Pandora: First Contact gets new update

[Martok]

Announcement


Man, I guess I really lost track of this game for a while, as it appears the update was actually released last month.  :-[  Still, better to find out late than never!  Looks like I'll be playing this in addition to my other games this weekend.  :) 

[bbmike]

Gah! I almost forgot completely about this game. I have way too many games.   :o

[Steelgrave]

ANNND I have to fire it up again. We're all soooo predictable   ;D

[Martok]

Yes, yes we are.  :P 



By the by, here's the itemized list of changes: 

Added:
* Advancements now have a production component.
* AI now refits units.
* Added desert vegetation.
* Added operation images.
* Added new territory feature images.
* Added escape key to updater to skip update.
* Added space, enter and numpad enter keys to updater to download update.
* Added ability to queue any uncovered technology for research.
* Added ability to modify players slots in the game lobby after loading a game.
* Added ability to start a game without any other players.
* Morale from difficulty can now be set in the WorldParameters.xml.
* Added healthDamage attribute to promoteUnits to allow modding Field Training damage.

Changed:
* AI factions and aliens now destroy improvements and roads again.
* Building improvements and cities, as well as removing forests, fungus and hives now increases alien aggression (alienAggressionOnAdd, alienAggressionOnRemove in feature xmls).
* Colonization Fervor now spawns where it is produced, consumes a colonist and also provides a colonial trooper.
* Formers no longer suffer damage from fungus after completing the fungus cultivation advancement.
* Moved Xenology from the second subtier to the first.
* City tax rates are now capped at 100%.
* New texture for cluster explosions.
* Diplomacy panel now displays score of other factions as text and relative to the player.
* Improved AI for troop allocations.
* Improved multiplayer loading.
* Dialogue panel in multiplayer no longer automatically closes.
* Moved chat to the top to avoid being over the battle panel.
* Spacebar no longer closes the dialogue panel.
* Credits, food, minerals, production and research buildings now give a constant bonus of +2 instead of +2/+4/+8.
* Field Training now increases the rank only up to 5.
* Increased Field Training from 10% health damage to 40%.
* Field Training no longer affects units below the damage amount.
* Doubled Field Training cost from 16 to 32.
* Improved promotion agent to properly take into account damage and the rank cap.
* Improved cloning center agent.
* Reduced amount of ruins.
* Doubled growth produceable gain.
* Improved high-dpi support.

Fixed:
* Fixed game pace not having an effect on alien aggression against AI factions.
* Fixed that diplomacy options could be chosen repeatedly under certain circumstances.
* Fixed declare war not canceling open borders.
* Fixed improve ecoregion icon.
* Fixed occasional crash when improving ecoregion.
* Fixed being able to exploit the Plantary Market to gain infinite money.
* Fixed Wealth giving 3 credits per production instead of 2.
* Fixed water units in a city not being displaced after the city disappears.
* Fixed Golden Age effects not being seen the first turn.
* Fixed Golden Age being produceable more than once.
* Fixed language issues.
* Fixed aliens sometimes not moving.
* Fixed crash when changing display modes in the game lobby panel.
* Fixed welcome report being displayed multiple times in multiplayer games.
* Fixed chat input getting unfocused at certain events.
* Fixed unit being deselected when selecting a dialogue option that closes the dialogue panel.
* Fixed incorrect change log being displayed when going from release to beta with the German written language.
* Fixed English change log not being displayed when written language is neither English nor German.
* Fixed being able to research a technology without meeting its requirements.
* Fixed changing resolutions sometimes not working.
* Fixed game pace not being taken into account for former work duration.
* Fixed crash when clicking on an eliminated contact in the diplomacy panel.
* Fixed text pasting adding a character at the end.
* Fixed diplomacy being disabled after victory.
* Fixed not being able to unqueue technologies.
* Fixed being able to unselect queued technologies that are required for other queued technologies.
* Fixed faction eliminated event triggering before all units are killed.
* Fixed menu screen not always playing menu music.
* Fixed intro cinematic playing when loading turn 1 from inside a game.
* Fixed some German translation inconsistencies.
* Minor fixes.

[PanzersEast]

Has anyone been playing this?  I won this back in the winter but have yet to play.  I was hoping some things would be added and fixed before I played.  I am wondering how the game is now.


PE

[eyebiter]

.

[Martok]

Supposed to be a big announcement in mid April.  Wonder if Matrix plans to put this title on Steam?

That's what I was wondering too.  I suppose it could be an announcement regarding expansions/DLC, but even by today's standards, it would still be awfully soon for that. 

[Martok]

...And another update is out!  Looks pretty beefy. 

Download and apply the update by launching Pandora.

NOTE: Saved games from previous versions are not compatible with this version.

This free update adds substantial new features and content. Among them are the ability for formers to harvest tiles, raise and lower land, as well as several new construction options. Diplomacy has been improved with the possibility of asking other factions to declare war or offer peace to third parties. Alliances are now more meaningful through shared vision. Multiplayer support has also been improved with drop-in functionality and the ability to reconnect to games. Thanks to community member and player, Puxxup, this update also comes with a brand new Italian translation.

Those are just some of the highlights. Please see below for the full list of changes, including balance tweaks and fixes.

Added:
* Added new Former improvements: Suburb, Purifier, Construction Bay, Field Laboratory and Energy Park, unlocked through the new Pandoran Construction technology in the Colonization Era.
* Added ability for Formers to harvest food and minerals from territories, unlocked through the new Remote Autonomous Harvesting technology in the Colonization Era.
* Added ability to raise and lower terrain, unlocked through the new Terraforming technology in the Mechanization Era.
* Added diplomacy option to demand war declaration or peace offer to third party.
* Added shared vision between allies.
* Added ability to (re)connect to a running multiplayer game. Games will stay listed in the game browser while running.
* Added new multiplayer game option "Drop-In" to allow joining players to take over disconnected and AI players after the game has started.
* Added toggle yield overlay button.
* Added stories from the manual to the in-game compendium (storyID attribute in xmls).
* Added Italian translation thanks to Puxxup.
* Added option to specify a time limit for the turn duration.
* Added option to set alliances before the start of the game by assigning teams.
* Added spectator mode.
* Added automation settings for new improvements.

Changed:
* Increased technology costs scaling.
* Changed negative food to decrease growth instead of sharply applying a negative growth.
* Doubled maximum rank from 10 to 20.
* Modifying features is no longer allowed inside other players' borders unless at war.
* City no longer provides +1 food and +1 minerals.
* Light biological ground units now have -25% power on plains.
* Airborne units now have +25% power vs ground units on plains.
* Improved battle panel clarity.
* Reduced upkeep for experience and defense buildings from 2 to 1.
* Increased ATV sight range from 2 to 3.
* Multiplayer now requires same game version.
* Doubled connection timeout from 60 seconds to 120 seconds.
* Updated engine backend.
* Tweaked language.
* Minor tweaks and fixes.

Fixed:
* Fixed spitters and AI controlled artillery not attacking.
* Fixed AI producing too cheap units and buildings on epic and marathon game pace.
* Fixed hints for former orders not always showing correct turn durations.
* Fixed automated formers using terraforming options that aren't available yet.
* Fixed spectators crashing when a player is eliminated.
* Fixed apostrophes in certain language values crashing the game.
* Fixed crash when selecting to load a single player spectator game.
* Fixed auto-cycle selecting the next idle unit on turn start when in a city.
* Fixed aircraft getting extended sight in forts and observatories.
* Fixed wrapping issues in the battle panel.
* Fixed fanatic friendly to neutral transition cinematic.
* Fixed colonists disappearing due to missing available slots.
* Fixed "Could not initialize game." issues.

Removed:
* Removed obsolete reward attribute from technology xmls.

[Rayfer]

Wow...might be time to fire this one up again.

[Steelgrave]

Thanks for the update, Martok  :)

[tgb]

Is it my imagination, or is the zoom way too close with this new patch?  I felt like I just couldn't pull back far enough.

[Anguille]

I was supposed to make a preview of the game back then but couldn't run it on my laptop...now with my new pc and the recent updates, i think i'll buy it. Looking good.

[Jarhead0331]

I'll be getting this when it drops on steam.