My first impressions of 0.12.0

[herrcaptain]

I just received my invitation to join the beta test today and immediately downloaded the Windows version. Here are my first impressions after about an hour and a half of playing:

***General Observations***

-I LOVE that you guys have developed versions for Mac and Linux right off the bat. I keep windows around purely for gaming and word processing and was happy to see that you're developing for Linux as well. I happened to be in Windows when I got the message so that's what I initially tried, but I also intend to try out the Linux version to see how that runs.

-I like that the installer auto-updates without requiring that the user download anything manually. That said, the implementation seemed a little clunky in that it told me the speed at which was downloading and the percentage, but not the actual file size. As such, I was initially left wondering if I'd be up and gaming in five minutes or an hour. It ended up hanging at 0% for an unusual amount of time and then seemed to finish quite quickly after it hit 1%. Strange and ultimately unimportant, but an observation nonetheless.

-I really hope that you guys are developing this game with modders in mind. I haven't done much of that myself, but I still play games like Civilization IV almost daily because of the modding community which has surrounded them, and my first impressions of this game lead me to believe that you could have similar success with such an approach.

***Appearance/UI***

-The graphics and sound are perfectly adequate for a game like this. These are usually the least of my concerns for this sort of game, but I nonetheless found them pretty and well up to the task. The look of the alien hives and creatures as well as the map artifacts helped give it an immersive feel similar to that of Alpha Centauri.

-As a veteran of similar games (Civ series, Alpha Centauri, etc.), I was instantly right at home upon starting a new game. I liked the use of a very basic in-game tutorial that demonstrated the game's features without being an overwhelming walkthrough and this seemed like a good balance for experienced gamers and those new to this particular genre. I also really liked the popups identifying new creatures and other encounters on the map, though I can see those getting old after a few play-throughs. All in all, most of the UI seemed intuitive and logical, though I had a few issues:
1) Left-clicking on a "tech researched" message would pull my map view over seemingly randomly to some other section of the map. It was as if I had clicked on the minimap. This happened with any tech.
2) I figured out how to move units as a group (shift-clicking them in the unit menu) but it would be nice if there was a way to keep these armies intact for subsequent moves. It got annoying having to shift-click every time I wanted to move a stack.
3) When you give a unit a move order that takes over one turn to complete, they take their next move immediately upon the next turn occurring. As I occasionally decide to change where their going (for instance, to react to an enemy unit who has begun to move toward one of my bases) it would be nice if these auto-moves occurred at the end of a player's turn rather than the beginning (as in, after you press end-turn).

***Gameplay/Mechanics***

-Overall my initial impression of the gameplay was "fun and very promising."

-I'd LOVE the ability to customize game options a little more fully (I realize that this is something that may be planned for later versions and understand why it wouldn't be in an early beta). For instance, I found the rate of research to be far too quick for my tastes. I was playing as the tech faction so I understand that I was researching more quickly than most other factions, but I found it quite cumbersome to have to upgrade my units every half-dozen turns in order to remain "modern." In similar games, I always like to reduce the gamespeed (for instance, "marathon" speed in Civ or "tech stagnation in AC.") because I prefer longer games where research is quite slow. Obviously not everyone shares my tastes, so options here are nice. Personally, I'd love to be able to slow down research and/or build-times to a quarter (or even an eighth!) of the current rate. Likewise, it would be nice to be able to adjust the build times independently from the research rate.

-Also in regard to research - upon starting my second game I noticed that the tech tree was laid out differently than in the one before it (some of the 2nd-level techs were now first-level and vice-versa). This through me off at first and I thought it was a bug, but I'm guessing at this point that it is some sort of a feature to give subsequent games a more random feel?

-I was initially very excited about the pollution system but as it is currently implemented I pretty much just found it annoying. Having to hunt down pollution with formers is just tedious and takes away from the experience in my opinion. Rather, I'd prefer a system where pollution is a background system which affects your cities in terms of reducing growth rates or something along those lines. Constructing forests/anti-pollution buildings should still be how you combat it, but without having to micro-manage formers to mitigate its effects. Even better would be a global pollution system where rather than being city-based, pollution expands to become a global phenomenon which effects neighboring cities and factions. This would more realistically demonstrate its impact as in the real-world, and could even lead to in-game scenarios where it might make sense to go to war simply to reduce a rival faction's pollution output.

-The combat system seemed fresh. I particularly liked that an attacker's terrain seemed to influence combat in addition to the defender's. That could potentially add a lot to a player's tactical choices. Along these lines, I've always found it strange in similar games that units like tanks can even enter mountain hexes. I'd love to see a system where they are restricted from entering such hexes without a road being in place.

-The unit workshop is a nice touch though it would be nice to have more variables in play (like additional weapon slots which could be unlocked with later tech, or such).

-The inclusion of a starting scout-type unit would be nice for initial map exploration. Something with two moves instead of one.

-I saw that you could modify the tax rate, which seemed cool, but I'd love to see a more expansive system for managing your faction - along the lines of the social engineering choices in AC, the government types in the Civ games (particularly the extensive options in some mods like Caveman2Cosmos), or the policy sliders in the Paradox Interactive games. I'm a political science student in real life and as such am a sucker for games which let me tweak "policies." As far as I'm concerned, the more I can tweak in these sorts of games the better the game usually is! This could also tie into a more advanced pollution system in that some of your choices could impact the rate at which pollution is generated (or reduced). Furthermore, the starting factions are appropriate for most play styles but it would be nice to be able to tweak them with a point-based system or to generate your own from scratch (as in many 4x space games like Masters of Orion).

-I noted in the "welcome to the beta" message that the AI will be overhauled soon, and this sounds like a very good idea given that the current diplomatic AI acts rather absurdly. They'll sign a non-aggression pact one turn and five turns later they'll declare war for no reason at all. Furthermore, I'd love to see some more options in regard to diplomacy. You've included the standard treaties/alliances that we've come to expect from a game like this, but I tend to favor games with more diplomatic options (more advanced treaties, the ability to coerce another faction into starting or ending a war with a third party, etc.). As with policy options, the more I can do diplomatically the happier I am as a gamer, and I find myself getting far more millage out of games in which the AI acts sensibly from a diplomatic perspective. Irrational declarations of war and things like that tend to make a game feel silly to me and that ultimately reduces its longevity in my eyes.

***Potential Bug***

-In my hour and a half of playing I only ran into one issue which could possibly be a bug. Basically, one of my units seemed to just disappear. It is probable that they were defeated in combat, but there was no notification of a combat having taken place that turn and they just disappeared without a trace. However, I noted that the hex they had been in the preceding turn and one adjacent one still showed line of sight on the following turn (this disappeared when I ended the turn). I unfortunately didn't think to save the game at that point, but if it happens again I'll be sure to do so.

That's all for now - I'll follow this up with some more observations once I have some more free time next week. Thanks so much for giving me the opportunity to be involved with the game at this stage! I think you're onto something fantastic here!

[SephiRok]

Thanks for the feedback! Let us know if you discover anything else.

Best regards,
Rok