Slitherine

I am considering purchasing this game and have some questions:

1. Are there any technologies involving "psionics, psychic stuff, etc."? If so, is it really necessary to research them? Is there a description of all the technologies in the game that I can view before purchasing the game?

2. Are there different types of "spy" missions and, if so, are they important?

3. Is there a practical limit on the number of colonies you can have? If you play on a large map, is it reasonable to conquer the AI rather than going for a tech. victory? What are the different victory conditions?

4. What is the description of the technology victory? Do you have the power of the universe at your disposal, or something like that?

5. In the game, does it list what technologies are required for other technologies, so that I can be sure I have the necessary pre-requisities for technologies I want?

6. Is the game actually like Alpha Centauri? How is it different?

7. With the newest expansion that is downloadable for free, how hard is the other faction if you are winning? I read that there is a late game faction that will attack the factions in proportion to how well they are doing? I don't want to do really well then be absolutely crushed by this new faction.

Thanks.

Rob

rayres wrote:I am considering purchasing this game and have some questions:

1. Are there any technologies involving "psionics, psychic stuff, etc."? If so, is it really necessary to research them? Is there a description of all the technologies in the game that I can view before purchasing the game?

2. Are there different types of "spy" missions and, if so, are they important?

3. Is there a practical limit on the number of colonies you can have? If you play on a large map, is it reasonable to conquer the AI rather than going for a tech. victory? What are the different victory conditions?

4. What is the description of the technology victory? Do you have the power of the universe at your disposal, or something like that?

5. In the game, does it list what technologies are required for other technologies, so that I can be sure I have the necessary pre-requisities for technologies I want?

6. Is the game actually like Alpha Centauri? How is it different?

7. With the newest expansion that is downloadable for free, how hard is the other faction if you are winning? I read that there is a late game faction that will attack the factions in proportion to how well they are doing? I don't want to do really well then be absolutely crushed by this new faction.

Thanks.

Rob

I can answer some of them:

1) the only one I know of is "Telepathy" which is a very late game tech and not at all a requirement for the game.

2) No espionage in the game.

3) There is no true limit. The victory types are Research, Economic, or Military. Military is probably the easiest one to do, in fact the most common complaint about the game is that combat is too necessary.

5) The tech tree clearly notes what techs are prereqs of which, and this changes slightly each game. Its one of Pandora's best features, imo.

6) The game is very similar to Alpha Centauri but does have differences. The combat is a bit more tactical, you can flank units and terrain matters much more. Also, you have these "Operations" which are actions you can do on the map such as call down an orbital bombardment or use nano machines to heal your units on the battlefield. Lastly, workers work a bit differently. In AC, one you put a worker on a tile, you get all of the resources from that tile. In Pandora, you choose which resource to pull from that tile, so you can specialize cities more.

rayres wrote:I am considering purchasing this game and have some questions:

1. Are there any technologies involving "psionics, psychic stuff, etc."? If so, is it really necessary to research them? Is there a description of all the technologies in the game that I can view before purchasing the game?

2. Are there different types of "spy" missions and, if so, are they important?

3. Is there a practical limit on the number of colonies you can have? If you play on a large map, is it reasonable to conquer the AI rather than going for a tech. victory? What are the different victory conditions?

4. What is the description of the technology victory? Do you have the power of the universe at your disposal, or something like that?

5. In the game, does it list what technologies are required for other technologies, so that I can be sure I have the necessary pre-requisities for technologies I want?

6. Is the game actually like Alpha Centauri? How is it different?

7. With the newest expansion that is downloadable for free, how hard is the other faction if you are winning? I read that there is a late game faction that will attack the factions in proportion to how well they are doing? I don't want to do really well then be absolutely crushed by this new faction.

Thanks.

Rob

I'll add a bit.

1. and 5. Telepathy was mentioned. I don't know if someone has posted a list of all techs yet but there were also a few changes lately. You can start a game with the option to see the whole tech tree from the beginning. There are 3 eras (colonization, mechanization, trancendental) and 8 tiers in every era. Each tier is slightly more expensive. Also there are 12 groups (no graphically visible) of techs, 4 groups in every era. 1st group = tier 1+2, 2nd group = tier 3+4, 3rd group = tier 5+6 and so on. All techs within each of those groups are being mixed randomly in every new game and also the requirements (the branches of the tech tree) are mixed.

2. The developers are already working on spying and more diplomacy options.

4. Tech victory is achieved when a faction accumulates 75% of all research points needed to research all technology in the game. You can calculate the number exactly but I haven't done it yet.

6. What comes to mind:
- There are no wonder projects yet in pandora and no spying (will come soon).
- You can't lower or raise the whole terrain level in Pandora
- P's combat system is much better imo
- Operations are a great feature
- the factions are not as distinctive yet as in AC

7. The strength of the Messari invasion is determined by how well the planet is doing. AFAIK important factors are the alien aggression and the complete unit strength of all human factions. Which faction is attacked most is determined by the overall strength (so I guess something like military+economy+science). Probably the ingame stats are used for this. You can see them as spectator if you type /score or at the end of the game when some faction has won.