Impressions and suggestions after 3 games and one playthrough

[Velihopea]

On general the game is very good (9-).

++ Global resources = You REALLY can (and should) specialize cities.
+ Gameplay is really smooth, even in late game armageddons (CIV5 is a loser in comparison)
+ UI is clear
+ Not a bug encountered
+ Native life forms are represented interestingly
+ Tech tree is large, but understandable, love the randomization
+ Unit customization works well
+ Operations are nice new idea

- Pandora is a bit more combat focused than SMAC
- Native lifeforms are erased by midgame,in SMAC they were a challenge a lot longer
- Research victory is bland

Few suggestions for future:
* Random events! Events would bring more life to the game (native lifeform spawns etc)
* Native life forms should play a role throughout the game (with possibly an alien related victory condition)
* Fungus could spawn native lifeforms if travelled
* Unique pictures of the lifeforms encountered would add flavor
* Unique techs attached to some alien structures (nothing OP though)
* The AI seems a bit passive and everybody seems to like each other in mid-late game
* AI concentrates its troops too much to cities, where the 30 unit stacks are very vulnerable to operations (nuclear,black hole generator)
* Terraforming seems to come quite late in the tech tree
* Research victory needs to be remade (with some love)
* Some faction specific techs / buildings would differentiate factions a bit more

[Undecided]

Adding onto that list of suggestions:

* Water tiles are useless for cities, and need to be fixed. Since sea tiles have neither researched upgrades nor improvements, a single land tile can be worth as many as three or four sea tiles by late game. I actually go out of my way to avoid coastal tiles because of this.

* Fungus seems a bit overpowered due to research. Their output outstrips mines for mineral production, farms for food production, and they even get a pollution cleanup point to boot! On top of all that, it can effectively create a protective wall around your territory! Aside from tiles they need road in them, there's literally no other reason to build any other tile type besides fungus during the late game.

* Lack of variety for buildings. Resource structures all follow the same cookie cutter +25%, +50%, +100% pattern. It seems unimaginative and gives zero depth in terms of strategy. Maybe consider adding some structures that give bonuses based on population, or the number of forest/sea/desert/whatever tiles within a city's radius.

[robc04_1]

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

[eyegore]

My two requests have to do with being able to see what's going on. As it is...say your late game on a huge map. you have 12 cities and war is declared. You hit end turn. You see only what ever happens where you camera is at...I would really like to see A.I. moves that are within my sight. And i'd like to see messages reduced to an icon I must open so even if my camera view is there to witness an attack it's not obscured by a window "I'm being praised".

[robc04_1]

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?

[eyegore]

That icon takes you to the event "after the fact" and is not exactly tracking A.I. moves.It offers little more than taking me to a place something happened I missed. I want to see A.I. moves...them approaching and attacking....if they are in view range so i at least can see exactly how many and from what direction they came.

[robc04_1]

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

[mikeCK]

Erm, in though I read in the manual that fungus has the benefit of reducing pollution. Why would a native plant create pollution. Pollution depends I the amount if production (I thought)

[eyegore]

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

Yes....sometimes. if they have to make a second move turn to attack.But often times they appear and attack in one move. Also in late game you may have 3 or more cities being attacked per turn. Your not see all. in fact if a window pops up to obscure your view...happens almost half the time...your not see any. If your camera is not on any cities being attacked your not see it either. We really need the "show A.I. moves" option and we need to kill window pop ups. Huge maps with multiple cities is almost impossible to keep an eye on what's happening.