Slitherine

I completed my first game the other day... time constraints and updates had prevented me from doing before this point.

I was Professor Schrieber (?) and prior to winning the game I received an odd message that apparently was suggesting that the remaining factions would need to band together to "kick my @$$". It seemed to confuse my faction name and was aligning it AGAINST Prof. Schrieber, the leader... again, it was late hours and I was close to winning the game. In hindsight I should have taken a screenshot.

There were some very nice graphs at the end of the game, I wish there was some way to monitor those during game play. There may be... I am still poking around in the interface.

Because of the current settings on Alien deaths after capture that interesting part of the game was downplayed and I just eradicated them... but I noticed one AI had a few Aliens and later in the game I saw a 60 power Aspidoth!! Wowsa!

Granted this game was "Very easy" and Aliens were on their lowest setting just to get a feel for the rules. World was a huge archipelago and it played smoothly. AI would often ask for a diplomatic deal it had previously rejected (trade or research pact), absolutely refused to share maps until I had 80% of the map uncovered, and then the weakest faction revealed portions of the map to me that it had no logical means of knowing.

It seems Orbital Bombardment of a city ALSO reduces a city's population by 2, I couldn't find that information listed in the operation description, but it proved itself a fact in the game, completely eradicating cities 2 and smaller. Very powerful... striking every unit in the city, killing units under 2 power AND 2 citizens with every attack!! I see there are items in the game to limit the power of operations... but if you didn't have them in place before facing an opponent with 5 plus orbital strikes (like I had) it is very devastating.

What else... hmm, ohh... isn't the Fungus supposed to give +1 pollution? This may have changed but I know later in the game it showed -1 pollution. I may be wrong on this and will start another game soon on a higher difficulty and verify some of these questionables.

Very enjoyable, looking forward to many replays and testing the various factions.

In looking at a new game I see fungus is rated as -1 pollution, but is toxic? Perhaps it SHOULD BE +1 pollution until the first ability to work with it is achieved?

No forest and fungus both got -1 pollution.
Yes fungus spores are acid and damage nearby units. But fungus and forst both need air to survive, thats why they clear the air and got the -1 pollution effect.

It seems Orbital Bombardment of a city ALSO reduces a city's population by 2

It can reduce the population, but not allways do it. Nukes do a better job.

absolutely refused to share maps until I had 80% of the map uncovered

Mosttimes i don't got the units to explore much, and later i share the maps and got the whole map revealed

before facing an opponent with 5 plus orbital strikes (like I had) it is very devastating.

not realy, beside of the population destroying effect the bombardments arn't that strong. A single artilery do more damage and you can shoot every round.

I'm still waiting to see if it was just the "very Easy" nature of the game on this issue. I defeated a huge world without ever getting past the second tier of gear. New game is on Easy and I have a bit more competition... even bested by my former faction (thinkers, whoever they are). As the Imperium I am keeping up for the most part and once again on the warpath to conquer the world before I get the first of my second tier techs.

Second game completed, I played the Imperium on a medium world with easy settings (no morale modifiers). Easily cleared my continent of hives and expanded, though I didn't quite keep up in the tech race.

Quickly the Professor's team achieved the Mech Age, with the Gold guys right behind them. By the time I was ready to begin conquest even Terra Sanctum had Mech toys and I did not, but swamped them easily in three turns. They had plenty of defensive power, but never objected to my military build up, and could not withstand the artillery and orbital bombardments for 3 turns.

This was repeated quickly with 2 other factions... I think the gold guys took out Lady Vermillion before I found her... but I secured a military victory before assaulting them. In all of that time I only saw 1 artillery/ sniper unit built by the AI, and never used properly. I saw 2 aircraft and a few ineffectual tank types. Mostly Colonial Troopers of some sort.

I never even BUILT a unit with purple equipment... I designed a couple but the units to win the game were already queued to build before the design mods, and the costs didn't seem worthwhile to change the orders. I ran behind in tech the whole game, SAW superior units, but never had any trouble destroying them... except for the large aliens... they are ALWAYS a problem, I cannot imagine a game where the big ones were on the warpath early.

Now, the "News Report" I was talking about in the original report.


In the third paragraph it says
"If the Imperium (that's ME) wants to stand a chance at dominating Pandora, they either need to focus on growth or help their allies whale on Admiral Heid's (that's ME TOO!) ass." Pretty sure it's an easy fix to not suggest the "faction" turn against it's leader... my question: is this a joke I am not getting?

Here is one image of the demographic charts that would be GREAT to get at during the game.

Just a button at the bottom at the bottom of the page with diplomacy or something. Maybe we can only see Factions we are aware of, have "infiltrated" in some manner, or have "friendly" relations with. Because the "dot" system in the diplomacy screen has no meaning if I don't know how many "dots" I have in each category.

Incidentally, on the first photograph I have a a former selected and EVERY tile on the screen displays it's resource value. Is this adjustable to show maybe 3-5 tiles away instead of everything on the screen? Same with a Colonizer... I pretty much know where it's going before I build it... I don't need this info associated with it AND on the tooltip.

I have just finished a mid sized (under medium) world with medium AI and Alien agitation as the Solar faction with Xi. Fun game... still ran over the AI, but Lady Vermillion provided some resistance.

In the end she and Heid had 4 cities each, and while she fought fiercely, they couldn't keep up with production and my aircraft (12 + cities). Again, Vermilion used navel forces, but not air or artillery, even though according to Demo charts afterwards they both exceeded me in tech. No idea how they kept up with me on science with 1/3 of the cities, they had EXACTLY the Tech points I had at the end.

Game was close to complete (Vermillion had 4 cities, Heid his 4 cities) and I had been turning down production because of mineral shortfalls, putting them on "Wealth" just to be busy... and looked up a few turns later (Vermillion down to just Capitol) and I was winning an economic victory. It wasn't a goal... I was playing for conquest (Military victory) and was at 96%!

The Economic warning screen came up, I noted the same weird phrasing of having the Solar Faction join it's allies to whip Xi's hindquarters, but with a general economic slant. Tech seemed very even by the graph, AI certainly tended it's cities... but again building mainly low tech troopers. Is this because the game is completing before getting into the 2nd tier of gear properly?

I'm not looking forward to my next test... I enjoy playing the "Green" factions, but Terra Sanctum seems boring without the ability to interface with the alien races. I've never enjoyed playing the "religious" factions or the money changers... but feel I should (and always do once or twice) to know them and be able to comment about them.