Slitherine

I tried searching for this information, but it doesn't seem to be available.

Does anyone know Proxy Studios update schedule for Pandora, or has one been stated ??
Does anyone know or has it been stated, whether there is a schedule to add much needed features, improvements and or adjustments ??

Thanks in advance ....

The continuous beta is addressing issues as they arise. They are concentrating on the diplomacy system, faction balancing and UI stuff. I saw a post where one of the programmers mentioned some stuff that might be waiting in the wings, but that the company had to decide what would roll out free and what would be in a paid expansion. They are only at a 1.1.7 beta version so I wouldn't expect many additions any time soon. What were you thinking about?

Even if I have to pay for it in an expansion, I want more factions! Six is not enough, by the mech era two are usually gone with another two fading fast. I would like to see at least ten so the game will have more enemies and allies to play with. The factions will last longer and take up more of the world. I play on a medium map and it rarely has enough cities on it to fill the map.

mugged wrote:The continuous beta is addressing issues as they arise. They are concentrating on the diplomacy system, faction balancing and UI stuff. I saw a post where one of the programmers mentioned some stuff that might be waiting in the wings, but that the company had to decide what would roll out free and what would be in a paid expansion. They are only at a 1.1.7 beta version so I wouldn't expect many additions any time soon. What were you thinking about?

The game, in its present form, doesn't offer much depth, diversity, or surprise. And after a few sessions the game-play becomes very predictable, which ultimately leads to staleness ...

So, I'm wondering if there are improvements on the horizon aside from what you stated, that would alter and or improve upon its current state. And (since you raised the topic) I don't think paid expansions is the right move at this point. Because that would imply that Proxy is adopting the same MO as other developers, by releasing a segmented game in which each portion is lacking but has a price tag attached. This method of delivery has historically only worked for the most sought after games, which have an involved and active fan-base.

"Pandora: First Contact is a science fiction 4X turn-based strategy game on a planetary scale – a spiritual successor to Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri."

"A spiritual successor, sometimes called a spiritual sequel, is a successor to a work of fiction which does not build upon the storyline established by a previous work as do most traditional prequels or sequels, but nevertheless features many of the same elements, themes, and styles as its source material."

Taking the previous two quotes in context, Pandora FC does not, in its present form, share the same elements, features or depth of game-play as its predecessors. I made the statement in a previous post on another topic, that Pandora has the updated graphics in its favor, but the depth of game-play and more importantly, the element of surprise is missing -- When compared to its predecessors. Now, the reason SMAC|AX becomes part of the conversation is because of the associations stated by Proxy Studios. So, it becomes a natural response to compare the past with the present offering.

Back on-topic and to the original question:
I'm really curious about the planned improvements scheduled for implementation and when the end-user can expect these changes.
Or, looking at this from a different angle, is what we have now, with the exceptions of bug squashing and improved diplomacy, the end-product?

Regards

I don't know of any published schedule. If there was one, I'd like to see it, or even a priority list.

Based on the comments here, some of you may be interested in THIS THREAD. It was posted before the release of the game, visible by the beta testers, but since then the entire beta forum was opened to the public and anyone can see it now. It lists a bunch of features and hints at some others.

That is just the half of it. The developers are really very active on the forums and answer all kinds of questions. They've made a lot of comments about things they are looking to implement in the near future and things that would be available in an expansion. There has been no official news of an expansion, but they were comfortable mentioning it. Stick around here in the forums for a while and you'll get more information on that stuff here and there.

arraamis wrote:
The game, in its present form, doesn't offer much depth, diversity, or surprise. And after a few sessions the game-play becomes very predictable, which ultimately leads to staleness ...

Back on-topic and to the original question:
I'm really curious about the planned improvements scheduled for implementation and when the end-user can expect these changes.
Or, looking at this from a different angle, is what we have now, with the exceptions of bug squashing and improved diplomacy, the end-product?

With deference to Slitherine, I agree with you arraamis. I think they've opted for stability over a buggy, depth filled game. I flip-flopped even getting the game because of the comparisons between Pandora and SMAC in reviews. It might be a spiritual successor but in depth of gameplay, it isn't up to snuff. I'm not sure if you're using SMAC as the measure for this game like I am, but there are some aspects that Pandora exceeds SMAC. I think Pandora's unit design beats SMAC's hands down. I'm disappointed in Pandora's terraforming and how terraforming/resource gathering interacts with base facilities. I'm playing the 1.1.2 stable because the beta version has changed the facilities to flat resources bonuses rather than the stables graduated bonuses. I was mystified that the facilities gave bonuses to overall resource production rather than raising the tiles overall productivity. I've avoided trying the beta because I already find resource production gruelingly slow, and without the graduated bonuses I think I'd pull my hair out. A lot of it is probably my lack of utilizing base specialization though. However, when I have tried base specialization bases seem to grow even slower than they already do.

Most of my problems with Pandora can probably be alleviated with a little modding. I've already screwed with forests a little, but it isn't quite right because it basically makes mines worthless. I think a lot of these things could be helped along with implementing a social engineering similar to SMAC (I'm hoping for one more complicated than SMAC though). Furthermore, I'd like to see expanded terraforming in two respects. I'd love to see a terraforming feature for gathering credits other than the gold tiles. Mostly though, I really want seaterraforming. Frankly, I'd settle for farms since anything else would require slitherine to also add sea tiles that have other resource bonuses.

I guess I'm wondering too what will be free through patches and what will be in the works for expansions. I think the expansion will probably follow SMACX quite a bit. Aliens, more techs (and their accompanying advancements) and factions. That being said, I'm hoping Slitherine will be benevolent give us sea-terraforming and social engineering somewhere between 1.1.8 and 1.9.9...assuming of course the expansion is 2.0. I'm going to head over to the beta forum and look again at the change log for 1.1.2 through 1.1.7.

mugged wrote: With deference to Slitherine, I agree with you arraamis.

You do realize that the game was produced by Proxy Studios right? Slitherine is only acting as a distributor.

Proxy have been doing nothing other than working on the game since release so they are always working on fixes and improvements. They are very close to releasing a big update!

We tend not to pre-announce patches as game development is a very hard thing to schedule. We will say if we are working on an issue if asked but not give a date for when it will be ready.

The balance is quite fine and we were concerned about any significant changes that might upset the fine balance achieved but we may look at more extreme changes. We are the publisher not the distributor which is quite a big difference. A distributor is just a shop but we help design, test, fund, market and promote the games as well as much more.

This "big update"... Are you referring to all the recent beta updates being converted into release version? or are you talking about more changes that the beta side hasn't seen yet? I hope it's the latter.