Slitherine

I just downloaded the beta and started playing. I've been playing for a couple of hours have noted some things and have a couple of ideas:

1) Movement - seems all units have a movement of 1, with a road movement of 2. Except for the ATV. Seems to me that tanks should have a movement of 2, while wheeled units should have a movement of 3. Tanks are faster than grunts and wheeled vehicles are faster than tanks. And a road should double that movement. this would also put a different spin on defending your territory from attack.
2) Disappearing units - I've had a couple of units disappear. A couple of times I believe it was due to them being attacked, but one time the unit was at sea and I'm sure it wasn't attacked. Seems to me that when something happens to a unit, the map should center on that unit (i.e., when it's attacked, ship sinks at sea, etc.). so you can see what's happening to the unit. I tried to read the scrolling messages on the right side of the display, but things went by too fast.
3) Unit build - I like the fact you can customize the combat unit equipement. However, it's annoying that you can only display one combat unit at a time for building. This means that if I want to build a heavy tank in one city, but an infantry unit in a different city I have to go back to the workshop to change the combat unit available for build. Seems to be that there should be either a list of all units available for build or that there should be a drop-down menu for the different combat units you have created for build. Also, I think it would be real cool if you could rename a combat unit you have customized. Example, you create a anti-tank marine unit you could rename it AT Marines. I think this would work well for a drop-down menu and it would make it easier to ID the unit on the map (since all infantry, tank, etc. look the same on the map).
4) City select - if a unit is in a city hex, I can't click on/select the city. I have to click on another city and then use the scroll/menu to get to the city with the active unit. Shouldn't there be a way click on a city if a unit is in it?
5) City Control - in the city view, I can't seem to tell which hex is being exploited (i.e., is a hex being actively farmed/mined/etc.). I'm sure the computer handles that automatically, but being human sometimes I like to control which hex is being exploited. Is there some way to make this easier to understand and control?
6) City Influence - seems each city can exploit out to 2 hexes (standard for this type of game). I have an idea, if a city gets large enough (i.e. 15+) allow it to exploit out to 3 hexes. I think this would accurately reflect how much territory a city controls/effects around it. As an example look at Los Angeles or Toyoko. they suck in/control resources for hundreds of miles around them; much more than say Omaha does. And it would be a nice difference to other game of this type. It's a thought.

So far the game seems pretty good. And I would like to thank you for the opportunity to play the Pandora Beta.

1) Movement - seems all units have a movement of 1, with a road movement of 2. Except for the ATV. Seems to me that tanks should have a movement of 2, while wheeled units should have a movement of 3. Tanks are faster than grunts and wheeled vehicles are faster than tanks. And a road should double that movement. this would also put a different spin on defending your territory from attack.

It does seem strange that tanks are the same speed as infantry. Road does double movement though. I'd like to see a higher level road which would increase movement more, like highways or rail.

2) Disappearing units - I've had a couple of units disappear. A couple of times I believe it was due to them being attacked, but one time the unit was at sea and I'm sure it wasn't attacked. Seems to me that when something happens to a unit, the map should center on that unit (i.e., when it's attacked, ship sinks at sea, etc.). so you can see what's happening to the unit. I tried to read the scrolling messages on the right side of the display, but things went by too fast.

Disappearing units in the sea are possibly being killed by the leviathan. They're are really big sea monsters that lurk in the ocean and pick off your ships. You might have just not noticed it. Check in your help menu if leviathan is listed in the list of aliens. If it is, it means you probably encountered it, had your ship eaten, and the didnt' see anything when you went back to check what happened, because there wasn't a ship anymore.

3) Unit build - I like the fact you can customize the combat unit equipement. However, it's annoying that you can only display one combat unit at a time for building. This means that if I want to build a heavy tank in one city, but an infantry unit in a different city I have to go back to the workshop to change the combat unit available for build. Seems to be that there should be either a list of all units available for build or that there should be a drop-down menu for the different combat units you have created for build. Also, I think it would be real cool if you could rename a combat unit you have customized. Example, you create a anti-tank marine unit you could rename it AT Marines. I think this would work well for a drop-down menu and it would make it easier to ID the unit on the map (since all infantry, tank, etc. look the same on the map).

If you select a unit in the workshop and hit the "copy" button it will add another unit which can then be customized separately. "Copy" is probably going to be renamed to "new" to make it more clear what it does.

4) City select - if a unit is in a city hex, I can't click on/select the city. I have to click on another city and then use the scroll/menu to get to the city with the active unit. Shouldn't there be a way click on a city if a unit is in it?

Click on the city name.

) City Control - in the city view, I can't seem to tell which hex is being exploited (i.e., is a hex being actively farmed/mined/etc.). I'm sure the computer handles that automatically, but being human sometimes I like to control which hex is being exploited. Is there some way to make this easier to understand and control?

Exploited hexes have their values lit up. Unlike most games of this type, hexes are exploited per resource rather than per hex, so there is never any advantage in exploiting a hex which is lower value. The game the just picks the highest value for you to save you the trouble.

6) City Influence - seems each city can exploit out to 2 hexes (standard for this type of game). I have an idea, if a city gets large enough (i.e. 15+) allow it to exploit out to 3 hexes. I think this would accurately reflect how much territory a city controls/effects around it. As an example look at Los Angeles or Toyoko. they suck in/control resources for hundreds of miles around them; much more than say Omaha does. And it would be a nice difference to other game of this type. It's a thought.

City influence does grow at 12 or 16, it changed and I'm not sure which it is now. I don't think it grows beyond that though. I'm currently pretty unhappy with the fact that each tile is tied to only 1 city in your empire. Cities which in most games would have overlapping influence, allowing you to choose which of your cities exploits a tile. In this, tile ownership is per city rather than per empire, so once a city claims a tile it is exclusive to that city forever. This makes city influence awkward, it is often better to have your city NOT expand so that it doesn't prevent placement and usage by another city.