Throwbacks: Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri (and Alien Crossfire)

[PallElendro]

I was looking through my old discs and found a Mac OS 9 copy of Alpha Centauri and Alien Crossfire expansion. I remembered a lot about playing that game and how terribly I did, because I was only five years old.

Naturally, I was running Windows 7, so the disc boot-up failed. :frown:
I looked up fixes on the Internet before finding a site that would sell me a digital copy of the game, which I didn't know you could do with a disc game. Easy 7 USD spent.

I fired up the game, and I was happy when I saw it could run. I instinctively sent a Scout Patrol, the equivalent of Civ's Warrior unit, out for an investigation of Planet surface. Let me tell you, on Thinker difficulty, the game is not pleasant with their Mind Worms. Eventually, I wisened up and had many tech advances and was buddy-buddy with some rival factions, and beating up others. I'm looking at you, Miriam Godwinson.

Think of it like a Civilisation sequel to after the player launches a shuttle to Alpha Centauri for a Technological Victory, the game starts in the Information Age, and custom units can be engineered.

The controls are hard to locate at first, because there is no toolbar. The best available is an Action menu which must be found by the Menu at the left hand screen. Nothing is easy to access, and the equivalent of Villages are Unity Pods that either heal a unit, upgrade it, unleash the Mind Worms, or a random event (sonar pod, resupply pod, dimensional gate). It's tough to control bases, because unless notifications are looked at often, there's no easy way to see how well a base is doing.

Have any of you played this game?

[Starsign]

I had been meaning to get this game for awhile. The sole idea of it is fascinating and apparently still amazing to this day. Of course I had gotten hooked on Civilization V first, then I decided to seriously sit down and complete through Jagged Alliance 2 after my old computer died, then my friends hooked me on Crusader Kings 2 and I guess Alpha Centauri kinda feel off my radar at some point.

But yeah I should be getting to this at some point from GOG. Would also like to hear everyone's opinion on this game and if there's any advice for a first-time player. :smallsmile:

[factotum]

The game is awesome. The controls, less so--it's not a pleasant experience going back to playing it after playing newer Civ variants.

[The_Jackal]

I'm a HUGE Alpha Centauri Fan. I still have it installed on the computer I'm typing this response on. (Getting it to run on Win7 is pretty easy). It is, in my opinion, the apogee of the Civ-type game. It's got amazing strategic depth and complexity, cool story, and a very robust terraforming system.

Which is not to say it doesn't have its flaws. The AI is notoriously weak, and the general consensus is that Supply Crawlers are available a bit too early, given how strong they are.


The controls are hard to locate at first, because there is no toolbar. The best available is an Action menu which must be found by the Menu at the left hand screen.

It's all in there, you just have to know where to look. I very rarely use the menus at all, I have the hotkeys memorized.


Nothing is easy to access, and the equivalent of Villages are Unity Pods that either heal a unit, upgrade it, unleash the Mind Worms, or a random event (sonar pod, resupply pod, dimensional gate).

Supply pods tend to become more dangerous under predictable circumstances. Closer to a base, and not on fungus is safer, further and on fungus is the other thing.

[/quote]It's tough to control bases, because unless notifications are looked at often, there's no easy way to see how well a base is doing.[/quote]

F4 brings up the base review screen, which gives you an at-a-glance summary of what bases are building, what their citizen's mood is, etc. But best practice is to cycle through each base (arrow keys) and do a quick check before the end of each turn (you can make the game pause at turn breaks in the game preferences).

[Cikomyr]

Go Hive Go!!!! YANGPOWER!!!

I always prefer to randomize personalities, otherwise I would never, ever end up a friend to Miriam... That treacherous self-righeous bitch.

[Aotrs Commander]

I inevitably found myself always wiping out the Believers, every game.



Generally, though I found my relations0ended up so close with Deidre I was considering a restraining order...

[Grif]

I inevitably found myself always wiping out the Believers, every game.


Who doesn't? :smalltongue: Letting Miriam live is a recipe to get DOW-ed and overrun by her freakishly numerous units.

[factotum]

Letting Miriam live is a recipe to get DOW-ed and overrun by her freakishly numerous units.

Only in the early game...it doesn't take too long before Miriam's crippling science disadvantage means her swarms of pathetic, low-tech units will break like waves on a breakwater against your high-tech forces.

[Sharoth]

I am always up for some SMAC down. I have it installed on my computer and on my Mom's for when I am over there. I think I have been playing it for over 16 years now. As for good stratagy guides, Vel's is the best. I will have to dig out his user name and find it. But there is a Civ site that should have it.

Edit - Chris Hartpence a.k.a. Velociryx Nice guy.

[Cikomyr]

Only in the early game...it doesn't take too long before Miriam's crippling science disadvantage means her swarms of pathetic, low-tech units will break like waves on a breakwater against your high-tech forces.

Breaking Miriam should usually be your practice run, to prepare you to go against Yang...

[Sharoth]

Or the aliens.

[PallElendro]

Hard Mode: Fighting The Cybernetic Consciousness.

[Cespenar]

Alien Crossfire, meh.

The real end boss will always be Yang.

[Eldan]

I like the game a lot, but not the expansion. None of the factions in there seem to make all that much sense.

By the way, those who have problems getting the game to run or want to see a new take on it: there's a mod for Civilization IV called Planetfall that attempts to port the ideas of Alpha Centauri, if not the exact mechanics, over. It's quite nice, even if it lacks a few things: last time I checked, they haven't found a way for terraforming to change terrain height and the unit generator isn't as big as it was in AC, since it works with the upgrade system. But they nicely balanced out the factions, included some fun new units and included different philosophies using the religion system.

[Drasius]

As a Zakharov player, the god botheres usually don't want peace with me anyway, and I'm often happy to oblige :smallamused:

We all know what Yang is capable of, and take steps to guard against it.

No, the real threat here is Lal that slimy so and so. Peacekeeping force my left foot, more like working in the backround to stab me in the back the moment he gets a chance. He's all peace and smiles while I have democracy running for the efficiency bonus, but the instant my back is turned to conduct my next experiment, kerstab, dagger in the back and needlejets up my exhaust port.

My dear Col. Santiago is nice and reliable however, and is often my bestest buddy after my sudden yet inevitable betrayal by Brother two face Lal. Point her at a target with some fancy new toys and she makes a very nice ally of convinience.

Just don't forget to arm them well on the weapons front, but for the love of god, don't be silly enough to give them armour. That way, should she be silly enough to turn on you, you'll have slightly superior weapons, but virtually invincible armour compared to her wet carboard. No matter how elite your troops are, it won't count for much when they're using ballistic vests against black hole projectors.

Morgan is simply your second expansion target after Miriam once he's had time to get some cash happening for you to come and plunder.

The crazy tree lady can never make up her mind if she likes me for trying to communicate with the mindworms or hate me for conducting facinating experiments on the mindworms. Target #3 if unfriendly, left to rot in the corner while I science my way to trancendence otherwise.

[TheEmerged]

I have this on my computer right now, in fact. I got them from GOG (Good Old Games).

Yeah, the controls are not the game's best feature. And even in its day, some of the terrain is hard to read because of the mapping of the ridges & stuff. And Miriam was a little-too-obviously intended as a bad joke.

I still love it. I am amongst those who prefer the base game over the expansion.

[Cikomyr]

I don't think I've ever had a game where Lal was anything more than fodder for either Morgan or Santiago, and being irrelevant early on.

My greatest opponent, most of the time, end up being Morgan. The moment he gets a good start, the man is just unstoppable. I don't have much grievance against Yang because... well, most of the time, I am Yang :smallbiggrin: