Return of the Messari

[Stuie]

So what's this about in the Steam shop description?

On 30 May, the ancient Messari will return to Pandora with all their might. Build up your army and fortify your garrisons to withstand the greatest challenge in the history of mankind.

[boulugre]

This should be the new alien faction, dev's have mentioned several time they were working on it.

[Stuie]

This should be the new alien faction, dev's have mentioned several time they were working on it.

Well call me tentatively excited. My hesitation being whether or not some of the game's basic flaws are addressed alongside adding a new major component.

Basic stuff that needs work:
- World Generation options are simplistic to the point of being almost non-existant. Islands/Continents/Pangea plus choice of size. That's pretty much it. This drives replayability down immensely, and is my number one problem with the game. If they don't want to do anything about this, they should at very least give us access to the parameters and let players make their own map scripts. This is such a basic thing for a 4x game nowadays.
- Moddability is lacking. Sure you can do some basic stuff like add factions or tweak some terrain modifiers, but again for a game like this to shine it needs good mods. And for good mods, you need more support for modding. The XML files currently available are pretty much lip service to modding; nothing really interesting can be accomplished.
- The factions are meh. Cut and paste SMAC factions lacking the personality of the original.
- I feel like I stumble into victory conditions. No clear way to see progress toward the different victory types, or even what those victory types are.
- Diplomacy seems to be a one-way street - the AI spirals down one path or another (it keeps loving you or keeps hating you more and more).
- Late game aliens are just a speed bump. It would be better if the aliens ranked up as the game progressed to keep them challenging. I guess the Messari address this? I'll withhold judgement.
- Unit customization is ok - but often comes down to "put the best available thing in each slot".