It sounds like you might like Sword of the Stars. It has some of these features. It is a very combat focused 4X game with tactical RTS battles.

Thanks! I try to be thorough.

Thanks guys!

There are also notification icons when they come into sight range, right?

There are little icons on the right side when your units get attacked. If you click on one it brings you to that attack. You can click on each one that you want to see. Or did I misunderstand your request?

You have to rely on the tooltips and hint messages to learn how to play the game. It is unfortunate. With a little effort the game is pretty easy to understand, the tooltips and hint messages will probably get you 90% of the way there.

The fungus adds pollution, not reduces it. Forests reduce pollution.

<t> Being an ex-developer (not in games), my guess is that they are taking a bit of time off. Completing a project usually requires a big push at the end, people end up getting overworked. It would be nice if they posted a message such as, 'we all need a rest so don't expect to hear much from us for ...

<r> I've had games where the AI is very peaceful and also where it is aggressive. I think it is reluctant to declare war with you if you have a stronger military. If you've been friendly and aren't weak I think it seems inclined to stay friendly. You can always choose to go attack someone, no need ...

Did you have a non aggression pact with them at all? When that is terminated I think there is a 5-10 turn waiting period before war can be declared.

ORIGINAL: Flaviusx

Good review and I agree with pretty much everything you said in it.

Thanks!

<r>
<QUOTE><s>[quote]</s>ORIGINAL: First_Contact<br/>
<br/>
Hello there, I can only comment on the music side of things as I was indeed the music composer for the game. My idea was to not distract the player from the game too much, as you know if your going to play the game for hours you want ...

<r> If you're interested, you can find it here: <URL url="http://www.oneguytoomanygames.com/2013/11/pandora-first-contact-review.html"><LINK_TEXT text="http://www.oneguytoomanygames.com/2013/ ... eview.html">http://www.oneguytoomanygames.com/2013/11/pandora-first-contact-review.html</LINK_TEXT></URL ...

<t> I think Pandora is a solid 4X 'Civilization-type' game. It adds some new ideas while leaving out some others. It does feel lighter than say Civ IV, but I think there is room for Civ IV and Pandora on someone's hard drive. Sometimes it is nice to play something a little different. There are some ...

While I do find the lack of a real manual poor, I was able to learn and play effectively without one. I would have preferred to read the manual first. Between the hint messages and the tooltips I'd say 85-90% of the game is covered.

Black hole generators are awesome. I used them to wipe of 6 enemy cities in the blink of an eye. That really increased my military victory % because of the massively decreased world population.

<r>
<QUOTE><s>[quote]</s>ORIGINAL: GrumpyMel<br/>
<br/>
Is there any mechanical difference between selecting an entire stack to attack an enemy stack and selecting each unit in a stack individualy to attack the same enemy stack aside from giving the player more control over the order of combat ...

<t> Each faction will get one of those messages when they reach 75% progress, so whoever got the message first is in the lead. I made the mistake of thinking the progress indicator (displayed as a tooltip over the research tab) only had to get to 75% instead of 100%, but it does have to get to 100 ...

There is a warning of sorts for the research victory. When a faction reaches 75% progress towards the goal, there is a message about the faction achieving lots of scientific breakthroughs.

<r>
<QUOTE><s>[quote]</s>ORIGINAL: SephiRok<br/>

<QUOTE><s>[quote]</s>ORIGINAL: Velihopea<br/>
The population required to grow the city seems to scale based on something. What is it? Number of cities/population/somethingelse?
<e>[/quote]</e></QUOTE>
The growth required to grow a city scales ...