Thoughts after first game

[Solaristics]

I just had my first play through, and overall my views are generally positive, but I hope things develop more as the game matures with patches and expansions.

Things I liked:
Operations
Migration
City specialization
Use of hexes rather than squares
Stable (no glitches or crashes)
Decent graphics

Dislikes:
No mechanism for restricting ICS as far as I could tell
AI not very challenging
Victory conditions a bit uninspiring

Mixed:
- Clean interface, but couldn't always find what I wanted (e.g. breakdown of current army maintenance cost), and lots of text rather than graphics (e.g. showing diplomatic relations between players as text, rather than using visual representations).
- The theme was generally good, but it didn't really come alive for me in the way it did in SMAC (at least with rose-tinted hindsight), particularly once the aliens were dealt with in the early game.


I guess my one major concern is that I got to turn 200, moving at a fairly leisurely pace, and after wiping out the military faction I was on 60% of a military victory and lost interest in finishing the game. The AI didn't put up much of a fight, and so it just felt like going through the motions to finish it off. I also didn't feel under any pressure throughout the game. I was playing on medium/medium, so I'll up it to hard next time and see what its like.

Overall, though, I definitely support this project and look forward to seeing it improve and mature. It looks like it was developed by a three person team (?), so it is pretty impressive work.

[aaatoysandmore]

Thanks for the review, the ai is what had me on the fence and after reading your review I just don't want another game where one just goes thru the motions and the ai just delays you and doesn't pound you. I'll see if I can find something else to get (besides an Ageod game which supposedly has a great ai, but, I don't enjoy the gameplay or mechanics of those games).

[Solaristics]

I also want to point out that the developers seem very active, as I notice the beta is up to version 1.1.0 and has added some not insignificant features (resource trading and city-based taxation). I'm giving this beta a try now on the harder settings.

[aaatoysandmore]

Well let us know how it goes.

[aaatoysandmore]

hrmmm I just read the ai aggression thread and that kinda contridicts your views. Now it's really got me wondering which is which. The ai sounds awesome in the ai agression thread but dead as a doornail in your review. How many games have you played? Also what difficulty? Anything below hard is usually easy to beat, so if you were on normal that changes everything.

I was playing on medium/medium, so I'll up it to hard next time and see what its like

Oh I totally missed that ^ above. So that really does change everything. Normal or Medium settings on games are never challenging like most players want. I always play on the hardest settings right off the bat. Usually normal or medium settings are for kids and even lower settings than that are for like 6-8 year olds from my gaming experience. So I might have to get this game afterall from reading the ai aggression thread.

[Solaristics]

Difficulty in this game only gives the AI morale bonuses, not anything else.

I read the AI aggression thread and experiences seem to differ somewhat for some of the posters. The AI was very passive for me and that was either due to the fact that I had a very big and powerful military, so they were scared of me, or because I was running the release version (1.02) and perhaps the other posters were using the beta patches.

Since the morale bonuses lead to production bonuses, and this would translate into bigger armies for the AI in most cases compared to normal, it might be that bigger AI armies mean the AI feels it can be more aggressive.

In any case, my comments were based on one play, which had a very passive AI. Let's see what happens on the higher levels with the latest beta patch.

[eyegore]

I've played a few games and have never seen a passive A.I....until I get a significant lead on military and tech. I think the faction combo also has some things to do with it. Depending on who your playing and what A.I. are left. If the factions are dropping and getting eliminated by an A.I. player he'll get to you to, however if they are getting hammered by the planet then your get a significant edge...cranking up native aggression too much can result in that...especially if you pair it with Playing the Ecologic faction.

It plays very well once at war...I think the fault lies in what triggers it. If the A.I. is weaker it should for example form Alliances to even things up and attack.

[Tac2i]

So far in five games I've yet to win once. In a couple of games I did fairly well but loss to science victory. In my last game Xi stomped my butt. I'm no novice to wargames but I guess I haven't got the hang of this one. Having fun playing and I'll stay at it till I win.

[Solaristics]

Just to update my experience, I'm about 150 turns into my second game playing on the hard setting and hostile alien setting using the latest beta patch.

I decided to play the Eco faction as they looked the weakest, certainly for my play style at least. It has been perpetual warfare since turn 36. Three different factions have declared war at different times, although I was at war with two at one time at one point.

The AI plays very aggressively and sends streams of troops towards cities. Not sure how intelligent it is being (I mean, I'm undecided at this point), but it is producing a lot of units.

So, a completely different experience to my first play through. Not sure if it is the beta patch or the morale bonus for the difficulty level (which I understand is the only difference between the difficultly levels), but the AI is producing A LOT of units, and I'm not sure if a morale bonus could have such a dramatic effect.