:
I have found an oddity with refueling ships. The refueling time is based upon the size of the fleet and its fuel needs (which seems logical), but if I manually split the fleet and refuel them individually it is far faster (since they all get done in parallel then). Conversely a large fleet kept together results in some really long refueling times by comparison. Perhaps a hab (or shipyard module) could have a "refueling capacity/rate" so that many ships individually are slower/queued, but the fleet combined might be a bit faster.

Technology Idea:
As a military technology, an idea would be to "Rapid Mobilization" or some such that reduced deployment time to a region by 25% (or so). It would just seem a nice thing, especially later as large areas where you have to go through many regions even in your own mega-nation can take a really long time (think reaching Novobirisk from Poland).

Thank you for your time. These above not withstanding, it is a very enjoyable game.
neilwilkes
Posts: 184
Joined: Sat Oct 01, 2022 10:44 am

Re: Bugs and Suggestions

Post by neilwilkes »

Nentrinax wrote: Sat Nov 19, 2022 4:52 pm UI Irritation:
The game pause/unpause mechanic can cause an irritating event. In particular if I try to pause the game manually just as an event pops up, instead it unpauses the game instead (which can lead to enemy fleets bombarding before you react to them).
My suggestion is to make the "pause" and "unpause" keybinds separate. If they are both "Spacebar" then it would toggle (as it does now), but for those experiencing this issue they we could change "unpause" to something like "Alt-Spacebar" so we don't accidentally unpause when we want to pause.
This is a really good idea indeed.

Apologies for not responding to the other suggestions but so far I have yet to actually get that far into the game. I am now on my 3rd try, and this time I will get there - I am currently in the 'MC Juggling' stage in an attempt to prevent hate retaliation whilst my research gets me to the point where I can actually fight the Xenos, so have yet to start building fleets - I built just 2 ships in order to shoot down one of theirs and after this went according to plan I simply scuttled them as I had other uses for my limited MC balance, as right now I am walking a tightrope at 94/113 MC
SpaceMarine4040
Posts: 2
Joined: Thu Nov 17, 2022 2:24 am

Re: Bugs and Suggestions

Post by SpaceMarine4040 »

Some mutually exclusive techs would be interesting, for instance the United states going the NATO route and forming closer ties with Europe + Canada should block an imperialist US going by the American Dominion name that goes to recover its old holdings in the Philippines, decides the Treaty of Guadalupe Hildalgo wasn't enough land, and grabs most of South or Central America.

By this same logic, Japan can either be led down a return to their WW2 stance that the Pacific is theirs OR the Pacific Defense League that is in game (with a new symbol please rather than just Japan's flag but something representing a united Pacific)

for Russia, an ability to call the Eurasian union either the New Soviet Union, or the Russian Tzardom. A small thing such as a different name and flag goes a big way to change the flavor of the world.
dfcrcesar
Posts: 3
Joined: Thu Nov 24, 2022 5:27 pm

Re: Bugs and Suggestions

Post by dfcrcesar »

Suggestions

You have nerfed the aliens early game, but you really need to buff their late game. To me it looks there s a point the Aliens can do nothing but to lose, even if you have almost 0 presence in space.

Some possibilities, aliens do not assault mining bases. Why not, if it s much cheaper to assault a heavily defended base that lack marine presence instead of bombarding it? It also incetiveses the use of marines in general, which is one aspect only players literaly abuse right now.

Alien bases must do marine defenses, as of now I have no reason to bombard alien bases.

Aliens continue to have a tendency to miscalculate human actual strength, not trying to make the game hardcore, but aliens should favor only engaging when they have groups of ships, at least 3 to 5, instead of suicide single ships.

Lastly and most important.

Two quality of life improvements

First, for god sake, when other factions are completely out of territory, please making them stop asking me for trading deals everything fucking turn. It just make me wish there was a mod where I can assassinate the leader of said faction and get rid of it entirely.


Second, blueprints, early game it s ok to build every step of your space bases, late game it s boring as hell, please allow me to blueprint a base and just paste it at every new base I build.

Chris D
Posts: 16
Joined: Sat Nov 26, 2022 4:24 pm

Publicize Alien Threat is misleading.

Post by Chris D »

At first I was certain this was a bug, but after looking at it more closely, I guess it is just a note that this is very confusing to new players.

For the longest time I could not figure out why "Publicize Alien Thread" was not dropping. The problem is that in the case of a tech that has a "hidden" prerequisite that does not show up even in full tech tree mode, the standard text and icons are misleading to the point of being flat out wrong.

"We are not Alone" is one of the three techs that always gets researched first. The full tech tree mode shows publicize alien threat as having no other prerequisites. There is just one green line leading to a box that has no other lines leading too it. The tool tip says "This project has a 100% chance of unlocking for us to research after all of its prerequisites are fulfilled. -Grants a public opinion boost for the Resistance around the world".

The problem is that years can go by without that 100% chance tech popping up. I have seen other people playing their first game posting wondering why it is not popping up even after years. It turns out that the answer is that there is a hidden prerequisite for Alien Operations, that does not show up until Alien Operations is unlocked. This is extremely confusing for brand new players, playing their first game, and wondering why the very first tech they unlocked is not popping.

Just to be clear, the text is saying it will definitely unlock when all the prerequisites are fulfilled, and the graphics are clearly showing that the there is only one prerequisite, and that it has been fulfilled. This is too confusing to go unexplained for the first several hours of gameplay.

I suggest some possible other ways to handle it. (1) Don't make those techs hidden. Show them in the full tech mode. (2) Even if you don't want to show "Alien Operations" on the tech tree, then at least show something like "Hidden Tech" as being a prerequisite for that. (3). In the tooltip, add some additional text such as "Note: This tech starts with a hidden prerequisite that will unlock later".
But like I said, I don't think it should give every indication that all the prerequisites are fulfilled, when there are hidden ones.
Last edited by Chris D on Sat Nov 26, 2022 5:27 pm, edited 1 time in total.
Chris D
Posts: 16
Joined: Sat Nov 26, 2022 4:24 pm

Re: Bugs and Suggestions

Post by Chris D »

Something that would be REALLY helpful in the tech tree.
When you hover over a tech or project, a tool-tip appears that describes the tech. Can that tooltip text please include the full name of the tech? I simply can not read orange text on an aquamarine background and similar combinations, so having the name repeated in nice white on dark blue in the tooltip would be help a lot. Thanks
Chris D
Posts: 16
Joined: Sat Nov 26, 2022 4:24 pm

Re: Bugs and Suggestions

Post by Chris D »

A few more quick suggestions. All UI and quality of life related.

There is an Icon for if a hab has modules under construction. May I suggest also an Icon for if a hab has Destroyed Modules?
I have several times had a notification that a base was being bombarded, gone to look at it and everything was (still) fine. Then, with no more notifications about that base gone back to find that several modules were destroyed. It would be nice if when looking at a list of bases, there was a glaring indication about which ones have destroyed modules (The destroyed module icon can be cleared by "decommissioning" the wreckage, but it would be nice to have a notice that there is wreckage you might have not noticed or forgotten about).
It would be appropriate everywhere the construction cone is used. (the list of habs that comes up in the top menu bar, and also the list of habs in the pane on the right that has all the councilors, fleets, armies, and Habs). In the later list, there is only room for once symbol. The only two I have noticed is an orange burst when the hab is under bombardment, and the construction cone. If there is room for only one, might I suggest the priority should be the bombardment dot, if that is not present, then the destroyed module skull, if that is not present, then the construction cone if neither of the others are present.

It would be very nice if the game remembers and defaults to the options chosen last time. Every potential battle I have to reset my ships from Archers Dispersed loosely or whatever the default is, to the options I like. I would really love it if it would just automatically set to what I used last time.

Also, we have to set those options even if there is not a battle. You have to set them, then choose if you want to engage, accept, or avoid. Sometimes there is a battle and sometimes not. If there is a battle, a different popup appears saying that there will be a battle and to prepare. There are no options on that popup other than to say you are prepared. Why not put the battle formation on THAT screen? That way you don't have to set them unless there actually will be a battle. Sometimes I have skipped setting my formation because I expected the aliens to run away, and went into battle with the default formation. So screen one is evade or not with no formation information. Then the "prepare for battle" screen you set your formation.

A few other minor things. The shipbuilding screen where ships are added to the queue, each shipyard has three buttons without tooltips. I can't remember what they do. I remember it was intro, but that was long ago and I forgot, and there are no tooltips.

Really enjoying the game
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