History VideoGame / TerraInvicta

* MagikarpPower: Corrupt, fractured and in almost-perpetual turmoil, Africa might seem like an odd continent to consider as the cornerstone of your strategy, but the place is brimming with potential if you can (metaphorically and literally) get it together. Picking Nigeria is a strong starting point, and has one of the easier unifications through conquest once you unlock the African Union or one of the other super-nations in the region (alternatively you could grab a mid-sized external power like Israel or the UK to do the heavy lifting for you). Great Bantu and East African Federation can be united in mid-game to fit a huge portion of the continent into a superstate with four resource regions and an impressive GDP for the late 2020's. And if the African Union holds the entire continent then it will probably control ''at least'' one-fifth of the Earth's total population with a GDP comparable to (or possibly even greater than) India or the EU, though admittedly it will take a while to get there. You can even unify African Union and the Caliphate, which makes it even more powerful.

* {{Irony}}: The two pro-alien factions are the Servants, a pseudo-religious movement who outright worship the aliens as divine benefactors, and the Protectorate, a movement of LesCollaborateurs driven largely by [[IDidWhatIHadToDo pragmatism]]. [[spoiler:When the two factions are presented with quite harsh surrender terms, the Servants [[EveryoneHasStandards actually find the terms insulting]] and successfully negotiate to give humanity more favorable terms for their servitude; whereas the Protectorate just buckle and agree to everything they ask for.]]

* FactionSpecificEnding: Each faction has their own unique ending and future for humankind. Interestingly, it is possible for some factions to achieve their victory conditions after another faction has done so.

* MultipleEndings: Each faction has its own victory ending:
** The Resistance [[spoiler:destroys the wormhole device, severing the aliens' supply lines and decapitating their forces in the Solar System.]]
** Humanity First [[spoiler:deploys a bio-weapon into the wormhole that causes the alien fleet to collide with each other (possibly due to pilots being infected), with the picture of HF ships painted in red as the final cutscene.]]
** The Leader of the Servants [[spoiler:holds a public meeting and spreads mind-controlling pheromones around Earth.]]
** The Protectorate [[spoiler:installs orbital weaponry to suppress all human resistance.]]
** The Academy [[spoiler:strikes a deal with the aliens and prevents an all-out war, perhaps forming an alliance in the future.]]
** The Initiative [[spoiler:spreads modified pheromones back to the alien's home planet via the wormhole and rules both worlds in the dark. It is also implied that some aliens are massacred due to the trophies of alien heads in the ending cutscene.]]
** Project Exodus [[spoiler:creates a large arkship that escapes the heat of battle to an unknown realm, where there is a planet of their choice for them to colonize.]]

* AlienInvasion: It quickly becomes clear that the aliens are in the early stages of an assault on the inner solar system, and will soon begin to launch attacks on Earth and humanity. [[spoiler:Their invasion of Earth usually begins around 2035, although you can provoke them into launching it early by repeatedly attacking their ships and agents]].

* AllForNothing: [[spoiler:The Protectorate's end-game turns out this way. Despite ambitions of negotiating a conditional surrender, the Protectorate ultimately buckles under pressure and carries out the Hydras’ demands to the letter. The only "consolation" is that they're still [[TheQuisling given power over mankind]], at least for so long as the Hydras are content.]]

** Project Exodus [[spoiler:manages to launch a large arkship just in time to sally forth to a new world. For Khalid Al-Ashgar and those fortunate to get onboard, however, they take a moment to look back melancholily at Earth one final time before setting off for their destiny.]]

* FatalFlaw: One of the factions' philosophies is hopelessly faulty, and they're doomed to fail abjectly even if they come out on top. It's [[spoiler:the Protectorate, who believe humanity can't possibly oppose a starfaring species, and must negotiate a conditional surrender. The problem here is that it gives the enemy no incentive to accept a ''conditional'' surrender. The Protectorate folds like a paper napkin under alien pressure, and ends up doing the aliens' dirty work for them to give them everything they want. Even the ''Servants'', who just want to worship the aliens, get a better deal for humanity than the Protectorate does, as the Servants have a lot of preconceptions for how this worshiping business is supposed to work while the Protectorate just goes "Yes sir, no sir, whatever you say, sir."]]

* MysteriousPurple: The color associated with the aliens, as well as the Servants who venerate them.

* FatalFlaw: One of the factions' philosophies is hopelessly faulty, and they're doomed to ignominy even if they come out on top.

* OlderThanTheyLook: The faction leaders at large can remain in charge even after several decades, with none looking any worse for wear. While this could be a case of GameplayAndStorySegregation, it's also justified due to scientific advances dramatically improving health and longevity.
* OrbitalBombardment: Can be used to attack or destroy enemy surface bases, as well as army units on Earth. How effective it is depends on what kind of weapons your ships have, and how thick the planetary body's atmosphere is.
* PostEndGameContent: In certain cases, even after one faction achieves it ending, it's possible for another to achieve its own objectives, if not turn the tables on the erstwhile victor.
** Even if the Servants or the Protectorate [[spoiler:succeed in their respective schemes to control humanity, there's still enough organized opposition and pockets of non-brainwashed people for the Resistance to rebuild. There's even an achievement for doing so: "Phoenix".]]
** [[spoiler:Just because Project Exodus achieves its goal of [[HomeworldEvacuation escaping the solar system]] doesn't mean it's mission accomplished just yet, when its members can buy more time by taking out as many Alien forces as they can. While other factions can still gain ''their'' victory conditions.]]

** While stations and habitats require crew and crew needs food and water, the matter of actually getting crew to a station or have is largely abstracted and a station in Jovian orbit can immediately function at full performance even after being expanded massively using on-site resources and going from a crew of 15 to 500, without having to wait for 485 people to make the journey from Earth or existing large stations and habitats.

* EasyLogistics: All resources, mined anywhere in the Solar System, are available to you everywhere.

* BiologicalWeaponsSolveEverything: The aliens use biological weapons to [[MindControl control humans]] and [[HostileTerraforming xenoform Earth]]. The human factions develop countermeasures to both, and [[spoiler:Humanity First and the Initiative turn the tables and use biological weapons to exterminate and enslave the aliens, respectively]].

*** Al-Qaeda and similar terrorist organizations can only be recruited by [[AbsoluteXenophobe Humanity First]], [[CorruptCorporateExecutive the Initiative]], and [[{{Cult}} the Servants]].

** Though Humanity First shares the Resistance's desire to protect Earth from the Alien menace, it's not only [[AbsoluteXenophobe much more xenophobic]] and zealous about it, but is also excessively vindictive against ''anyone'' deemed to be serving extraterrestrial interests. They're thus much less squeamish about unethical and immoral measures in the name of saving mankind.
** Notably; Humanity First belives that The Resistance's heart is in the right place; it is their methods are simply not equivalent to "meet the threat".

** In contrast, the genocidal fanatics in [[AbsoluteXenophobe Humanity First]] have a [[RedIsViolent blood red icon of a human hand]] [[RedAndBlackAndEvilAllOver with slight black overtones]], the utterly unscrupulous opportunists of [[TheHedonist The Initiative]] have a sinister Orange-Red color, while Alien-worshipping fanatics of the Servants have a teal flame offset by an eerie [[PurpleIsPowerful purple]] background.

* TheyFightCrime: A rare ''[[InvokedTrope invoked]]'' instance. In a certain event that fires if you have a criminal councilor and a governmental councilor, one of the options to resolve their friction is to "have the two of them work together to catch some even worse scum". The resulting event chain is even labeled "Buddy Cop".

--> '''Chairman Soren Van Wyk''': He who controls the water controls the world. That's where we're headed now. But hell, even I know that a dying world isn't really one worth controlling.

* EarlyGameHell: Humanity is divided just like real life, and has initially to make do with contemporary tech. Lifting anything to orbit can only be done by a tiny trickle until resources can be stored in orbit for easier construction. In the meantime, the Aliens are much more technologically advanced [[spoiler:albeit still deeply divided in their own way]], and can zap anything in the solar system with a few days of traveling. You are supposed to turn the tide against that foe and start settling the solar system without attracting too much attention.