Have I already lost?

[Altmunster]

So I am barely on the moon, no mining set up yet or anything that halfway resembles a spaceship, let alone a fleet, and I notice all these alien ships and bases all around the solar system.

so am I already done? I mean, I don't even have a ship.

[db48x]

No.

[Toblm]

Short answer is no, thats how its supposed to be.
The long answer involves questions such as:
What faction?
What year?
Center of Power?
What the other AI players are doing.
ect.

[DarkestOnion]

That depends. What year is it in game? What has the world done to answer the alien threat/presence so far? I expect the game waits for a certain year or for some faction to discover X or Y techs before the recon and infiltration phase of the game instantly turns into the active invasion phase...but i have only played two times and never finished the game...so I just guessing

[Altmunster]

I am still in 2024, resistance (i.e. piss poor tutorial). I have more space assets (lunar base, earth satellite) than others and a few armies in various places. Good boost income and tons of exec control over nukes.

Maybe I am in ok shape

[Pandemic]

grab mars mercury and the moon and chill behind layered defense till you have wrapped up earth completely. Dont even bother with ships till then, just build bases and defenses

[HamsterDesTodes]

The aliens start out with a bunch of stuff, that's completely normal. Depending on your difficulty, they'll continue to build more and more, but at 2024 nothing major should have changed yet. Come back in 20 or 40 years, this game is a long one ;)

[Altmunster]

Thanks for the tips. Will stick with it and not restart.

[Wilhelm]

Originally posted by Altmunster:

Thanks for the tips. Will stick with it and not restart.

you shouldn´t even restart if the aliens destroy all your space assets or you loose every single nation. still stick with it. the game is designed that way

[Lovecraft]

Yeah, right now the game still needs a lot of QoL improvements and streamlining. There are far too many whack-a-mole mechanics that make gameplay tedious.

But I love the concepts and the complexity. In time I hope TI will be great.

[jfoytek]

Originally posted by Altmunster:

So I am barely on the moon, no mining set up yet or anything that halfway resembles a spaceship, let alone a fleet, and I notice all these alien ships and bases all around the solar system.

so am I already done? I mean, I don't even have a ship.

So their are many Meta gamer's in the community that believe is silly notions that you need to do x,y, and z

The facts are you don't....

This is a patient game that keeps overly achieving human players in check...

If you use more then 80 Mission Control the Aliens get angry and spank you for instance...
Their are Technology's that will allow you more MC latter in game...

Basically what I am saying is you can start slowly and for instance build a spage program in South America and lose the race to luna and even mars... But recover...

Their are many Asteroids, to mine resources off of.... Yes their are some that are better then others....

You can always take other factoins stuff with marines...
You can blow up another factions stuff and build in its place....

Bascially you have all kinds of tools at your finger tips to never be out of the race...
Infact your a shadow organization thats not tied to any give country. You can lose every nation and still be in the game....

So don't feel rushed take your time, stay under the alien radar and eventually you will get their.... This is a Tortoise beats the Hare type game....

[Altmunster]

I enjoy the concepts too. I do think it has a bad early game loop...too much of the same thing over and over again. I was primarily interested due to the space concepts, but after watching the world spin for hours, i am finding it hard to stay interested.

my advice for them in early access would be to compress the time before you are able to get to space warfare.

[Altmunster]

Originally posted by jfoytek:

Originally posted by Altmunster:

So I am barely on the moon, no mining set up yet or anything that halfway resembles a spaceship, let alone a fleet, and I notice all these alien ships and bases all around the solar system.

so am I already done? I mean, I don't even have a ship.

So their are many Meta gamer's in the community that believe is silly notions that you need to do x,y, and z

The facts are you don't....

This is a patient game that keeps overly achieving human players in check...

If you use more then 80 Mission Control the Aliens get angry and spank you for instance...
Their are Technology's that will allow you more MC latter in game...

Basically what I am saying is you can start slowly and for instance build a spage program in South America and lose the race to luna and even mars... But recover...

Their are many Asteroids, to mine resources off of.... Yes their are some that are better then others....

You can always take other factoins stuff with marines...
You can blow up another factions stuff and build in its place....

Bascially you have all kinds of tools at your finger tips to never be out of the race...
Infact your a shadow organization thats not tied to any give country. You can lose every nation and still be in the game....

So don't feel rushed take your time, stay under the alien radar and eventually you will get their.... This is a Tortoise beats the Hare type game....

Well, that is encouraging. This game just brings back memories of Phantom Doctrine, where i got to a late stage in the game, some 40 hours in, where it was impossible to win. it doesn't help the comparison that PD also had agents, and the whole "run the clock for missions to complete " dynamic.

[Lantantan]

Originally posted by Altmunster:

I enjoy the concepts too. I do think it has a bad early game loop...too much of the same thing over and over again. I was primarily interested due to the space concepts, but after watching the world spin for hours, i am finding it hard to stay interested.

my advice for them in early access would be to compress the time before you are able to get to space warfare.

Devs were working on a later starting date scenario, which I assume would speed up the early game and include more starting space assets. Sounds like that might be just your thing.

[76561198859928956]

Originally posted by jfoytek:

So their are many Meta gamer's in the community that believe is silly notions that you need to do x,y, and z

The facts are you don't....

I can't really stress this enough.

This game has ways to absolutely screw you. You can spend all your time building up whatever you think the meta superpower start is but the aliens will mind control it out from under you. You can rush to space and try and lock down all the resources until an event wipes out your mission control and everything in low earth orbit gets captured. You can build up the perfect super-councillor only to have them assassinated.

But it's also extremely generous. There are far too many asteroids for any faction to be able to monopolize space resources. If you're late to space you can go hard on marines or build up a hab stealing spy or just rush warships and blow everyone up if you're feeling mean. If you're losing on earth you can focus on dominating space and build up an unstoppable space economy. If you're losing in space you can focus on crippling your rivals mission control on earth.

The people who insist there is one correct way to play are simply wrong. They're less wrong when it comes to the very start of the game when the priorities are clear, but ultimately the best strategy is to remain flexible.

[Bahrman74]

Originally posted by Altmunster:

I enjoy the concepts too. I do think it has a bad early game loop...too much of the same thing over and over again. I was primarily interested due to the space concepts, but after watching the world spin for hours, i am finding it hard to stay interested.

my advice for them in early access would be to compress the time before you are able to get to space warfare.

I'm guessing there will be other time frames you can choose in the future from the scenario dropdown menu in the start game set up. Right now the only option is modern.