Pandora First Contact - a Alpha Centauri spiritual successor

So I first heard about this on RPS and for good reason :P Turns out that Slitherine aka company that published the game is rather obscure. Apparently they have "No DRM" stand like gog do and they seem to do a lot of strategy games, mostly historical though there is one fantasy one and Distant Worlds which is 4x game. Apparently they are considering steam release though, but have no other distribution plans since they are happy with their system since it apparently works well enough for them :P Doesn't really help to make them less obscure though since I never heard of them before RPS

Anyway, I want to ask if anybody knows whether this game is good or not and whether Slitherine's other games are worth it? I'm curious about their non historical strategy games.

I wouldn't get it. I got it and it's the worst money I've spent in a long time. I can't get it to start a new game, no matter what I've do I get the same error where it says that applications or antivirus is causng a conflict.

Well, I turned of my antivirus: Nothing I allowed everything related to the game through my firewall: Nothing I tried to update every single driver (all were already up to date): Nothing A whole other slew of things: Nothing.

After wishing that everyone related to the game would be forced into bankruptcy, and that they never be allowed to work in anything related to video games, I quit.

edited 29th Jan '14 5:37:59 PM by Inkidu

While your frustrations with getting the game to run are understandable, you can't honestly judge the game until you've actually played it. That being said, are you the only one experiencing this issue, or have a bunch of other folks had issues getting it to run as well?

Reason why I'm asking is because I'm honestly curious about the game, and would'nt mind giving a test demo a run if I could.

You sure can judge a game and company by their inability to make a game actually work. It is not a one-for-one thing. Games are not judged on gameplay alone. I tried to see if I was the only one, and I might be but their forums are also maddeningly unhelpful. I'm just warning against paying good money for a game that doesn't even function. it's version 1.1.2. That's release, I should be able to play it on year-old computer and I can't, so the problem is on their end.

Have you asked help on their forum/developers if forum goers are being fanboyish(or are you literally the only one who it doesn't work for?)? .-. I'd rather get info on how game works than on how hard it is to start it

edited 30th Jan '14 7:56:55 AM by SpookyMask

They told me to update my drivers. Ultimately they told me to go take a walk.

EDIT: If you want there are plenty of reviews. I found they averaged out to fair to middling.

edited 30th Jan '14 9:18:26 AM by Inkidu

Huh? Did you get angry at them or something? .-. Or is that euphenism for "Get out"?

Oh okai

edited 30th Jan '14 9:18:44 AM by SpookyMask

I told them my drivers were all up to date on a laptop that was about a year old. They just didn't have anything. I couldn't give them any logs because I had no games. So they just assume it's something on your end.

Besides their pricing is nutso. They'll tell you "they going against the norm" but I hardly think it's that. That's Matrix Games though the publish/distributor.

EDIT: I forked it over to my brother who got it to work on Windows 8.1 no problem. I have 7 and meet the minimum system requirements by far. I have no background applications and it doesn't work.

Yeah, I quit. I guess it just hates me.

EDIT: Further compounding my confusion. It works on my older-than-dirt desktop. I run window's task manager on my laptop and there are no applications running, I shut down all non-primary processes... still nothing. I can at least play it now, unless its framerate tanks. :P

EDIT: Now that I've actually played the game I find it fun and very Alpha Centauri-like. I don't know how borders work (if they expand or not) and I wish there were more factions, but it does have a lots of customization options. You can make a unit for just about everything, and you can name them whatever you want (I haven't hit a character limit, but I haven't tried). I'm not exactly certain what sets Pandora apart yet, but I'm a little well-salted after the hassle I had (still doesn't work on my laptop, I play it on my dinosaur).

EDIT: So I probably should make a new posts, but eh.

Anyway I played a game on easy (which is more like normal since the only thing it grants is the AI factions get no morale bonus) with normal xenofauna. The other factions are not your main concern as far as I'm concerned. The xenomorphs will swarm your cities. I lost because they will bring Pandora's almighty wrath down on you. I didn't get tanks fast enough I suppose, because they were slaying my AT Vs and troopers. My capital fell. That poor sniper team...

I don't like that all the factions are basically jerk-wads. In Alpha Centauri each faction had their good points and bad points. In Pandora they're all tools.

edited 1st Feb '14 6:13:09 AM by Inkidu

Huh, someone else also made thread about this, but it got only one other post so they didn't even notice this one already existed? Funny.

Anyway huh first time I see someone actually mentioning this game.

So who are the factions and what the aliens are like? They seem to be bug ones from what I've seen in pics

Anyhoo, so this game is now on steam? And I see it has gotten expansion of sorts. I guess in order to include something like Manifold from Alien Crossfire?