This game looks interesting:
http://www.matrixgames.com/products/435/details/Pandora
"Pandora: First Contact is a science-fiction turn-based strategy game of epic scale. The player leads his chosen human faction over multiple centuries on a newly discovered earth-like planet into an unknown future. Pandora features research, diplomacy, economy, warfare and endless replayability with the exploration of exciting and randomly-generated worlds."
Why does that look interesting to you?
Looks interesting, kind of a bland Alpha Centauri I guess. Something to look into.
Anybody check this out? It doesn't look half-bad..
Another longer one: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ljh7PgyH2Pw
http://pandora.proxy-studios.com/
^Forums are pretty dead, anybody here give this a try?
3000 posts on the beta forum, doesn't look "dead" to me? That's pretty damn good for an indie game in closed beta.
Edit: It was released the 14th apparently. I'll wait for a sale or very good reviews: 30 USD is AAA+ pricing nowadays.
True the beta forums have received a few posts a day but not much in the way of reviews, which I thought somebody in this community might be able to provide. I was only able to find a couple of merit, one by "Out of 8" and an AAR, that while not piquing my interest quite enough to drop $30 right away, were good enough spark my inquiry here. This seems like a potentially perfect community of strategy game enthusiasts to ask for opinions/reviews of a SMAC "successor".
Since you got me looking again a First Impressions has been posted by SpaceSector. Looks pretty good, but hoping for a critical review.
Well it obviously won't be for everyone, but I personally like Pandora. I enjoyed the beta, and look forward to getting the full game.
Stable game. great Ui. No faction differentiation or content (unique tech, units ect), No mid/late game content (random events, heroes, terraforming, meaningful diplomacy). Gets boring fast after the first 20 mins.
Wha, so the factions just look different? (edit: ah i see, just global strengths and weaknesses)
How's the AI / multi-player? To be honest my time is more valuable than money, but the combination of streamlined UI and game mechanics coupled with good AI / multi-player (and what appears to be decent immersion), could be right up my alley. They seem to have gotten enough right such that playing it safe for launch might not have been a bad idea, but so much of the fun factor in playing games of this nature depends on good AI and/or multi-player (and immersion).
Also while on the subject, does the game offer anything unique, or are any aspects done well enough to warrant checking out? The UI is getting a good amount of praise?
Thanks for the feedback so far folks. My finger's still itching on the trigger.
They put a good review on Space Sector. The game has a lot of potential, but need much more development. Pretty good for an Indie studio.
A slightly dated Let's Play by pewchew and this new trailer sold me..
so far so good..
The game looks like it could have potential but seems to simplistic for me. It also seems like Warlock where you spend most of the game fighting monsters, which gets boring after a while.The fact that it has unit customization is interesting, though its probably not as fun as the Master of Orion 2 system.
it's not a wide game (yet), but it is deep. while it may be simple, it's also very refined. the tight game play, streamlined ui, and presentation are worth checking out. got me for a "omg is that the sun!?" this morn.
plus the developers are quite active; the forums are starting to fill up. a solid launch with a lot of potential - 87
I have one discount coupon for Pandora:First Contact that id like to give away before it expires.it should be usable for 1-2 weeks.IIRC It decreases the purchase cost with 8-10 dollars.
If somebody wants this coupon then send me a PM.
Edit:No more discount coupon
Wish I'd seen your post before I'd bought it!
http://www.spacesector.com/blog/2013/12/pandora-first-contact-review/
If it makes it to steam, I'll give it a spin.
I bought it after reading a an AAR and watching a bit of Das2468 (or whatever numbers he has there )
I support anyone that tries to make turnbased strategy games. It had a big patch on 05.12. and I am looking forward to playing.
Not Again!!!
WWhhhhhyyyyy is it so damn hard for anyone to actually make a 'better' game than Alpha Centauri????????
Sxxt on a brick, snakes on a plane.... the game was released 15 Fifteeeeeeen years ago and I'm still waiting?
You can make a game better. Just kidnap Sid Meier and tie him up in your basement, then make him come up with a better game...Umm just joking if anything happens to Sid I had nothing to do with it.
P.S. I would have said Brad but he has bees and they are dangerous.
Oh i already tried to kidnap Sid but some unnamed organization had implanted an explosive devise in his head that will go off if he ever tried to reveal any new game concepts to anyone other than that unnamed organization!
This game has stolen/been inspired by the best.
Alpha Centauri for the theme
Civ V / Warlock for the hexes and graphics style
Master of Orion II for the movement of workers/scientists and stuff
Civ IV for the stacking and fighting
+++
And I know these games were not the first with those kind of mechanics. Anyways, its a pretty good game for me so far. I have played a few hours and I like. I hope this game will get updates and DLC`s to fill it up with even more stuff.
1UPT is strategically superior than stack of doom especially with ZOC mechanics. It kinda hurt Civ5 at least initially because the AI couldn't move units properly and the maps where way too small. In stack of doom unit positioning does not matter that much. Otherwise yes to everything else.
1UPT I would say is an advantage for anyone with a strategic mindset because it greatly increases strategic complexity, but it does have a lot of disadvantages as well. I like FE more than Civ5, for instance. A lot of that comes down to race choice being more meaningful, but I also kinda like the more complex tactical battles which it is really kinda hard to do in a game like Civ5 where everything is done on the strategic map and there not even being any tactical combat.
I would prefer 1UPT for a game like Pandora which doesn't have tactical combat. Essentially, Pandora has the worst of both worlds. It is worse tactically than FE is and worse strategically than Civ5 is. Pandora basically takes the best ideas available now and then goes a step back from there.
The maps in Pandora seem to be pretty small, so it might be something forced by the design of the game, but either way the combat system is certainly one of the weaker points of the game. Maybe the diplomacy system will be awesome (not from the looks of it) and maybe the AI will be awesome and I kinda like the concept of research that they have in the game, so maybe the overall thing will still be good, but I don't think it will be because of the combat mechanics that it is a great game.
I haven't played it, I have only watched the trailer and a lets play so that is all I have to go on for the above analysis.
Ah, yes 1UPT does not make sense if you have tactical combat. I was talking about strategic combat. Tactical combat should handle 1UPT and ZOC mechanics...which it does in FE.
combat is great. ai is good, multiplayer is better. stacking drastically reduces micromanagement. plus, unit types (that have advantages and vulnerabilities), and operations (strategic spells), keep stacks of doom from growing out of control. put all your units in one stack and watch the ai nuke it (operation) to hell without even touching it.
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