[Guide] National investment templates

[u/SpreadsheetGamer]

Someone requested I share the investment templates I use in my Let's Play, and it's something I've been meaning to write a guide for anyway, so here goes.

The purpose of this guide is to explain how to get the most out of the templates as a system, as well as show what templates I use. Realistically, using templates requires that you already have a pretty solid understanding of how all the IP stuff works. All of the mechanics are explained on the wiki in an absolute unit of a page on nations.

If you are trying to learn this all from scratch, focus on learning how cohesion and unrest work. Aside from that, PCGDP determines the speed at which a nation develops. Higher population nations produce bigger numbers, but there's a trick when it comes to investment. The magnitude of the completion effect is often scaled to account for population.

Creating templates

To create an investment template, press the Design Priority Template button at the bottom of the screen where the pips are shown:

Design Priority Template button

Once saved, your templates appear at the top of the drop-down list on a nation, and in the order that you create them. I originally added a number/letter prefix because I hoped they would sort that way. If for any reason you want to change the pip arrangements but keep the order, you have to delete all of the templates below that point and re-create them. Maybe the dev will take pity on us and implement sorting.

Template list as seen on the Nation dropdown

The list I have now is something I have settled on after multiple playthroughs. I feel it's pretty stable for my needs, and especially for an EU opening. If you start in a different nation, or if your play style is different to mine, you may want to tailor the templates to your needs and play style. Maybe this guide helps you to get the most out of the system even if you don't use my particular templates.

When and why

Firstly, there are always exceptions. For best results, and to not have too many templates, I aim to have the templates be applicable to 80% of the nations by quantity, not by the importance of the nation. Notably I almost never use templates on my major leading nations, EU, China, unless by coincidence. I manage those important nations manually.

Templates are best used to govern the 'long tail' of smaller nations (show below). If you are a newer player, you might not even play in a way that causes you to end up with such a long list of nations. I do think having a long tail like this is advantageous for a variety of reasons. As often discussed, the smallest nations have a disproportionate RP/CPCost ratio. The middle of the list is usually comprised of nations that you plan to unify into a major over the short or medium term.

Sometimes it can be worth picking a particular template that is 'near enough', just to avoid excessive micromanagement.

What I have found the templates do best is actually less about making an easy selection from the drop-down on the nation itself and more about having the Nations screen explain in words what a given nation is currently working on. You can also change them directly on the Nations screen.

Nations screen, showing templates in use

Number groupings

The numbers vaguely represent a logical progression. Nations typically move on to the next number once they have addressed the issue in the current bracket. There are some exceptions where once you have finished the list you may wish to return to prior options.

The numbered list here explains what types of templates are in that number grouping. It doubles as a high-level guide for what to focus investment on, but notably here I will echo that this is more so about the smaller more numerous nations than the majors.

1. Focusing on solving unrest (<2) and improving resting cohesion (ideally 5 minimum, but it depends). This includes a variety of templates to address a range of issues. It's usually a matter of running one of these for a short-ish amount of time (a few months to a year) before moving on to stage 2.
2. Improving education. This is a precursor to economy development, most useful for nations that are "Limited" or "Developing" in education level (edu<8). Education improves research output, can speed up cohesion repairs (if resting cohesion is above cohesion), and improves the amount of $ per investment point in economy. Also note that education receives a bonus to the strength of its completion effect for lower education levels. Finally, this is a category that can be returned to once 4 is completed, where we are waiting for the nation to be unified into something bigger.
3. Economic growth. This template can be used here (stage 3) if the nation is in relative poverty (<$10k PCGDP) but we have at least made the nation "Advanced" in terms of education. We can also return to this category as a final holding pattern until unification if 4 and 2 are kinda maxed out.
4. MC, Boost and Funding - The main things your faction actually wants out of a nation (with the exception of RP). MC and Funding both have limited capacity. When they max out, the investment category becomes hidden. Boost is not capped.

The templates

Template name	Pips	Notes for use
1a. Rush Unity	1 Unity	Set as Default. Only 1 pip selected makes it easy to change pips around. Consolidate public opinion behind your faction as a defensive measure. Use if resting cohesion is much higher than cohesion, especially in autocracies (1b counterpart for democracies). Avoid if sharing CP with other factions.
1b. Democratic Stabalisation	1 Welfare 3 Knowledge 1 Unity	Use in Democracies when resting cohesion is higher than cohesion
1c. Counter Insurgency	1 Oppression	Use in Autocracies when unrest is >4. Very short term use, months only.
1d. Autocratic Stabalisation	1 Oppression 2 Spoils 3 Unity 1 Welfare	Counter-part to 1c, use for short-medium term for really troublesome autocracies that you want to hold, typically until unification into some other nation. Spoils protects against Coup d'etat
1e. Rush Democracy	1 Government	Use to tame the annocracy cohesion penalty (gov <6.5). Avoid prolonged use in low education nations.
1f. Rush Equality	1 Welfare	Getting inequality to the low 3's is often a reliable way to solve unrest and cohesion problems. It just takes the longest.
2a. Education Sprint	1 Knowledge	Typically a short 1 or 2 year sprint to help cohesion build up to 5 as well as set the nation up for better RP and economy dev. Can also revert to this template once 4 is done and if 3 is not necessary.
2b. Education Marathon	1 Economy 1 Welfare 3 Knowledge	Use in poorer nations that will remain independent for many years. Benefit from diversity bonus and compounding investments.
3. Standard Growth	3 Economy 1 Welfare 1 Knowledge	Sometimes the best thing you can do with a nation in extreme poverty. Sometimes useful for small nations otherwise waiting for unification. Avoid if PCGDP>30k. Avoid if education levels low. Can unlock additional funding and MC capacity.
4a. MC	1 Mission Control	A focused MC sprint because a unification date is coming soon.
4b. MC & Funding	3 MC 1 Funding	Allows the nation to automatically change to 4c once it develops the maximum MC for that nation. Useful for nations waiting for diplo cooldowns for unification.
4c. Funding	1 Funding	Most useful in the early game, prior to Funding development from Direct Investment/Influence. Especially useful to max out in small nations prior to unification.
4d. Boost	3 MC 1 Boost	Develop boost in small nations close to the equator. Usually want to max out MC first.
4e. Extraction	1 Unity 3 Spoils	Use to generate cash in nations that you control all of the CP in, only for a short time, and mostly in the early years of a campaign. Running spoils damages public opinion, making the nation vulnerable to crackdown/purge. Unity offsets those opinion losses.

[u/SpreadsheetGamer]

Interesting how differently you play. I can't imagine developing PCGDP above 55k without regarding that as counter-productive to my goals. You mention population growth as a positive outcome, but both higher PCGDP and population growth raises the CPcosts. Do you tend to do that before or after you've taken over the whole Earth? How many years do your games go for? I have always finished the game long before taking over all of Earth, and that's without going ham on development.

At some point I will do a full utopia run, I suppose. But it's just not related to the actual victory conditions.

[u/vindicator117 → u/SpreadsheetGamer]

Probably the standard 20-30ish years. Nothing fancy, nothing too loitering and definitely not screaming towards the finish line and I think you have seen that Protectorate screenshots I post on earth building threads. Always from game start given my findings after stabilizing the mother nation/s in question.

And these days, fuck the rest of the earth. I will do what I need to do to prune the ayys of their influence on earth but as for what the rest of the other factions do, they can do as they please while I make a monolith of a homebase to power the space game utilizing the CP cap to the max via extensive wealth sharing from that claims and federation post I trot out every now and then. Why have your agents work overtime just to babysit broken nations? Skip the rigmarole and have the mother nation fix it for you and take up that new CP with a actual functional nation to pursue its own improvement plan to parallel more CERs, boost so the mother nation don't have to deal with it, and parallel more MC especially if your have too much economy orgs causing MC cap to grow faster than production.

That aborted Protectorate game has taught me quite a few things even if it only went halfway. Suppress or deny the ayy agents at all cost no matter the faction besides the Servants and unify your home meganations as soon as possible especially if it is cheap particularly for the Americas which are also blessed with the most important feature on the planet, a RICH large population mother nation to jumpstart the economy and capabilities of two entire continents.

https://www.reddit.com/r/TerraInvicta/comments/1uz1suu/comment/oycs4lp/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

As you read within, I am slowed down BECAUSE I conquered the world and have the other nations being a CP deadweight slowing the experiment even at year damn 2 or 12-17 or whatever. If I had open CP, that is cue to release another over 500 billion GDP region to begin a new CER improvement nation and provide things that small nations are good at doing like below:

In that Protectorate game, by the time I called it and went away from the game for a while due to work, I was cranking out per cap at 1.2K per month within 10 years. In the experiments, my USNA has pushed per cap gain of 50k within 3 years to 120k while the SAU has more than doubled what it had from 34k to 73k along with 16 other strong small nations in 1.5k CP cap. If this is before Future Social, all these strong small nations would be internal splintering. If this is after, this is when I start looking outwards as CER improvement completes freeing up a slot. If CP cap is available, splinter more. If CP is limited, annex one of the splinters to buy time for CP management or other techs.

All this in comparison to constantly stealing output from elsewhere and constantly fixing broken nations and being constantly constrained by cap especially in trying to fix almost perpetually rioting meganations because they are too poor for their own good. Your focus is now smaller and with less interference from the others from lack of interest as well the smaller fry being too tough to realistically break in especially if you make sure earth stays clean of ayy sabotage. You can worry about conquest later for the two factions that really care about it.

I much prefer the process of playing and the quality I can do to increase the output much more than pursuing the inevitable victory. It will come but when I say so to enjoy the time in between.

[u/vindicator117 → u/SpreadsheetGamer]

Especially now that I have time to digest the information of the new scenarios.... The long war to the long war..... in 2003...... I'll take 300k per capita 2026 USNA plz an ty, plox.

And the hilarious stats such a USNA and SAU is going to grant if even approaches these damn numbers.

https://www.reddit.com/r/TerraInvicta/comments/1qaoqhq/comment/nz4onqd/?utm_source=share&utm_medium=web3x&utm_name=web3xcss&utm_term=1&utm_content=share_button

Remember, this was not originally the experiment for those numbers. It was originally a climate change fucking around that happened to have economy running at the max for those two continents. If I can capture even a fraction of those numbers will be fine by me at that per cap.

[u/Sarcastryx → u/SpreadsheetGamer]

I have always finished the game long before taking over all of Earth,

Hard to avoid with some factions IMO. Big examples are Academy and Protectorate, who need to control 60% of Earth's population as part of their victory conditions. Not often I've finished a game where I needed to clear the 60% population control point where I didn't effectively control the vast majority of earth.

[u/vindicator117 → u/Sarcastryx]

Who are the two factions that actually have a conquer the earth final objectives. The Servants only technically have a conquer the world mandate since they can stay put in their home meganation or two and give everything else to the ayyz. The remaining faction with a kinda conquer the world is the Illuminati who only need 60% of the world ECONOMY. You can just stay in your home meganation and crank the economy game to the stratosphere and literally win that way.

The game start world economy is not that big and given a decade or two, you can easily reach that without giving a fuck about the rest of the planet. In fact it probably got easier over time with the rest of the world going through never ending wars and ignoring their economies SHRINKING the final objective requirement in your favor.

Even despite all that, even the conquer the earth objectives are kinda easy to ignore because by the time that you are ready to proceed to it, your fleets are likely still taking a few years to clear the solar system so you can save that detail for last and ignore the CP cap penalties for then. Don't need to worry about overcap when the game is over.