Technology: Difference between revisions
| Line 248: | Line 248: | ||
== AI First Tech Picks == | == AI First Tech Picks == | ||
This entire section is outdated. | |||
{{SpoilerBox}} | |||
This section analyzes the early tech choices for the human AI factions. The AI faction will never pick a tech whose tech tier is lower than another tech it could have picked instead. | This section analyzes the early tech choices for the human AI factions. The AI faction will never pick a tech whose tech tier is lower than another tech it could have picked instead. | ||
| Line 556: | Line 559: | ||
| Z-Pinch Techniques || {{icon|energy|bgcolor=transparent|size=20px}} || 50000 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 | | Z-Pinch Techniques || {{icon|energy|bgcolor=transparent|size=20px}} || 50000 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 || 0 | ||
|} | |} | ||
{{SpoilerBoxEnd}} | |||
{{Mechanics_Navbox}} | {{Mechanics_Navbox}} | ||
Revision as of 17:25, 27 December 2025
This page discusses the game mechanics for techs and projects. For a list of all techs or projects in Terra Invicta, as well as their stats, see Tech List or Project List instead.
An external tool to visualise tech tree can be found here: Tech tree viewer.
In Terra Invicta, the process of research is divided into science and engineering. Factions must decide how to direct their 
Research income between public endeavors to advance humanity's understanding of the universe, and narrowly focused private efforts aimed at fulfilling specific objectives or improving their faction's capabilities.
Research & Development
Terra Invicta distinguishes Research from Development. "Technologies" are research into pure science, done to extend worldwide human understanding, while "Projects" are privately applied science and engineering, done to put the new theories into practice in the real world.
Global Research
The human Factions collectively research three new scientific principles at once. These are broad understandings of how things like physics, or chemistry, or people, work. Only rarely do they directly lead to some specific change in how events unfold in the game. Instead, their main function is to unlock engineering projects for individual Factions, and occasionally allow for new types of Orgs to appear.
When a new technology is completed, it becomes available to all humanity.
The faction that contributes the most research to a particular global research will select what is investigated next and will have an increased chance to gain projects based on that research.
The game starts with the following global researches underway: 
We Are Not Alone, 
Skywatch and Mission To Space.
Projects
Projects are based off global research, but are developed privately for your faction, to generate effects and advantages in the game, such as unlocking a new component for your Spaceships and Habs or providing a bonus to your faction. Most projects benefit only the faction that develops them, and must be independently developed by each faction that wants the benefit.
For example, a scientific principle (global tech) might be 
Infrared Combat Lasers, which enables Human Factions to develop the IR Laser Batteries project, which in turn unlocks the 60cm, 120cm, and 360cm Infrared Laser Batteries for your ships.
A number of projects are tied to completing objectives that move Factions closer to understanding the purpose of the alien invasion or toward their victory conditions.
With sufficient infrastructure, Factions may research up to three private engineering projects simultaneously.
The number of slots a faction has determines how many simultaneous projects a faction may pursue and how fast it completes them. Factions get one project slot for free. They receive a second project slot (to work on two projects simultaneously) if a councilor has an org with a 
project income value. They receive a third project slot if they have built a hab module with a project income value.
Special Projects
Certain projects have special flags that change their behavior:
Repeatable Projects
Repeatable Projects can be researched an unlimited number of times, but research cost is multiplied by (1 + number of times researched).
As of Version 0.4.90, there are only 5 Repeatable Projects in the game:
- Commercial Research
- Audience Research
- Operations Research
- Management Research
- Commercial Rocket Companies
Global Projects
Global Projects are projects that can be researched by only one faction. As soon as a faction researches it, it is removed from all factions. Global projects usually give a global bonus (such as nation claims) that all factions can potentially benefit from, but may also have smaller bonuses that are only given to the faction that researches the project.
Objective Projects
Objective Projects are Projects that are related to campaign objectives, especially projects that complete or unlock new campaign objectives. Strangely, xenology labs and their upgrades also count as objective projects.
Unlocking Projects
Completing a global tech does not immediately make every project available to work on. Each potential project has an "unlock" percentage, which is rolled for each faction to see if they get the idea. Each faction rolls separately, and if you fail your roll, you may be able to buy or 
Steal the project from an another faction that succeeded (see Technology#Stealing_Projects for details). Failed projects may also be unlocked by researching Future Tech or Project Review.
For projects with a low unlock percentage, there is a real chance they will never get discovered in your game. (Notably this includes several powerful late-game drive systems. The ideas are "out there", but until all the basic research is done, no one knows if they'll actually work.)
A project's unlock chance can be increased:
+0.2%for each point of
Science that your Councilors have, in total.+10%for each councilor with the Innovative trait.+10%if you have researched the
Autonomous Research Groups project.+ research_share %for the share you contributed to the global tech that it immediately depends on. If there's more than one global tech, the bonus is your average contribution.
The first 3 modifiers are included in the % shown in the UI for the project under its requirements, though not the research contribution bonus, which is added at the moment the tech unlock roll occurs. Many projects start at 100%, and with most you can easily reach 100%.
"Unlocked" projects are still not available to begin work immediately, though; instead they go into a waiting pool. Each day, there is another roll for each waiting project to see if your people have their grants and proposals written, and if it is successful then the project becomes available for you to start work on. For many (but not all) projects, the daily roll chances will increase with each month that passes.
The starting monthly availability chance is increased by your contribution bonus and your council 
Science bonus, and can actually exceed the maximum monthly availability chance but will then never grow. The Autonomous Research Groups project increases the monthly increase by 1%.
The unlock and availability chances vary by project, from 100% for something like Outpost Core down to 20% for the Bering Strait Crossing.
For example, the Dusty Plasma Drive project has a base 20% chance to unlock. Autonomous Research Groups makes it 30%. If you have six councilors with an average of 10 Science each, that's total 60 Science, multiplied by 0.2% gives a +12% bonus, bringing the project to 42% chance to unlock. Dusty Plasma Drive depends on the global techs Magnetic Nozzles and High-Temperature Superconductors. If you contributed 60% to Magnetic Nozzles and 40% to High-Temperature Superconductors, that averages to a +50% bonus, and your chance to unlock Dusty Plasma Drive is 42% + 50% = 92%.
If you do unlock it, it goes into your waiting pool. This particular project has a 0% chance to become immediately available. But your 60 Science adds +12% to the chance. Each month this chance increases by +5%, plus an additional 1% from Autonomous Research Groups, up to a maximum of 50% chance per month if it still hasn't popped.
Stealing Projects
Some councilors may "steal" completed projects from other human factions via the Steal Project mission. A human faction X can steal a project P from a human faction Y if and only if all of the following are true:
- Y has researched P.
- X has not researched P.
- P is not currently in the list of projects that X can choose to invest
research into. - X has researched all of P's direct prereqs.
- P is not banned from faction X.
- P is not a repeatable project.
- P is not a global project.
- P is not an objective project.
Note that "stealing" a project just makes the idea available for you to work on, if for whatever reason it hasn't unlocked for you yet. You still have to do the work and develop it yourself, so this Steal Project mission is mostly worthwhile for low-probability projects that you might not ever get, otherwise.
A faction that is struggling with producing research can get an additional bonus from stealing projects: a lump sum of research based on how much more research the target faction is producing.
Another potentially more powerful alternative is capturing entire research-producing Habs using 
Control Space Asset or 
Assault Enemy Space Asset missions. Among other rewards, these missions can potentially "steal" projects and instantly complete the stolen projects. See Habs#Capturing_Habs for details.
Buying Projects
A more diplomatic alternative is to simply buy the project in a trade.
A human faction X can buy a project P from a human faction Y if and only if all of the following are true:
- Y has researched P.
- X has not researched P.
- P is not currently in the list of projects that X can choose to invest research into.
- P is not banned from faction X.
- P is not a repeatable project.
- P is not a global project.
- X has completed the objectives and milestones that P requires.
- The nation that P requires exists.
- P is not a
Xenology project.
Note that these conditions are somewhat different from those for stealing projects. Nevertheless, buying a project also just makes the idea available for you to work on, if for whatever reason it hasn't unlocked for you yet. You still have to do the work and develop it yourself, so this is mostly worthwhile for low-probability projects that you might not ever get, otherwise.
Research Production and Bonuses
Research is passively produced by Habs, Nations, and Councilors (from Orgs and Traits). Research can also be produced in one lump sum by some random Events and Councilor Missions. All Human Factions also begin the campaign with a small amount of passive research income.
Any time a faction produces research, the research is distributed according to their research distribution settings and then various bonuses are applied. For each research slot X, the actual amount of research contributed to slot X is calculated as follows:
- Start with the Base Research amount produced.
- × (100% + 5% per research slot that has pips assigned.)
- × pips assigned to research slot X.
- / total pips assigned to all research slots.
- × Sum of:
- 100%
- Research Category Bonus × 0.9 ^ (Number of research slots of the same category that have pips - 1)
- Project Engineering Bonus
if this is a project.
The Research Category Bonus is gained from the following sources:
- Councilor Traits
- Equipped Orgs
- Hab Modules
- Ships with the Mobile Space Science Lab utility module (only for the Space Science
category) - Alien Activity Investigations (only for the Xenology category)
Except for alien activity investigations, each source will have diminishing returns applied to it separately when its base bonus exceeds 50%. Specifically, if the base bonus is more than 50%, then the actual bonus is set to 50% + 50% × (Base Bonus - 50%) / (Base Bonus + 150%).
The Research Category Bonus is then simply the sum of these actual bonuses from each source type.
The Project Engineering Bonus is gained from the following sources:
- Councilor Traits (Project Manager, Project Director, Project Administrator)
- Orgs
- Hab Modules (Skunkworks, Foundry)
The Project Engineering Bonus is calculated as follows:
- The first engineering bonus gained from an org is used to unlock the second project slot.
- The first engineering bonus gained from a hab module is used to unlock the third project slot.
- Each remaining engineering bonus adds 5%, up to 100%.
- Each remaining engineering bonus adds 3%, up to 160%.
- Each remaining engineering bonus adds 1%.
Tech Tree Colors
The in-game tech tree is color coded as follows:
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Future Tech
Whenever a global technology is completed, and there is no global technology that can be picked, the game will instead offer a choice of Future Techs to pick from. These Future Techs do not unlock any new research projects, but instead make every locked project of the same science category reroll its unlock roll for each human faction. Each category of Future Tech also gives additional bonuses:
| Future Tech | Additional Bonuses |
|---|---|
 |
All human Nations immediately receive 30 days of their  Investment Point production.
|
 |
All Councilors and recruits gain 5 XP. |
 |
Gives +0.5 Years of Lifespan to Councilors |
 |
Each human faction that has researched the Exotic Materials project gains 0.2  exotics for every powered Nanofactory owned and 0.4 exotics for every powered Nanofacturing Complex owned. Other human Factions immediately have the Exotic Materials project added to their available research projects.
|
|
Raises Nation  Miltech Cap by 0.5.
|
|
A Nation controlled by Faction that contributed the most to this tech will gain a new claim, if possible; otherwise another nation will gain a new claim. |
|
Adds 1 to the Space Mine Limit. |
Note: You do not actually need to reach the end of the technology tree to access Future Techs. They are available any time there are no valid global technologies to pick, which could be possible if the only valid global technologies are already in the other two global technology slots.
AI First Tech Picks
This entire section is outdated.
| SPOILERS INSIDE! | |||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
|
This section analyzes the early tech choices for the human AI factions. The AI faction will never pick a tech whose tech tier is lower than another tech it could have picked instead. Note: Techs with Tier 1 only have Tier 1 if the faction is over their mine limit. Otherwise they are Tier 0. Note 2: When a faction unlocks its victory objective, its Tech Tiers change. This table only shows the Tech Tiers for before the victory objective is unlocked.
|
| Terra Invicta mechanics | |
|---|---|
| Factions |  Factions •  Resources •  Technology •  Diplomacy •  Events
|
| Council |  Councilors •  Missions •  Orgs •  RNG
|
| Earth |  Nations •  Foreign Relations •  Regions •  Terrestrial Warfare •  Climate Change
|
| Space |  The Solar System •  Celestial Bodies •  Habs •  Spaceships •  Fleets
|
| Aliens |  Aliens Mechanic •  Aliens Lore
|
| Modding & Settings |  Modding •  Console Commands • Game Options
|
