As was foretold, we've added advertisements to the forums! If you have questions, or if you encounter any bugs, please visit this thread: https://forums.penny-arcade.com/discussion/240191/forum-advertisement-faq-and-reports-thread/
Options
[SMAC] Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri multiplayer (and planetary chit-chat) thread
Megamaniaco
Madrid, Spain (again!)Registered User regular
Madrid, Spain (again!)Registered User regular
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri
Welcome, once again, to Planet.
This is not the first time that I have written a post about SMAC in this forum. I have decided to once again post about this game for two reasons:
1) Multiplayer game: After the Civilization: Beyond Earth fiasco (many of us were expecting SMAC2, or at least a complete game... or at the very least not a completely unbalanced flavorless mess with only two or three saving graces), I've decided to gather some folks to play some MP SMAC here, with diplomacy, screenshots and the like to be posted on the forums. To make it fun and a good show for everybody.
2) Because hell, it's about time, now that lots of people have been hyped about Civ:BE, for those folks that don't know/have never tried SMAC to know a bit more about it in general.
So just in case you haven't clicked on my old post, here's am upgraded version of it:
SMAC
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri is the critically acclaimed science fiction 4X turn-based strategy video game sequel to the Civilization series. Sid Meier, designer of Civilization, and Brian Reynolds, designer of Civilization II, developed Alpha Centauri after they left MicroProse to join the newly-created developer Firaxis Games.
Electronic Arts released both SMAC and its expansion, Sid Meier's Alien Crossfire (SMAX), in 1999. In 2000, Aspyr Media and Loki Software ported both titles over to Mac OS and Linux.
Set in the 22nd century, the game begins as seven competing ideological factions land on the planet Chiron ("Planet") in the Alpha Centauri star system. As the game progresses, Planet's growing sentience becomes a formidable obstacle to the human colonists.
Alpha Centauri features improvements on Civilization II's game engine, including simultaneous multiplay, social engineering, climate, customizable units, alien native life, additional diplomatic and spy options, additional ways to win, and greater mod-ability . Alien Crossfire introduces two non-human factions as well as additional technologies, facilities, secret projects, native life, unit abilities and a victory condition.
The game received wide critical acclaim, being compared favorably to Civilization II. Critics praised its science fiction storyline (comparing the plot to works by Stanley Kubrick and Isaac Asimov), the in-game writing, the voice acting, the user-created custom units, and the depth of the technology tree. SMAC also won several awards for best game of the year and best strategy game of the year.
However, despite the critical acclaim, the game had the lowest sales of the Civilization series.
Clear enough?
Now, we should talk about the Factions, one of the most important features of the game; humans in the game are not divided by their nationality, but rather by their ideology. The whole plot revolves around this point.
- The Spartan Federation, led by Coronel Corazon Santiago. A pure militaristic survivalist, she fights for the right to bear arms, and strongly suspects of factions that amass wealth or pure researchers.
-The University of Planet, led by Academician Prokhor Zakharov, a technocratic faction that values knowledge above everything else, sometimes even moral impediments.
- Gaia's Stepdaughters, led by Lady Deirdre Skye; they abhor ecological destruction and want to live in tune with Planet (with a capital "P", yes).
- Morgan Industries, led by CEO Nwabudike Morgan. A corporate capitalistic faction, energy credits are everything for them.
- The Human Hive, led by Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang. A totalitarian faction, founded on the principles of security and control.
- The Lord's Believers, led by Sister Miriam Godwinson. A fundamentalist faction wary of secular technology, they firmly believe Planet to be their "Promised Land".
- The Peacekeeping Forces, led by Commissioner Pravin Lal; this faction works hard to keep the peace through diplomacy and following the UN charter.
-
Once we are done with that, we should talk about the strong and the weak points of the game.
· Strong Points:
- The Design Workshop: Alpha Centauri features a Unit Design Workshop which is very flexible in comparison to other Civ games. For each unit, the workshop presents you with choices for each of a unit's weapon (attack strength), armor (defense strength), chassis (speed and terrain movement), reactor (hit points and build cost), and up to two special abilities (but only one until the discovery of Neural Grafting).
Each time you discover a new tech, it allows you to use new components in the Creator, unlike past (and future) Civ games, where units are pre-designed.
- Social Engineering: Social Engineering is equivalent to what the Civilization games refer to as form of government. However, Alpha Centauri's system is the most flexible of any Civ game (until Civilization IV): you can not only choose the form of government, but fine-tune its economy, values, and how it embraces advanced technology.
Do you want to create a Democracy with an economy ruled by a Free Market, focused on Knowledge values and hoping to become one day an Eudaimonic society? Or would you rather create a Police State, with an Green economy, focused on Power values and hoping to become a Cybernetic society one day? A mix of both? None? You can!
- Terraforming: From creating farms, solar collector and mines to raising and lowering the terrain, sea kelp farms, tide harnesses, thermal boreholes, echelon mirrors, hybrid forests...you can basically shape your terrain in any way you want.
- The Story: One of the reasons SMAC was so memorable is that the storyline was, well...there was
a storyline, unlike other Civ-type games where you have none. And it was well written too, with interludes where you read how were things going with Planet, etc.
- The Mindworms: In SMAC you don't have barbarians, you have MINDWORMS. And tought little buggers they were! You have them in three varieties: Land-based mindworms, sea-based Isles of the Deep and airborne Locusts of Chiron. A lot of technologies and background revolve around your fight against them. Or your understanding of them, if you were into that sorta thing.
Scary fucking buggers.
- The Secret Projects: The equivalent of Wonders in other Civ-type games, these were special because each time you finished one a video was shown to you. You must see them to understand, but many of them were really great, playing with philosophical concepts and whatnot. And some were fucking scary, let's not kid ourselves:
-The Tech Tree (and its poster!): I mean look at it:
· Weak Points:
- MP Games: Sadly, one of the serious lacks of this game is a robust multiplayer mode; it worked and you could play up to 7 players, but it was -very- problematic; you often didn't really know why you couldn't connect to the host of the game.
PBEM (Play by Email) was an option and was used for the longer games; it gave less problems too, so that was a plus.
2014 update: Apparently, nowadays using GameRanger is a thing and it works much, much better. Huzzah!
- ICS: Infinite City Sprawl refers to the strategy based on the concept that a player should have as many cities as possible to crank out hordes of cheap military units; this was an strategy used a lot in Civ1 and 2, and altough SMAC compensated a bit for it, it was still a viable strategy; altough using it in MP was considered a gross breach of etiquette.
- Attack and Defense: Basically, A&D works in a weird way in SMAC. A unit with an ample advantage in its attack rating will still lose to a unit with a more balanced A&D ratios. Also, you had to seriously dig to find out which type of armor was best against which type of weapons.
+ + +
I could also talk about SMAX (Sid Meier's Alien Crossfire), the expansion pack for SMAC. It added 7 new factions, new technologies, secret projects, etc...but I think that for now that's enough.
My thanks to @Demiurge for the help writing this post!
Steam ID: Megamaniaco // LoL summoner: Corcorigan (NA), Megamaniaco (EUW) // Hearthstone: Megamaniaco.2120
Please don't go. The drones need you. They look up to you.
Please don't go. The drones need you. They look up to you.
Megamaniaco on
+5
Posts
· Game Preferences:
(Still empty)
· Faction Preferences:
@Vic: Gaians/no alternate
@Megamaniaco: University/UN
@Phyphor: University/UN/Morgan <··· Unsure, as the game is SMAX, not SMAC.
@Sheez: ?
@Rainfall: ?
@Shimshai: The Hive/No alternate
@jdarksun: Gaians/Spartans/Cyborgs
Please don't go. The drones need you. They look up to you.
Also helllllll yes SMAC. I cut my teeth on Spartans and graduated to Gaians. This game is amazing.
Please don't go. The drones need you. They look up to you.
Single player was good fun, but sadly it was always inevitable the every AI faction would hate your guts at some point.
Also, Images fixed. Or so I hope.
Please don't go. The drones need you. They look up to you.
But you really should fear Deirdre Skye, because she can capture mindworms at the start of the game with scary efficiency, and once her boils get some kills under their belt they become a force of terror if you are unlucky enough to be on the same continent as her.
This is easily solved by being Svensgaard and going full Waterworld, however.
And agreed on Deirdre Skye. My first game I played as Gaians and my mindworms quickly became things of unstoppable horror. It was also nice to be able to drive up to a border with someone who's day you want to wreck, free your mind worms and let them rampage across the victim's lands while claiming complete innocence.
Then the late game techs start rolling in, and we can imagine it's like in a real game, where if things actually go to the late game the techs roll in fast, too fast. Society cannot possibly keep up. The scientific advancements start to rapidly outstrip the advancement of human morality and ethics.
Suddenly Mirian is the last sane person in a room full of ranting lunatics. Everyone else is forcibly extracting their followers still-living brains to wire them together into an organic supercomputer, developing deathrays that can rip holes in the fabric of reality, or trying to create a micro-singularity in hopes of traveling through it in order to meet God (and kill him).
By the end of the game Miriam isn't a fanatic at all - she's the last faction leader who is still actually recognizably human.
Please don't go. The drones need you. They look up to you.
The problem with this is that the if the game goes really late there is basically no defence against the crazy worm-boils. I recall a game where they progressed to the point where they were appearing every single round, 10+ at a time, and since I was the only one who still had fungi in my lands they almost exclusively attacked me despite being fully at peace with the planet.
If posible, I would like to go University.
You guys should start suggesting game settings. Difficulty, sea coverage, weather, etc.
Please don't go. The drones need you. They look up to you.
Leaving me laughing maniacally upon a stockpile that could crack the world while my enemies nervously watch the skies in my direction.
As far as map settings go for a multiplayer game, I'll give it a bit of thought, maybe generate some maps in single-player and see what looks good.
People, don't forget to start saying your game/faction preferences please! I'll update the post with whatever you say.
Please don't go. The drones need you. They look up to you.
I'll probably play SP a bit tonight to get rid of some of the rust and see what map types I like. I do remember enjoying arid maps for the initial challenge, but the AI never did well with the shortage of food resources.
Any alternate(s)?
Please don't go. The drones need you. They look up to you.
Please don't go. The drones need you. They look up to you.
The Cybernetic Consciousness seemed strong last time I played them, though their growth penalty made it a lot harder for massive population booms.
Free Drones also very strong, one of the few factions that make challenging AI opponents, though the tech penalty might really hurt against real people who know how to play.
Decisions, decisions...
I never really did figure air units out. Except for Locusts and Gravships because they had no drawbacks whatsoever when it came to movement.
Oh it's a SMAX game? Don't have that, I'll bow out
Please don't go. The drones need you. They look up to you.
Needlejets were the basic unit, like bombers from the very first Civ game. You had 2 turns before you had to return to base, so you had to attack on one turn, and return to a base on the next.
Helis were extremely powerful though, you could attack multiple times per turn (I think, it's been a while) but took minor damage if you ended your turn outside of a friendly base.
It did take me a long time to discover than with naval units, you could attack them from range and engage in an attack battle. It compared your attack vs theirs, so even if an enemy ship had strong armour but weak weaponry, it would give you a good outcome.
I should clarify that it's been a while since I played so this may not be 100% accurate, but I think it is.
Penny Arcade Rockstar Social Club / This is why I despise cyclists
Even an inconvenient way.
Please don't go. The drones need you. They look up to you.
I will see if I can get it to run
Which factions are left? OP pirates?
Good luck with that, @Phyphor! \o/
Please don't go. The drones need you. They look up to you.
It's been a long time, so I was wondering if people had some good advice on city placement and what improvements to create around a city when starting out, and what you might want to switch to later in the game.
Ah well if there is ever a PBEM let me know!
You have come to the right thread. I have extensive teraforming experience.
When starting a new city the first most important tile requirement is at least one square that yields 2 (or more nutrients). Typically this means a moist tile with a farm built in it. Rainy tiles which yield 2 nutrients without improvements, monoliths, and nutrient resource bonus squares are given maximum priority as a city location.
A large part of the game for several of the factions is controlling growth so you don't get drone riots, however there are also factions which barely need to worry about this whether its because they grow so slow (Aki-Zeta 5) or because they have free drone management (Yang, Lal). So based on which faction you are playing you might want to leave a city with just one 2-nutrient square for the time being, so that it doesn't accidentally grow up before you are ready.
For the very earliest stages of the game you can ignore mines and just use forests for mineral needs. They are quick to plant and can spread on their own, even overtaking fungus.
Later on you will probably want to build road+mine on some rocky squares and then crawl minerals from that square with a crawler unit, but the teraforming investment to do that is substantial, and completely wasted at the start of the game.
Don't build many solar collectors early in the game, energy doesn't become very important until later and you must prioritize teraforming time for growth and road building.
Did I mention road-building? I did not. Make sure to have your teraformers build roads. The time it takes to build them will ultimately work out in your favor leading to faster sprawl.
This leads me to sprawl, which is a very deep game concern and there isn't necessarily a right answer. Conventional wisdom for people who play on transcend level is to sprawl infinitely, leaving minimal space between bases, and shit out scout patrols because this cheeses the AI into thinking you are strong and not steam-rolling you, while allowing you to circumvent the horrible inefficiency penalty at highest difficulties, because the center square of a base is always perfectly efficient. This strategy is effective and also ugly and dull and it's why I don't ever play this game on high difficulty levels.
On lower, less stupid difficulty levels you are not forced to sprawl like this, so don't. The game is more enjoyable when you spread your bases out 3-5 tiles and actually arrange them in something that looks nicer than a grid.
Once you enter the mid game it is time to consider advanced teraforming. Boreholes are nice as long as you have built up your clean mineral limit because pollution is not nice. Condensers are best used with a crawler, as they are mono-productive for food, yielding little if any energy or minerals. Echelon mirrors are very situational. They are useful if you are building an energy park, but otherwise they aren't usually very useful unless you have teraformers sitting around doing nothing.
Try not to waste too much time removing fungus with teraformers, in particular avoid the trap of wasting time on turning the annoying rocky+fungal squares into something useful. The overall time investment to go from rocky+fungus to something else is so steep you could have built a half new borehole instead.
And finally, in a multiplayer game you should resist the urge to build coastal cities. Your fellow players will not share the AI's inability to launch effective sea invasions, and one of the first harsh lessons new mp players learn is that trying to hold onto a coastal base against an enemy player who means business is nearly impossible.
I don't feel like re-explaining it at the moment, especially if everyone already knows. But it's pretty important information if you don't know.