First two sessions of Pandora Beta
Posted: Fri Aug 02, 2013 7:04 am
My hardware and software setup
Lenovo X200s laptop
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU @ 2.13GHz
(NB I have an integrated graphics card, which isn't the best for this sort of game)
4Gb RAM
Linux kernel 3.8.13-100.fc17.x86_64
Fedora 17
I have reasonably up to date Intel graphics drivers:
Name : mesa-libGL
Arch : x86_64
Version : 9.0
Release : 7.2
I think the hardware probably doesn't have a good enough spec to run the game, but I tried it anyway.
First session (installation)
Downloaded and unzipped the build for 64 bit Linux from the forum.
Then:
Got this error:
So I did:
Tried again and got this error:
So I did:
Tried again and it started up this time. Hurray.
Although this was a bit of a pain because it didn't start first time, at least I could fix it. I'm actually impressed that the game is even being released for Linux, so you are in my good books already. I am also used to compiling software for Linux, so I knew where to look. I did check the readme, but there was no mention of how to fix this issue, or even of how to install the software on Linux; it might help to provide some basic guidance. Another possibility might be to try to ensure that the correct libraries are available, and give some feedback/hints if they are not in the expected locations.
I downloaded the updates (825!) rather than skip them. I went off for a cup of tea as it seemed to be taking a while (I was 15 minutes into the install by this point). Download speed seemed to be around 200Kb/s, which is a lot slower than my broadband speed.
First session (playing the game)
Came back and looked up my beta code from my email.
My initial impression is "Hang on, this is just Alpha Centauri! but with nicer graphics".
I tried a few turns, but the resources it was consuming meant (10% of CPU, 20% of memory) that it was difficult for me to take notes while playing.
I changed the resolution down to 1024x768, changed to windowed mode, turned off anti-aliasing, and lowered the quality of shadows and textures to low. This made it slightly more playable.
Comments on the UI:
* It can be difficult to see the units against the background. I think they should be lighter coloured, or maybe have a bright insignia on top so they are easily visible.
* The default lighting is too dark, which means it's difficult to make out what's in the hexes.
* When you get a report of a discovered unit (queen etc.) and click on it, it would be nice to see a graphic of the discovered unit rather than the generic image of rows of tanks and soldiers.
* The artwork for the different factions is quite nice, but perhaps not varied enough. It's difficult to tell the differences between the factions from their appearance (something which is quite nicely done in Alpha Centauri).
My impression that it is an Alpha Centauri clone only strengthened over time. After half an hour, I was beginning to wonder whether there was anything in the game that would surprise me.
End of first session (about 30 minutes later)
My final thoughts by the end of the session:
* I'm not really sure Pandora brings anything to the planetary 4X genre.
* It feels very similar to Alpha Centauri, and is going to be compared with it a lot.
* The interface is intuitive enough, but the colours are too dark.
* Performance is poor on my hardware. Admittedly, I think I may be using old hardware which isn't really supported. However, Alpha Centauri does run OK on the same kit, and isn't that much worse in terms of graphics.
* It needs more interesting graphics in the non-3D parts of the UI (e.g. in info screens and the introductory menus).
Second session
Pros:
* After another half an hour, I was finally starting to "feel" the game and become interested.
* Sound works well and is appropriate and atmospheric.
* I liked that everything had a tool tip, and found it easy to navigate around the different parts of the UI.
* I like the customisation options in the workshop. The mix of weapons is believable and leaves space for interesting combinations and tactics.
Cons:
* I wasn't 100% sure where to put a unit for it to be "refittable". I guessed it should go onto a city, but some of the time I wasn't exactly sure.
* It wasn't immediately obvious why I should care about some resources more than others: for example, what difference does gold make? I sort of figured it out eventually, but how and why you would use a "former" isn't immediately clear. Also it took me a while to figure out how to do mining, and I'm still not sure what benefit it brings. Is it just an immediate bonus to an attribute? That's what it looked like. But then I couldn't work out what the resources which confer a % gain do. (By the way, I haven't looked at the help system at all yet.)
* I liked the way that some weapons are better against mechanical but worse against organic. This provided some opportunity for tactics.
* I would like to be able to change the order in the production queue.
* I couldn't work out how to send multiple units against a single enemy hex at the same time. The battle predictions ("defeat", "possible victory" etc.) seemed to be based on me sending a single unit against an enemy. I had to resort to making bigger and bigger tanks until I had one strong enough to take on some enemies. But I can't figure out if there's a way to make a horde of smaller units and send them as a group.
* I was slightly confused about some of the tech paths, which didn't always make sense to me. In some cases there was no obvious relationship between pairs of tech, e.g.:
* guided weapons to planetary council
* stock exchange to quantization
But generally the paths seemed OK.
End of second session (after about an hour and a half)
After an hour, I felt like I was enjoying it. But I had still only explored a small part of the world, and lost a few units very quickly (my initial units were very quickly overwhelmed).
Overall, I thought it was enjoyable, if a little unoriginal. I think it lacks a certain "oomph": it doesn't really have its own sense of identity, and feels like a clone of lots of other games in this genre. But it is well done, and I am very pleased it works on Linux, albeit with some lag. NB I would be prepared to sacrifice more of the realism of the graphics for a smoother experience.
Lenovo X200s laptop
Intel(R) Core(TM)2 Duo CPU @ 2.13GHz
(NB I have an integrated graphics card, which isn't the best for this sort of game)
4Gb RAM
Linux kernel 3.8.13-100.fc17.x86_64
Fedora 17
I have reasonably up to date Intel graphics drivers:
Name : mesa-libGL
Arch : x86_64
Version : 9.0
Release : 7.2
I think the hardware probably doesn't have a good enough spec to run the game, but I tried it anyway.
First session (installation)
Downloaded and unzipped the build for 64 bit Linux from the forum.
Then:
Code: Select all
cd Pandora Beta
cd Binaries
./Pandora
Code: Select all
/home/ell/Desktop/Pandora Beta/Binaries/Pandora.bin: error while loading shared libraries: libssl.so.1.0.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
Code: Select all
cd /usr/lib64
sudo ln -s libssl.so.1.0.0k libssl.so.1.0.0
Code: Select all
/home/ell/Desktop/Pandora Beta/Binaries/Pandora.bin: error while loading shared libraries: libcrypto.so.1.0.0: cannot open shared object file: No such file or directory
Code: Select all
cd /usr/lib64
sudo ln -s libcrypto.so.1.0.0k libcrypto.so.1.0.0
Although this was a bit of a pain because it didn't start first time, at least I could fix it. I'm actually impressed that the game is even being released for Linux, so you are in my good books already. I am also used to compiling software for Linux, so I knew where to look. I did check the readme, but there was no mention of how to fix this issue, or even of how to install the software on Linux; it might help to provide some basic guidance. Another possibility might be to try to ensure that the correct libraries are available, and give some feedback/hints if they are not in the expected locations.
I downloaded the updates (825!) rather than skip them. I went off for a cup of tea as it seemed to be taking a while (I was 15 minutes into the install by this point). Download speed seemed to be around 200Kb/s, which is a lot slower than my broadband speed.
First session (playing the game)
Came back and looked up my beta code from my email.
My initial impression is "Hang on, this is just Alpha Centauri! but with nicer graphics".
I tried a few turns, but the resources it was consuming meant (10% of CPU, 20% of memory) that it was difficult for me to take notes while playing.
I changed the resolution down to 1024x768, changed to windowed mode, turned off anti-aliasing, and lowered the quality of shadows and textures to low. This made it slightly more playable.
Comments on the UI:
* It can be difficult to see the units against the background. I think they should be lighter coloured, or maybe have a bright insignia on top so they are easily visible.
* The default lighting is too dark, which means it's difficult to make out what's in the hexes.
* When you get a report of a discovered unit (queen etc.) and click on it, it would be nice to see a graphic of the discovered unit rather than the generic image of rows of tanks and soldiers.
* The artwork for the different factions is quite nice, but perhaps not varied enough. It's difficult to tell the differences between the factions from their appearance (something which is quite nicely done in Alpha Centauri).
My impression that it is an Alpha Centauri clone only strengthened over time. After half an hour, I was beginning to wonder whether there was anything in the game that would surprise me.
End of first session (about 30 minutes later)
My final thoughts by the end of the session:
* I'm not really sure Pandora brings anything to the planetary 4X genre.
* It feels very similar to Alpha Centauri, and is going to be compared with it a lot.
* The interface is intuitive enough, but the colours are too dark.
* Performance is poor on my hardware. Admittedly, I think I may be using old hardware which isn't really supported. However, Alpha Centauri does run OK on the same kit, and isn't that much worse in terms of graphics.
* It needs more interesting graphics in the non-3D parts of the UI (e.g. in info screens and the introductory menus).
Second session
Pros:
* After another half an hour, I was finally starting to "feel" the game and become interested.
* Sound works well and is appropriate and atmospheric.
* I liked that everything had a tool tip, and found it easy to navigate around the different parts of the UI.
* I like the customisation options in the workshop. The mix of weapons is believable and leaves space for interesting combinations and tactics.
Cons:
* I wasn't 100% sure where to put a unit for it to be "refittable". I guessed it should go onto a city, but some of the time I wasn't exactly sure.
* It wasn't immediately obvious why I should care about some resources more than others: for example, what difference does gold make? I sort of figured it out eventually, but how and why you would use a "former" isn't immediately clear. Also it took me a while to figure out how to do mining, and I'm still not sure what benefit it brings. Is it just an immediate bonus to an attribute? That's what it looked like. But then I couldn't work out what the resources which confer a % gain do. (By the way, I haven't looked at the help system at all yet.)
* I liked the way that some weapons are better against mechanical but worse against organic. This provided some opportunity for tactics.
* I would like to be able to change the order in the production queue.
* I couldn't work out how to send multiple units against a single enemy hex at the same time. The battle predictions ("defeat", "possible victory" etc.) seemed to be based on me sending a single unit against an enemy. I had to resort to making bigger and bigger tanks until I had one strong enough to take on some enemies. But I can't figure out if there's a way to make a horde of smaller units and send them as a group.
* I was slightly confused about some of the tech paths, which didn't always make sense to me. In some cases there was no obvious relationship between pairs of tech, e.g.:
* guided weapons to planetary council
* stock exchange to quantization
But generally the paths seemed OK.
End of second session (after about an hour and a half)
After an hour, I felt like I was enjoying it. But I had still only explored a small part of the world, and lost a few units very quickly (my initial units were very quickly overwhelmed).
Overall, I thought it was enjoyable, if a little unoriginal. I think it lacks a certain "oomph": it doesn't really have its own sense of identity, and feels like a clone of lots of other games in this genre. But it is well done, and I am very pleased it works on Linux, albeit with some lag. NB I would be prepared to sacrifice more of the realism of the graphics for a smoother experience.