From: bgohari@wam.umd.edu (Babak Gohari)
Subject: Pax Imperia, 2nd impressions
Organization: University of Maryland, College Park
Date: Sat, 26 Dec 1992 16:13:34 GMT

Well, I've been playing Pax Imperia for a few days now, and I have a very good
feeling on how the game is.  Let me share it with those that have it and
those who are thinking of getting it:

1) The game is very buggy!  It's almost as if they couldn't finish the game in
time so they released their latest beta-copy.  I'm not kidding about this.  I
was worried that something like this might happen (which is the result of
announcing unreasonable dates of release).  I mean, I've had so many crashes 
(most of the bus errors), that I don't even know where to begin.  I've had
crashes in tech design, shield design, defense production.  And these have
nothing to do with my hardware (at least it shouldn't), and all but one of
my extensions have been turned off.

2) The game is very slow!  I'm not talking about the fact that it takes a long
time to get from system to system at the lower tech levels; I'm talking about
the overall game aspect.  Combat is slow, window redraws is VERY slow, you're
forced to watch combat between different players (although I can understand
why they did this - basically, since combat is relatively quick in game terms,
but takes just as long in real time, it's unfair to the combatants to fight
while the other players are moving around, so everyone watches the fights).
Other slow things are when you want to move fleets around.  Whenever you
want to select something, you have to hold the mouse button down for seconds
before it is selected.  Just simply too damn slow.

3) Many things are not described in the manual.  Like someone else said, what
the hell do yellow squares and red circles mean when you find enemy systems?
I guess it means if they have a planet, or a base (square for planet, red for
base).  But it is not described in the manual.  Then, how exactly do the      
different characteristics of the advisors, or even the the advisors themselves
help?  So far, the advisors are totally worthless.  They don't do crap!  If
they crapped, at least they'd be doing something.  I only get stupid messages
saying I've been attacked.  WHERE?!?  My exploration advisor simply puts up
a map of the game sector.  Ooh-ahh.  I mean, what's the point of advisors.
All I know is that as soon as I find other computer players, all I do is
quickly terminate them, and nothing seems to change much for them either.
Kinda stupid if you ask me.  And what's the point of bribing?

4) The game updates are very slow!  Whenever you change a window or do anything,
the information in the windows doesn't get changed until either a window-update
comes up or you force an update.  Extremely frustrating when you need to get
lots of information real quick.  Especially frustrating in combat.

Now, for the good points:
1) The game has the potential of being an awesome game.  If they fix a bunch
of things, the rest of the game is very fun.  It's a lot more realistic (if you
could call it that) than Spaceward Ho!, albeit it being much more complex.
The game could also be quite fun when they get the network multi-player working
right.

2) the fact that you can have as little or as much detail is very good.

3) the sounds, voices, and graphics are very good.

In conclusion,
I know that Changeling is small.  But that is no excuse for them for giving us
a beta version of their game for our money.  Right now, I'm debating whether
or not to return the game.  As it stands now, the version they have released
(1.01) really is not worth the money.  However, they claim that 1.2 is to
be released, and all registered users will get a free upgrade.  I'm not sure
if 1.2 will solve all the problems above.  Also, I'm not sure how long it'll
take Changeling to put out 1.2.  It may be another couple years?  At least a
couple months.  On the other hand, I would like to encourage Changeling and
other companies to make good software for the mac.  The people at changeling
obviously have great programmers and imagination.  Unfortunately, I think that
they picked too complex a game for their first one to write for.  Hopefully,
they'll fix Pax and put out some other equally impressive games.

-Bob