Saw an update for the game today, set to be released late spring and started the beta sign ups. Since I don’t do betas (don’t have the time) I’ll just wait until it’s released to see if it’s any good.
I’ve played the bet for an hour or two and really enjoyed it. Definitely has an AC flair.
So much pressure, which thread should I post in?!
Surprised that I hadn’t noticed this project before. It definitely looks intriguing and I’d love to give it a go. Does anyone know if the game will have a demo?
- Jon
P.S. It’s great to see my UI design conventions have become so… popular. ;)
I’d say post in this one, since it has the game name and such. Congrats on your Kickstarter, by the by! ;) Can you do a space 4x next? ;)
You are given 3 demerits for having a typo in the game name, though!
Oh wow, humorously enough, I had forgotten I created this thread. ;)
I’m interested in this game but given that it’s Matrix it means I’ll have to use whatever shitty distribution system they have, is that right? Or have they started releasing their games via other services now?
Not sure actually, since it’s primarily a Slitherine game.
Slitherine and Matrix merged a while back, so joint titles are available from both websites. It depends if you want to pay in Euros or real money. If by “shitty distribution system” KevinC is referring to Digital River, Matrix broke away from them a couple of years ago. All titles are bought and downloaded from the Matrix site, and the only DRM is a one-time serial key input.
Oh good. Yes, I was referring to Digital River and crap like limited time downloads and things of that nature.
What u didn’t patent the design and pull an Apple on them!?! You’ll destroy all incentives to innovate I tell u! ;)
You’re right, I really should have put the lockdown on that. For innovation.
- Jon
What specific UI improvements are we talking about here? Hiding the millions and millions of advanced actions inside other buttons? (I don’t know how to explain it, but the thing Civ 5 does with the >> arrows and the thing Civ3 did in later patches when it had 800 buttons for a unit).
Has the grid of this game been decided yet? As in the other thread there’s screenshots of both hexes and squares… Maybe they should try octagonal? ;)
The big one is a minimap and end turn button in the lower-right with notification icons above it. Another one I’ve noticed is the use of an icon followed by the name of something after it (e.g. with resources). I wouldn’t call either of these completely revolutionary, but they weren’t conventions that was terribly common before we released Civ 5. Don’t get me wrong, I really am glad to see improvements in strategy game UI. It just gives me a chuckle from time to time.
- Jon
Not to be a downer, but this was definitely my first reaction. If this game is set to follow the business model of Matrix, I’ll sadly resign myself to (probably) never playing it. I can barely stand Paradox’s pattern* of trickling out expansions that add just a hint (but a critically important hint) of game polish/refinement, with a seemingly endless stream of ‘complete’ and ‘super-complete’ editions.
It’s not that I don’t want these little studios to make money of course; it’s just that I’d rather wait until I can play the “Complete” experience instead of investing my time into playing the iterative product releases that slowly refine and enhance the game until it reaches its apex. (This is especially true if my early adoption puts me on a path where I’ll need to spend another $50-100 before I can get the ‘final’ product).
This lesson was ingrained in me over the many years of buggy PC releases with lots of hardware incompatibilities. Hardware issues and game-breaking bugs are less common now, which is great, but the current trend for many-mini expansions (i.e., DLC) has a similar deterrent effect for me on early adoption.
*(I’ve heard that Crusader King’s 2 broke the pattern with Paradox releasing a more polished and feature-complete initial product, but I still see that they’ve had tons of little DLC and other junk available in the first few months. So I’m still inclined to wait and play that game a couple years later, if and when it’s all condensed into a single simple purchase).
Well… Think we’ve had the minimap in bottom right since eu3 in 2007, and notifications above it was added for Victoria 2, which was released before civ5…
Yea but you forgot to put in an end turn button! ;)
*(I’ve heard that Crusader King’s 2 broke the pattern with Paradox releasing a more polished and feature-complete initial product, but I still see that they’ve had tons of little DLC and other junk available in the first few months. So I’m still inclined to wait and play that game a couple years later, if and when it’s all condensed into a single simple purchase).
good luck with avoiding everything that has some dlcs.
CK2 is in love with DLC but just about every 3 months you can pick up everything CK2 on Amazon for $10 (base + all expansions/widgets/music). So other than getting out of date as new stuff is released, I wouldn’t hold out on a GotY edition or anything. This is especially since I don’t think they’ll stop releasing DLC for it anytime soon, considering it’s been a runaway success for them.
Hello. Rok from Proxy Studios (developer) here.
Sadly, we don’t currently have plans for a demo, Jon.
Yup, we’re on hexes. Squares were from earlier in development. There is more info available at our website at http://pandora.proxy-studios.com which I notice hasn’t been linked yet. Though screenshot-wise, even those are outdated by now. We’ve been beta testing for more than half a year now, rolling for a release in November.
The big one is a minimap and end turn button in the lower-right with notification icons above it. Another one I’ve noticed is the use of an icon followed by the name of something after it (e.g. with resources). I wouldn’t call either of these completely revolutionary, but they weren’t conventions that was terribly common before we released Civ 5. Don’t get me wrong, I really am glad to see improvements in strategy game UI. It just gives me a chuckle from time to time.
- Jon[/QUOTE]
We definitely took the best things we could find or come up with. The interface in Civ 5 was immensely improved over Civ 4, the turn button in particular worked very well in my opinion. So we have that. With the added I-want-to-end-my-turn-and-I-don’t-care-if-I-have-idle-units button alongside it. But we also weren’t as persistent in hiding options like automate from workers or the production queue from the city screen – we’ve streamlined it into one screen so you can manage your queue and purchase with the least amount of clicks.
If it helps any, Pandora will be priced around $30-40, most of Slitherine/Matrix Games seem to be around that price point too, as well as other games far and wide; I’m not sure what you mean by the business model of Matrix – if it’s overpricing of niche historical games, Pandora isn’t historical or as niche. At least as far as Proxy Studios is concerned, if it goes well enough for an expansion, we would do that instead of mini expansions (i.e. DLC). Slitherine have actually been really great at giving us all the freedom to do Pandora how we want, all while giving us financial support.
Hope you guys get to try it out and enjoy it when the time comes!