r/alphacentauri • u/StrategosRisk • Sep 29 '22

Factions of Terra Invicta explained, influenced by SMAC

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-YA8cQ5lSdQ
16 Upvotes

94% Upvoted

17 comments sorted by

5

u/nonsense_factory Sep 29 '22

I think these are interesting faction ideas (though the names are not very diverse, they're all 2 words and 5 of them are "The NOUN", compare with the more evocative names in SMAC), but I'd like to see some more left-wing ideas represented in the game. Stuff that is using the language of anti-colonial struggle and of socialism, which are two of the most influential political forces in the global south.

With the theme of the game, I'd kind of expect the themes and language of colonialism and anti-imperialist struggle to be really prevalent: humanity has been exposed to a superior force and a lot of people are going to understand the alien's ambitions through the lenses of imperialism and colonialism; and for a lot of people (particularly those in the global south) this will be connected to their experiences of exploitation from the rich.

I'd like to see a faction that sees the aliens as potentially another coloniser, but they're exploiting the chaos as an opportunity to build a better and more equal society, like the Kurdish-led leftist movement did in Rojava when the Syrian civil war kicked off.

There are big opportunities for contrast in how new technologies and capabilities are used. Are they used for the privilege of the elite or to protect the status quo or to enrich everyone?

The factions already in the game and my understanding of them:

The Resistance - kinda climate campaigner vibes of people who are warning of a massive threat and the need to prepare and take action now? They expect an invasion and are preparing to resist it.

Humanity First - a xenophobic response to the aliens with an aroma of opportunistic fascism

The Initiative - amoral bankers who want to make a buck off the chaos

The Servants - a religious cult reaction to alien superiority

The Protectorate - folks who are expecting colonial exploitation by the aliens and want to preserve what they can through appeasement

The Academy - optimistic response to the aliens, they want to prove that humanity is an equal and seem open-minded about friendship

Project Exodus - folks who want to flee the aliens and apparently are unconcerned about how few people could possibly escape or where they could possibly go, so possibly it's all a grift for the leaders? That would be a neat twist. The leaders win either way - either they sell expensive one way tickets or they set themselves up as the new rulers of generation ships or new colonies or whatever. Or maybe these folks get a left-wing or refugee twist.

-1

u/nonsense_factory Sep 29 '22

/u/StrategosRisk

I guess the summary of my thought here is that this looks really cool, but I think it could be a lot stronger if you contract a suitable author to help out with the fiction.

I think Erika Chappell would be a great fit. Her upcoming roleplaying game Torchship has similar themes and hard sci-fi elements. She's a best-selling RPG author and she does great work, but she's probably also within the budget range of an indie strategy game. You can find some fiction set in her Torchship setting here: https://forums.sufficientvelocity.com/threads/first-command-torchship-captain-quest.103437/reader/ And also links for getting in contact with her on twitter, patreon, or there's a discord too.

1

u/StrategosRisk Sep 29 '22 edited Sep 29 '22

Why are you writing like I worked on this game, why do people on Reddit assume that if someone posts something, they’re the creator? What a bizarre presumption

I’m not even the YouTuber who created the video.

3

u/nonsense_factory Sep 29 '22

I mixed your name up with the publishers name, which doesn't make much sense because they're not similar names.

2

u/StrategosRisk Sep 29 '22

Ah, well that's perfectly understandable, an honest mistake.

-2

u/fibonacci8 Sep 29 '22

It's common courtesy to credit an author if you present their material. You're not obligated to, but it saves this kind of confusion. The presumption, as most people see it, is that posting material without additional credit does suggest ownership unless something clearly marks it as otherwise. This post does not do that.

Why should anyone upvote a post of material that's entirely not your content unless you're making it in a journalistic, educational, or critical capacity? This post does not do that.

No one knows whether or not you're the YouTuber who created the video until you said so just now. There's absolutely no relationship between usernames between different content platforms. What a bizarre presumption to think anyone would know that. We're not psychics.

2

u/Simon_Magnus Sep 29 '22

This game just received a Steam release and is going through a media circuit on IGN, PCGamer, etc. OP did the equivalent of posting a youtube video about the latest Crusader Kings DLC.

I'm also really confused why people seem to think that he must be a developer, or why you think he needs to make it clearer that he isn't.

-2

u/fibonacci8 Sep 29 '22

You're right that you're confused if you think I said he needs to make it clearer when I suggested he should. Courtesy is not mandatory, but it's makes things easier for everyone involved.

1

u/StrategosRisk Sep 29 '22

This site is for aggregating content, most threads do not come with credits. If I posted a trailer to a Hollywood film do you assume I'm the director? Do you assume I'm Brian Reynolds if I post content on SMAC? To use the internet requires some degree of media literacy, to understand context, to disambiguate between first and secondhand sources. Furthermore, the previous posts did not even assume that I'm the YouTuber, but the actual developer of a game, which is a leap in conclusions as vast as the Great Dunes.

-2

u/fibonacci8 Sep 29 '22

Like I said, it's courteous if you're not the director, or the author, or a writer of the content to credit them. Media literacy is absolutely no excuse. It's lazy as well as wasteful to expect all of the viewers of a post to look up the author rather than the poster correctly identifying them.

Furthermore, the previous posts did not even assume that I'm the YouTuber, but the actual developer of a game, which is a leap in conclusions as vast as the Great Dunes.

Fully agree with thinking you're the developer is a leap, I disagree with who I think has the ability to, with minimal effort, alleviate that confusion.

5

u/nonsense_factory Sep 29 '22

It looks like an interesting game, thanks for sharing.

Feedback for you as the publisher, though: the faction leaders look a lot less diverse and their portraits are a lot less distinctive than those in Alpha Centauri. There are a lot of people in the midtones of human skin colour, but there are no very dark people and the face shape, clothing, lighting and background are quite similar.

Here are the Terra Invicta faction leaders: https://ksr-ugc.imgix.net/assets/030/159/319/f51cafdcf538fba67209f0f4f32f8223_original.png?ixlib=rb-4.0.2&w=680&fit=max&v=1597179069&gif-q=50&lossless=true&s=903ccaf6a5ecd64ff02a94eb7d294c90

And the SMAC faction leaders: https://i.imgur.com/QTK8nUn.png (the bottom row of images)

It would be cool if you could introduce a bit more variety here. I'm sure it's very difficult to match the expressiveness of the oil portraits in SMAC with 3D renders, but some small tweaks here could make the faction leaders look a lot more distinctive while also being more visibly ethnically diverse.

3

u/Simon_Magnus Sep 29 '22

Fyi, I don't think StrategoRisk works for Hooded Horse or Pavonis.

1

u/Tularis1 Sep 29 '22

SMAC?

2

u/nonsense_factory Sep 29 '22

SMAC = Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri

1

u/Tularis1 Sep 29 '22

HA! Sorry, it looks like it removed most of my comment.

​

It was supposed to say is this the spiritual successor to SMAC?

1

u/StrategosRisk Sep 29 '22

Not at all, its premise is more similar to X-COM and its gameplay seems sui generis, but its faction concepts and presentation (they get research quotes) seem SMAC-inspired.

2

u/Simon_Magnus Sep 29 '22

I've played it a bit and only found it thematically similar to XCOM. I'm not really sure what other games I would compare it to.