My suggestions after first impressions

[dalves]

After playing for a bit more than I intended (the proles needed me).

The game feels a bit bland, but I think that's the curse from following on the footsteps of Alpha Centauri. Particularly the research felt lacking. I guess the names are too direct instead of trying to evoke some advanced technology. Or maybe I miss the voice-overs and quotes.

All the factions are composed of extremists. I thought of maybe a faction sent by the new AI leaders of Earth after the others, with the goal of creating the ideal place for humanity in the new world and a computer as leader. The leaders also seem too similar, skin tone, haircut, face shape.

I would like to have an in-game manual in the compendium. Sometimes I wonder about a mechanic and I haven't found a resource to read.

Is there any reason not to research? I wonder why the research screen doesn't open automatically after each research is concluded.

A way to reorganise production lists. This I feel is very important. I don't like when I have a list of five items, but I have to erase everything in order to put an unit order to the top. I'll admit I haven't played much yet, but I tried what felt natural to me that was to look for buttons to move up and down, and to drag and drop.

Overall, the game feels nice. It feels derivative, but it's not as if we had plenty of Alpha Centauri clones to chose, and even less on Linux. I wish this game all success.

[Balois]

Here are my impressions after 90 minutes. I. New to the beta so will use the outline requested.

Launch

Straight forward, no issues. Chose Tigra University.

5 minutes

Spent the first 5 minutes reading tool tips ( well done) and the menus trying to understand functionality.

30 minutes

Most time spent exploring territory, meeting competing factions and developing an understanding of game mechanics. Not a fan of the inability to easily reset research priorities. I needed to increase military units and as mentioned in the previous post had to delete other production and then add what I now deemed important. I was also surprised that I could not set multiple research topics. As each is complete you then need to select the next research priority.

60 minutes

Built a second city, defended against the naval faction, who declared war for no appearant reason and local pandora creatures.

While I will play to completion I don't see anything sucking me into the game play. At least not yet.

[Balois]

The imperium just wiped me from the planet, so that has my attention. Part of my problem was overcrowding and no food which made it impossible to keep up with troops. Trying again and this time I'll see if I can figure out what it takes to keep my cities and population successful.

[Vortis]

Ok let's do it in English.. (in bulk)

-The names of cities should consider the ideology of the factions.
-I would prefer a separate upgrade design items for the units in the workshop (and in the game). The icons are probably the easiest to make but it would be nicer visually.
-Units rely garrison should not wake up after an attack.
-Automatic exploration is not an option?
-Colossus (or something like that) has a problem with the laser firing well beyond the target.
-Small and medium sized maps do not seem interesting to play.
-There are currently no xénofongus in ocean?
-It would be better to have less technologies but with greater importance, I tend to get lost and choosing them with no real reasons. (windows technology found is tiny in 1900*1200) Last thing, with less techs you could make little cut-scenes which help to immersion.
-Characters, looks a bit dumb. Again a bit of reactivity from them would be nice. Some interference when we get in contact, they can be angry or happy, no différence..

I finished for now, but I think what is most lacking at the moment is the immersive side. It is fun to play but it lacks that little extra.

However, it has a good foundation and I do not expect to see the engine run as well.

Bonne journée, soirée, enfin ce que vous voulez!

[dalves]

I have just identified something that was bugging me about the research: I can't draw connections between topics of research. For example, the research about xenobiology comes just before the research about aircraft, that doesn't really make sense for me as it is.

Edit: I've just now discovered that transports automatically appear when some unit tries to advance to water. Maybe this should be better indicated?