/vr/ - Retro Games

>>318935
Cha Dawn. He's my favorite faction anyway, feels good the be the Planet's chosen one.

>>318935

I wish this was animated. It would be the best.

>>318935
Either the Believers or the Cult of Planet. But I think especially Miriam can be hard with that stunted research.

I love exterminating the Cult of Planet.

WHERE IS YOUR GOD NOW?

>>318995
Cha Dawn's not bad. It's really easy to capture lots of mindworms early on and use them as military police, or have them roam around the fungus fields exploring and killing hostile lifeforms for free energy credits. Once you're able to spam Locusts of Chiron, Planet is yours for the taking.

I'd say Santiago is the weakest, that production penalty is pretty lame and having a morale upgrade won't actually save you when you're falling behind in economy and tech.

All right, I've never played Alien Crossfire. Do I need to cough up the $6 on GOG for it?

>>318935
If you don't know how to play them, the Morganites shit the bed.

If you do though, they kick ass.

Do supply crawlers affect a base's environmental impact?

>Start new game as Cha Dawn
>Stop to reach the Planetfall text at the beginning
>"Prophet Cha Dawn, your time is now. Planet has spoken to you, awakening you for your task."
>Game starts five mission years later than for the other human factions

Holy shit. I've played well over a hundred games of AC over the years and I never noticed that before.

>>319601
*Stop to read

So surprised by this that I can't even spell anymore.

>start a new as the Believers
>Chilling out on my own little mini-continet building up and biding my time for probe teams and foils to start data raiding the other factions
>Deidre has been eliminated!
>Well gee that was fast
>three turns later
>Santiago has been Eliminated
>Deidre has been Eliminated
>Start to get worried
>like forty turns later Yang controls almost the whole map and only two morganite sea bases and my HQ remain

Fucking Yang.

>>319692
Yang has the highest IQ for a reason.

>>319692
Did I mention Deidre twice? Fuck me I meant Lal.

But seriously, Yang either rapes everything or manages to hang around forever, he never gets wiped early unlike Lal who I rarely ever see end up being succesful.

>>319757
It's those free perimeter defenses and the fact that his police state can support huge numbers of defenders, once he plants down a base it's there for good.

>>319692
This is happening in my game right now.

Yang is the only faction I haven't had contact with.

What's the best way to use planet busters?

>>319907
Keep in mind that all bases and units within the blast radius are hit equally hard; that is, everything is erased from the game. Try to detonate the planet buster in such a spot that as many enemy bases and armies are caught within the blast.

Might also want to have several of them ready before you start using them, and then use them all on the same turn to maximize your damage before all of the other factions retaliate.

>>319832
So why exactly is Lal absoultely never succesful then? I've seen pretty much every other faction do moderately well from time to time, but not Lal, he just dies or stews in irrelevancy. You'd figure even if his social setup was shitty he'd still draw the lucky straw once or twice, but nope, eliminated by Deidre on mission year ten.

This game seems kinda awesome, any way I can play it for free?

Couldn't have asked for a much better start, my only neighbor on this continent appears to be Marr once again and he's stuck in his little corner. Apparently having 7 mind worms, 1 spore launcher and a unity chopper is enough to make him "submissive" at this point.

>>320060
I can only say it's luck, I've seen him grow strong many times. He's a real dick when that happens, too, a total warmonger - although the fact that I always go for police state might have something to do with it.

>eliminated by Deidre

I don't think I've ever seen Deirdre go on a rampage myself. I've seen her grow huge and change into a threatening tone, but she never manages to build up a proper army.

>>320129
>I can only say it's luck, I've seen him grow strong many times. He's a real dick when that happens, too, a total warmonger - although the fact that I always go for police state might have something to do with it.

Happens to me too. The guy throws legions of probes into my territory and blows a bitch gasket when I tell him to stop.

>>320128
Pirate it, all the devs behind it are long gone so I don't feel too bad about pirating. Also I had already bought it three separate times.

>>320197
Sweet, I'm glad. I feel bad about pirating when I hurt devs, otherwise I don't give a flying fuck. Is that particular pirate themed piracy a reliable place? I found a copy pretty quick.

>>320129
>Pacifist
>Green agenda

Well shit, it's even more convenient for me than I thought. Domai on the other hand appears to be Aggressive and loves Fundamentalism, this should be interesting...

>>320270
Yeah, I'm pretty sure I'm using that one right now.

>>320270
Actually,

>>320294
here

I do have issues starting up Alien Crossfire with this, so you may end up wanting to try and get it from GoG if it doesn't work. Though Alien Crossfire is not required at all but you might want to give it a shot after you've messed around in vanilla a little.

>>320274
>peaceful conqueror

Irony.

Humble request from a fellow trooper, if someone has the latest GOG version (I believe it's 2.0.0.23) could they please upload it to mediafire and link it here?
Thanks.

>>320330
>>320294
Thanks bros, I've got to write two 3000 word papers over the next two days so when I'm done I'm going to be gaming this pretty seriously. Does it play like civilization? Can I go all glorious cultural assimilation?

>>320364
>Does it play like civilization?

VERY much so, Civ II in particular, though there a few differences like the whole unit customization thing.

>Can I go all glorious cultural assimilation?

You can win by becoming the dominant conscience in a gigantic human hivemind.

don't forgot to put DirectDraw=0 into your AlphaCentauri.ini, for maximum resolution

http://www.gogwiki.com/wiki/Sid_Meier's_Alpha_Centauri#Widescreen_support

>>320359
Just buy the fucking thing.

It's the cost of a pizza.

>>320386
Oh god, oh god, I'm so excited. I have a feeling I`m going to go full autism over this game. I've longed to lead singularity since I was a child.

>>320414
it's not like Firaxis/EA will see a penny of it

Someone really ought to make a Alpha Centauri edit for this.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YO_xh7xIabk

>>320494
Oh shit, are those scenes from Baraka?

which faction is easymode then? zakharov?

>>320518
Deirdre. Capture those mindworms, send them out to capture more mindworms, cover the land in mindworms. Also enjoy being highly efficient and eating fungus.

>>320518
I'd guess him yeah, his biggest weakness is the one he is in the best position to counter, seeing as he's likely the first to get access to H/S algorithm

>>320545
>Also enjoy being highly efficient and eating fungus.

Eugh. I guess that makes Deidre the most dystopian faction.

>>320508
SMAC uses a lot of footage from Baraka.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lva8L-J8x04

>>320518
Deidre > Zakharov > Santiago > Lal > Yang > Miriam > Morgan

In order of easiest to hardest in my opinion. Although it's really only Yang, Miriam and Morgan who you should hold off on trying until you're comfortable with the mechanics.

>>320565
Is it really dystopian if the Gaians like eating fungus?
Besides, eating alien neural networks has got to be good for you.

>>320565
She turns people into mindworm hosts on purpose. She is all kinds of fucked up. She is also the one in the best position to actually create a sustainable relationship with the Planet.

>>319048
Miriam can be a good faction IF you have a high-tech neighbor who you can spam with probe teams.

Cult requires long independent searches for new mind worms from desert xenofungus in early game, not my favorite way of playing the game.

>>319579
Base's environmental impact (ECO DAMAGE you see on lower left) consists of 2 factors:

(1) How many base improvements there are in the base's are (the "fat cross"). Boreholes cause more damage than echelon mirrors, that cause more damage than farms, that cause more damage than roads but I can't remember the exact values;

(2) The amount of minerals the base produces per turn. This gets very quickly above the ECO DAMAGE limit when you start spamming with crawlers.

Also, here's how you eliminate supply crawlers from the game: Open the ALPHA.TXT file from the main game directory, find the following line:
Supply Crawler, Infantry, Supply, Scout, 10, 0, 0, IndAuto, -1, 000000000000000000000000
And replace it with:
Supply Crawler, Infantry, Supply, Scout, 10, 0, 0, Disable, -1, 000000000000000000000000

>>320364
>Can I go all glorious cultural assimilation?
It's made before Civ3 so there are no culture points.

>>320585
I'd still say morgan would be easier, you get shit loads of money which is great, not having tech is really the biggest problem so I'd mirriam would be harder, especially when you're desperately trying to rush for Probe Teams and the H/S alogrithm so you don't get raped.

I think I'd prefer to live under Morgan.

Imagine the awesome consumer products!

>>320414
Times are tough, man. Be a little more considerate.

>>320646
Imagine being corporate wage slave unless you're insanely lucky. Imagine the zero guarantees about your future. Every faction is a dystopia in many ways, every single one, you're either a wage slave, a mindless drone, brainwashed zealot, mindworm infested hippie, overworked bureaucrat, expendable soldier, or a test subject. Sometimes you can be both or more. It's a dark future with the glamour of SCIENCE and ideology gilding it to make it look slightly better.

>>320646
>There is a dark side to Morgan's glittering capitalist Utopia. Business competition is almost completely unregulated, and involves all mannerof underhanded dealings. Those who are unwilling or unable to hold a job receive no charity, and are likely to be forced out into the wilderness if not supported by a "productive" citizen. Some citizens manage to survive only by taking dangerous or degrading work (medical test subject, deep-bore miner, prostitute, etc.).

>>320585
Why is Yang considered hard? He can go police state without penalty, and his bases are a lot easier to defend. Seems like as a newbie you've got less things to worry about as him.

>>320697
I was wondering this myself, honestly when I was playing this a young kid I always picked Yang because free fucking PD seemed great.

>>320646
Depends on your position. There's this theme of "fuck the future, let's use and eat it all now" they have going on, and Morgan muses about immortality.

So, you could be born early on when things are relatively equal after the planetfall and make a decent living, or you could be born a lot later and find yourself thrown into a world where the masses fight for scraps while immortal ancients sit in their solid gold mansions guarded by domesticated mindworms.

Basically, the Morganite society is a ponzi scheme. The only way to make a profit is getting in early on.

>>320469

>>320778
I grinned so hard my cheeks are hurting.

>>320774
>Basically, the Morganite society is a ponzi scheme. The only way to make a profit is getting in early on.

Huh. Just like Social Security.

>>320585
now i see my problem, i tried playing it as miriam since she seemed to be the only one who wasn't completely and utterly amoral and machiavellian, despite being brainwashed and hypocritical and pretty shitty herself.

>>320795
>it's the first page of Yang's Big Book of Recycling Tank Humour...

>>320829
Lal's a pretty decent guy.

>>320805
Morgan is the ultimate baby boomer.

>>320697
Now that you mention it, I think Yang is the best faction for newbies.

Newbie mode: Map of Planet, Yang.

I think that Morgan is an easy faction, but he's not very newbie-friendly because you have to think a lot differently in unit production than other factions.

>>317943
Those are good points, the canon clearly shows that there emerge 8 factions out of the spaceship (1 gets destroyed en route). Also, I think Aki-Zeta is clearly overpowered compared to other human factions.

>>320909

Do you think custom factions can ever be balanced?

I basically play oceanic gaians (because after playing Svensgaard, starting on land doesn't appeal to me anymore) and make sure to have Svensgaard as my foil / pain in the ass, but I'm not sure it's 'balanced' (even if I do end up scared of everyone once they hit the seas with their gunboats while all my bases are guarded by 1-1-1 scouts because I'm ULTRA peaceful

Three blind mice. Three blind mice.
See how they run. See how they run.
They all ran after the farmer's wife,
Who cut off their tails with a carving knife,
Did you ever see such a sight in your life,
As three blind mice

The most moral faction are the Drones I think. After all, they are all in for the common man, and enjoy social stuff.

I lold when I achieved transcendence as Domai. He suddenly turned all ecologist on me.

>reading pdf of AC manual
>huge sections on the astronomical data of planet
>explanation of greek mythological names
>a recommended reading list of classic sci-fi lit
>a fucking recommended reading list

God they really just don't make games like this anymore do they?

>>320414
some people (me) already own a legit copy, it sucks that you have to pay up double for a GOG version, bumping request for a GOG upload.

>>321203
Even during it's days Alpha Centauri was an exceptional work of love. You can really tell some quite intelligent people put a lot of love into this game and it shows really well.

>>320631
Why would you want to turn off supply crawlers?

>>321236
I'm guessing because the temptation to abuse the shit out of them is too great.

>launch missiles at incoming Yang invaders
>10% damage

How does into missiles?

The idea of ICBMs is too tempting to pass up.

>>3212248
Where can I upload 600mb free. I'm to lazy to make it a part file.

>>321297
Get better reactors to multiply the attack strength of conventional missiles.

hey, does the music ever change? i like the music, it's pretty creepy... but it's certainly quiet

>>321362
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=keXAEPtrQXI

At like 3:40...

Could somebody edit in the sound from Dream Twister?

So, I played this back in highschool, and I keep hearing on here that supply crawlers are the bomb.

Why so? I never used them for anything.

>>321478
No upkeep and for somen squares basically a free citizen...

It pains the Planet's Chosen to get rid of fungus, but there needs to be forest. Forest on every arid tile and flat tile, farms and solar collectors on all rolling moist tiles, farms and mines on all rolling rainy tiles until I can get more than 2 food per tile.

Fortunately Marr is still a complete pushover; my biggest concern at the moment is that one person that spawned in the middle of the Monsoon Jungle. She's pacifistic, but her agenda is Planned; she won't be happy with my Green approach. Domai somehow managed to cripple himself despite having spawned inside Garland Crater as the Drones. So far so good.

This game isn't great as far as strategic gameplay is concerned. But it makes up for it by having one of the best settings and stories I've ever encountered in a game.

>>321478
I can't speak for high difficulty play

But I enjoy sending them all to my main base, have them pump energy into it, and then using them to power through Wonders in 1 turn

>>321532
I keep hoping it'll be remade with better diplomacy, more unit options, and a more military manoeuvres to perform than "run into that guy"
Imagine being able to set up ambushes and shit for bonus attack power

>>321478
I usually build lots of stuff out at sea and have my sea supply crawlers harvest it for my super massive land cities. Inevitably I build so many my game crashes and stalls, but I'm still playing on my old version of the game so that might be the reason.

>>321572
Can't the game handle something like 1024 units?

>>321562
The only thing Alpha Centauri really needs improvement is really just polishing, the atmosphere is already fantastic, if you could just flesh out some mechanics and maybe improve the overall quality of the graphics.

>>321612
Yes it can, and I've played in games where I had way more units than that. But for some reason or another sea supply crawlers always do this to me, like I said, probably just this version is out of date or something.

>>321513
>wiping out the fungus as the Cult

>>321328
Dropbox? Making it a part file isn't hard, just use 7zip.

>>321634
B-but my cities can't grow on just fungus. And I need big cities to be able to breed more mind worms, as well as tech up to fungal missiles.

I swear, I'll put it all back the way it was!

>>321236
Managing them gets extremely tedious, particularly in multiplayer.

>>321401
I think the music actually varies based on what faction you play. Try for yourself.

Bad news: All the music files in the game are in like 2-second long clips which are put together so it's very hard to rip them for mp3s.

>>321745
Makes me want to play a game as Dawn where I just wipe out all the fungus manually and try to get the worst Eco score ever.

>>321745
>fungal missiles

I'm mad just remembering that shit. Best troll weapon in any game ever, 10/10 would stay mad again.

>>321745
Get the tech for hybrid forests, after all, just as the earthhumans can be used for Planet's purposes, so can the earthtrees.

I remember playing this game back during the whole SOPA/PIPA scare and then researching Planetary Datalinks. It really struck me how apropos that whole project was, it almost seemed prophetic.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iY57ErBkFFE

>>322936
I'm getting there, slowly but surely. All of my bases already have Tree Farms.

What exactly is a Hybrid Forest anyway? Is it like an ecosystem with Earth trees and fungus mixed together?

You know how bases can change to your building type when you take them over?
What influences that?

>>323263
With all that Energy how do you not have the most wealth? Are you just spending it all?

>>323332
I just spent loads of energy on tree farms, still have some children's creches to finish before I can start a nation-wide population boom. Once that's all done and I get a few more supply crawlers, my energy will probably skyrocket out of control.

I might also start raising those solar collectors and echelon mirrors closer to the sun so I can get even more energy, and that's pretty costly.

>>321203
>a recommended reading list of classic sci-fi lit
Does it mention Isaac Asimov's Nemesis? From what I remember, that's pretty much the most direct inspiration for Alpha Centauri. That crossed with Childhood's End, at least.

>>324169
Aaaah, just found the list and it doesn't. But it does have stuff that might be even closer.

>>321203
the homeworld manual is great too

Just learned that Brian Reynolds spent a couple years working for Zynga. Wut.

Wait. What's this Alien Crossfire?

>>326246
Expansion pack. Added several new factions and technologies.

>>326691
>It's all bullshit though, because I can still create supply crawlers and dominate the computer easily
Yeah, this is why it might be a good idea to remove crawlers from the game (see >>320631) entirely when you're an advanced player. It's funny because the game is very, very balanced in some ways but there's some shit like supply crawlers and helicopters which just fuck that balance completely. I think they were added late in the game development phase.

So, why did they intentionally create an overpowered faction?

>>325749
We all do dirty things for money.

No matter how hard I scrub my dick, the stink wont come out.

>>326760
>cybernetic consciousness overpowered
>not the two alien factions

>>326760
Because
>the leader is hot

>>326821
Playing an alien faction is like a "Cheat mode: Activated"-mode selection, I think they were added in the expansion pack so there'd be more single player challenge.

Aki-Zeta becomes a juggernaut in large maps.

Does /vr/ have an irc-channel? I don't remember the exact details how multiplayer worked, but I remember that it does work (direct connection) and the turns are simultaneous so it isn't as slow as Civ2.

This game really, really, really lacks special resources ala Civ 3.

People hate this about Civ 3, but if there's one thing I've realized about the Civ audience, it's that the majority are fucking retards. Most only play single player to live out power fantasies and the few that do play multiplayer tend to do simultaneous turns which is... Well, the single most idiotic thing I've ever witnessed in a video game.

Back to my point though -- waging wars over resources in (proper, turn based) multiplayer is the single most exciting and immersive gaming experience I ever had. It's not "fair" in the slightest, but having been in a position of not having access to iron and still managing to come out victorious through sheer cunning and outright psychopatic manipulation is the most satisfying shit ever. You won't find this in any other game. That's why I find it so sorely missing in Alpha Centauri. Wars and pacts are not nearly as exciting.

Like every Civ game, you have a slider that allows you to allocate a percentage of your energy into research. However, the only indication of the result of your slider fuckery is "well, the next technology is coming in so-and-so turns".

Apparently, there's a penalty if the slider is less symmetrical. Am I wrong? At 60%, it's apparently 8% penalty on labs... Yet the research time improved. So what the fuck? Is this 8%:

1) An actual penalty on the end result of my *research*. Not money itself, but *research*. You know, like test tubes in Civilization.

2) An *inefficiency* penalty on total cash going into labs in particular, where the "-16%" economy is a penalty on cash that ends up in my pockets?

>>327034
>Apparently, there's a penalty if the slider is less symmetrical. Am I wrong? At 60%, it's apparently 8% penalty on labs... Yet the research time improved. So what the fuck? Is this 8%:
AFAIK, it's 60% - 8% = 52%, so higher than 50% (before slider change).

>>327091

Oh, now I fucking get it. The red percentage is removed from the percentage shown below on the sliders. So it's not 60% research, but 52%. If I had more efficiency, this penalty would be lower.

They really should put a huge red marker over this information during the tour, not just mention it in passing. It's a bit too arbitrary and counter-intuitive.

But here's a mindfuck. I just don't get this. Observe 80% in the screenshot. The inefficiency penalty is 24%, which leaves me at an actual value of 56% research. Now look at 90%. The penalty is 32%, the end result being 90-32 = 58%. Why did the Breakthroughs increase to 12 turns then? Makes zero sense.

>>327034
if you get efficiency to 3 or 4, you can tip the slider completely with no penalties whatsoever.

the -16% energy comes from the inefficiency in all of your colonies, it's based on distance and policy

>>327153

The only way I can explain this is that the ECONOMY slider relates to actual energy production spent on everything, including improvement upkeep, not just the amount of money that ends up as raw cash. So by fucking up my econ by -64%, I'm also affecting my labs output. The -32% labs penalty is simply an *additional* penalty applied to labs, not the total penalty to labs.

Is this correct?

>>326976
Alpha Centauri has entire special zones to fight over.

>>327259
I can't answer you but I'm bumping in case someone knows because this is intriguing.

I DON'T KNOW BUT I'VE BEEN TOLD.
(I DON'T KNOW BUT I'VE BEEN TOLD.)

>>327259
>>328705
it would help having smac equivalent of pic related with each slider movement.

you don't know actual output of cities, but i suspect something like governor switching a scientist to tax collector (or however it's called in smac) to offset the huge net loss would explain it.

>>328776
>you don't know actual output of cities, but i suspect something like governor switching a scientist to tax collector (or however it's called in smac) to offset the huge net loss would explain it.

What are you talking about? I don't understand this sentence.

>>328776
You can view the energy output of cities by pressing F3. The individual income/upkeep for each base is in the bottom left corner.

Press F2 to see exactly how much research you're getting per turn, and how much the current research project costs.

>>328910
i know, but since i'm not author of the screen i can't provided it to help solve that decrease in research

>>326748
What do supply crawlers do exactly? I never got that.

Do they move supplies from one city to another?

Assuming you terraform a square does its production favor the closer base or the base that the terraformer that made it belongs to?

>>331142

Find a square. Any square. Press O. Now the crawler can extract nutrients or energy or minerals. Unlike with a regular citizen you can choose only one. The supply crawler shits the resources back into it's home base.

Build an array of boreholes somewhere convenient outside of any city range and enjoy unlimited production without borehole ecological penalties. Or don't, if you're not a turdmaster cheeseball who gets off on completely stomping the already dysfunctional AI.

>>331142
You can position a supply crawler anywhere on the map, and then have it provide the food, energy or production yield of that tile - only one of those three - and send it to the supply crawler's home base every turn. So if you send a supply crawler to harvest production from a forest tile, the home base of that crawler gets +2 production per turn. There's no limit to how many supply crawlers you can have, so you can end up with a science capital that alone produces hundreds of energy per turn. Pic related, although I'm just getting started with my solar collector + echelon mirror farm.

Having lots of supply crawlers around also means that you can complete secret projects the turn they become available to you, since a crawler can rush a city's secret project or prototype production by the full cost of the supply unit.

>>331270
>Having lots of supply crawlers around also means that you can complete secret projects the turn they become available to you, since a crawler can rush a city's secret project or prototype production by the full cost of the supply unit.

Wait, what?

>>331325
A normal supply crawler costs 30 minerals to produce. If you send that crawler into a city that is building a secret project, you can sacrifice that crawler to hurry the construction project by 30 minerals.

If you're using some other types of supply units, like supply rovers that cost 60 minerals (if I remember correctly), you can hurry secret project production by 60. Only secret projects and unit prototypes can be rushed with supply units this way.

>>331270
So. Wait. Just terraforming a tile doesn't yield minerals or energy by itself?

You have to collect it as well?

>>331481

>>331531
Jesus christ. That means I have been winning games without mineral - energy production.

>mfw I've been playing this game for years and just now learned this

>>318935

This image is a real fucking odd fanbase overlap

>>331481
Uh, terraforming a tile only means that the tile will provide better yield *if* you also work that tile. Your bases will work the tiles around them the same way as in any other Civlization game. This is what my bases look like when they're not getting additional production or energy from crawlers.

The crawlers are just in addition to this, and they have unlimited range, which is why they're so easy to abuse.

FUCK I CAN'T FIND MY FUCKING DISC I HAVE TO PLAY

>>331616
Piracy is the answer. Always.

>>331610
So what about the tiles that are terraformed but far away from a base? You have to use a supply crawler to work those?

>>331665
You could use crawlers, but it's probably better to just build more bases there. You can see the workable range of a base in that image I posted, it's a 5x5 area with the corners removed, aka the "fat cross". You can see that my base is only working 7 tiles in addition to the center square, since it's only got 7 population. The rest of those forest tiles are unworked and yield no benefit to me at the moment.

As long as a tile is within the fat cross of at least one base, it can be worked. I'd recommend using crawlers only on tiles that are too far for you to build a base there, or tiles that only provide one resource, such as a dry, flat tile with an special energy resource.

So what's the optimum base spread?

I remember a Yang strategy where you build a network of bases and slowly creep into enemy territory.

>>331884

Depends on your strategy, the size of the map and the surrounding terrain. Usually, you want something really tight though, especially against the computer.

>>331884
Depends on the terrain and how big you want your bases to be able to grow. I like having my bases very close to each other for quick accessability, but they don't usually get to grow much beyond size 7. If you want to create a huge mega-base that's able to work every single tile within its fat cross, you'll need to build other bases far enough that their fat crosses don't overlap.

For my first few bases, I try to look for a spot where there'll be at least one Nutrient Resource within range and some regular Rolling Moist tiles so the base will grow fast and have decent production right away. The distance from other bases isn't really relevant until later, when I just try to avoid having any un-used gaps between the fat crosses.

>>331610
Shit. I've gone all this time without building supply crawlers, assuming they were just for trading between factions or something like the caravans in Civ II.

>>331967
Caravans in Civ 1 and 2 can actually also be used to rush wonders, so they're really good there too.

Trade happens automatically between factions in AC. If you have a treaty of friendship, some of your cities will get a small energy boost from that faction, and a slightly larger one for pact brothers.

So how do you "load up" a supply crawler for optimum mineral dumping?

I get that you have to just land it on a base square to bring up the prompt, but I can't figure out why some crawlers dump more resources than others.

>>331884
civ2 screen but it also applies to smac.

you want to fit as much cities as possible on as small area, this means you shouldn't have any gaps between city tiles (sometimes gaps can be worth it in civs if it means better city location. this really isn't issue in smac because lolforests and you can terraform anything you want so it doesn't matter as much, you can't do so in civ or it takes too much time to be worth it.).

from there, it's up to you how much cities do you want to cramp in one location, more shared tiles = city won't be able to grow as much. on the other hand, you'll only really get very large cities that utilize all tiles they can rather late so rushing cities on small area will get you more overall production quicker (it's pretty much what AI tends to do). so it really depends on how you want to play and how you like your cities, but you don't get any benefit (in smac, at least) by making cities far than on 'touch' of workable tiles.

>>320469
MFW you are Zhakarov, Deidre is Rei and Santiago is Asuka

>>331558
It means you have been playing with settings so easy that you could have won while trying your hardest not to

>first time on talent difficulty
>lal throwing impact squads into my territory
>ally with yang since peacekeeper forces are cutting into both our territories
>yang sends an impact rover into my territory
>yang, you son of a
>"Chairman Yang has transferred control of a unit to help you defend against enemy incursions."

Yang, I...

>>334346
was impact the higher technology level at that time?

>>328739
Deidre's got a network node?
(DEIDRE'S GOT A NETWORK NODE)

>>334387
Yeah, he basically gave me one of his best units.

I fucked up thought and allied with Santiago against him. Now he's throwing his horde into my territory while Santiago putters around with Deidre doing fuck all.

>>320774
>"fuck the future, let's use and eat it all now"

That's a very superficial way of interpreting his words. Way I'm looking at it, Morgan is just affirming a fundamental fact of life: scarcity.

>>332647
I can't say I've ever been good at Civ games, but I always avoided shared tiles like the plague. They always struck me as wasteful bullshit the AI pulled, and not something you should actually imitate. Am I way off here?

>>335110
Yeah, you really shouldn't worry about it. If you've got two cities with a little bit of overlap, but they both still have enough tiles to work, the overlap isn't actually causing anything to go to waste.

In fact, if you go out of your way to build your cities far from each other even when it would be optimal to build them closer, you're really being wasteful.

>>335172
I realize that space between cities is technically wasted. When avoiding any sort of overlap, even just one tile, I work off the assumption that EVERY city is going to hit a high enough population to work EVERY tile around it.

What I'm not sure about is how realistic an assumption that even is in Alpha Centauri, since I haven't played that in several years. I know that's the way it worked out for me in Civ 4 though, and I think FreeCiv as well.

>>335220
My cities never get to high enough population to use those tiles anyway.

>>335220
>EVERY city is going to hit a high enough population to work EVERY tile around it

You could just build your initial cities wherever there happen to be resources nearby, without caring about gaps or overlap. Later on you can build more bases in between them to make use of the remaining free land. Your cities will have overlap, but that just means they'll grow until they're working every tile available and then stop. You can also still micromanage to let some select cities work every tile around them so that they'll grow to their maximum size, if you really want to have a few megacities in the mix.

That's probably the least wasteful way of going about it, especially in Alpha Centauri, since terraforming can turn every bit of land into something useful.

>>335110

You're way off. Especially in Alpha Centauri where growth is a bit slower than Civilization games. Stretch your empire too far? Here's a few things that can go wrong:

- You run out of space for new colonies. You're dreaming of colonies where all 17 tiles are used, son, you won't break 6~7 for a very long time. Time that would have been better spent by creating more colonies instead of wasting your precious space by creating "optimal" long-term plans that 90% likely won't even come true for most colonies.

- The further your colonies are from your capital, the more efficiency you sacrifice. Works exactly like corruption in Civ. So, what are you doing? Creating an "optimal" spread that isn't even optimal, since you're only increasing your inefficiency for a slim hope that one day, you'll get to use all 17 tiles.

- Down the line, specialists can and will be more useful than working a tile. Hell, this is me assuming you won't even use supply crawlers like a cheeseball. Even without them, you'll often prefer researcher and economist specialists.

- It's generally easier to support a constant stream of reinforcements the more compact your production grid is. You don't want your units spending eternities moving between your cities or moving to a city with naval transport.

- It's generally easier to defend a tightly knit network of cities.

The dude who posted the Cult screenshots earlier in the thread is doing it very right. This is generally the optimal spread in this game.

>>335430
>17

Not sure where you got that number from. A "thick cross" is 20 tiles, not counting the middle.

I vaguely recall something about a higher number of cities being bad for corruption/inefficiency in some of the Civ games as well. If I'm right about that then it would be another factor that made me develop this habit, but I could be misremembering that.

At any rate, I wasn't talking about actually leaving much, if any, space between colonies beyond what would be needed to completely avoid overlaps.

>>335523
Inefficiency doesn't really come into play until you're really expanding a lot. A portion of your energy production in bases other than you HQ will be lost once that happens, and you'll have to deal with more drones. There are ways of improving your efficiency rating, though, as well as preventing drone riots, so you shouldn't let that hold you back.

>>335523

Yeah, I'm bad at math, I just fired up the game and counted. I knew something would go wrong, I always fuck these things up.

But it also speaks volumes that I never had to think about the maximum amount of workable tiles.

>I vaguely recall something about a higher number of cities being bad for corruption/inefficiency in some of the Civ games as well. If I'm right about that then it would be another factor that made me develop this habit, but I could be misremembering that.

It's in all Civ games. Which is why you want to keep cities as close together as possible. The further away they are from your capital, the less efficiency they have.

>At any rate, I wasn't talking about actually leaving much, if any, space between colonies beyond what would be needed to completely avoid overlaps.

It adds up. Rule of thumb: better to have more colonies than to:

1) Have larger spread. As explained, smaller spread simply adds up to being better.
2) Spend more time hauling ass with colony pods when setting up a core of cities as early as possible is paramount.

This is especially important in multiplayer that's generally played on smaller maps. You want to have a tight little monster. You're not shooting for transcendence against a pack of mildly retarded AIs. Utmost min/maxing is even more important than it is on Transcend.

>>335563

All efficiency you can get is efficiency you want to get. Energy is your best friend.

Is it normal for Miriam to be a complete treacherous swine?

>>336539
miriam is the gandhi of smac

>>336539

Never.

>>336626
>>336631

I just bought SMAC recently, but gauging from your responses, I am in for a jihad.

>>336667
Well, the Ghandi comparison's not quite fair, she's a bit less warmongering than him, but only just.

>Shit ton of mindworms rape my HQ
>quickly set up a unit to be built next turn
>Lal drop pods into my base
>Lose a shit ton of key secret projects
>All of my bases get drone riots
>Can't build anything to stop him for several turns because of crippling drone riots
>can never take the base back
>Lal goes from dead last to basically raping everyone because he got his hands on some awesome secret projects.

>>337149

I wish AI did something clever in my games.

>>337149
It's amazing how quickly everything can go to shit.

Reposted from a different thread:

The Progenitors disappoint me. I mean, the human factions are all squabbling, but you can have some cooperation... but the Progenitors seem to be hardcoded to go to war with everyone eventually. And then what? If the Caretakers win, their fleet will wipe humans off of Chiron; if the Usurpers win, they'll either do the same thing, or achieve Transcendence, and then use their god mode to wipe out humanity (actually, what is the Usurper Ascent to Transcendence like?). And if the humans win, the Progenitors are just as much toast. The lack of any sort of long-term compromise vexes me somewhat.

For some reason, mind-raping Planet by uploading the entire internet into its fungus brain is extremely hilarious.

>>337617
>implying Planet didn't enjoy it
>implying Planet wasn't totally asking for it.

>>331616
My version (pirated I think, but I don't remember) always tells me that the CD-Rom isn't inserted and some features won't work. Then I play and all features appear to work.

>>337391
Could be an actual multi-player game, they exist (allegedly).

>>337765
Only because back in the day, you were expected to not fully install this massive 600+ MB game.

>>337916
>massive 600+ MB game
Lulz at the passage of time.

>>337772

I'm playing with a friend later this week. We got so fucking fed up with trying to make Hamachi work between our machines that we'll just LAN it up at my place.

Really not worth the effort, you're better off playing Civ 3. The mechanics are also better suited to multiplayer. I just really have an Alpha Centauri itch so we'll do this just once. Back to Civ 3 from then on.

>>337951
>dissing SMAC
SMAC is one of the greatest PC games ever created. If you want a purely multiplayer experience, then Civ 3 is likely better. Otherwise there's no excuse to skip on SMAC and SMACX.

>>338238

It's great, but severely disbalanced in too many ways.

>>338349
>balance
pls no

>>319135
I would pay real jewgoldz for SMAC. If you have any love for 4x strategy games, you should as well.

>>338531
>>319135
have you played vanilla? SMAX isn't really a 'must play' compared to the original and a lot of people just play without the xpack.

>>338349
Pre-crawlers (Industrial Automation, B3), it's amazingly well balanced. Remove crawlers, and it's balanced until Mind-Machine Interface (C6).

There's a lot of hidden strategic depth in this game, play around with different SE's and factions and unit types and you'll come with many, many ways to win or lose the game.

>>337951
>Hamachi
Hamachi is shit. Use Tunngle, it works well with many older 98/XP generation games.

>>338531
The problem is that if you pay GOG, the original devs do not see a single cent of that.
You're better off just pirating the GOG release.

>there will never be an Alpha Centauri mod for Civ5 that marries tactical combat and modular chassis-based unit customisation
>tfw cbf to reinstall Planetfall for Civ4
>tfw the UI for AC/AX is so horrible

>>337582
>actually, what is the Usurper Ascent to Transcendence like?

Humans trapped within an alien mind we cannot comprehend. Practically hell.

>>341125
>tfw the UI for AC/AX is so horrible

Really? I thought it was fine.

>>318995
Yep. This very much.

Perhaps Gaians and Peacekeepers are even more shit when you play them against AX factions. But played against their own factions, they're not bad at all.

>>320875
Lal's intro blab about information control makes him look the most level-headed out of all of them
and the story about his dead wife was FEELS worthy. all the others just sound like complete assholes compared to Lal.

>>340442
hamachi is only shit since they went full jew with player limit, otherwise it's still alright.

especially compared to bloated piece of shit that is tunngle. it works, don't get me wrong, dat bloat

>>341756
>>there will never be an Alpha Centauri mod for Civ5 that marries tactical combat and modular chassis-based unit customisation
the modular customization in smac might as well not be there really. it's too shallow to really offer you any options you wouldn't get with standard premade units like in all other civs.

also, tactical combat from civ5 doesn't really work for civs, just go play panzer general

>>335083
"Resources exist to be consumed. And consumed they will be, if not by this generation then by some future. By what right does this forgotten future seek to deny us our birthright? None I say! Let us take what is ours, chew and eat our fill."

He affirms scarcity, and then goes one step further by coming to the conclusion that, given that fact, his cohort must consume as much as they can without regards for conservation, sustainability, and the future in general.

Thus, his stance is "fuck the future."

>>319135
Alien Crossfire is included for free with the Alpha Centauri installer.

H-hey guys, I just installed this and I'm overwhelmed as fuck, any tips?

>mind-raping
>not reading the story-text which explicitly states Planet sees it as a blessing in disguise
>implying the Ascent to Transcendence is not the equivalent of using the sum total of human knowledge to make a sentient planet get its rocks off
>implying Zakharov is not the mackdaddy extraordinaire of Chiron

laughingmindworms.tiff

>>342410

Meant for >>337628

I love how dynamic the environment is in this game.

I played a game once where it was only me and Miriam left, and she had wrecked the environment so bad that the entire planet flooded. All that was left were my sea bases and her volcano island base.

>>341829
>also, tactical combat from civ5 doesn't really work for civs, just go play panzer general

Mind saying why it doesn't work? If you're playing against the idiotic AI, sure, I agree. Against other players, it's clearly superior to STACKS.

>>342306
Play the game, fagget. We didn't have any help back in those days.

>>341829
>dat bloat
what bloat? it's hardly noticeable.
also, hamachis player limit is not what i have issue with, it's that it plain does not work.

>>342306

Follow the Tours, they'll tell you 90% of what you need to know. Here's the crucial 10% that's not clear enough. Copy paste this somewhere.

1)Efficiency lowers the lower your cities are from your capital.

2) Depending on the planet size, there's a certain city limit beyond which drones start appearing. This is to balance out city spamming.

Huge Planet: 11 Bases
Large Planet: 9 Bases
Standard Planet: 6 Bases
Small Planet: 5 Bases
Tiny Planet: 3 Bases

3) Research is money. Money that goes into research, that is. You might think investing everything you have into research would thus be a great idea. However, the less symmetric your Economy/Research ratio investment is, the more you lose your money to a tune of an incrementally increasing percentage. It is displayed in red in your Social Engineer tab.

3b) RESEARCH IS MONEY. If your economy suffers in any way, including hurting it by maxing out your Research slider, your research will suffer. This is why maxing out your research will often *decrease* your lab output. The way to mitigate this is to increase your efficiency rating, which will reduce the percentage of money lost by disbalanced sliders.

4) CTRL+H while your unit is selected in base will transfer that unit's ownership to that base. The fact that an absolutely crucial feature like this doesn't get explained in huge red text is a sign that programmers shouldn't be creating tutorials.

5) Supply crawlers are OP. Don't use them against the computer because the computer is too stupid to do the same. In my opinion, they should be banned from multiplayer as well. Any cheeseball can hide his crawlers somewhere you cannot readily reach. The only answer is cheesballing right back and long story short, it's bullshit. If at least the crawlers had to physically travel to their home base, but they don't. No matter where they are -- bam, 6 production from that borehole. Just don't create them. Pretend they don't exist.

Post too long.

>>342679
>Mind saying why it doesn't work?
because scale. civ is a strategy game, not tactics game, so trying to make tactical combat on the same map is retarded idea in itself.

>it's clearly superior to STACKS.
while i mostly play civ without any stack probems (civ2), arguing that stacks are so big deal the only real alternative is abomination called civ5 combat ridiculous


>>342717
it does work perfectly, you just have to use older version.

>what bloat? it's hardly noticeable.
>ads cover literally half of the window
>popups out of ass
>takes ages to load

6) You can create a mine over a farm. You can also create a solar collector over a farm. You can't create a solar collector over a mine.

7) You can level out rocky terrain by using your formers.

8) Artillery units can't attack normally. Don't be fooled into creating impact artillery rovers to fight worms.

9) You get 10 free production every time you create a base, unless you're running Democracy.

Actually, there's a whole lot the game doesn't explain, I realize I could go on for quite a while. Just figure out the basics and then ask the thread what you still don't understand.

>>342717

did you have a problem of not being able to ping in Hamachi?

If so, did Tunngle work for you for Alpha Centauri?

>>342742
OH GOD thank you so much. I was tired of scrolling through 10 000 page stragegy guides trying to figure this shit out. Once I write this bullshit paper on Marx and Machiavelli I'm going to rule a singularity.

>>342757
>it does work perfectly, you just have to use older version.
AFAIK they disabled the older version, or something like that last time I tried it. I'm not a Tunngle rep or something, it just works, anyone can try the two and compare how quickly you get a virtual LAN game up and running.
You have even tacitly admitted the newest version of Hamachi is broken. Face it, it sucks.

>>342764
I used to use the WinPcap fix for that, until they locked out the older versions. Have you actually tried them recently because I think your info is a few months out of date.

>>342764
and I haven't tried SMAC in Tunngle yet, but every other oldish Windows game I've run works perfectly. No fucking around with Winpcap or shitty hacks.

>>342814
>>342764
I have both SMAC and Tunngle installed though, so if you want to see how good Tunngle is, install it and set up a network in it.

>>342798

I tried Hamachi yesterday, it doesn't work with my friend's computer. He's using XP and is on a different ISP and a different router. The number of things that can go wrong is beyond the grasp of my small non-IT-technician mind. We can't ping each other, it times out.

Fun fact: my own router is attached to two machines. I installed Hamachi on my brother's computer. He can't ping me. I can ping him. One of us can host, the other can. Joy.

The issue isn't Alpha Centauri per se, it's Hamachi. I can't fucking ping.

>>342897
There's a hack that lets you ping/broadcast, google it if you want 'Hamachi broadcast fix', just telling you that to show you I've been down this road before. Old versions that did work with old retro vidya were locked out recently.
Take my word for it. If not, enjoy wasting your time finding out what I found out 2 months ago when I tried playing DoW with my bros.

>>342742
I always city spam
Drones have never been an issue

I presume that, let's say, 10 bases on a huge planet means no-drones then?

>>342793
>AFAIK they disabled the older version, or something like that last time I tried it.
if they did, that would indeed suck. last time i used it worked though.

>You have even tacitly admitted the newest version of Hamachi is broken. Face it, it sucks.
>i can't be bothered to download version that works so it sucks
and i'm not hamachi rep either, i'm just saying that from my experienced, hamachi was really smooth and uninvasive as it gets. if it's no longer the case, than it might indeed suck, but that doesn't change tunngle at it's current form is bloated piece of shit and just because there isn't a better alternative doesn't really change it.

>>343352
Drones will always show up once your base grows past a certain size, which depends on the difficulty level you're playing at. Having too many bases just means that you get extra drones in addition to that.

>>343407
>hamachi was really smooth and uninvasive as it gets
Agreed, it *used* to be awesome.

>>343352

Drones are really only an issue at the two highest difficulty levels.

inb4itzeazyeitherwayloljustsupplycrawlerspamlel

>>343407
>hat doesn't change tunngle at it's current form is bloated piece of shit
I really don't get what your grounds for saying this are. Are you still on a Pentium 3 with 256mb RAM?

>>343410

Drones in every base or in additional bases?

Also, once I get past the threshold, it's just that one drone, right? No additional threshold beyond that?

Is Tunngle confirmed to work with Alpha Centauri?

>>344574
Not confirmed, but I'm willing to give it a try as I said earlier.
Create a network and post the password here.

>>344583

I can't get it to start, let alone ping someone. It's stuck on "contacting the tunggle server".

>>344824
But tunngle works for everyone anon!

>>344853

Further annoying -- I can't reach their forums either. are their servers down?

>>344898
nope, i can login just fine

>>344921

I tried adding an exception to the Firewall, still doesn't work.

Welp, so much for that.

>>344921
Same here.

>>344824
It takes a few seconds sometimes

>>344946

Nah, it was stuck for 2 minutes until Tunngle itself gave up and told me it's not gonna happen.

>Drone Riots
>Drone Riots
>Drone Riots

STOP REVOLTING FOOLS! We're in the middle of a war!

>>346429

It was much easier to predict when riots will occur in Civ 3, but I can't remember why. There was something in the interface.

>>346429
>Set governor to handle drone riots automatically
>Disable notification when base falls into rioting

It's like they don't even happen.

>exploring surrounding territory as University
>encounter Miriam's HQ five spaces away from my HQ
>she offers a treaty
>her HQ is empty
>two scouts are near it
>fuck it
>annihilate her

It's a good thing I did because I'm still boxed in by Lal and Santiago.

That early game territory grab is a bitch.

>>334517
She loves to press the on/off switch?

So which expansion factions are somewhat balanced?

Which are overpowered and a challenge, which suck ass?

Gotta know, setting up a new game and I don't wanna be stuck with bum status factions like Miriam.

>>347539
Aliens and cyborgs are considered stronk.

I read this thread yesterday and came to a sort of revelation just as I was going to bed.

The recycling tanks, why do they exist? Theoretically these advanced societies on a virgin world should have no problem acquiring resources, aside from petrochems Planet is abundant in materials that should eliminate the need for recycling. And yet they reuse dead bodies, why?

Because on Planet one of the rarest, yet most essential, materials for survival is earth type biological matter. As far as the colonists are concerned the amino acids, carbon structures and so on found in earth organisms may be the only ones left in the entire galaxy. The only way to get more is to produce more earth organisms which require at least some of the same to survive, every ounce of earth's biological material is incredibly rare and precious. A handful of natural mulch is probably worth more than an entire day of the solar farms energy or a ton of iron ore.

They have to recycle dead bodies because it is essential to their survival on a new planet to do so.

>>347606
Well, the aliens are more like outright cheating. The one balancing factor is that everyone hates you, especially the other aliens. Also, no trade bonuses with anyone (though you make energy uniquely anyway).

I honestly don't know anything about the human faction power levels, but I'd be interested to know why the Consciousness was considered particularly strong.

>>347687
This is true, up until they start planting trees, which unlike humans, actually love the assload of nitrates on Planet. So Earthly biomass will start growing rapidly, but until then, you're right.

>>347539
Mirriam sucks ass, in my opinion the weakest faction of the lot. In THEORY she can be good, but only in theory, research points gimped early on, handicapped research all around, basically she'll have a real rough time of it until she gets Probe Teams and then it's a race to see how much tech you can steal from everyone until they come and rape your ass for stealing their shit.

>>342761
>You get 10 free production every time you create a base, unless you're running Democracy.
The amount of free minerals per new base depends on your SUPPORT social engineering value (which gets lowered by 2 if running democracy)

You can press F1 in-game to read lots and lots of stuff that's also in the game manual.

>>347816
>Mirriam sucks ass, in my opinion
Probably because you're terrible at the game.

Miriam is one of the best rushers, one of the best aggressors in general, and of the vanilla factions the best probespammer. With equal weapons tech she is unstoppable. Even if she's behind she can punch above her weight better than anyone else.

>>347923
>one of the best aggressors in general
Bitch knows how to jihad, I'll give her that.

It's surprising that her military capabilities are far above Santiago's.

>>347707

Planet is huge man, even once forest production begins you're basically trying to replicate a millennia old eco system within a few human life times.

I mean think about it. You're taking earth plants and trying to grow them in what is as best a sterile environment and at worst a hostile one. Planet is missing all the invisible but essential components like micro organisms and worms etc. that help plant life survive, every base probably would have a lab dedicated to nurturing microorganism cultures for the sole purpose of preparing land for farming purposes.

Soil, dirt, as we know it today is the product of millions of years of life on earth. Imagine trying to replicate that on Planet? Even once you get it running you'll want more material to expand it, every tiny speck of earth's biomatter would be absolutely essential. Thus you reuse everything you have.

Also, this line of thinking gets me wondering about animals. Bringing over whole animals would be very difficult and wasteful, so they must have had tons of frozen eggs and sperm with them. Even once they start attempting to raise animals live insemination and birth would be risky, what makes sense is if they extracted more semen/eggs from their successful creatures to make more test tube babies until they have a safe and sustainable stock.

Eating meat that was naturally born and vegetables that were traditionally grown would be a luxury on Planet.

>>347923
Miriam is fucking terrible on any map that isn't mostly land and on the smaller side. Try playing her on large or huge and she is absolutely worthless.

>With Equal Weapons tech

This is the core problem, unless you get lucky and end up near Zhakarov and get probes relatively early, but you'll still end up behind by the time he attacks you back, and 25% extra power when attacking won't do shit when you're behind in every conceivable way. behind in Econonmy, behind in Secret Porjects, behind in base facilities behind in military.

She is fucking terrible. Gimmick at best, that becomes totally useless when the university gets H/S.

>>348107
I don't know if it's actually quite so bad as all that; it's heavily implied that Earth plants adapt very well to Planet's surface. Perhaps this is bad science, but it's what I recall.
I do basically agree with you about the recycling tanks.

Also, why are the Cyborgs overpowered?

>>348204
Except poor Zakky melts under probe pressure even if he drops Knowledge.

It's really not up for debate. Miriam only appears weak if you're the sort of newdrone who thinks that the University is the BEST FACTION EVER because it has a tech bonus.

>>342761
> 7) You can level out rocky terrain by using your formers.

What does that achieve?

>>348393
You can't use some terraforming options like forests or farms on rocky terrain.

>Nautilus Pirates

>>348393
It makes a tile's rockyness rolling. It gives less minerals from mining but now you can build farms or plant forests on it.

So I have a question:
The AI often comes up with proposals to trade tech, and (something I like) I can even make counteroffers.

But besides the little number next to it (E2, C1, not sure what those mean) I have no idea if I'm being conned or not. I'm not going to trade map data or energy credits for tech, but other then that...

How do you guys decide what techs to trade or not?

>>348491
I'm pretty sure the number is the.. 'tier' of the technology.

You can't get E3 without going through E2 unless you trade
Like... Let's pretend
Synthetic Fossil Fuel E5
Planes E6

>>348491
I go by Diplomacy's strategy when it comes to trading.

If someone is next to me, I try to avoid giving them technology. If someone is opposite one of my neighbors, I go hog wild, form alliances with them, etc.

The best way to decide whether to trade tech or not is just to know what each tech does. It takes some familiarization with the tech tree, but you can always check the datalinks while conversing with another faction.

>>348295
He is one of the better factions, and no, mirriam is situational at best, you need tech, at least enough to keep up with secret projects new units and facilities etc, Miriam gets WAY too far behind unless you get probe teams very quickly, which basically only happens if get enough free datalinks from supply pods. She just isn't good on rocky or water heavy maps, she can't keep up, (especially water heavy, you probably won't be able to capture bases early on to scrounge some free tech and then lose them to capture them again the next turn for more free tech until you get foils and it becomes a lot harder to do because you might be too far behind, unless you manage to get a unity foil.)

She is one of THE weakest factions by far, just because she isn't entirely useless and can be used to cheese early doesn't make her good. Tech is the biggest thing in this game, tech is economy, tech is military tech is social, tech is bases. It has a geometric effect as you go on you cannot just say "it's just a tech disadvantage!".

>>348523
>Rocky

i mean huge, no idea why I said rocky.

>>348491
The letter is the category it belongs to ('E'xplore, 'C'onquer, 'B'uild, 'D'iscover) and the number is essentially its rank/tier (essentially how deep it is in the tech tree). Higher tier techs are generally more valuable since they cost more but sometimes a low tier tech has some particularly powerful effect tied to it that you don't want an AI to have earlier.

As to what you should trade, it really depends on the context. A good rule of thumb is to not trade away anything that gives you distinct advantage unless the tech you'd get is just as advantageous to you.

>>347691
>I'd be interested to know why the Consciousness was considered particularly strong.

PROS:

>+2 RESEARCH
Holy shit bro. Zakharov up in this shit.

>+2 EFFICIENCY: {Cybernetic biologicals extremely efficient}
... Are. You. Fucking. Kidding. Me. +2 Research and THIS? Research rates will be through the fucking roof. Shit, I dread the moment I get to the cons, this faction is probably a total glass cannon.

>Impunity to CYBERNETIC penalty: {Cybernetic social choice is 'rational' and not dissented by citizens}
...

...

Well, at least it's an end-game thing that's not really relevant, let alone in multiplayer. I'll let this pass, but still, holy shit.

>Can steal technology when capturing a base
SDR@#$WEFGE$%Y^GHE$TRF

ASDFAWE$

ASDASD

CONS: ... Here we go, this is gonna hurt.

>May not make Fundamentalist choice in social engineering
>-1 GROWTH: {Humans 'possessed by an algorithm' find reproduction awkward}

Haha, good one, where's the rest?

... No seriously, where's the rest?

...

... That's it? -1 growth? That's it?

THAT'S IT?

... Alright, fuck this, back to the original. This expansion is a total chucklefuck, might as well pick Firaxians.

>>348579
>>Impunity to CYBERNETIC penalty: {Cybernetic social choice is 'rational' and not dissented by citizens}

Actually this is kinda lame altogether seeing as you can get this relatively easy from network backbone a few turns later and the penalties to it aren't that bad (just -2 police.)

>>348523
Thanks for proving my point. You overrate the value of tech, probably in part because you play bigass waterheavy maps where early conflict is extremely rare and you have time to build up in peace. Saying she gets far behind unless you get probe teams quickly is meaningless because anyone with a brain will go for probes ASAP as Miriam.

I'm guessing your experience with her is limited to smacking AI Believers around on huge maps once you've already established an unbeatable tech lead. I'm sure that feels rewarding to you but it's pretty much meaningless in regards to how good the Believers are as a faction. And they are quite good.

>>348707
Honestly, I'm a different person, but I do prefer huge maps. It feels more like a real planet that way, with somewhat more realistic spaces between factions. Additionally, it lets each faction have a chance to last as long as it seems they should in-universe.

>>348707
>Believers are good if other factions are right next to them at start and there's no water in the way

That's not a glowing recommendation

>>348739
There's nothing wrong with preferring larger maps (hell, I do) but there is something wrong with letting your preference cloud your judgement.

In practically every strategy game out there, large maps favour building over early aggression. It's hardly a new concept, yet you still have people like the guy I'm replying to who insist that X is better than Y because X is better on the maps he prefers while ignoring the fact that Y is similarly advantaged on the opposite.

>>348598

-2 Police can be pretty goddamn heavy. Especially in multiplayer. Every base you conquer will be perma-droning and you can't even nerve staple to stop it. Also, consider that it's the only penalty to the best future society model.

Then again, as stated, irrelevant. Games resolve long before cybernetic, especially in multiplayer.

>>348739

You shouldn't talk about balance if you only play single player. It's pointless, you don't really know the real strengths and weaknesses of factions since there's things AI will simply never pull on you that real players do all the time.

>>348776


Oh and, it's -3 police. Welp.

>>348812
In multiplayer games early rushes will almost always win.

>>348838

Guess who's best at them.

>>348861

>>348941

nigger please

>>348783
If you have a few secret projects it's really not an issue unless you also have other police lowering Social choices. And Network backbone should be pretty close at the point in game where you would get cybernetic. Virtual world and longevity vaccine (with planned economics) will basically neuter the problem. Also being Lal helps a lot because the free talent is actually insanely useful for that very purpose.

>>348707
I don't know why you keep making your arguments out of things I never said.

and no, I'm not over-valuing tech, tech literally is everything in this game, it's why miriam can be so great, she can steal it later on and devote most of her resources to economy or psych, she has a fantastic late-game in theory even on big water heavy maps. The problem is that is basically all up to chance, she either gets what she needs and she will do great, or she doesn't and she can't salvage the game easily at all. Her reliance on probe teams is basically a gimmick that has a way to counter it that she is utterly incapable of dealing with.

Do you think there could ever possibly be peace between the humans and Progenitors?

>>349216

Nope. They created consciousness far more advanced than humans could dream of being and it fucked them up the ass. At best, they look at humans as cute animals.

>>349257
Well, that's how they start out seeing humans, but with them being reduced to basically equal positions on Planet, I think they might be able to grow closer together? Maybe?

>>349353
The problem is that the alien factions in SMAC are simply vanguards for an ancient, enormously powerful empire that would squash humanity like a grape if they arrived in force. They would never see humans as equals for this simple reason alone.

>>349608
oh plus the fact that humans are pretty much squatting on a planet that the Progenitors consider to be rightfully theirs

>>349608
Aren't there two, half-enormously powerful empires?

And... I sort of see your point, but I do think there could still be a chance for individuals to be seen as more equal. I know that Lular is somewhat interested in humanity.

>>349647
Granted. I've considered before if the Caretakers, if sufficiently persuaded, might just move humans off of Chiron, perhaps even back to Earth, if their fleet arrived.

>>349661
The Progenitors are divided but the main fleets of either faction would spell defeat for every human faction on Planet, no matter how powerful they are.

I'm not saying peace is an impossibility, but Earth history is replete with examples of what typically happens when cultures with bigger guns or sharper swords meet cultures without.

>>349778
Hmmm... well, what if humanity Transcended first?

>>349807
That would definitely change things. Even a newly transcended Planet might not be a match for the full might of the Progs., but it's moot if they can't get there before Planet's abilities surpass theirs, which it almost certainly will.

>>349353
Yeah, no cute animal can destroy you with a singularity beam

>>349957
>Alright, finally, our full fleet is here. Time to finally...what the fuck?!
>PLANET BRAIN AM THE GREETEST.

>>350152

Imagine hauling ass so far only for the history to repeat.

>>350152
>>350205
So wait, what's the backstory behind the aliens and Planet exactly? Never play with aliens on.

>>350259
>The "alien crossfire" of the title refers to a civil war between two factions of an alien race named the Progenitors, the original creators of the ecosystem of Chiron. Their presence was hinted at in the original game by the presence of the monolith structures that instantly healed any unit, and Alien Artifacts that granted advanced technological knowledge. It is revealed that Chiron is one of six planets, referred to by them as Manifolds, where the Progenitors experimented in achieving sentience on a planetary level, using the xenofungus they had engineered. However, a disaster occurred on another Manifold orbiting Tau Ceti: In an event they refer to as "the Flowering", the Tau Ceti Manifold achieved sentience far too fast and uncontrollably. The "Flowering of Tau Ceti" resulted in a massive and uncontrolled burst of psychic energy which destroyed the Tau Ceti Manifold, along with most of the Progenitors' civilization. Further, the locations of the other five Manifolds were lost. The scattered survivors regrouped into two factions: the Caretakers, who believed that the disaster at Tau Ceti proved that they should avoid future research into planetary-level sentience, and the Usurpers, who believed that despite the accident, they should seek out the remaining Manifolds and use them to usher in the Transcendence of their species to the next stage of evolution. The Caretakers and Usurpers became locked in conflict for millennia.

>>350259

The planetary consciousness is a result of their experiment. They made six "manifolds". One of them woke up and tore their ass open catastrophically which is how their culture divided. The usurpers now want to wake up Chiron because they fear nothing. The caretakers aren't delighted at the prospect of history repeat so they gave chase.

It's like the Lucifer myth in reverse.

>>350293
>>350294
Sweet.

>Caretakers ally with you and give you a battle ogre

Thanks breh.

I found a bug involving patrol orders, does anyone else know of it ? O

>>348107
>Planet is missing all the invisible but essential components like micro organisms and worms etc.
Oh trust me Planet has plenty of worms.

>>351694
>Oh trust me Planet has plenty of worms.

Hey Deidre, I got a worm right here for ya.

I'm talkin about my penis.

So, which Progenitor faction is "better," morally speaking? The Caretakers are strangling the evolution of their species and dragging things into stagnation... but the Usurpers are extremely violent, warlike and selfish, and are even more aggressively disdainful of humans than their adversaries (who are more uncaring than actively malevolent). I also wonder if they're really significantly worse than the human factions, though I can see some, like the Gaians and Peacekeepers, who would be unequivocally better.

>>351954
Better?!

You're not getting the obviously anti-deterministic stance of this videogame. There's no right choice, just the path we make.

No heaven no hell, just earth.

Cause if it seams to be real it's illusion
For every moment of truth, there's confusion in life...

what happened to that guy who was trying to set up a multiplayer SMAC game?

>>352938
Eh. I'd say that Transcendence is a better path than conquest and ultimate death by Flowering, but maybe that's just me.

>>353079
Any of the factions can achieve transcendence

>>351954

Caretakers are clearly better from the outlook of progress. The Usurpers are careless to the point of risking theirs and the lives of other species without a second thought. Caretakers may appear like despotic, close-minded control freaks strangling the youthful voice of revolution, but come the fuck on. I'd shoot a million fucking kittens trying to pry open a pandora's box, let alone carless, decidedly un-kitten-like power-hungry maniacs who want to do it at the potential expense of the rest of their civilization *and* others civilizations to boot.

The two factions are merely a consequence of a huge tragedy that struck their people. Both are desperate. The Usurpers see chaos and violence and seek desperately to rise above by turning themselves into what they perceive as higher and infinitely more powerful beings. The Caretakers see that same chaos and violence and are humbled. They merely want things to return to how they were and will stomp anyone who threatens the last vestiges of their civilization

Given the current state of their evolution, the Caretakers are more realistic. It's quite simply true -- their culture is not ready for transcendence. Even if there was no more risk of flowering, the Usurpers should be stopped. Fuck evolution and "progress" if you strive for it merely as a shortcut to power. You've "transcended" nothing, you've only amplified your existing faults manifold.

There comes a point where evolution is no longer a straight line, but necessitates awareness. The "why" becomes more important than "how". You cannot truly progress until you first learn to be happy with what you already are.

>>353095
Actually, the Caretakers can't, but that's beside the point, which is that not every faction will try for Transcendence. The Believers, Spartans, and Hive, for instance, are likely to just stop at conquest. I'd say the ones most likely to actually make Transcendence a priority are the Gaians, University, and (a long shot), the Consciousness. Also the Usurpers, who are the only ones likely to pursue Transcendence after conquering the world.

>>353119
It's true that the Usurpers are a bit on the exceedingly aggressive side, but the thing is that they're right; Transcendence is indeed a future of unlimited power and potential. And if they don't take it, the humans will, or at least may, and suddenly the Progenitor civilization may be in dire trouble. Of course, Transcendent Usurpers would quickly obliterate the Caretakers, but who can say what outsiders would do with the Manifolds?

That said, the Caretakers are marginally more amenable to humans. Though they still don't seem to care about humans much more, if at all, than the Usurpers do.

>>353153

Fuck humans. In their position, I'd join forces and wipe them out. Surely enough, the humans could be proven worthy to strive for transcendence and the humans, aliens and the planet could join hands and sing a happy song. That, however, is quite bullshit and the humans are very unlikely to want anything but a way to cast off shackles and exercise centuries of frustration on a hostile planet.

It's all quite vague though, because you could interpret "Transcendence" as Stockholm syndrome while the planet is devouring you whole.

>>353153
> Hive, for instance, are likely to just stop at conquest
I've always felt that Transcendence was fitting for the Hive. Connecting the majority of human consciousness to a single entity with a few domineering minds in control sounds like something Yang would want to be a part of.

>>353196
There really doesn't seem to be any indication that Transcendence is that... I admit it'd be amusing if it was, and prove the Caretakers completely right, but it doesn't make for that satisfying of an ending. Either way... I don't know, I'm just interested in human/Progenitor peace scenarios.

>>353224
But joining with the Planetmind is less so. In any case, their science isn't really that good.

>>320469
That picture edit intrigues me please describe it more!

Is this worthy of bumping?

>>353708
Is it worth bumping a thread about one of the best games ever?

>>353729
Best... sets of game lore ever. I've been trying to play the game itself lately, and I just am not finding it all that fun, not nearly as much as the faction quotes and suchlike would have you believe.

>>353729
seriously , theres been an A centauri thread since day one of /vr and im SO GOD DAMN PROUD OF YOU. Similar feels?

>>353764

Gotta repeat, Civ 3 is simply a better overall gameplay experience. The addition of special resource-dependent military units adds a whole new dimension to territory control. Also, the overall balance and especially the tech tree is much better suited to multiplayer.

Yeah, so there's no different levels of elevation. They're a bad idea anyway -- at least the way they were implemented in Alpha Centauri. There's too much gradation between altitudes and that's never a good idea in a game like this. One glance at the map should give you a clear idea about what you're looking at. This elevation system throws a wrench in that. I find myself selecting individual tiles to figure out solar collector placements (on account of elevation) and it's just another layer of tedious micromanagement that really doesn't add enough to the game to justify the tedium involved. The mechanic itself is fine, it's pretty cool. It's just not intuitive enough. One look at a tile should give a clear indication of the altitude. I'm not saying every elevated tile should automatically be a "hill" or "mountain" without any other attributes like Civ, but there's got to be a better way of handling this. At least keyboard shortcut that separates every 1000 of altitude in a different color so I don't have to click every tile individually.

>Start game

What do you usually do from here?

>Customize random planet
>Standard size
>50-70% ocean coverage
>Weak erosive forces
>Abundant life forms
>Dense cloud cover
>Thinker
>Customize rules
>Check "Look first", "Bell curve", "Iron man"
>Uncheck "Blind research"

I play nearly all of my games like this, going to try 30-50% ocean coverage this time.

>>353973
That's not my issue, it's just that the gameplay itself is sort of dull and doesn't utilize the lore nearly as well as I would like it to. I actually think a single-player adventure game would suit it well... maybe as a probe team leader? But then, the problem is that the beginning and end of the overall story are extremely far apart, and climactic, tense battles as the Ascent to Transcendence nears completion would be hard to do in the same game as a great deal else.

>>353987
I always use the Huge Map of Planet, which may be responsible in some ways for boredom... should I do something else?

>>353863

Not particularly as Alpha Centauri threads were feasible even in the shithole of recent /v/. I am overall proud of /vr/ though. I was afraid the board would pretty much boil down to just old console games, but there's plenty of PC discussion. Quality discussion at that. The board really gave a voice to the older guard.

Also, despite autistic management, we still manage to talk about the nature of video games in general, including current releases. The main strength of /vr/ is in it's older audience, not the object of discussion itself. The fact that mere mention of a post '99 game, even if it's a 2000 release guarantees deletion still irks me, but we still manage to get by. Autistic, inflexible janitors is just a fact of 4chan.

It's not quite the Old School PC Gaming General I envisioned back on /vg/, but I guess it's as close as 4chan will get. I'm happy with this.

>>354005
I've tried huge maps a couple of times, but unfortunately the game doesn't really work well with those. It just kind of falls apart, the AI doesn't know how to expand nearly enough to make use of all that space, and you end up feeling isolated. It becomes very boring long before the game ends, especially since more area means more bases and more tedious micromanagement.

Games are more intense the smaller the map is, although sometimes even standard feels too big for Thinker AIs.

>>354005
You can start doing random maps, it isn't even like Planet has the novelty factor that an Earth map does.

Also I find that on huge maps you can generally expand to a point where the AI can't really compete with you pretty easily. I usually end up just quitting halfway through any games on huge maps just because it stops having any semblance of difficulty at that point.

>>353973
>Civ 3 is simply a better overall gameplay experience

That is such a bizarre thing to read. I HATE playing Civ 3. I love the wonderful aesthetic of the game, but the exceptionally dickish and stupid AIs, the way corruption and waste are handled, and the lack of zones of control between units really make it infuriating to play. Civ 5 is the only game in the series I dislike even more.

>>353987

>Customize random planet
Yes.

>Standard size
Yes.

>50-70% ocean coverage
I usually decrease ocean coverage to minimum, I dislike small islands and exploring oceans. I also dislike surprise douche foil attacks, especially in multiplayer.

>Weak erosive forces
No, I leave it at standard.

>Abundant life forms
Dear god no, average.

>Dense cloud cover
Sometimes, never in multiplayer though.

>Thinker
Librarian in multiplayer, Thinker in single. Not stubborn enough for Transcend. I'm undergoing a bit of a refresher course now though and I'm playing Librarian in single. Already too easy, there's too much you can do to pester the AI.

>Customize rules
>Check "Look first", "Bell curve", "Iron man"
Yes to the first two, no to Iron man. I do essentially play an iron man game, but sometimes I simply forget to do something and I just have to reload. I find how fast the AI plays a huge annoyance because the camera will be dancing around wildly and I can't see shit. So sometimes mind worms approach my base and I don't notice it. If I did, I would have attacked first. I gotta reload that turn, fuck it.

I never reload to win battles or change the outcome of unity pods though, that's pointless.

>Uncheck "Blind research"
I usually do, but sometimes it's fun not to.

>>354115
I couldn't love you more right now.

If i said Civ 4 was complex but in a good way and say that alpha centauri is a different kind of game but the civs ranking is like this:

Civ 4/Civ 2/Civ 1/Civ 3/Civ 5

what would you say???

>>354005
>That's not my issue, it's just that the gameplay itself is sort of dull and doesn't utilize the lore nearly as well as I would like it to. I actually think a single-player adventure game would suit it well... maybe as a probe team leader? But then, the problem is that the beginning and end of the overall story are extremely far apart, and climactic, tense battles as the Ascent to Transcendence nears completion would be hard to do in the same game as a great deal else.

Well yeah, you got a point. You really wanna see how the different factions make by. All the small details a 4X game usually doesn't get into. I'd love to see some sort of a narrative-driven game for Alpha Centauri, sure. I just don't really know what that game would be. A shooter wouldn't work, I'd still want to retain the element of a gradually changing society as it learns more about the planet as well as new technologies.

All I know is that I'd love to explore the interiors of colonies, see how they're built. Talk to the drones as well as the upper classes. See how they react to new technological breakthroughs. The more I think about it, the more I realize I want a sort of a cross between DK/Startopia and Sierra city building games set in the Alpha Centauri setting.

>>354151
Yeah, I guess I agree. I enjoy Civ 4 the most, not only for the base game but for the FFH2 mod as well, and Civ 2 is basically an improved and more advanced version of Civ 1. In Civ 3 they took some things in the wrong direction, but I still sometimes enjoy building an empire in it purely because of the aesthetic and the ambience.

Trying to fit Alpha Centauri on that list would be tricky, I feel like I've spent about as much time on it as I have on Civ 4 and I've gotten just about as much enjoyment from both.

>>354198
What I wonder is: could the "gradually changing" thing be over a series, instead of a single game? Would that work? If so, we might have a lot more freedom to explore things how they are, instead of controlling everything, but in frequently vague, nonsensical patterns (and other things, like only having three different government types when the University, Morganites and Consciousness especially don't fit any of them).

Your units being impervious to mind control is a crucial upper-hand on higher difficulties where the AI loves to spam probe teams and buy-out bases you literally just conquered with half your army still in it.

>>354115

>the exceptionally dickish and stupid AIs
I don't play single player civ 3, so I wouldn't know about the AI.

> the way corruption and waste are handled
It's really not all *that* different at all. Just more pronounced.

>lack of zones of control between units really make it infuriating to play
I really don't get how it's infuriating. It's different, but I don't feel it's inferior. Adjust your playstyle. It's not like zone of control doesn't exist and you can ignore it, it's just handled differently.

I think all your problem stem from playing single player.

>I love the wonderful aesthetic of the game
I'm not particularly in love with it at all. It's the prettiest Civ game, but it's still quite ugly in my opinion.

>>354151
I never played Civ 4 for two reasons. One -- well, my friends have old computers so I'd have to play the AI. Two -- I think it's unbelievably ugly. You know when you find a game so repulsive you just can't get past it? If my friends wanted to switch to Civ 4, I'd be willing to give it a try, but as it is, there's no way.

>>354238

I wouldn't mind. I think it was clearly implied that I'd like a scenario-based campaign, just like DK and Startopia. That means you don't get access to all your shit from the get go and it gives the designers breathing room to focus more on smaller details.

However, since it's a dream scenario, might as well fit it into a very long scenario in a single game instead of stretching it out to sequels. Then design separate campaigns for all factions. Cinematics between every mission. Branching storyline depending on how you solve certain scenarios. 24/7 all-access titjobs from Aria Giovanni. The ability to go invisible at will. Chance to erase your memory and revisit all the favorite parts of your life. System Shock 3 gets released, but it's a PC exclusive and also the bodysnatcher currently inhabiting Ken Levine has absolutely no input whatsoever.

>>354403
I've never played DK or Startopia; what are those like?

Also, why's Levine inhabited by a body snatcher?

Finally, to be somewhat more on-topic, what's the best faction in which to live overall? My money, as of now, is between Gaians and Peacekeepers, depending on how naturey you are.

>>354461
Yang's Hive. Learn to overcome the crass demands of flesh and bone, and learn to enjoy living under oppression.

>>354461
>DK or Startopia
DK, 9/10
Startopia, 8/10

>>354489
But why bother if you can just live in a decent faction to begin with?

>>354461
Peacekeepers probably, followed by the Believers and the Spartans. After that you start getting into horrific dystopias.

>>354521
Er, both the Believers and the Spartans are horrific dystopias (the Believers run an enthusiastic brainwashing program, the Spartans are enthusiastic practitioners of infanticide), and the Gaians are really quite pleasant. The Free Drones are also not dystopian, though they are rather dirty.

>>354538
While the Believers and the Spartans are bad, the alternatives are even worse. And the Gaians are a bunch of Mind Worm obsessed lunatics, and I certainly wouldn't want to live in close proximity with anything that would burrow into my head and eat my brain.

I wasn't thinking about the expansion factions, but the Free Drones would probably be cool. The Pirates probably wouldn't be too bad, either.

>>354461
>I've never played DK or Startopia; what are those like?
Think of a cross between games like Pharaon/Caesar/Zeus/Emperor and The Sims. You create a facility/empire/callitwhatyouwill and you have to attract inhabitants and keep them happy. You have to pay attention to proper placement, travel times, there's a fair bit of macromanagement. Moreso in Startopia than DK though. What Dungeon Keeper lacks in that though it makes up for in more involved combat mechanics as well as trap placement. If you've played Dwarf Fortress, you can think of it a more advanced version of Dungeon Keeper because the gameplay is quite alike in a lot of ways.

Now, it's akin to The Sims for two reasons. For one, the creatures/visitors are 1:1 individuals with individual needs and you'll find yourself micromanaging them individually. Individually individual. The second reason is the very cozy, up close and personal feel to the game that's unlike most management simulations.

>Also, why's Levine inhabited by a body snatcher?
Because I refuse to believe that the person that made shitty games like Bioshock and Bioshock Infinite was also responsible for the fantastic game System Shock 2 was. He's a condescending douchebag and the stories he writes reflect this entirely.

>Finally, to be somewhat more on-topic, what's the best faction in which to live overall? My money, as of now, is between Gaians and Peacekeepers, depending on how naturey you are.
Well, you've already answered it. Peacekeepers more-so than Gaians because I'm really not quite clear on how buddy-buddy Deidre is with those worms. I don't really think she's the type to pour worms down your throat like others implied earlier in this thread, but the society itself could potentially be quite creepy. We don't really know enough.

>>354589
Bioshock wasn't a bad game, it just wasn't an intense horror game like SS2. It still had loads of good in it.

>>354574
You're thinking of the Cult of Planet; they're the ones who have xenofungus and mind worm nests actually running through their bases. The Gaians are about ecological harmony, not complete dominance of Planet's native life; they use at least as much Earth life as Chiron life, if not more. Gaians use actual mind worms for scientific and military purposes, nothing more; it's the Cult of Planet that uses them as objects of worship and police as well.

>>354589
From what I've read in lore, you're far more likely to see beautiful tree-lined parks and "sunny lovers' trysts" (in the words of Lal) in Gaian bases than rampant fungal blooms and brood pits. Also, why was Bioshock a bad game?

>>354610
Is it an exploit to play as Deidre with abundant lifeforms because you can capture a lot of worms? or is it to play with a eco-damaging faction like morganites and set the lifeforms to low???

>>354652
What is a setting in which all factions are balanced(both for vanilla and AC=??))

>>354610
i had severe problems making system shock 1 run, i heard there was ar emake or something what is the name of it please?

>>354652
Wouldn't call it an exploit, but you're certainly tilting the odds in your favor.

>>354610
>>354639

>Bioshock wasn't a bad game, it just wasn't an intense horror game like SS2. It still had loads of good in it.
>Why was Bioshock a bad game?

It was a pretty game, I'll give it that. There's absolutely nothing else I can say for it. The mechanics are pure console shooter bullshit, all pretensions of free-roaming are well, pretensions. It's a corrider-shooter through and through and it's obnoxiously easy to boot. I say obnoxiously because the game is so in love with it's mechanics yet they're nothing but masturbation since everything can be handled with a broomstick if you're remotely competent at FPS games. You know, I bet it's more challenging with a gamepad, *hint, hint, hint*.

I don't really expect of every game to wreck my balls, but if the gameplay is so easy so as to become tedious, you better make up for it with something else. No, Bioshock really insists on gameplay and provides little respite from constant repetitive ambushes from identical enemies. In that regard, Infinite is at least a huge spectacle filled with fun setpieces and a step ahead. That still doesn't help the fact that the "immersive storyline" is basically something out of a morning cartoon. I really don't want to waste too much words here though because it wouldn't fit into the post and I've already talked about this several times already in the past. I'm really not in the mood.

>>354663
>What is a setting in which all factions are balanced(both for vanilla and AC=??))

Librarian. No AI cheating and no AI handicaps.

>>354663
>i had severe problems making system shock 1 run, i heard there was ar emake or something what is the name of it please?

System Shock 1 portable.

http://www.systemshock.org/index.php?PHPSESSID=v9n5pdqluo13vhc7fvc9l75ah5&board=13.0

>>354610
>loads of good
Like what? Not trolling, I genuinely gave it a chance, played up to where that woman writes the code on the glass, but it was a piece of shit and I gave up, something I hardly ever do with vidya.

>>354791
>>354702
Bioshock isn't relevant to this board, let alone this thread.

>>354830
Yeah, fuck it, forget I asked. Just hoping for a slightly more mature response to that same question that I asked /v/ a while ago.

>>354712
but what about settings and all that, like terrain cloud covering...

>>354652
It's not an exploit but you're effectively setting the difficulty lower if you tailor the map to your faction.

>>354791
>>354840
I too was disappointed when I found out that Bioshock was an ugly, clunky console port with some pain-in-the-ass technical difficulties, but it really wasn't a bad game if you were able to look past all that - even if that is asking much. Hell, SS2 is a pretty damn flawed game, but I've been a fan since it was released.

The enemies, characters and gameplay in Bioshock are all awesome. They've made hacking into something that actually requires player skill since SS2, and fighting Rumblers is nothing compared to Big Daddies. I still love SS2 more for the nostalgia and the intensity, but I don't see how you could argue that Bioshock was at its heart a bad game.

Sage because everyone else is sageing, I guess.

How do you play this windowed?

>>355027
nvm found dxwnd

Am I the only person who regularly plays on small maps?

While you don't get access to cool tech, the game is a lot more hectic and focused on military.

>>355174
I really prefer to see more tech than I do wars.

I'm currently stuck in the single most boring game I've ever played.

So help me god, I'm never, ever playing a Huge map ever again.

Should I just quit?

Listening to Discovery and playing this game. Cheers to one of the best stories in a game ever made.

I really wanted to make a roguelike that takes place on Chiron. But I've given up at the moment.

>>355682
Micromanagement hell?

>>355682
This is why Huge maps kind of suck. The incredibly clean up phase is boring as hell.

>>355682
Huge maps are a good way to explore the story, IMO. But a terrible way to enjoy the gameplay mechanics. It's one of the downsides of the game.

Honestly, the gameplay isn't great. But that's not why I love the game. I always return to experience the setting again.

>>355697

Absolute and total hell. I shit, eat, sleep, breathe and live formers and I can't really take it anymore, I can't even remember what I'm doing with half of them by now.

It may look like I got a really good position, but I've spawned in the middle of a huge fungus spot. The entire game has been waging war on constantly spawning worms.

>on transcend
>chilling on southern island
>get empath guild
>Deidre currently steamrolling, overtakes Gaians and Peacekeepers
>she's building planet busters

Fuck.

Guess my isolationist policy will have to come to an end.

>>355759
>overtakes Gaians

err...

I assume you made a mistake. What faction was she really overtaking?

>>355795
Sorry, meant Miriam.

I have no idea how, but she stomped out Morgan, Deidre, and Lal with no problem.

>>356312
>Deidre stomped out Deidre
Anon you seem to have a bit of an unhealthy obsession.

If this was a single-player adventure game, who'd be the PC, and who'd be the final boss?

>>356428
It would be an RPG. The player would be whatever he wanted to be. I'd play a homo-superior.

>screenshot from the abandoned game I was making

>>356471
I think maybe you'd have an option to become a Homo Superior after... well, much of the game had already passed, really.

Truth be told, I was thinking of something where your allegiance was already set to the Gaians, in part because they're the canonical winners of the game.

>>356506
Well, when starting the game you'd choose an era.

Also some factions had taboo races.

But I gave up. Maybe I'll pick it back up soon. It's just a monumental project and I'm a shitty programmer.

>>356525
What races are there? And could you play a Progenitor?

>>356530
I hadn't included progenitors.

Races were:

Human
Perfect
Empath
Thinker
Genejack
Cyborg
Android
Homo-Superior

It's all in an XML document, but I just realized it's on my old computer.

>>356428

The PC would be Miriam, fighting against the Jewish, nigger, spic, chink and hippie hordes.

>>356559
That'd be hard with her tech penalty.

>>356585
Not to mention her Planet penalty.

>>342017
Again, that is still a superficial way of looking at things. The very concept of sustainability is bordering on the nonsensical in a world where scarcity is a fact. Morgan recognizes that. He's aware that on an actually free market, you do not generally run out of resources. The scarcer they become, the more incentive everyone has to use, and especially develop, alternatives.

>>356906
>The very concept of sustainability is bordering on the nonsensical in a world where scarcity is a fact.

I should probably clarify a little here: as long as you consider one resource in a vacuum, you are going to run out of it. Thus there is no sustainability for the purposes of any one resource.

>>356906
Not him, but honestly I think it's you that isn't really paying attention to what he is saying.

>By what right does this forgotten future seek to deny us our birthright?

He's not saying in this tidbit, "we'll figure it out later." He's saying "It really doesn't matter, they don't exist yet, we don't know who they will be, how could their supposed "right" to any resources supercede or current benefits from it."

PC would obviously be a Morganite.

You would kill enemies, get the cash, fuck the hos, and live the life of an adventuring entrepreneur.

>>320585
Deidre>Zakharov>Yang>Morgan>Santiago>Lai>Miriam

Yang can do whatever you want without a lot of penalties

Morgan can make a lot ton of money but a little harder to control

playing as Lai it's harder to just crush enemies or even defend your borders.

>>356964
>Not him, but honestly I think it's you that isn't really paying attention to what he is saying.

But I am. I can't exactly rule out that your more literal and superficial understanding of what Morgan is saying could be what the writers intended. But I understood Morgan's mention of "future generations" as sort of a satirical or facetious dismissal as conservationism. And dismissed it should be.

>>357116

You're reading too much into it. Morgan is a sick cookie. Listen to his speech about the Research Hospital.

Remember that he was an African slavedriver back on earth. Morgan well and truly believes that money makes right and there's little hyperbole in his words. He doesn't give a fuck about anyone, let alone people that do not exist yet.

>>357612
Well, he said that he was "severely shaken" by the research hospital incident, not that he just didn't care. He's not a total sociopath, though he is on the rather amoral side (at least he's not a warmonger).

>>357665

He's severely shaken because people are protesting about what's going on in the hospital. Assumption being that it's animal and possibly even human experimentation. Poor thing is so shaken that he'd have the protesters nerve stapled for daring try and retain some basic human dignity in these difficult times.

>>357690
It'd be more useful if we actually knew what was happening in the hospital, as he mentioned it was something vital to long-term survival.

>>357710

*He* mentioned. Now remember his quote about how money is the very basis of survival. I'm sure he'll twist anything that fills his coffers into a matter of survival.

I'd rather believe Hitler when he said getting rid of the Jews is a matter of survival. At least he was pretty correct in that regard and had less ulterior motive.

>>357723
Well, he is correct in that money is a necessary component of survival, though not the be-all-and-end-all (science, ecology and psych are closer to that).

I ought to try a brutal dictator run.

I always end up coddling my citizens.

>>357942
Yang is probably the best for that kind of run. It's how I played my first game, though I never wound up resorting to nerve stapling. Maybe you could go all out with things like nerve gas and prison spheres.

>>357732

Of course it is, but something tells me he doesn't particularly care about anyone's survival but his own.

So, Ulrik Svensgaard: sexiest man on Planet, or sexiest man in the galaxy?

>>358203
Probably not, but he won't go out of his way to harm others either, which is still better than many other faction leaders. Though his treatment of Planet is kind of appalling.

>>358236
His damned upper-lip hair is nearly invisible

>>358236
QUIT BUILDING CITIES RIGHT OFF MY COAST JESUS FUCK

>>354198
Was any of that covered in the novels? The GURPS book was pretty good as far as aesthetics go.

>>358319
wait, what? there was a GURPS: alpha centauri sourcebook?

>>358319
It was, to be sure, but still felt limited. Space was a bit of an issue.

>>358339
Yup. I still have the PDF

>>358468
Don't suppose you could upload that somewhere, could you?

>>358475
Give me a bit.

>>358496
Apparently I *don't* have it on my computer. But it's on TPB.

http://thepiratebay.se/torrent/5642702/

>>358475
Thanks to /tg/'s fondness for the game, it's already on /rs/

http://www.mediafire.com/?291d1gtbk098158

A warning, for some reason the pdf version has some terrible formatting.

>>358554
>>358557
Ah, well, thank you both! Definitely going to give this a read, terrible formatting aside.

Do you need to have a unit in the base to change ownership or can you freely assign ownership to any unit to any base, even in the field?

One thing I'd change in a remake - Add an "Auto-improve nation" to formers with them going to improve other bases.
Also a "work with other formers" behavioural option

>>358891
Gots ta be in da base.

Forgot why I stopped playing it, so I started again today. Now I remember. It's a fucking huge time sink. It's a cool game, but I've got no time for this.

This is the only "Civ" related game where i have managed to win on the highest difficulty level. I can't even do this shit in Civ 2. Sure i can win on Transcendi in SMAC but fuck if i tried Deity in any of the regular Civ games i just get steamrolled.

>>359162
This, videogames ruined my life.
But thinkign about it in perspective, other adictions would have been much worse

>>359519

Stop using Supply Crawlers.

>>360431
I've won Transcend games with as few as ~3-4 Supply Crawlers which I just used to deliver extra minerals / nutrients between bases. Your move.

>>360431

Actually i didn't even use Supply Crawlers. I didn't even know the shit about supply crawler abuse until this thread and still beat the game on Transcendi difficulty.

I don't get it. Is he supposed to be a Maoist or a tyrannical emperor?

inb4 libertardian response "dey r da same thing man"

>>362713
http://sidmeiersalphacentauri.wikia.com/wiki/Human_Hive
>Lead by Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang, this faction focuses on the Chinese philosophy of Legalism.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Legalism_(Chinese_philosophy)

>>362713

Does it fucking matter?

What is it with college students and their desire to fit everything into some sort of ism? I'm sure he's *based* on something or another, what matters is *what he is*. Stop confusing symbols with reality, it's the most common and most infuriating form of quasi-intellectualism. My apologies if you're merely interested in where the dev team got their inspiration, but I meet way too many people who think they can explain pretty much anything by shoving it into a category.

>>362882
>people who think they can explain pretty much anything by shoving it into a category

Hah! Sounds like something a unipolar retrogradist would say.

How positively Aristophanean of you.

>>362882

It does matter, because the Hive is an interesting sort of place, and I'm (although I'm not other anon) curious as to the specifics. ARE they legalistic, or is it more like North Korea, or 1984 style places? Or maybe they're just more like Modern China. Pragmatic as fuck, and with an eye towards control, but pretty flexible on a day to day basis.

Plus there's the whole 'classical chinese' part of Yang, which kinda complicates things, as you usually don't get 1984 stuff together with that.

>>363185
I like you.

>>363253

NK and 1984's Oceania are superficially similar to the Hive but distinctly different. NK/Oceasnia are about obtaining and maintaining power permanently and that is it, power is the only goal.

Yang and the Hive are more abstract, believing in the idea of overcoming the limitations of the individual to better serve the state and the human race. NK and Oceania must live in a constant state of war to keep their grip, Yang's grip is as strong as his people's belief in something greater than themselves which is why he doesn't have to be in a permanent state of war.

Yang is about cutting away illusions created by biology and evolution, self identity and morality, and becoming something more both as a people and a person. I don't think he is a tyrant, I believe Yang not only believes everything he says but strictly adheres to it as well. I'd wager Yang lives in conditions no better than the average citizen of the Hive.

The thing is, the reason I don't really jive with Yang, is that I don't understand what his end goal is or if there even is one. It's all well and good to want to challenge social norms, the limits of science and the human body but to me it feels like he wants to tear down everything that constitutes humanity just because he can.