I feel like the situation is so bleak, and just watching Potato make the best of the situation and just reflexively work to figure out the best way forward is a lil inspiring.
honestly I think he should take what he has learned and start again...also spend some time thinking about the ships and maybe looking at other vids to learn. He is ignoring 25% of the game. Its like playing total war and auto deciding every battle ...
your used mission capacity determines the resting aggro of the aliens. Normally when you do something against them or their allies the aggro increases and then it decays over time or when they attack you but if your mission capacity is too high then the Aliens will not de aggro. There are techs which allows you to have more MC before the Aliens get angry.
@@villclank2916 i cannot remember their names but I remember they unlocked sometime after interrogating the alien captive. something like strategic deception and maskirovka are the ones I saw. getting too greedy in space and too aggro with their fleets is a good way to go into a death spiral
OH GOD THAT IS A HELL OF A FLEET! I am nearly a decade ahead of you in my current playthrough and have not seen a single fleet anywhere NEAR that. And I am actively killing tons of alien ships too. I didn't even REALIZE that MC threat was THAT BAD. Sheeeeesh
Keep your mission control at 90-100 until you have better tech then crank up your space stations. You can also easily take over stations of enemies by using marines which will save you time and resources. Right now you're taking very hard path with caveman technology against aliens, you're like taliban with dinky ak-47 against tomahawks launched by entire US navy.
@@grotesmurf6790 sadly these aliens don't care about things like midterm elections or attrition rates. They have the asymmetry of technology but it's combined with the stalinist ethos.
To put this moment into perspective, at this point in my game I was using around 70 MC (Had 130 available) and in 2032 built my VERY FIRST ships. Battleships with MK3 Railcannons, some armor, Particle Beam PD and some Light Railgun batteries for close in defense. Those 4 ships were easily able to deal with anything the aliens were willing to field for almost a full decade while I used Layered Defense Arrays to hold my static assets. Now in 2040 I have just started to reach 100 used MC. My tech is amazing and I am about to roll out my Tier 3 technology ships and have never lost a single fixed space asset. My 4 battleships sadly got swarmed by a large alien fleet near the end of 2039, but despite being outnumbered they only lost 1 ship. Sadly, losing that one ship broke the defensive wall they were providing eachother enough for the next attack (2 alien Dreadnoughts) to kill another one of them. Another double dreadnought fleet with escorts cleaned up the last 2, but died to the station they were defending in the process. Literally weeks later the first Next generation ships launched from that very station. I was hoping to retire the 4 battleships to the ISS as museum pieces because of how amazing they were. Salute to those Quatre Capitaines. I am finishing up the tech I need to spit out an exotic technology dreadnought which will be made from the alien corpses that those 4 ships created in their nearly 8 years of service. It will be my fleet's flagship for the next generation.
I think most people could figure out you don’t need 250 plus MC when you aren’t even using 50 to be fair. I’m still in my first play through and I’m 2032 with about 45 or so, and I only build more when I need more. Not much point wasting resources otherwise
Enemy scaling is apparently based off how much Mission Control you are using. At 219, you're probably on the high end, and that probably triggered the AI to escalate.
This, there is some research to allow you to be seen as a lesser target. But from what i heard moment you go over 130-140 they will start massively targeting you.
@@MrFosite yes but they will only target you for a bit. Destroy some of your stations and then leave you alone. The game is basically made so you constantly lose against the aliens until you can actually finally kill them. You are supposed to get fucked once or twice and come back stronger because technology should boost you back into the game really fast.
Yep. Early game, 90 MC used is safe. Mid-game, with the right techs, 150 is doable. But 200+ is only when you're ready to go full war footing with the xenos. And your used MC represents the *floor* alien hate will degrade to. They never want anyone else in space. But they consider you not worth destroying if you're below the cap and haven't maxed out the threat level.
He is pretty much at late mid game if not even early late game MC right now. I would say he isn't even started the actual Midgame at all yet either. The sad part is he is building a TON of ships that are worthless and providing him nothing except inflating his MC. The aliens will now kill even more of his space assets until those fleets are dead.
Yeah from what I learned playing (and the reason why I already restarted my first run) is that is soooo much better to go tall instead of wide with your spacestations in the earlygame. Especially with research stations with advanced research modules. Getting your research multipliers up seems so important. Also I would recommend looking into Skunkworks since these incredible modules boost your faction specific research. Having like 20 or something of them can boost your faction specific research up to 100% (and i think it unlocks another research slot). I just love that this game actually rewards you for going tall in the earlygame. Love your series hope to see more in the future!
@@ChristDuque It means having a smaller number of highly built bases instead of a lot of smaller ones. I think it makes sense because for the Mission control you invest, you get a lot more modules (labs/mines) out of it.
@@ChristDuque Basically he shouldn't have made all those MC stations around Mercury, they inflate his MC usage massively without really doing anything else.
The misunderstanding of space ships is certainly hurting. In air combat, and so by extension space combat too, thrust and the ability to quickly accelerate or change direction are key. Delta V is something you put on a big slow freighter or cruise ship as it represents economy over huge distances - exploration vessels or colony ships would need it to push the boundaries. For combat around a planet you only need a little delta V, like 10-20 max, because it's not about their long distance strike range, but short distance strike range. Thrust is a far more important metric for you to be looking at for that, but you'll also want to keep weight down so that thrust is letting a ship move fast, instead of making a brick wall move at all. Missile weapons can be countered by point defense, which aliens tend to have on most ships, but you are right that it can be overwhelmed, and missiles have the advantage of often striking the sides of ships (lighter armour) while direct weapons (energy and kinetic) have to power through the strongest armour that the enemy will turn toward you. Kinetic weapons will matter much more later perhaps if you want to do bombardment of bases, but the early ones are just too slow projectiles aliens may evade, and I already mentioned the armour issue. You'll miss a LOT with kinetic (though they do have more ammo than missiles), thus enemies will live longer to damage you. Energy weapons are hit-scan (speed of light) so they hit the easiest, but they are really, really, really weak in the early tech. For your tech now, missiles are the right call. But you MUST use magazines too, as missiles run out fast. Even with magazines, one per missile bay, those will be primarily defenders or short range patrol ships, not designed for extended combat missions due to restricted ammunitions. Alien ships are far superior in tech, so smaller, replaceable ships are the right move for you - battleships were a big misstep. It's fine to have a 'designated survivor' ship that is all defense and stays out of combat, while you hopefully kill the enemy that may in turn kill your offensive ships. i.e. its okay to have several ships that are designed to trade, so long as you eventually have at least a sole survivor to collect the alien salvage. You may even find it worthwhile, while your tech is so far inferior, to design kamikaze style attack craft that are basically as many missiles as you can fit on the cheapest and most replaceable craft you can design, so long as you also have that 'designated survivor' with low threat rating (last to be targeted). i.e one survivor that is all defence and hold at extreme range or runs away. Your kamikaze class would be as many missiles and mags as you could fit on a cheap-ish chassis, no point defense, just aiming to get as many missiles as possible aimed at the enemies and away before they get return hit. Light armour (because your armour tech is all crap right now) or virtually none, maybe nose only if any, good thrust and accelleration (chance to evade, best chance to pick and choose your fights, to intercept quickly, and to set the range of engagement).
Make sure you're choosing the right engine for your ships. Low-tech chemical rockets have the highest possible combat acceleration for a long time, so they're perfect for defensive fleets that don't need a lot of delta-v for transfers. Never use ion engines or other low-thrust engines on combat ships (they're good for colony ships though, and maybe marine transports). Do not try to build a mobile battle fleet until you have the tech to do so (engines that have both good thrust and good Isp).
This. Combat ships must either beat the aliens in acceleration, or in dV while still having some acceleration (aim for .1 g, definitely not under .05 g). In the early-mid game, doing the former (with plain old chemical rockets) is the only option. Mid-level fission and early fusion drives can start to get into the dV game if you make huge compromises in weight (this means basically zero armor). Late-game fission (orion or salt-water) and antimatter are the only engines that can match the thrust of chemical rockets (note that even the Aliens can't!), and late game fusion (or antimatter) can beat them in efficiency, finally giving you ships that have armor and can catch Aliens.
Yeah, the biggest thing the game fails to convey, is that the Alien sees massive mission control USED as a threat, and is what makes them see you as a 5 star threat right now, even if you are diong nothing to them directly(same for other factions). Specially since each ship uses mission control, you could see why. It's a good way to balance over control of space early(preventing other faction from mars or mercury say), but it should be more clear, like say in the MC tooltip, or maybe one of the earlier alien tech. Maybe even a popup(they see us as a threat as our space presence expends!)
Yeah, right around 90 MC in use is when the aliens start to get rather annoyed with you, the farther above that you go, the more severe the aliens response. There are two techs that increase the used MC soft cap by 25% each, so there is a way to increase it. As a silver lining, I guess the community can now point to this video as an example of why you really should pay attention to how much MC you use, lol.
pro tip: when your engines are prioritizing efficiency instead of power, no combat maneuevers you make will have any effect whatsoever except, of course, rolling and spinning. Your trajectory is literally unchangeable on the timescale of a battle.
Just something I found out about the turned agent mechanic. After you turn them if you go into the character profile and click resign they leave the faction they were in and go into your recruitment pool where you can hire them. So feel free to take a good agent from your enemies. I don't think the orgs stay with them though.
I had a feeling this installment of the series was a "bit delayed" and pictured Potato cursing through reloads of save after save...but I was wrong...he was filming 4 videos!
I can’t get enough of this. I have a Mac and can’t play these games without getting creative, so thank you for introducing me to new games and letting me play vicariously through you! I came for Civ6, but this and Against the Storm have been my favs!
I very much appreciate how much you have been able to focus on learning the game while there is so much chaos in it. I cannot wait to see what strategy you try out next!
Another thing you can do which seems quite good is to use marines to capture space assets from the Servants and Humanity First, and then gift them to the factions you want to be friends with to up their opinion of you.
Ship design tip: On the ship design page, if you right click on the tabs up the top (reactor, drive, etc.) it arranges that section into a grid which makes it much easier to read and compare!
You might like to know that I bought this game because of you, and I too experience Terra Addicta. And eventhough I've spent tons of hours on it already, I don't necessarily feel dread about a failed save state. With the learning curve as it is, redoing the early game isn't the worst thing ever. But going out swinging is still the way to go.
@PotatoMcWhiskey Try the nuclear missile corvette spam, it is the way! The aliens haven’t mastered the amazing power of the sun, let them feel humanity’s wrath!
Something you don't seem to realize is that you receive a bonus to research output for each individual research/engineering project you are investing in. Putting at least one tick into each category gives you the best total output.
L stands for Lagrange Point, which are places of gravitational equilibrium between two celestial bodies. They're super nice for orbits because you don't have to fight gravity. Each pair has 5 Lagrange points with their utility being affected by moons, asteroids, etc. The James Webb Space Telescope is in the Earth-Sun L2 for example.
You realy need to have at least 1 layerd point defense per base. Works exelent for space stations (I had multiple battles where 1 LPD protected base even from Hydra dreadnaught. Neither could be killed but as DN run out of ammo it agreed to end fight), not as good for ground (but insted of entire base you loose 0-2 modules) and as weapon tech gets better they get more effective. I cannot wait to see lvl 3 PD module - battlestations and how they perform (cca 2038 gametime).
So I just moved into a new house and without internet I bought this game from steam off of my phone because of your play through. This is a very interesting game and I'm looking forward to downloading it once I get internet
Feels like you have to basically play like you are playing Plague inc. Keep yourself looking small and week for as long as possible while building up your ability to fight back.
I think you should pull back used mission control. The aliens see your massive amount of used mission control and go into a frenzy. Loving this series, can't wait for more.
im playing my first proper playthrough, having decided to get the game after watching your vids on it and the funniest bit for me is ive a guy that looks like agent 47, who is running around assassinating enemy agents at random
your right about the point of failure, im on my third playthrough and im on year 2037 and i feel like im slowly losing now, i think there is a mechanic where they scale based on how well you are doing or if you over expand, they said something about not over developing in space but its not properly explained
I guess is to have a screen in youre fleet with high manuever thrust so it can tank/evade missle or if it get destroyed it cost not that much. But i found out that you need better PD in general. because the standard ones are pretty shitty. Or take the missles that can attack and defend/intercept against missles. But thanks for pulling through this rough phase. We all learn from it :).
Watching this series feel like watching David and Goliath, but David has to research how to build a slingshot while Goliath is already attacking David. With his own, highly advanced slingshot.
Space Stations or stations on planets/asteroids as well? Was wondering if I should build those layered defence platform there as well. I did witness positive outcomes in space of course.
I have been watching this series alongside PerungamingAu's humanity first run. It's been really entertaining to see where your respective knowledge bases ended and you started flying blind. Here you are in about episode 12 in a really rough spot with an alien giga fleet burning sunward, your fleets hammered and shot down frequently and in contrast, he's out here trolling the pro alien factions and calmly handling the aliens. That said, the academy seems like it's got a way bigger and harder order stacked against it than Humanity First. I suspect playing the extremist factions is the easy(er) path. It's also really cool to see how the acadamey handled their captive and interrogation compared to humanity first.
Yeah, if you're playing the game it literally says Academy (hardest) for starts, and Servants is (easiest) Humanity First is an easy one because you get advantages in certain events and a much simpler approach. Just kill everything
A good thing to keep in mind, for us at least, is that he's recording these in rapid succession, so any comments you make where he asks a question might not have been read until three, four, maybe even six episodes later. Really cool that he's paying attention to comments, though.
One thing i never seen you do potato is do the "Go to ground" mission, the little faction logos next to your councilors head are the factions that have done a investigation mission on them, it allows the AI to track their movements and pull out clutch control point defends and the like. Going to ground removes their ability to track the councilor.
You are starting to learn the doctrine the US Navy practiced in WWII, and was big in the game Traveller (GDW) I played in the 80's. Battleships, while very prestigious are mostly useless. where as a swarm of PT boats, Destroyers and Frigates (with maybe a Cruiser as a flagship) are cheap to produce and inflict damage above their class weight.
I believe your ships survived against the aliens at the 10 minute mark because PD actualy works the way its supposed to in autoresolve, whereas its a bit... funky in manual
Another day, another dose of TI with some potato seasoning (i might or not have been refreshing youtube every 5-10 minutes hoping to see this video) If you decide to drop this and start another campaign of TI to improve on the knowledge you aquired... i would happily watch it all over again Btw just wondering, how many episodes did you record before posting the first? guessing around 10? TY for the entertainment Potato!
FYI not sure if stated but Used Mission control = minimum Hate from other factions (including Aliens ). Apparently 80 is the sweet spot till you get tech to help. Really enjoying your videos thanks!!!!
Just as a fyi, there isn't really a game over I think, unless you count the save file being corrupted or crashing, but I could be very wrong. There is in fact an achievement for getting victory as the resistance after the servants or protectorate get their victory. Another tip is to drop basically all armor on your ships, select an alien ship then check the damage of their weapons then look at the damage your weapons do.
Discovered in my playthrough that the more mission control i have the more aggressive the aliens appear to react. They don't seem to like humanity spreading throughout the solar system.
36:21 I'd say that the takeaway here should be not that you need to tech up (which should really go without saying), but that you should build a couple ships with lasers or cannons on them so you can do something when you've fired your missiles...
One thing to remember is that the direction of your ships' nose does not correlate to their trajectory. This is space. Aerodynamics don't matter in a vacuum.
From what I’ve learned while playing this game you can’t give the servants an inch. They can hand over their holdings to the aliens and it causes the aliens to go full hostile if you try to go to war
Hope PotatoeMcWhiskey does another playthrough. So far really loving this series. The Game Play really improves when the player doesn't try to dominate all the power Nations. AI Factions then get the resources it needs to run better economies. I'm up on the Moon with only 2 of the sites for me. Got 2 bases on Mars being built. Not trying to block out the AI's access to space. Just claiming enough for me. Good amount of Orbital Platforms. In My current game, my power base is South Korea, which I've unified with North Korea, then I have Indonesia, and Australia. That was my beginning goals. Its only year '27, but am seeing the AI do use less Spoils when its been able to develop itself enough. Only Country they have run into the tubes is India because AI Faction got declared war on by America. So their whole economy is trying to increase milltech and recruit Armies. At some point managed to get the executive of India and Russia. Just the executive spots. Very strange, but really cool. Couldn't hold onto India's executive. Now own half of Russia's control point sharing it with 'The Protectorate.' Right now I have agents working to Coup a member of the EU to get it before it Unifies with EU. I've got to do something about America. Its going to war all over the place. Right now, its warring with Pakistan and India. Pakistan dropped a nuke on an America Army. America retaliated twice dropping nukes on them. Someone just made a Coup happen in China so AI is controlling it now. So much going on. Having a blast. Not ones typical 4x game. For enjoyment of the game one has to let the AI build up properly.
I got myself into a similar situation with the aliens constantly punishing me. I captured too many aliens at once and basically crippled the Servants' Earth economy. I could only ever manage to hold onto about 40 stations and I was constantly rebuilding my fleet. It was still a fun run and probably the closest I got to my first win, but very tough to deal with your stuff constantly going down in flames.
So... During space battles you are changing where your ships are pointing, but don't tell them to burn, so their trajectory doesn't change and you just increase their profile and open their flanks and engines for destruction.
now that i think about it , the space battle difference between human factions and aliens remind me of ME reapers vs the galatic comunity . 1 ship almost destroyed a whole human fleet :D
You cant catch the fleets, you need to have fleets in position. If a fleet needs to rush to a battle it will lose said battle because the alien tech has way more DeltaV
So only one video today because I recorded 4 more episdoes BUT for the next few days there will be 2 per day!
Haha, are you gonna be able to have many more episodes with how things are going???
It’s hard work, we’re here for the fun, but you need to look after yourself.
Best of luck
Thanks man, really have been enjoying this series!
Yesss feed the addiction
I feel like the situation is so bleak, and just watching Potato make the best of the situation and just reflexively work to figure out the best way forward is a lil inspiring.
honestly I think he should take what he has learned and start again...also spend some time thinking about the ships and maybe looking at other vids to learn. He is ignoring 25% of the game. Its like playing total war and auto deciding every battle ...
FYI. The "Dyson Sphere" doomed him. That response is linked to mission control use it seems.
It is. Over 90(until you get the proper tech) is a the same as shagging the aliens mother. They will absolutely obliterate you if you go over 90
your used mission capacity determines the resting aggro of the aliens. Normally when you do something against them or their allies the aggro increases and then it decays over time or when they attack you but if your mission capacity is too high then the Aliens will not de aggro. There are techs which allows you to have more MC before the Aliens get angry.
But I like the fact that he double down, and race to fight
@@lonerangerv1224 thanks for the heads up, what techs are those?
@@villclank2916 i cannot remember their names but I remember they unlocked sometime after interrogating the alien captive. something like strategic deception and maskirovka are the ones I saw. getting too greedy in space and too aggro with their fleets is a good way to go into a death spiral
OH GOD THAT IS A HELL OF A FLEET! I am nearly a decade ahead of you in my current playthrough and have not seen a single fleet anywhere NEAR that. And I am actively killing tons of alien ships too. I didn't even REALIZE that MC threat was THAT BAD. Sheeeeesh
MC threat is huge, it's basically a way for the game to control your expansion speed.
Keep your mission control at 90-100 until you have better tech then crank up your space stations. You can also easily take over stations of enemies by using marines which will save you time and resources. Right now you're taking very hard path with caveman technology against aliens, you're like taliban with dinky ak-47 against tomahawks launched by entire US navy.
I wonder if potatoTaliban will win too in the end.
so you're saying Potato will win
@@grotesmurf6790 sadly these aliens don't care about things like midterm elections or attrition rates. They have the asymmetry of technology but it's combined with the stalinist ethos.
To be fair though, i dont see a us controlled Afghanistan
let's hope the aliens quickly abandon the solar system and leave behind tons of tech for him
Thousands of humanity's best blown up in orbits all around the solar system and McWiskey is screaming "My Science!!! Nooooo!!"
To put this moment into perspective, at this point in my game I was using around 70 MC (Had 130 available) and in 2032 built my VERY FIRST ships. Battleships with MK3 Railcannons, some armor, Particle Beam PD and some Light Railgun batteries for close in defense. Those 4 ships were easily able to deal with anything the aliens were willing to field for almost a full decade while I used Layered Defense Arrays to hold my static assets. Now in 2040 I have just started to reach 100 used MC. My tech is amazing and I am about to roll out my Tier 3 technology ships and have never lost a single fixed space asset.
My 4 battleships sadly got swarmed by a large alien fleet near the end of 2039, but despite being outnumbered they only lost 1 ship. Sadly, losing that one ship broke the defensive wall they were providing eachother enough for the next attack (2 alien Dreadnoughts) to kill another one of them. Another double dreadnought fleet with escorts cleaned up the last 2, but died to the station they were defending in the process. Literally weeks later the first Next generation ships launched from that very station. I was hoping to retire the 4 battleships to the ISS as museum pieces because of how amazing they were. Salute to those Quatre Capitaines. I am finishing up the tech I need to spit out an exotic technology dreadnought which will be made from the alien corpses that those 4 ships created in their nearly 8 years of service. It will be my fleet's flagship for the next generation.
did you manage to figure it out in your first playthrough ?
I think most people could figure out you don’t need 250 plus MC when you aren’t even using 50 to be fair. I’m still in my first play through and I’m 2032 with about 45 or so, and I only build more when I need more. Not much point wasting resources otherwise
Amazing. That is story worthy of a novel
Love this type of stories in comments!
Thank you for sharing it, very cool.
This is the coolest goddamn comment I've read today.
McWhiskey at the start of this series: "I don't know what I'm doing and I love it!"
McWhiskey now: "I don't know what I'm doing and I hate it!"
Enemy scaling is apparently based off how much Mission Control you are using. At 219, you're probably on the high end, and that probably triggered the AI to escalate.
This, there is some research to allow you to be seen as a lesser target. But from what i heard moment you go over 130-140 they will start massively targeting you.
@@MrFosite yes but they will only target you for a bit. Destroy some of your stations and then leave you alone. The game is basically made so you constantly lose against the aliens until you can actually finally kill them. You are supposed to get fucked once or twice and come back stronger because technology should boost you back into the game really fast.
Yep. Early game, 90 MC used is safe. Mid-game, with the right techs, 150 is doable. But 200+ is only when you're ready to go full war footing with the xenos. And your used MC represents the *floor* alien hate will degrade to. They never want anyone else in space. But they consider you not worth destroying if you're below the cap and haven't maxed out the threat level.
He is pretty much at late mid game if not even early late game MC right now. I would say he isn't even started the actual Midgame at all yet either. The sad part is he is building a TON of ships that are worthless and providing him nothing except inflating his MC. The aliens will now kill even more of his space assets until those fleets are dead.
Seems like a pretty lame mechanic if an abstraction is the main driver of alien aggression.
I'm scared to play this because I feel like I'll just end up spending every waking hour thinking about what I'll do next time I play
The last week of my life im a youtube comment
@@gah2027 im sorry for you bro
@@gah2027 me when I relapse on eu4
Pretty much what I'm doing
If only I used waking hour to think about this game.
Being a space pilot is a pretty sweet gig, "Oh aliens are attacking, yeah best I can do is 4 weeks".
Yeah from what I learned playing (and the reason why I already restarted my first run) is that is soooo much better to go tall instead of wide with your spacestations in the earlygame. Especially with research stations with advanced research modules. Getting your research multipliers up seems so important. Also I would recommend looking into Skunkworks since these incredible modules boost your faction specific research. Having like 20 or something of them can boost your faction specific research up to 100% (and i think it unlocks another research slot).
I just love that this game actually rewards you for going tall in the earlygame. Love your series hope to see more in the future!
What do you mean by tall instead of wide?
@@ChristDuque It means having a smaller number of highly built bases instead of a lot of smaller ones. I think it makes sense because for the Mission control you invest, you get a lot more modules (labs/mines) out of it.
civ 6 betrayed potato gotta play more like civ 5
@@ChristDuque Basically he shouldn't have made all those MC stations around Mercury, they inflate his MC usage massively without really doing anything else.
Which I honestly don't like that the game forces u to use certain strategies instead of letting players be creative of play the way they prefer.
The misunderstanding of space ships is certainly hurting. In air combat, and so by extension space combat too, thrust and the ability to quickly accelerate or change direction are key. Delta V is something you put on a big slow freighter or cruise ship as it represents economy over huge distances - exploration vessels or colony ships would need it to push the boundaries. For combat around a planet you only need a little delta V, like 10-20 max, because it's not about their long distance strike range, but short distance strike range. Thrust is a far more important metric for you to be looking at for that, but you'll also want to keep weight down so that thrust is letting a ship move fast, instead of making a brick wall move at all.
Missile weapons can be countered by point defense, which aliens tend to have on most ships, but you are right that it can be overwhelmed, and missiles have the advantage of often striking the sides of ships (lighter armour) while direct weapons (energy and kinetic) have to power through the strongest armour that the enemy will turn toward you. Kinetic weapons will matter much more later perhaps if you want to do bombardment of bases, but the early ones are just too slow projectiles aliens may evade, and I already mentioned the armour issue. You'll miss a LOT with kinetic (though they do have more ammo than missiles), thus enemies will live longer to damage you. Energy weapons are hit-scan (speed of light) so they hit the easiest, but they are really, really, really weak in the early tech. For your tech now, missiles are the right call. But you MUST use magazines too, as missiles run out fast. Even with magazines, one per missile bay, those will be primarily defenders or short range patrol ships, not designed for extended combat missions due to restricted ammunitions.
Alien ships are far superior in tech, so smaller, replaceable ships are the right move for you - battleships were a big misstep. It's fine to have a 'designated survivor' ship that is all defense and stays out of combat, while you hopefully kill the enemy that may in turn kill your offensive ships. i.e. its okay to have several ships that are designed to trade, so long as you eventually have at least a sole survivor to collect the alien salvage. You may even find it worthwhile, while your tech is so far inferior, to design kamikaze style attack craft that are basically as many missiles as you can fit on the cheapest and most replaceable craft you can design, so long as you also have that 'designated survivor' with low threat rating (last to be targeted). i.e one survivor that is all defence and hold at extreme range or runs away. Your kamikaze class would be as many missiles and mags as you could fit on a cheap-ish chassis, no point defense, just aiming to get as many missiles as possible aimed at the enemies and away before they get return hit. Light armour (because your armour tech is all crap right now) or virtually none, maybe nose only if any, good thrust and accelleration (chance to evade, best chance to pick and choose your fights, to intercept quickly, and to set the range of engagement).
Make sure you're choosing the right engine for your ships. Low-tech chemical rockets have the highest possible combat acceleration for a long time, so they're perfect for defensive fleets that don't need a lot of delta-v for transfers. Never use ion engines or other low-thrust engines on combat ships (they're good for colony ships though, and maybe marine transports). Do not try to build a mobile battle fleet until you have the tech to do so (engines that have both good thrust and good Isp).
You seem to be using very low-thrust engines when there are higher thrust ones available, and your ships are suffering because of it.
you only need 5-10 delta V for an planetary defence ship. he is making ships that could probably fly to pluto
This. Combat ships must either beat the aliens in acceleration, or in dV while still having some acceleration (aim for .1 g, definitely not under .05 g). In the early-mid game, doing the former (with plain old chemical rockets) is the only option. Mid-level fission and early fusion drives can start to get into the dV game if you make huge compromises in weight (this means basically zero armor). Late-game fission (orion or salt-water) and antimatter are the only engines that can match the thrust of chemical rockets (note that even the Aliens can't!), and late game fusion (or antimatter) can beat them in efficiency, finally giving you ships that have armor and can catch Aliens.
"We are truly defenseless"
Give me ramming speed.
Yeah, the biggest thing the game fails to convey, is that the Alien sees massive mission control USED as a threat, and is what makes them see you as a 5 star threat right now, even if you are diong nothing to them directly(same for other factions). Specially since each ship uses mission control, you could see why.
It's a good way to balance over control of space early(preventing other faction from mars or mercury say), but it should be more clear, like say in the MC tooltip, or maybe one of the earlier alien tech. Maybe even a popup(they see us as a threat as our space presence expends!)
Yeah, right around 90 MC in use is when the aliens start to get rather annoyed with you, the farther above that you go, the more severe the aliens response.
There are two techs that increase the used MC soft cap by 25% each, so there is a way to increase it.
As a silver lining, I guess the community can now point to this video as an example of why you really should pay attention to how much MC you use, lol.
@@Mebsuta Exactly! Total overreacting from the AI! #potatodidnothingwrong
At this point, *nobody* should be judging your decisions. Complex game with lots to learn and "mistakes" will happen. You're helping everyone learn.
I've always preferred "overconfidence is a slow and insidious killer".
It’s nice that I can come home from school and have this to watch
I love the focus on the inner solar system. Venus and Mercury are always forgoten
I'm not gonna lie here, that large space battle was actually mesmerizing.
pro tip: when your engines are prioritizing efficiency instead of power, no combat maneuevers you make will have any effect whatsoever except, of course, rolling and spinning. Your trajectory is literally unchangeable on the timescale of a battle.
Just something I found out about the turned agent mechanic. After you turn them if you go into the character profile and click resign they leave the faction they were in and go into your recruitment pool where you can hire them. So feel free to take a good agent from your enemies. I don't think the orgs stay with them though.
Mercury has become the Cadia of earth.✊
MERCURY STANDS. ✊
THE PLANET BROKE BEFORE THE GUARD DID. ✊
Fills two orbital of mercury with mission control: This ship should pay for itself in mission control
I had a feeling this installment of the series was a "bit delayed" and pictured Potato cursing through reloads of save after save...but I was wrong...he was filming 4 videos!
I can’t get enough of this. I have a Mac and can’t play these games without getting creative, so thank you for introducing me to new games and letting me play vicariously through you! I came for Civ6, but this and Against the Storm have been my favs!
I've been playing it on my Mac using Portingkit, which was super easy to set up and is fairly reliable. Reliable enough that I've played 50 hours!
Yo this green button in fights is to Retreat whenever the other commander wants as well. You could have saved half your fleet.
I very much appreciate how much you have been able to focus on learning the game while there is so much chaos in it.
I cannot wait to see what strategy you try out next!
Another thing you can do which seems quite good is to use marines to capture space assets from the Servants and Humanity First, and then gift them to the factions you want to be friends with to up their opinion of you.
Ship design tip: On the ship design page, if you right click on the tabs up the top (reactor, drive, etc.) it arranges that section into a grid which makes it much easier to read and compare!
You might like to know that I bought this game because of you, and I too experience Terra Addicta. And eventhough I've spent tons of hours on it already, I don't necessarily feel dread about a failed save state. With the learning curve as it is, redoing the early game isn't the worst thing ever. But going out swinging is still the way to go.
The space battles in this game remind me of the book Ender's Game
yeah, it's the deepest level of space game I saw so far - not stellaris or Distant worlds come close to that
I love the non-futuristic design of the ships. They look like a natural progression of our current technology.
I like it too, but there are still times when the game feels like it is jumping from 1970s era tech straight to sci-fi in a single upgrade.
@PotatoMcWhiskey Try the nuclear missile corvette spam, it is the way! The aliens haven’t mastered the amazing power of the sun, let them feel humanity’s wrath!
I can't stop watching you play this game. Please, more of it! :D
Something you don't seem to realize is that you receive a bonus to research output for each individual research/engineering project you are investing in. Putting at least one tick into each category gives you the best total output.
L stands for Lagrange Point, which are places of gravitational equilibrium between two celestial bodies. They're super nice for orbits because you don't have to fight gravity. Each pair has 5 Lagrange points with their utility being affected by moons, asteroids, etc. The James Webb Space Telescope is in the Earth-Sun L2 for example.
Aliens "Look Human, space is ours"
Potatoe "I don't see your name on it."
New video new video new video GIMME MORE OF THAT SPACE CRACK HELL YEAH POTATO
I hope you don t despair, if you feel you can t win, learn as much as possible. Thanks for this awesome serie!
You realy need to have at least 1 layerd point defense per base. Works exelent for space stations (I had multiple battles where 1 LPD protected base even from Hydra dreadnaught. Neither could be killed but as DN run out of ammo it agreed to end fight), not as good for ground (but insted of entire base you loose 0-2 modules) and as weapon tech gets better they get more effective. I cannot wait to see lvl 3 PD module - battlestations and how they perform (cca 2038 gametime).
yesssss finaly. whaited soo long i love this
So I just moved into a new house and without internet I bought this game from steam off of my phone because of your play through. This is a very interesting game and I'm looking forward to downloading it once I get internet
Feels like you have to basically play like you are playing Plague inc. Keep yourself looking small and week for as long as possible while building up your ability to fight back.
Wow, this series got me hooked up real hard
I think you should pull back used mission control. The aliens see your massive amount of used mission control and go into a frenzy.
Loving this series, can't wait for more.
im playing my first proper playthrough, having decided to get the game after watching your vids on it and the funniest bit for me is ive a guy that looks like agent 47, who is running around assassinating enemy agents at random
your right about the point of failure, im on my third playthrough and im on year 2037 and i feel like im slowly losing now, i think there is a mechanic where they scale based on how well you are doing or if you over expand, they said something about not over developing in space but its not properly explained
I'm really wondering how loyal his own councilors are. There must be at least one mole after all this time with them out in the open.
Love the series PotatoMcWhiskey! And can really tell you do too. Just don't burn yourself, or your love for the game, out
I guess is to have a screen in youre fleet with high manuever thrust so it can tank/evade missle or if it get destroyed it cost not that much. But i found out that you need better PD in general. because the standard ones are pretty shitty. Or take the missles that can attack and defend/intercept against missles.
But thanks for pulling through this rough phase. We all learn from it :).
Watching this series feel like watching David and Goliath, but David has to research how to build a slingshot while Goliath is already attacking David. With his own, highly advanced slingshot.
You got this potato. You flew too close to the sun and got burned. Take the L in space and consolidate your earth assets.
2 layered defenses with some laser tech stop nearly every fleet except for doom stacks. It also Stops the enemies from bombing your bases to oblivion.
Space Stations or stations on planets/asteroids as well? Was wondering if I should build those layered defence platform there as well. I did witness positive outcomes in space of course.
I have been watching this series alongside PerungamingAu's humanity first run. It's been really entertaining to see where your respective knowledge bases ended and you started flying blind. Here you are in about episode 12 in a really rough spot with an alien giga fleet burning sunward, your fleets hammered and shot down frequently and in contrast, he's out here trolling the pro alien factions and calmly handling the aliens.
That said, the academy seems like it's got a way bigger and harder order stacked against it than Humanity First. I suspect playing the extremist factions is the easy(er) path.
It's also really cool to see how the acadamey handled their captive and interrogation compared to humanity first.
Yeah, if you're playing the game it literally says Academy (hardest) for starts, and Servants is (easiest)
Humanity First is an easy one because you get advantages in certain events and a much simpler approach. Just kill everything
A good thing to keep in mind, for us at least, is that he's recording these in rapid succession, so any comments you make where he asks a question might not have been read until three, four, maybe even six episodes later.
Really cool that he's paying attention to comments, though.
Point Defence Arrays wont help you against those fleets, you need layered defence arrays with at least Green lazorz.
One thing i never seen you do potato is do the "Go to ground" mission, the little faction logos next to your councilors head are the factions that have done a investigation mission on them, it allows the AI to track their movements and pull out clutch control point defends and the like. Going to ground removes their ability to track the councilor.
So much going on in this game haha, live it!
200 years from how we're gonna be watching this video and think it's a historic representation of what happened to Earth.
You are starting to learn the doctrine the US Navy practiced in WWII, and was big in the game Traveller (GDW) I played in the 80's. Battleships, while very prestigious are mostly useless. where as a swarm of PT boats, Destroyers and Frigates (with maybe a Cruiser as a flagship) are cheap to produce and inflict damage above their class weight.
I believe your ships survived against the aliens at the 10 minute mark because PD actualy works the way its supposed to in autoresolve, whereas its a bit... funky in manual
Another day, another dose of TI with some potato seasoning (i might or not have been refreshing youtube every 5-10 minutes hoping to see this video)
If you decide to drop this and start another campaign of TI to improve on the knowledge you aquired... i would happily watch it all over again
Btw just wondering, how many episodes did you record before posting the first? guessing around 10?
TY for the entertainment Potato!
Hell yeah!! Been looking forward to this all day
FYI not sure if stated but Used Mission control = minimum Hate from other factions (including Aliens ). Apparently 80 is the sweet spot till you get tech to help. Really enjoying your videos thanks!!!!
That alien mega fleet is depressing. How can humanity possibly defeat that?
A massive rework of the armor scheme and engine block would help at least.
Just as a fyi, there isn't really a game over I think, unless you count the save file being corrupted or crashing, but I could be very wrong. There is in fact an achievement for getting victory as the resistance after the servants or protectorate get their victory. Another tip is to drop basically all armor on your ships, select an alien ship then check the damage of their weapons then look at the damage your weapons do.
I love this series so much
Discovered in my playthrough that the more mission control i have the more aggressive the aliens appear to react. They don't seem to like humanity spreading throughout the solar system.
Mighty fine progress on tempering the alien aggression.
36:21 I'd say that the takeaway here should be not that you need to tech up (which should really go without saying), but that you should build a couple ships with lasers or cannons on them so you can do something when you've fired your missiles...
you don't need strong fleets you just need more, cause generally 1 of your ships kills 1 alien ship, so you just need more ships than them
Time to start fighting back!
One thing to remember is that the direction of your ships' nose does not correlate to their trajectory. This is space. Aerodynamics don't matter in a vacuum.
Another great episode!
Win or lose, you're fighting the fight. If/when you do a second series, you are going to be way different in your approach.
another really good ep, Keep at it please!
This feels like playing the board game Pandemic, you got to play a lot to figure out how to give yourself a chance to win.
awesome stuff loving this series a ton!
From what I’ve learned while playing this game you can’t give the servants an inch. They can hand over their holdings to the aliens and it causes the aliens to go full hostile if you try to go to war
Hello fellow potato,
Your mission control usage angers the aliens.
Hope PotatoeMcWhiskey does another playthrough. So far really loving this series.
The Game Play really improves when the player doesn't try to dominate all the power Nations. AI Factions then get the resources it needs to run better economies.
I'm up on the Moon with only 2 of the sites for me. Got 2 bases on Mars being built. Not trying to block out the AI's access to space. Just claiming enough for me.
Good amount of Orbital Platforms. In My current game, my power base is South Korea, which I've unified with North Korea, then I have Indonesia, and Australia. That was my beginning goals. Its only year '27, but am seeing the AI do use less Spoils when its been able to develop itself enough. Only Country they have run into the tubes is India because AI Faction got declared war on by America. So their whole economy is trying to increase milltech and recruit Armies.
At some point managed to get the executive of India and Russia. Just the executive spots. Very strange, but really cool. Couldn't hold onto India's executive. Now own half of Russia's control point sharing it with 'The Protectorate.'
Right now I have agents working to Coup a member of the EU to get it before it Unifies with EU. I've got to do something about America. Its going to war all over the place. Right now, its warring with Pakistan and India. Pakistan dropped a nuke on an America Army. America retaliated twice dropping nukes on them.
Someone just made a Coup happen in China so AI is controlling it now. So much going on.
Having a blast. Not ones typical 4x game. For enjoyment of the game one has to let the AI build up properly.
Honestly seeing the Aliens run from you sounds like a good start
When you're stuck in a feedback loop and don't realize it...
Who is potatomcwhiskey? No idea. But am I addicted and keep coming back for it? Absolutely
If you build a ship for defence and not long travel you need a lot of gs not delta v, with a lot of gs your ships would be so much stronger
If it is of any consolation, these guys made Long War for Xcom and their track record is to make things hard.
Glad to see some wins!
I got myself into a similar situation with the aliens constantly punishing me. I captured too many aliens at once and basically crippled the Servants' Earth economy. I could only ever manage to hold onto about 40 stations and I was constantly rebuilding my fleet. It was still a fun run and probably the closest I got to my first win, but very tough to deal with your stuff constantly going down in flames.
Get those battle ships pointed the right way... THIS WILL BE A HIGH GEE MANEUVER, PREPARE FOR FLIP AND BURN
Here comes the Juice.
Wow that gigafleet is amazing, I wonder if it will stick around and punch a hole in Earth
babe wake up new terra invicta video from potato
I will catch up this weekend!
According to most people 80 Mission control is 3/5 threat permanently.
200+ mission control = 5/5 threat.
So... During space battles you are changing where your ships are pointing, but don't tell them to burn, so their trajectory doesn't change and you just increase their profile and open their flanks and engines for destruction.
Your boost plummeted because you gave away your boost production in the colonies.
now that i think about it , the space battle difference between human factions and aliens remind me of ME reapers vs the galatic comunity . 1 ship almost destroyed a whole human fleet :D
You cant catch the fleets, you need to have fleets in position. If a fleet needs to rush to a battle it will lose said battle because the alien tech has way more DeltaV
Well potato you sure as hell aren’t going quietly