Pandora: First Contact

Just thought I would share this for those who don't know. Slitherine and Matrix are releasing a new game this June that is inspired by Alpha Centauri called Pandora: First Contact. It sounds promising and I hope it turns out great. Make sure to sign up for the beta. They will be adding more people in the weeks to come.

Thanx for bringing this to our attention Thorn!
I wish this game Good Luck! And considering how long its been since a game has come along in this niche (really, since Alpha Centauri and Deadlock has there been anything at all in the sci-fi planetary 4X TBS genre?), why I think this game has a really good chance.

D

Nice find! Looking forward to seeing more details.

Pandora is actually the name of the plane in "The Jesus Incident" by Frank Herbert. The book served as major inspiration for Alpha Centauri.

I've signed up for the beta Thanks for posting it.

Sounds ok, but i may or may not try it. Still think that SMAC is the best game, apart from that total conversion Black Mesa

Civ4 square tiles? Sadface.

History_Buff said:

Civ4 square tiles? Sadface.

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Sadface to Your sadface

From a thread in the Slitherine forums:

Let's see what I can remember from the top of my head. Not sure there was anything too exciting to talk about. We've done some balance tweaking and polishing, adding more event notifications, tweaking the UI, such things. We have also added more exploration rewards, also some negative effects, but threw them out again because they weren't fun. We still have work to do on the exploration part, it's not yet what it should be. Oh, and we're going hexes.

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(bolding added)

Huzzah!

I honestly think I would have liked Civ IV way more if the board had been titled 45 degrees. Which is a weird thing.

WARNING: post may contain secrets of alpha centauri

re thread "The best Leader speech":
"Pretty dreadful, Voice. What is this 'growth dream?' You keep alluding to it."
^ "growth dream soon is. epochal blooming we. mind and flower, dreaming we
of great why. humans, thoughts many, make they growth dream sooner.
plant we many many many. great pruning we of animal we. also animal you.
beginning again of cycle."
^ "You mean this is going to wipe out most animal life on the planet?
Including all the humans?"

---
Beware, you who seek first and final principles, for you are trampling the garden of an angry God and he awaits you just beyond the last theorem.

Sister Miriam Godwinson
"But for the Grace of God"
---


I have learned a secret of alpha centauri. Maybe not a final truth: just a candidate for prominent harmonics between game engine and concept. This may be a spoiler ("Pretty dreadful voice") and so is encoded using rot 13, easily decodable by copy/pasting into a site such as http://www.rot13.com. There is an important cost/benefit analysis corner ("concern").


Jung ner pbaqvgvbaf sbe znkvzhz raretl cebqhpgvba?

Gur znkvzhz pnc sbe hfrshy raretl cebqhpgvba vf (fnzr ybtvp nf obneq tnzr "tb") vf rabhtu raretl perqvgf gb chepunfr sebz mreb gur zbfg raretljvfr rkcrafvir vgrz cre ghea sbe gur znkvzhz ahzore bs onfrf nyybjnoyr cre znc sbe rabhtu gvzr gb fheivir ntnvafg n znkvzhz ahzore bs bcgvzhz nggnpxref nf cbffvoyr cre ghea, be fgnonyvmr pbaqvgvbaf sbe tenifuvc/frn pbybalcbq/fhcresbezre nf arrqrq gb bpphcl nyy fcnpr gb pbagvahr znkvznyyl rkcrafvir cebqhpgvba sbyybjvat snfgrfg pvgr cebqhpgvba.


Raretl cebqhpgvba jbhyq or yvzvgrq ol greenva, beovgnyf, fhccyl pbaiblf.

Ubjrire, vg vf cbffvoyr gb vapernfr rpbabzl naq erfrnepu jvgu fcrpvnyvfgf.

Vg vf cbffvoyr gb rkprrq cbchyngvba jvgu fhccyl cbqf.

Gur tnzr yrgf lbh fgbpxcvyr znlor vasvavgryl znal pbybal cbqf cre ghea.


Gurer vf n dhrfgvba vs fgbpxcvyvat pbybal cbqf sbe znffvir fcrpvnyvfg obbfgf trarengrf zber guna gjvpr nf zhpu vapbzr obahf guna fgbpxcvyvat raretl.

Vs fb, vg vf bs zber inyhr gb gur rzcver gb ubneqr pbybal cbqf, gura nqq gurve cbchyngvba gb onfr ng fbzr zbzrag.

Bs pbhefr, gur onfr va rkprrqvat ahgevrag yvzvgf jvyy ortva fhssrevat cbchyngvba ybffrf cre ghea. (guvf qvfphffvba vf bofbyrgr vs cebqhpgvba vf naahyyrq sbe gheaf bs cbchyngvba ybff gb fgneingvba)



N znexrqyl fvzvyne tebjgu cnggrea vf qrfpevorq vafvqr gur tnzr'f fgbel vagreyhqrf ertneqvat zvaqjbezf:

"Nccneragyl gur shathf unf orra gur qbzvanag yvsrsbez ba gur cynarg fvapr nobhg
gur gvzr bs gur Ybjre Cnyrbmbvp ba Rnegu. Ohg vg unf orra ybpxrq va n gentvp plpyr.
Rirel uhaqerq zvyyvba lrnef be fb vg npuvrirf gur pevgvpny znff arprffnel gb orpbzr
fragvrag, ohg gur svany zrgnzbecubfvf xvyyf bss zbfg bs gur bgure yvsr ba gur cynarg.
Ynpxvat sbbq fbheprf naq gur znvagranapr vgf navzny flzovbgrf cebivqrq, gur shathf
pbhyq znvagnva bayl n oevrs frnfba bs tbqubbq orsber qlvat onpx vagb gur
'sybjre qernz' sbe nabgure uhaqerq zvyyvba lrnef. Vg nyjnlf npuvrirq vgf tbqyvxr
vagryyvtrapr whfg rknpgyl gbb yngr gb qb nalguvat gb cerirag gur qvronpx. Nsgre
gur qvronpx bayl inthr zrzbevrf naq ehqvzragnel vagryyvtrapr erznvarq, naq gur
plpyr pbagvahrq."


SMAC story quotes sourced from:
http://www.drivehq.com/file/df.aspx?isGallery=true&shareID=1669470&fileID=42825305


boivrhk?


(add: Gur qrfpevorq fpranevb cebivqrf zngrevny vapragvir gb "pbzzvg ngebpvgl". Gur rzcver'f tebjgu jvgu "vasvavgr ngebpvgl gung pbzcnengviryl engrf nf vasvavgrfvzny dhnagvgl bs gvzr bhg bs ngebpvgl" va gung fpranevb (ol bar cbffvoyr neevirq ng pnyphyngvba) vf terngre guna gur aba-ngebpvgl rzcver.

Na nygreangr cbffvoyr cebwrpgvba unf yrffne zngrevny orarsvg jvgu cbchyngvba fybhtuvat sebz znff pbybal cbq gb rpba fcrpvnyvfg "tebjgu oybbzf".)

Hey folks, maybe you already know about this, or if this is inappropriate to this forum.
This is a new game and is based on the old Alpha Centauri, and I think if you, liked AC as me, you might be interested in this new one.
I think of it, sort of an spiritual successor.
I've made a video with a preview and kind of showcase.

Link to video.

I hope this video is good enough, and I would like some feedback on it too.

For the moderators, if this is not the proper place, please remove or move the thread, sorry.

Thanks for posting the video. Very nice. This topic is suitable for the Alpha Centauri forum. In fact, we have a prior thread on the same subject. I'll merge this thread with the prior one just to keep everything in one place.

Those of you who wish to discuss Pandora without reference to Alpha Centauri may wish to use this thread in the All Other Games forum.

Civ5 done right?

Seriously, though, while at a glance it looks like a mod off the engine, if you can replicate the SMAC experience, this'll be the first game I'd actually be excited about in years.

Thorvald of Lym said:

Civ5 done right?

Seriously, though, while at a glance it looks like a mod off the engine, if you can replicate the SMAC experience, this'll be the first game I'd actually be excited about in years.

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What you mean Civ5 done?
I actually think this is totally different. Apart from the nice visual Civ5 has, its interface is horrible, after the release, lots of people complained how information-less and dumbed down Civ5 was, I'm not sure how it is in the current state.

I really don't think Pandora is going to replicate the SMAC experience, it does lack most of its lore, and with a team of about 5 developers and getting close to the release date.
Instead Pandora brings to the table amazing balance a strong strategy, something they already figured out in their previous game "Conquest" (video).
As, someone else already said, if they make Pandora mod-able enough, it will give way for others to come in and add more flavour/lore/schtufff to the game.
And another good thing, is that Pandora has been design with multiplayer in mind since the beginning, together with the strategic elements of the game its going to drive that side of the community a lot.

Heh, I'm afraid Civ5 has had such a negative impact on me at least, that when I saw the hexes I thought 'OMFG, SMAC with 1upt, no..!' Of course, from the video, I see it isn't 1upt, so eagerly looking forward to the release...

So it's supposed to be released today, but I can't find any site that sells it Has anyone else had more luck?

Snownova said:

So it's supposed to be released today, but I can't find any site that sells it Has anyone else had more luck?

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Here is a link:

http://www.slitherine.com/games/PandoraPC


Really looking forward to playing with this game!

D

Found it, turned out it wasnt released until 3PM GMT, so no wonder I couldn't find any buy links this morning

Anyway, I spent all evening playing it, and it's great fun. I really like the randomized tech tree, and I even set it to basicallyl be blind research. Also the global food and minerals are interesting, allowing for base specialization. And man have I missed the workshop (it's just a tiny notch below SMAC's, but still way above any Civ).

The only thing I miss is proper terraforming. The formers have basically the same functions as workers in Civ, instead of the awesome toolkit of SMAC's formers.

Maybe I'm wrong, but this game looks like if it's using the Civ5 graphics engine.

It does look like it, but on their forums they claim it's a custom built engine.