Pandora: First Contact (Civ, SMAC & Beyond Earth like game)

Hey guys, i have to share this with all civ fanatics out there.
This is a sort of Alpha Centauri and Beyond Earth inspired game, its being developed and is currently in beta stage.
There hasn't been a game like this in ages and I'm looking forward to it.




Edit: My preview video of the game



They also have another strategy game called 'Conquest Divide and Conquer', that is simple and quick:

Its Slitherine game, looks ok

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/03/26/impressions-pandora-first-contact/

FriendlyFire said:

Its Slitherine game, looks ok

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2013/03/26/impressions-pandora-first-contact/

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Nice preview, Slitherine it self is the publisher and i do not know much about it.
The other game from from the devs has awesome balance and playability, you should try it out.
I signed my self for the next wave of beta testers, i'm looking forward to making a preview about it too.

This game seems extremely promising so far. Loads of strategy and trade off choices, combined with great 4X elements and TBS. This game smells quality from what I see of beta gameplay on Youtube. Count me in!

It looks nice from the stills, but i don't like full 3d tbs games :/

Alpha Centauri was great though.

Hey folks, I've made a video with preview trying to showcase the game:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlrllbOLqQk

I been waiting for more info on this game thank you!

According to this page, Pandora: First Contact is scheduled to be released today (Nov. 14). The manual may be downloaded here.

I played it all last night and it's a very nice game.

I will start a new modding project to add the missing content to pandora to make it real SMAC successor. Anyone interested in participate????

Nobody???

Perhaps you can post about your project on Slitherine's Pandora forum. The forum seems to be active and I see some other posts about modding.

Just saw that this is now out - verdict so far? I looked at the trailer and have a hankering to play Alpha Centauri for the first time in years. Not so sure about the plethora of fantasy monsters - half of the preview shots look more like the Starcraft II: Heart of the Swarm campaign than Alpha Centauri. The preview also suggests the game is very heavily combat-focused; is that right?

First glance at the manual suggests AC's unit creation system is back, which makes me somewhat nervous - this was always the weakest, most poorly-balanced, and gimmicky feature of AC, and required unnecessary micromanagement just to design the same optimal unit (i.e. a fast buggy chassis with the best weapon you'd unlocked attached to it) every game; it always felt to me like a populist insertion to cash in on Master of Orion, and did not sit very well with Civ-style combat.

I will start a new modding project to add the missing content to pandora to make it real SMAC successor. Anyone interested in participate????

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What sort of content is missing?

PhilBowles said:

First glance at the manual suggests AC's unit creation system is back, which makes me somewhat nervous - this was always the weakest, most poorly-balanced, and gimmicky feature of AC, and required unnecessary micromanagement just to design the same optimal unit (i.e. a fast buggy chassis with the best weapon you'd unlocked attached to it) every game; it always felt to me like a populist insertion to cash in on Master of Orion, and did not sit very well with Civ-style combat.

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What??? My point of view...this was one of the best featers in a 4x Game ever...

The preview also suggests the game is very heavily combat-focused; is that right?

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Thats right...

What sort of content is missing?

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Secret Projects for example...
But you schould play it, its a nice game, but different to AC...

One Screenshot of the work wich is done...
The Moddingproject has started...

Monaldinio said:

What??? My point of view...this was one of the best featers in a 4x Game ever...

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The problem wasn't with the idea - that sort of customisation is indeed one of the best features of a 4x game; it's the principal reason the first two Master of Orion games were both so good and so fondly remembered. The problem is, it's an extremely bad fit for a Civilization game, which lacks a tactical combat system and has a grand total of three stats. For anyone who, like me, came to Alpha Centauri from MOO, it was a particularly disappointing implementation.

The AC system is similar to a system in a recent 4x space game called Endless Space: you unlock modules in the tech tree that add +1 to your weapons, armour, or shields, and the system does the fighting for you. Endless Space is not a very good game, in large part because like most space 4xes (including MOO) - and unlike Alpha Centauri for the most part - it is heavily combat-focused, and its combat and customisation systems are so poor (for some reason, nearly every space 4x - despite keeping ship customisation - has long since lost a tactical combat system, including Master of Orion 3. It's why games like Galactic Civilizations aren't as fondly remembered or, frankly, as good as the game that inspired them. These games seem to miss the point that most of the fun of outfitting your ships with missiles rather than graviton beams, or with black hole generators, was so that you could actually fire those missiles and black hole generators yourself).

But more than that, functionally the AC system was entirely redundant, which is why I describe it as needless micromanagement. Compare with Civ 2 - a Warrior had stats something like 2/1/1, a spear was 1/2/1, a horseman 3/1/3, that sort of thing. Now, Civ 2 could just have implemented a generic 1/1/1 Warrior, and different techs unlocked an axe (+1 strength), a spear (+1 armour) or a horse (+2 movement), but what purpose would it have served? You just force the player to spend time building the same 1/2/1 spearman design every time they start a new game simply in order to have a unit the system as implemented does for you.

The AC customisation seems cool at first, which is why it's a gimmick, but then you realise it simply isn't adding anything to gameplay but makework, and you're always making the same 6/1/3 buggies in every playthrough anyway, and so just unlocking a 6/1/3 buggy unit would be a lot more convenient and would lose no functionality.

Been giving the game a whirl and I must say I like it so far. It gives you enough to build while teching, should've probably been a bit more aggressive but eh, I took the pacifist faction to start with. The game could do with a few more factions, but my main complaint is the minimap, it's too damn blurry to use for easy and quick navigation, which is one thing CiV has done amazingly right.
I like it so far. Fun to toy around with, thats for sure.

PhilBowles said:

These games seem to miss the point that most of the fun of outfitting your ships with missiles rather than graviton beams, or with black hole generators, was so that you could actually fire those missiles and black hole generators yourself).

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This should really be glued to the entrance of every 4X developer's offices. If you want to have ship customization, you have to let the human use that customization. Then humans can develop specific tactics to take advantage of strengths and weaknesses of their ships. If it's all going to be automated anyways, you might as well just choose the optimal ship layouts for automated combat while you're at it.

coanda said:

This should really be glued to the entrance of every 4X developer's offices. If you want to have ship customization, you have to let the human use that customization. Then humans can develop specific tactics to take advantage of strengths and weaknesses of their ships. If it's all going to be automated anyways, you might as well just choose the optimal ship layouts for automated combat while you're at it.

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On that subject, has anyone had any experience with Horizon? It's showing as now available on Steam, and supposedly features tactical combat.

After Endless Space, I'm not going to buy another space 4x on impulse because they're thin on the ground and reviewers seem to like the previews.

PhilBowles said:

After Endless Space, I'm not going to buy another space 4x on impulse because they're thin on the ground and reviewers seem to like the previews.

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Link to video.

Opinions on SPUF are pretty negative though about the game's AI, gameplay, and graphics.

Sonereal said:

Link to video.

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Thanks - it definitely looks more faithful to the MOO series than other recent offerings (down to the news bulletins, tech selection screens and currency notation), though the interface seems a bit clumsy.

Opinions on SPUF are pretty negative though about the game's AI, gameplay, and graphics.

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Well, that covers most things... The graphics at least beat Distant Worlds or Galactic Civilizations II, but the rest could be dealbreakers. Still, that video was from an alpha and a PC Gamer critique I read was of the beta, so I don't have much to go on for the final version.