It always pissed me off that the CPU pirates got the "pay me cash to travel in these waters or I'll attack you" method of extorsion, but as far as I can tell, there's no way to reproduce that when playing the pirates.
Isn't that basically "pay me money or vendetta" extortion, since the pirates are pretty much only a threat on water? You can do it, it's just the CPU usually is poor as hell and/or doesn't give a shit.
Just started playing this; from what I've played (a couple short games as the Gaians) it's pretty damn awesome. I'm afraid that the awesomeness of commanding an army of psychic worms may stop me from trying the other factions though, as tempting as Zakharov and Morgan look.
38thDoelets never be stupid againwait lets always be stupid foreverRegistered Userregular
edited May 2011
If I remember correctly with enough Secret Projects and base upgrades you can breed fairly ridiculous swarms as pretty much anyone, depending on what government choices you make. I don't usually go for energy victory even as Morgan because it doesn't feel as fulfilling as the others, which usually lets me have a nice Psi bonus. I have to reinstall this now.
I liked their ideals of caring for the environment and all that jazz. Just, you know it's possible to be super pro-environment/sentient planet and still take regular baths/refrain from actual physical intimacy with trees.
Not if you were the Gaians.
I actually didn't mind the "Hippie" trait involved--my only real dislike of the Gaians comes from my generally hatred of mindworms. Don't get me wrong, they're a great strategic edge if you can capture them, but every description of them in the games not from the Gaians basically paints them as the most horrific product of evolution ever. Burrowing through every crevice and crack, using psionics to terrify their victims into pacification, gnawing into their craniums and laying eggs in there....
I understand that humans are the invaders here, but yeah, I have no intention of working with those horrors. Being a greater part of an interconnected organism doesn't really change the fact that they're here to literally rape your brains and your mind. It's kind of telling that Zakharov is the one who gives the quote for the "last ditch measure" to keep Planet from standing by as its 'children' skullrape every last human alive...by doing something very similar, albeit with the Planetary Datalinks and every fusion reactor on planet.
Plus, if you kill them, you get money. It's like the game is telling me, "Hunt down all these brainrapping tapeworms. Trust me."
I must be an inhuman monster to you because the first thing I think when I hear about mindworms is "how do I turn these little bastards into bioweapons". I might just be a sci-fi villain at heart.
I don't about you guys, but Locusts of Chiron are my fav unit in the game. I mean, an air unit that can conquer bases? And ignores weapons/fights with morale? Don't mind if I do!
If I remember correctly with enough Secret Projects and base upgrades you can breed fairly ridiculous swarms as pretty much anyone, depending on what government choices you make. I don't usually go for energy victory even as Morgan because it doesn't feel as fulfilling as the others, which usually lets me have a nice Psi bonus. I have to reinstall this now.
The locusts are effing ridiculous because of their city capture ability.
mrt144 on
0
mrt144King of the NumbernamesRegistered Userregular
I don't about you guys, but Locusts of Chiron are my fav unit in the game. I mean, an air unit that can conquer bases? And ignores weapons/fights with morale? Don't mind if I do!
Gravships can do that too and they get reactor upgrades that gives them more HP.
'Course, gravships are late-game tech, unlike the Locusts so, yeah, my mid-game armies also tend to be swarms and swarms of Locusts. Heck, I don't even like going to war before I've got them.
Actually, I don't like going to war period, but if I do have to go to war, I prefer to do so with Locusts.
The thing is, gravships depend on the weapon you have. Locusts never go out of style. And as somebody said before, if you get the +50% PSI Def or Attack Secret Projects...well...
I always go for the Transcendence victory in single player, because that's the only victory that requires you to go into the end game (every other victory option can and should be completed by the midgame, even the economic one). And the end game is a scary place, indeed. Unlike other turn based strategy games, where it involves a war between the two strongest powers with the strongest units in the game (this still happens in SMAC, I guess), the Planet itself is trying to destroy you and all the humans. Imagine hordes and hordes of mindworm boils, wiping high population cities off the map in a single turn. In my max difficulty Iron Man game with Transcendence victory, I think I was reduced to 10 cities in the endgame just before I ascended, and only because I did the desperate tactic of moving all my crawlers to the frontline to stall the Mindworm hordes.
I think my favorite faction is the Morganites. Nwabutike is an awesome name, and the Morgan advantage helps you regardless of what situation you're in or what ending you are trying to obtain. That, and you get Crawlers WAY early regardless of what ruleset you are using (barring "random faction traits", of course). The Crawler advantage is the one thing that sets you apart from the AI (who rarely use Crawlers, and even when they do, they don't create massive amounts of them). However, I like using all of the original factions except the Spartans (whose advantage is wholly replaced by Skunkworks).
I still have this game. The Mac OS 8 version. I don't even own a computer that can still emulate Mac Classic OS.
At least I still have the awesome manual and box. But man, after playing that, I never could get into a Civ game again. Everything else just pales in comparison.
I feel like I used to go Gaian, make up a horde of mindworms, and then just steamroll over everyone else. Weapons get more and more advanced, but you still have to rely on mans to shoot them. Mans with vulnerable brains.
Chuck Goodrich on
0
DrakeEdgelord TrashBelow the ecliptic plane.Registered Userregular
edited June 2011
So apparently this is going to get a release on GoG.
This is the best kind of news, even though I already own it. Now I don't have to fret about the damn disk so much. Hell, I may buy it just so I can have access to a prepatched and ready to play version. Not that it takes much to get SMAC going, but I'm a sucker for convenience.
We will be adding more than 25 titles from EA over the next few months, so the games will be unveiled gradually, but we can already reveal that the next upcoming titles from this huge deal are: Crusader: No remorse, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri and Magic Carpet.
We will be adding more than 25 titles from EA over the next few months, so the games will be unveiled gradually, but we can already reveal that the next upcoming titles from this huge deal are: Crusader: No remorse, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri and Magic Carpet.
....Crusader: No Remorse?
Hot damn, GoG, I think you may have your first purchase from me. I still have my SMAC disks, so I don't need to buy that again, but I'm totally up for burning the skin off people.
But that's not the context it's used in the game. "Planet' is used as the Planet's name, hence the capital P.
Just one of those really really non-an-issue things that bugs the crap out of me
No the planet is called Chiron. "Planet" is the sentient entity that resides in its biosystem.
Except with the "Locusts of Chiron" they never call it Chiron. They call it Planet, even when talking about the giant ball of dirt and not the biosystem.
EDIT: I mean, they call it Planet from the very start of the game, WAAAY before they discover the biosystem is a fledgling worldmind.
build as many bases as you can cram in
rush to removing mineral caps and crawlers
stick crawlers on every single rocky terrain you have with mines+roads on them
now you have 30 minerals coming into every base
once you hit max pop(via population boom, +6 growth) take every single base square off nutrients you can spare and turn them all into specialists. specialists are awesome.
get air power, dominate.
or play the spartans on a tiny map and impact rover rush everyone
But that's not the context it's used in the game. "Planet' is used as the Planet's name, hence the capital P.
Just one of those really really non-an-issue things that bugs the crap out of me
No the planet is called Chiron. "Planet" is the sentient entity that resides in its biosystem.
Except with the "Locusts of Chiron" they never call it Chiron. They call it Planet, even when talking about the giant ball of dirt and not the biosystem.
EDIT: I mean, they call it Planet from the very start of the game, WAAAY before they discover the biosystem is a fledgling worldmind.
I'll see if I can find the specifics later, but there are clear mentions of Chiron as planet in the special notes for every tech advance. When you get the voiceover, there's also a quick text on the historical significance of that specific tech and I'm almost 100% sure they refer to planet as Chiron in those.
The only thing I remember about the backstory is that Yang is quite the psycopath.
Fixed. The backstory can be found here just scroll down there is one for the SMAC backstory and another for SMAX. One of the things that always kind of bugged me about it though is the characters are all kinda different then in the game, especially Miriam. She's not really bitchy at all in the backstory and
She has the only colony pod that is just random people, rather then people who were chosen by one of the leaders. I always thought it was dissapointing they didn't explore that. You're in Yangs faction because he thought you would be useful, or Deidre's because you're a hippy, the Believers are just the people who happened to be there.
Edit: About SMAX, Alpha Centauri is (was?) on gametap but they didn't have SMAX which makes me worry that only one will be offered.
finds a pod filled with people who weren't properly shielded are are all radiation burned and what not, and basically goes "Hmm, this guys' lives are now shit, so I bet they'll be uber receptive to the whole "god" thing.
So I finished my first game (transcendence victory). I played the Gaians, and I have to say that on transcend (I played a few short incomplete games on lower difficulties first) it was a bit easy, especially near the end. A lot of that was probably that I had the center continent all to myself, though.
I think I'm going to play Morgan next. I was really tempted near the end when I was fighting constantly with the remaining factions to send out the planet busters, but my fear of ecological damage stopped me. It will be nice not to be subject to such RP constraints.
This game just ate six hours of my life, I even forgot to eat dinner. I'm still pretty bad at it but I do so love the Gaian faction.
One question, if you are playing with semi-random tech advancement, how do you best aim for the Centauri techs? I covered half my continent in fungus before I realised that I did not have the tech required to make them worthwhile and this slowed me down a whole lot.
Does the faction make a difference outside of which personality everyone thinks you are? Like, does the University get enhanced tech gain or something?
I expected this to be the case, but since it seems to be possible to make your own faction (kinda sorta) it might not be how this actually works.
So glad this is finally available to buy somewhere. It's been years since I played a friend's borrowed copy. Having fun so far flailing around as Lal, trying to remember how the game works.
On a slightly sour note, I have a serious love-hate relationship with the unit design system. Well, with numerous parts of the interface really, but the unit workshop is the most egregiously annoying. Scrolling the band of unit slots is tedious, there's no way to sort them, designing/updating/obsoleting units are all cumbersome, the game craps out tons of minor variants of each unit type and uses no consistent naming convention - it's just awful. It's great that you can design units, but actually doing it is super-frustrating.
The factions each have a potentially "game-breaking" advantage. They aren't just personalities. The advantages are pretty huge, and usually exclusive in some manner. For example, Miriam has a +25% boost to every attack.
So glad this is finally available to buy somewhere. It's been years since I played a friend's borrowed copy. Having fun so far flailing around as Lal, trying to remember how the game works.
On a slightly sour note, I have a serious love-hate relationship with the unit design system. Well, with numerous parts of the interface really, but the unit workshop is the most egregiously annoying. Scrolling the band of unit slots is tedious, there's no way to sort them, designing/updating/obsoleting units are all cumbersome, the game craps out tons of minor variants of each unit type and uses no consistent naming convention - it's just awful. It's great that you can design units, but actually doing it is super-frustrating.
I don't find the unit creation to be all that frustrating. You don't need to create a whole army of units for every possibility... you just need to create units that you are going to build RIGHT now. No one needs an armored Rover, for example, if you only use them to scout (which you should, since they don't get the anti-city bonuses of infantry). Upgrading the power plants for your units is done automatically, and can even be done in the field when you first get the power plant upgrades. Deleting the cruft is pretty much the only issue, but the game automatically gives you the bare minimum unit designs you really need.
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Just think - eventually, you can breed your own.
Gaians fo' lyfe.
Steam: Elvenshae // PSN: Elvenshae // WotC: Elvenshae
Wilds of Aladrion: [https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/comment/43159014/#Comment_43159014]Ellandryn[/url]
I must be an inhuman monster to you because the first thing I think when I hear about mindworms is "how do I turn these little bastards into bioweapons". I might just be a sci-fi villain at heart.
I have a steam backlog, so I'm sure you'll understand.
(Please do not gift. My game bank is already full.)
Please don't go. The drones need you. They look up to you.
The locusts are effing ridiculous because of their city capture ability.
Count yourself lucky this isn't on Steam.
I wish it was on steam. I've been having to copy around the same install for like 7 or 8 years now because my buddy lost my friggen disc.
'Course, gravships are late-game tech, unlike the Locusts so, yeah, my mid-game armies also tend to be swarms and swarms of Locusts. Heck, I don't even like going to war before I've got them.
Actually, I don't like going to war period, but if I do have to go to war, I prefer to do so with Locusts.
Yeah, I'm a Gaian player.
Please don't go. The drones need you. They look up to you.
I think my favorite faction is the Morganites. Nwabutike is an awesome name, and the Morgan advantage helps you regardless of what situation you're in or what ending you are trying to obtain. That, and you get Crawlers WAY early regardless of what ruleset you are using (barring "random faction traits", of course). The Crawler advantage is the one thing that sets you apart from the AI (who rarely use Crawlers, and even when they do, they don't create massive amounts of them). However, I like using all of the original factions except the Spartans (whose advantage is wholly replaced by Skunkworks).
At least I still have the awesome manual and box. But man, after playing that, I never could get into a Civ game again. Everything else just pales in comparison.
I feel like I used to go Gaian, make up a horde of mindworms, and then just steamroll over everyone else. Weapons get more and more advanced, but you still have to rely on mans to shoot them. Mans with vulnerable brains.
This is the best kind of news, even though I already own it. Now I don't have to fret about the damn disk so much. Hell, I may buy it just so I can have access to a prepatched and ready to play version. Not that it takes much to get SMAC going, but I'm a sucker for convenience.
http://www.fallout3nexus.com/downloads/file.php?id=16534
....Crusader: No Remorse?
Hot damn, GoG, I think you may have your first purchase from me. I still have my SMAC disks, so I don't need to buy that again, but I'm totally up for burning the skin off people.
Except with the "Locusts of Chiron" they never call it Chiron. They call it Planet, even when talking about the giant ball of dirt and not the biosystem.
EDIT: I mean, they call it Planet from the very start of the game, WAAAY before they discover the biosystem is a fledgling worldmind.
Then, boom. GoG email.
Oh happy day.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
3DSFF: 5026-4429-6577
build as many bases as you can cram in
rush to removing mineral caps and crawlers
stick crawlers on every single rocky terrain you have with mines+roads on them
now you have 30 minerals coming into every base
once you hit max pop(via population boom, +6 growth) take every single base square off nutrients you can spare and turn them all into specialists. specialists are awesome.
get air power, dominate.
or play the spartans on a tiny map and impact rover rush everyone
I'll see if I can find the specifics later, but there are clear mentions of Chiron as planet in the special notes for every tech advance. When you get the voiceover, there's also a quick text on the historical significance of that specific tech and I'm almost 100% sure they refer to planet as Chiron in those.
Also in the novels.
Fixed. The backstory can be found here just scroll down there is one for the SMAC backstory and another for SMAX. One of the things that always kind of bugged me about it though is the characters are all kinda different then in the game, especially Miriam. She's not really bitchy at all in the backstory and
Edit: About SMAX, Alpha Centauri is (was?) on gametap but they didn't have SMAX which makes me worry that only one will be offered.
I think I'm going to play Morgan next. I was really tempted near the end when I was fighting constantly with the remaining factions to send out the planet busters, but my fear of ecological damage stopped me. It will be nice not to be subject to such RP constraints.
One question, if you are playing with semi-random tech advancement, how do you best aim for the Centauri techs? I covered half my continent in fungus before I realised that I did not have the tech required to make them worthwhile and this slowed me down a whole lot.
Does the faction make a difference outside of which personality everyone thinks you are? Like, does the University get enhanced tech gain or something?
I expected this to be the case, but since it seems to be possible to make your own faction (kinda sorta) it might not be how this actually works.
They tried to bury us. They didn't know that we were seeds. 2018 Midterms. Get your shit together.
On a slightly sour note, I have a serious love-hate relationship with the unit design system. Well, with numerous parts of the interface really, but the unit workshop is the most egregiously annoying. Scrolling the band of unit slots is tedious, there's no way to sort them, designing/updating/obsoleting units are all cumbersome, the game craps out tons of minor variants of each unit type and uses no consistent naming convention - it's just awful. It's great that you can design units, but actually doing it is super-frustrating.
I don't find the unit creation to be all that frustrating. You don't need to create a whole army of units for every possibility... you just need to create units that you are going to build RIGHT now. No one needs an armored Rover, for example, if you only use them to scout (which you should, since they don't get the anti-city bonuses of infantry). Upgrading the power plants for your units is done automatically, and can even be done in the field when you first get the power plant upgrades. Deleting the cruft is pretty much the only issue, but the game automatically gives you the bare minimum unit designs you really need.
"Welcome to our flock unbelievers! We embrace trade and peacef-"
"Everyone declares war on you"
"FFFFF-, Okay, that's it, Jihad time."
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