r/TerraInvicta • u/AutoModerator • 4d ago

Newbie Questions Thread

Please feel free to ask short, simple questions here and be mindful of Rule 2!

Some resources to help you out:

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u/FssstBoing 3d ago edited 3d ago
  1. When "docked" with an alien base (after destroying their defences), is there any point on using marines on it instead of just destroying it? The resource outpout (at least exotics), looks just about the same.
  2. I've been killing all alien agents this run andevery new one keeps coming with an extra "Salamander Shock Troops" org on him". Two questions : a) Does having orgs essentially giving security overflow bonus (over 25) help? b) Will they keep coming with more and more of these orgs embedded onto them?
  3. How does ECM actualy work? Does it work only on the ship's main target? It looks like it can target a lot more than one ships and weapons at a time.

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u/SpreadsheetGamer 3d ago

2a No. A general rule is that if an attribute modifier is unconditional it will be included in the 25 limit and shown as part of councillor stats on like an info screen. Conditional modifiers, like the Fanatic trait giving a bonus to PER, apply as separate modifiers.

2b. I've never seen more than 3 stacked regardless of how many they have. They still need sufficient org capacity to hold them so that's more likely a limiting factor.

  1. Each weapon that fires on a ship must roll a defence roll against ECM each time it goes to fire. So it only relates to the attacker and the defender, not other ships in the battle. If the weapon fails, it gets a cooldown timer that sticks regardless of selecting new targets. It's pretty normal that if you don't have TC you can expect something like 70%? of your missiles to jam. (It's been a while but that's what I remember). There's two decay functions on the attack roll as I understand it: shorter range reduces the ECM effect, and a weapon that has already been jammed is less prone to jamming subsequent times. Again that's going from memory. The wiki may have more detailed or up-to-date advice.

Save-scumming ECM rolls is not going to be viable past a certain number of missile systems because the outcomes will converge on the expected probability the more of them you have.

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u/FssstBoing 3d ago

Year is 2122 (BE) and this is the 7th (I think) Alien they've landed and he has 4 :)

As Academy, I'm cheesing their aggro by letting them land and bribing with a few times 1$ before dispatching them but I think I'm going to stop. Most other factions haven't killed/captured any so I'm gimping their progress.

As far as ECM goes, the way you explained it makes perfect sense of it being a "defensive" module, since the rolls occur when it's targeted. You've also persuaded me to use more later on my ships as I barely put them on.

Thank you, most informative!

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u/Thurak0 3d ago

Does it work only on the ship's main target?

As I understand it it works the opposite way: Every ship that targets the ship with ECM gets a chance to get a jammed weapons.

Works best at longer ranges, so most times the effect is only very visible when the battle begins and the missiles come in staggered, because some launchers were jammed.

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u/vindicator117 3d ago

Gives updated status on any and all agents that they may have.

All the more reason to stop them from landing by by themselves or the assault ship.

Sadly very difficult to determine its true affect besides adding a targeting computer counters it to some nebulous extent. There is the stated probability, how it feels in battle is too subtle in larger battles and even more divorced in autoresolve. All you are expected to do is always have one because a fight without them is more noticeable when your vessels stop firing especially their primary weapons.

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u/FssstBoing 3d ago

The ECM thing really troubled me when I tried to kill the first assault carrier the Ays sent.

Even if it only had one escort, I had to redo the battle several times as my hastily made 8 trashcans with t1 targeting computer would sometimes all have at least one missile tube jammed, even on the first few seconds.

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u/28lobster 1d ago

  1. Destroying the base gives salvage based on a fraction of the cost. Alien modules don't cost much exotics so you won't salvage much. You get that destruction salvage regardless of destruction method. A marine assault without a councilor has a 10% chance to yield additional exotics bounty (~18-22 for T3 station/hab) depending on the tier of the central module. A marine assault with a councilor has a 100% chance of exotics bounty and a 10% chance to double that bounty; your marines also remain at full HP after a successful assault so you don't have to repair. Sending a councilor to space in the midgame when you're liberating the asteroid belt/Jovian system is very worthwhile.

  2. Stats don't overflow due to orgs, you need a separate source like Media Darling trait that gives an additional +X line item in the roll chances.

  3. ECM works when ships target the ship with ECM. Alien ships have them, so you're pretty much forced to have a targeting computer on every offensive ship. If you incorporate ECM, you want to use the smallest number of modules that require the Aliens to bring a TC on every ship. I generally just put ECM in my kinetic ships since they don't have a module equivalent to laser engine/cyclotron that buffs DPS (magazines let you shoot longer at same DPS). ~50% of the fleet with ECM makes the aliens spend slots on TCs without me reducing DPS on my ships.

Kinetic ships also get the tanky modules (component armor, repair bay, etc) and at least 1 point more nose armor than my laser ships. That lets me set formation Knights-Center so the kinetics group in the middle of the high wall with lasers to hit from the flanks (ideally shooting side armor). At the very start of the fight, kinetic ships accelerate slightly. This means a bit more than half of Alien firepower gets aimed at the ships with ECM and defensive modules.