Impressions After 30 Minutes
Posted: Tue Jun 04, 2013 7:03 pm
I'm playing the Tegra faction.
I started in a hex that had both ruins and an alien observatory in the hexes next to it. I founded my first city in the hex I started in. The presence of the observatory is a nice touch that fits in with the faction I'm playing, and provides a nice 50% science boost. I'm leaving my 1 point of population doing research, both because it fits with the faction theme and because it seems to me that discovering some basic techs as fast as possible is a good way to start. Then I used the starting ATV I had to explore around the city. Turns out the ruins are like "goody huts" in Civ 4. I got 9 minerals from the one next to my city. So far this all makes clear sense to me, but then again I have a lot of experience playing games such as Civilization and SMAC. I don't know how difficult it would be to understand for someone without that experience.
I renamed the city, and that worked fine.
I'm building a former as my first construction, so that I can start improving the landscape around the city. Based on my experience with similar game systems, this seems like a good beginning. However, I so far do not understand exactly how the different types of terrain contribute to the output of my city. The yield tooltips are clear enough, but I don't see that any of the hexes are so far contributing to the city's output. I do not seem to be able to place population in any specific hex, and so I can not tell how to harvest the yield from any particular hex. Perhaps when my city grows to 2 points of population this aspect will become more clear to me.
After a couple of turns I discover the first tech, which has to do with refining. It allows me to now build a new building. It was not clear to me before I researched the tech exactly how it would enhance mineral production, but now I see how it works. I am curious as to how other techs will work out.
I very much like the fact that the tech tree is randomized, so that it is different from game to game. I think this will greatly enhance playability.
I have tried adjusting the map and keyboard scrolling somewhat, but both methods are still too jerky. I have ended up using the mouse to drag the map, as I did not want to spend a lot of time fine-tuning the scrolling controls. I will experiment more with the settings at a later time.
So far the hints and tooltips are a pretty good source of information. However, at one point I got a hint popup out of the blue about native life forms, but I couldn't see what had caused that. I still don't know why that popped up when it did.
I like the way the city expands one hex at a time, a la Civ 5. I understand how to change the designation of which hex will be claimed next (using the flags in the city view). However, without understanding how the hex yields contribute to city production, I am limited in my ability to make my own decisions. At this point I will let the computer make the choice.
So far I have not encountered any bugs in the program.
I started in a hex that had both ruins and an alien observatory in the hexes next to it. I founded my first city in the hex I started in. The presence of the observatory is a nice touch that fits in with the faction I'm playing, and provides a nice 50% science boost. I'm leaving my 1 point of population doing research, both because it fits with the faction theme and because it seems to me that discovering some basic techs as fast as possible is a good way to start. Then I used the starting ATV I had to explore around the city. Turns out the ruins are like "goody huts" in Civ 4. I got 9 minerals from the one next to my city. So far this all makes clear sense to me, but then again I have a lot of experience playing games such as Civilization and SMAC. I don't know how difficult it would be to understand for someone without that experience.
I renamed the city, and that worked fine.
I'm building a former as my first construction, so that I can start improving the landscape around the city. Based on my experience with similar game systems, this seems like a good beginning. However, I so far do not understand exactly how the different types of terrain contribute to the output of my city. The yield tooltips are clear enough, but I don't see that any of the hexes are so far contributing to the city's output. I do not seem to be able to place population in any specific hex, and so I can not tell how to harvest the yield from any particular hex. Perhaps when my city grows to 2 points of population this aspect will become more clear to me.
After a couple of turns I discover the first tech, which has to do with refining. It allows me to now build a new building. It was not clear to me before I researched the tech exactly how it would enhance mineral production, but now I see how it works. I am curious as to how other techs will work out.
I very much like the fact that the tech tree is randomized, so that it is different from game to game. I think this will greatly enhance playability.
I have tried adjusting the map and keyboard scrolling somewhat, but both methods are still too jerky. I have ended up using the mouse to drag the map, as I did not want to spend a lot of time fine-tuning the scrolling controls. I will experiment more with the settings at a later time.
So far the hints and tooltips are a pretty good source of information. However, at one point I got a hint popup out of the blue about native life forms, but I couldn't see what had caused that. I still don't know why that popped up when it did.
I like the way the city expands one hex at a time, a la Civ 5. I understand how to change the designation of which hex will be claimed next (using the flags in the city view). However, without understanding how the hex yields contribute to city production, I am limited in my ability to make my own decisions. At this point I will let the computer make the choice.
So far I have not encountered any bugs in the program.