This is my thread, discussing about my first impressions, and my subsequent impressions, about Pandora-First Contact.
Downloading and Installation :
- No problems on download
- No problems on update
- No problems on installation
- Game could be Alt - Tabbed easily, excellent.
- We simply need a custom race selection.
- The loading screen is a little big long, and the loading percentage should be changed to reflect actual overall loading progress, instead of noting individual items progress.
- The "initializing server" and "initializing game" took some time, thus requires some loading bars/percentage.
- Because we stick to human race, the difference between the factions are just in the stats. Some have high upkeep but high power, some has huge production but huge pollution.
- The map choice is great.
- The AI choice is great, though if we select the difficulty settings, then we go to "Advanced", the AI is "flipping" to show our latest AI difficulties. This should be changed to remove the "flipping" and just show the latest AI difficulty chosen.
- There should be an explanation on AI difficulties (cap on AI, AI aggression levels, etc.)
- There are no problems in the tutorials
- Civilization V comes directly into comparison. In the first glance, there are so many things that look like Civilization V.
- All of the texts are too small. Still readable, but a little uncomfortable. I am using 1920 x 1080 resolution on my wide-screen laptop.
- The Colonial trooper looks nice, but the Colonizer is just decent. I start somewhere in the Arctic/Tundra areas, bad start, but it's OK.
- Build my first town, quickly recognize possible similarities of Civilization V's worker with Pandora's Former. Which in fact, is somewhat true.
- Former unit can easily be automated, really great. Former unit shape don't look interesting.
- We could set "All productions to wealth" or "All productions to growth" but we could still queue building indefinitely in the city. If we change the production to wealth/growth, we shouldn't be able to queue any building/production.
- The queue turns didn't represent how much turn a production a finished, simply showing how much that particular product took time. If we queue 5 tanks (@ 3 turn) the 6th tank should show 18 turn instead of 3 turn.
- The building list in the city is great.
- The ease of moving population between research, farming, mining, and production is really easy, great.
- We still need the ability to shuffle the workers to work on a tile. Though population and production can be adjusted, sometimes I want my workers to work at a special tile (hot springs, for example).
- I don't see any abilities to build road between cities.
- There should be explanation if you can't colonize a tile (enemy present, military units too near, etc.)
- I observed that the AI is aggressively build their cities, though their spacing between cities is too close (hence sometimes the city growth is stopped by other cities). Is this intended? I got about 2-3 cities, and my opponent got 8-10 cities, even on Easy. Is this intended?
- AI has strange behavior. Sometimes they gave me petty number of credits (10-30 credits) for unknown reason. They also willing to sign up NAP when my soldiers are near their border. They also willing to sign research pacts on first contact.
- There are no clear information why the AI loves or hates you. Some numbers and reason (ex : You have smaller troops (+ 10 relationship), your cities are expanding (- 20 relationship) are needed.
- The AI has quite nice writing in them, each representing their goals in their talks.
- AI is somewhat like to build a lot of cities near your border, sometimes cutting off your city connection to your other cities.
- The customization of the war equipment is simply great.
- There are no clear initial indication that "power" is your "attack strength". The symbol is also a lightning, which are synonymous with power (power generators) instead of attacking power. Changing the name or the logo (maybe a fist?) will solve the problem.
- There should be an indication on what happens if I attack this unit.
- There should be an explanation that you can only refit in your city.
- Unit difference is great. I can see weapon differences between infantries quite clearly. I can see that that infantry is holding a sniper, this infantry holding a flamethrower, etc.
- Rocket trooper show some strange behavior, where they shot their rocket to the top of my screen, instead of the enemy.
- Flamethrower weapon really look bad, the color are bad.
- Sound differences between weapons are great.
- The game seriously need some "faction units" to spice up the game.
- Research tree is not good. I have to research fertilizer to have a planetary council. I have to research planetary council to have a missile launcher. I have to research a beam weapon to have a theater. This is a serious issue.
- The pictures after a research completed don't have any variation.
- The research adviser sometimes tell that you are lagging behind in research, while others clearly left behind by your research.
- The research types (mathematics, sociology, etc.) are not clear if they are used or not.
- This game looks like Civilizations V. In fact, in just looks like Civilizations V in space. Is this intended? I am not saying that Pandora is bad, I love it, but this game is too similar to Civilizations V.
- There are no campaign. It would be great if a campaign is in place.
- The overall text is too small (like what I have seen in Sword of the Stars II), which I am a bit uncomfortable.
Thank you!
