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/vr/ - Retro Games

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611398 No.611398 [Reply] [Original]

Can someone sumarize me what's the difference between Alpha Centauri and Civilization ?

>> No.611406

Drones

>> No.611429

>>611398
Setting and writing.

>> No.611471

AC is a better Civ than Civ

>> No.611483

Which Civilization?

Later Civilization installments would eventually get around to adopting some elements from Alpha Centauri, like government civics.

Here's some things entirely unique to AC though:

- Storyline that ties directly into gameplay in several ways, whether you like it or not.
- Height values for tiles instead of just "hill" and "mountain". This played a crucial role in gameplay.
- Terraforming. Raising or lowering terrain. Ability to build and sink land bridges across water.
- Fungus.
- "Barbarian" faction responds to eco-damage instead of being entirely random. They also only spawn in fungus squares and move faster through them.
- Supply Crawlers.
- Sea bases.
- "Barbarian" faction capturable depending on certain values. One faction is designed entirely around this practice.
- Psi combat.

Overall, the game is a huge clusterfuck. It's well balanced, considering the amount of wild shit you'll encounter, but it's the easiest game to break and viciously rape in the entire Civ series.

>> No.611606

>>611483
thanks!

>> No.611664

>>611483

personally I didn't think it was a clusterfuck - it was very cohesive in it's own rules, much more than any of the Civ games. Breakability only made it more fun for me.

Still I don't know which one I prefer better: Master of Magic or AC

>> No.611895

>>611664
it pretty much depends on whether you prefer straightforward and smooth gameplay or strong emphasis on atmosphere and writing.

civ2 is much more playable but you don't get the great setting

>> No.611970

>>611895
>civ2 is much more playable
Civ2 has all of the problems SMAC has except crawlers. ICS, diplo/spy spam, extreme bogdown/micro in the lategame, etc.

It was a great game but let's not pretend it wasn't broken to hell and back.

>> No.612003

>>611970
compared to other civs, yeah it wasn't.

you cannot even compare smac ICS with civ2, for various reasons, starting from not being able to build cities on water, not having universal forest tiles to no extreme terraforming options like boreholes and finally, no free production bonuses like recycling tanks.

micro mainly depends on how large map you play and the bogdown from AI isn't there since even lategame turns take less than few seconds at most unlike newer civs.

>> No.612104

>>612003
>compared to other civs, yeah it wasn't.
Oh, bullshit.
Civ 3 and onwards were much better in that regard.

>you cannot even compare smac ICS with civ2
Yes, you can, because numbers are only relevant in context. And ICS in Civ2 breaks the game just as easily as it does in SMAC.

>> No.612125

In Civilization you found Buddhism and build Hollywood and fly to space.

In Alpha Centauri you spend a century researching Nietzschean ethics so you can enforce the Will to Power as your society's central philosophy, augmenting your hypercommunal police state so that it can drive the techno-fetishist University off your continent with bombs that create new lakes in the middle of it, and ultimately fuse your collective consciousness with the slowly awakening planet and become unto a God.

>> No.612154

>>612125
It's funny because it's exactly that.

>> No.614689 [SPOILER] 
File: 1.04 MB, 1772x2210, 1367018359985.jpg [View same] [iqdb] [saucenao] [google]
614689

>>612125
Yes. And both are incredibly amusing game series.
On a slightly different note, possible CEO Morgan custom player for /vr/ 4chan cup team.

>> No.615936

I think one notable thing about AC vs. Civilization is that a lot of your society choices are not straight upgrades but require you to carefully judge making certain tradeoffs.

In fact the whole game is somewhat more tradeoffs-based (although it's easy to sort of break this by the late-game). You can become an industrial powerhouse, but you risk massive eco-damage and retaliatory worm attacks. Trying to crank up one sector means sacrifices in another, and so forth. Many facilities are very useful but also have negative impacts, expensive upkeep, or situational bonuses (Genejacks, for example)

>> No.616959

>>614689
Dat fucking pic.

Question: are tectonic missiles worth using? Do they destroy naval bases if they are raised to land level?

>> No.617552

>616959
I would imagine so. The thought of burying a enemy city in sand is just too tempting to pass up.