Pandora first impressions
Posted: Mon Jun 10, 2013 6:36 pm
Installation was easy, everything went fine. I started to play at once and was surprised at how well tutorial went (certainly my experience with Civilization helped a lot here).
In no time I was out of the tutorial and going with the game.
After some time:
Was a little annoyed at not being able to enter the city at some moments (end of turn, I guess).
The main issue I would like to ask a change is to have also Zero or Point on numeric keypad as end of turn key. I'm left handed and spacebar isnt at a comfortable distance to my right hand. One of these two keys would be much more easier to use. Better still, user could define keys himself.
A minor issue is graphics, at some moments I couldnt see well my pieces. I understand pieces were made with simple shapes to have less weight on system, but wouldnt it be better to make two schemes, well detailed pieces to high end (and future) systems and a simple one (maybe even with flat pieces) to low end ones?
Anyway, adding things like shadows, even fixed non 3D ones, would help to make the pieces easier to spot.
After about 1:30 hour:
I'm happy with the game. Better than I expected. At this point I could already see where I made strategical mistakes and decided to start a new game.
A comment in a much, much more general view is I would like much bigger maps, where pieces would take more time to move around, and could have more details. Mountains that cant be crossed easily, rivers that can be trouble depending on size, different types of vegetation that could help hiding and/or slow movement, or even be dangerous. This a fast piece could move, say, ten hexes and a slow one would move three and really big and powerful ones would move one. There would be latitude to have more details on the pieces, something specially interesting when we can tinker them ourselves. (Since there are people who likes the fast paced game, specially good for multiplayer, that could be something like a marathon version - but much more interesting than Civilization marathon that only change time for things to happen.)
In no time I was out of the tutorial and going with the game.
After some time:
Was a little annoyed at not being able to enter the city at some moments (end of turn, I guess).
The main issue I would like to ask a change is to have also Zero or Point on numeric keypad as end of turn key. I'm left handed and spacebar isnt at a comfortable distance to my right hand. One of these two keys would be much more easier to use. Better still, user could define keys himself.
A minor issue is graphics, at some moments I couldnt see well my pieces. I understand pieces were made with simple shapes to have less weight on system, but wouldnt it be better to make two schemes, well detailed pieces to high end (and future) systems and a simple one (maybe even with flat pieces) to low end ones?
Anyway, adding things like shadows, even fixed non 3D ones, would help to make the pieces easier to spot.
After about 1:30 hour:
I'm happy with the game. Better than I expected. At this point I could already see where I made strategical mistakes and decided to start a new game.
A comment in a much, much more general view is I would like much bigger maps, where pieces would take more time to move around, and could have more details. Mountains that cant be crossed easily, rivers that can be trouble depending on size, different types of vegetation that could help hiding and/or slow movement, or even be dangerous. This a fast piece could move, say, ten hexes and a slow one would move three and really big and powerful ones would move one. There would be latitude to have more details on the pieces, something specially interesting when we can tinker them ourselves. (Since there are people who likes the fast paced game, specially good for multiplayer, that could be something like a marathon version - but much more interesting than Civilization marathon that only change time for things to happen.)