Alpha Centauri vs. Civilization

[Mr. Friendly]

Lately I have been playing Alpha Centauri; I haven't played Civ4 I admit, but from what I have seen I am not all that eager. Civ3 was pretty fun, but it still has too much of that "I attack with 100 tanks and your spearman wins" and "I defend with 100 Mech. Infantry and your Cavalry wins" that happens vs. the computer.

Alpha Centauri on the other hand I have never had this problem. It's a lot more balanced IMO and all in all it is just a completely superior game.

Social Engineering kicks the stuffing out of "Pick a Government".
Designing your own units.
Better Diplomacy options.

What say you?

[Saithis Bladewing]

While I like the concept and flexibility of Alpha Centauri, something about Civilization IV appeals to me more, such that I can't pick favourites. I think ideally you'd give me the best of both worlds and let me loose.

[Winterwind]

I prefer Alpha Centauri by far, mostly for the same reasons you mentioned: More complex social model, more diplomatic options, designing own units... more reasons would be, that there are different factions which really play differently (beyond having other starting positions), that your social model actually influences your diplomatic relations with the other factions (as in, the ecologists will be at odds with the industrialists, the totalitarians with the democrats, the fundamentalists with the technocrats, and so forth), and I like the story with the Planet.

The main reason I keep hearing from people who prefer Civilisation seems to be that they enjoy the historic foundation. Since this gives nothing to me, Alpha Centauri wins by a huge margin.

[Ethdred]

I prefer Alpha Centauri by far, mostly for the same reasons you mentioned: More complex social model, more diplomatic options, designing own units... more reasons would be, that there are different factions which really play differently (beyond having other starting positions), that your social model actually influences your diplomatic relations with the other factions (as in, the ecologists will be at odds with the industrialists, the totalitarians with the democrats, the fundamentalists with the technocrats, and so forth), and I like the story with the Planet.

The main reason I keep hearing from people who prefer Civilisation seems to be that they enjoy the historic foundation. Since this gives nothing to me, Alpha Centauri wins by a huge margin.


Couldn't have put it better. Also, while I loved Civ, having now played SMAC, I find the 'historical' setting of Civ actually a downside, for some reason.

[Timberwolf]

I've got Civ 3. I'm afraid I gave up because trying to figure the damn thing out was annoying. The manual was on the disc so I couldn't consult it to find out WTF I was meant to do while I was playing and I was not going to waste the ink printing it because it's massive.

Sounds like AC ftw, even though I've never played it.

[Triaxx]

Having played Alpha Centauri, and Civ, I utterly love Alpha Centauri, and completely despise the Civ series as a whole.

[Bavarian itP]

Alpha Centauri.

[Miklus]

One more vote for SMAC. I agree with all the reasons above, but I would like to add the fact that you can put cities anywhere in SMAC.

The Civ series asks the player to make the biggest and most difficult decision, where to place your capital, at the very beginning of the game where you have the LEAST information. I you get it wrong, your intire civilazation suffers from poor city planning.

In SMAC it's not that big a deal. You can place cities anywhere, just remove fungus and/or rocky terrain. You can even put cities on water.

And I love the Sci-fi theme and the fractions. Best game ever! :smallcool:

[Alex12]

'nother vote for SMAC. Mind Worms, alien artifacts, a huge amount of options in everything, and my personal favorite unit, Blink Singularity Deathspheres. Also the fact that antimatter plate armor is a viable defense is so stupid it's awesome.

[GolemsVoice]

And another one for AC. Though I must admit, I never played the later Civs, I know the situation described above, where the super-hyper-plasma unit loses for some reason againts men with pointy sticks. Also, the "depth" of AC is something I like very much, with the quotes, and meaningful researches, which are even explained shortly, combined with thoughts on how people can act, could act and maybe should act.
Someone mentioned that your political system should reflect in your diplomatic options. I recently learned that it actually does. Morgan for example will hate you for running a planned economy (is that the term?), while Gaians won't like Free Market.

[Cristo Meyers]

'nother vote for SMAC. Mind Worms, alien artifacts, a huge amount of options in everything, and my personal favorite unit, Blink Singularity Deathspheres. Also the fact that antimatter plate armor is a viable defense is so stupid it's awesome.

I'd love to be watching (from a very safe distance) when they test that...


Never played AC. Though if it's better than Civ 3 (which I love), then I'm sold.

[Castaras]

Not played Alpha Centuri.

Only played Civ Original(Awesome game) and CivII: ToT(Even better).

So yeah...Can't really say much. But from what I've heard, I'm not going to bother getting Civ III or IV...Seems that the earlier civs are better...

[Mr. Friendly]

I'd love to be watching (from a very safe distance) when they test that...


Never played AC. Though if it's better than Civ 3 (which I love), then I'm sold.

To be fair to Civ 3, which I also grudgingly like, Civ 3 has a slightly better cleaner GUI. The graphics are also better. (For all that matters in a Civ game) The actual options selections on AC are far superior to Civ 3; for example, ordering a Former (the AC version of the worker) to "Build Road to..." is really sweet. Automization is also significantly better in AC. Options like "Automatic Fungus Removal" (wouldn't automatic Jungle removal in Civ 3 be nice?) and there is so much more actual terraforming you can do in AC. You can raise and lower terrain, drill new rivers and a few others.

One thing Civ 3 has as a feature that I do like though is the Trade resources and infrastructure resources, like Iron, Horses, Silk and Dyes. It would be nice to incorporate them into AC; well at least the Luxury resources.

Also, I really like how warcrimes are handled in AC. Aside from nukes, I don't think Civ3 really addresses it.

[Cristo Meyers]

Also, I really like how warcrimes are handled in AC. Aside from nukes, I don't think Civ3 really addresses it.

Everyone just declares war on you, which, if you play like I do, just gives you an excuse to nuke them as well.

I tend to get a bit violent...

I played the original Civ first and just couldn't get into it. Went for a long time without any kind of builder game (Space Empires 4 doesn't count to me). Saw Civ 3 on the cheapo rack at Wal-mart and decided to pick it and SimCity 3000 up. Recently picked up the expansions.

The roads thing doesn't bother me much, and I don't clear land unless I have to. Really the only thing that I don't like is the politics, it's so lacking (something I find in most builder games I've played).

[elliott20]

they've made no distinction between luxury resources and strategic resources in AC, but it is more than enough to me. I think Alien Crossfire added a nice new level of depth though.

[LiteYear]

Before Civ 4, I would have said Alpha Centauri for sure (I did enjoy Civ 2 as well). However, Civ 4 introduces a few gameplay concepts that I really like, although I think the game didn't implement a couple of them well. So I'd kind of like to see a game that mashes them together.

[Archonic Energy]

So I'd kind of like to see a game that mashes them together.

Sid Meier's Alpha Civilization IV

coming soon to a Generic Gaming unit near you.

[UncleWolf]

I go with alpha centari definitly, because of the mind worms.

[elliott20]

What I liked most about AC was also just the fact that each faction plays VERY differently from one another. This, we actually have to attribute to their social eningeering matrix system.

[Mr. Friendly]

I would love to see a new Alpha Centauri. Or at least a new game using the AC system, with updated graphics. I don't know that Alpha Centauri itself can actually continue, at least if you follow the logic of the games ending.
At least the Transcendance ending.

I really like the AC style; I know it remains quite popular. What suprised me was to see Alien Crossfire on Amazon for 119$. It's apparently rarer than I thought.

[elliott20]

the expansion at this point in time is no longer being made, which is why.

I personally would like to see a game with the AC base system but different flavor and setting.

[Flying Elephant]

The best thing about Civilization 4 is it is very moddable. The new BTS expansion makes it even moreso. Want warmechs and clones? Try the "Future War" mod, already included on the disk. There is a space mod, "Final Frontier", also included. My favourite mod is Fall From Heaven, a fan-created fantasy mod. A scenario for it is already on the disk, but there is an epic game mode available for download from CivFanatics.

[Indon]

Civ IV is the best of all of those games, in my view.

Unlike Civ 3 (that game was just bad, as far as I'm concerned), Civ IV actually applies a lot of the good ideas in SMAC.

Civ IV uses a multi-dimensional social model, similar to SMAC's social engineering.

Civ IV has _intelligent_ AI, willing to enter into economic deals and much more politically savvy... still doesn't like to take out loans, though. In addition, the AI uses combined arms tactics against you in combat.

In addition, Civ IV has a much more sophisticated border system (taking the culture system from Civ 3 and improving it), and the expansions even provide the best espionage system that either SMAC or the Civ games have ever seen.

There are three things I miss from SMAC: Complete terraforming and sea colonization capability, unit customization (even though 90% of the time I just used it to install clean reactors in everything), and resource pods that I could use to exploit the game by building boreholes outside of the city limits and draw energy/production from them, allowing me massive production with, in game terms, no harm to Planet. Heh.

[Ethdred]

the expansion at this point in time is no longer being made, which is why.

I personally would like to see a game with the AC base system but different flavor and setting.

So would I. Though frankly, I'd be happy to see the same AC story and everything, with gameplay updates. (Someone suggested that the auto fungus removal was a good thing but it just makes your formers go mad, in my experience. And I never get the 'build railways to' option for some reason.) But there's not a lot they need to change - I'd prefer it if they just make use of modern processing power and memory to have a decent AI that understands how to attack and what sensible things to build. And can handle decent automation. And make it possible to not have planetbusters in your game.

[Ethdred]

There are three things I miss from SMAC: Complete terraforming and sea colonization capability, unit customization (even though 90% of the time I just used it to install clean reactors in everything), and resource pods that I could use to exploit the game by building boreholes outside of the city limits and draw energy/production from them, allowing me massive production with, in game terms, no harm to Planet. Heh.

The complete terraforming thing was great. I used to combine it with solar shades to see if I could remove all sea from the planet. I never really liked sea colonisation (especially the way the Believers and UN tended to spam cities that were then difficult to remove from the map) but apparently it got better in the expansion. The supply crawler thing was a great idea - the borehole trick as you mention, but also just being able to exploit those squares that fall between 2 city boundaries. The customisation is brilliant, and I use it a lot to make anti-air units - SAM tanks are very useful, and air-to-air copters even more so, in the right circs.

So many good ideas in the game!

[Artanis]

Civ3 was just...bad. Civ4 is a LOT better than it, and has a lot less of the "spearman kills tank" sort of thing: while it's theoretically possible, it simply won't happen, and having a spearman kill 100 tanks might happen once in the next ten million years.

For its time, SMAC was a really good game, and still is. I loved many of the terraforming options, Needlejet Colony Pods were the awesomest way to colonize ever, and something about the term "Nerve Stapling" makes me giggle. But it has a hard time competing with Civ4 simply because it's so old. A strategy game really lives and dies by the strategy, and SMAC has been around so long that the relatively weak (edit: by today's standards) AI shows its age.

I'd love to see a sequel or remake, and would be the first in line to buy it if they made one :smallsmile:

[elliott20]

For those of you who play regularly, how often do you actually get to use all the tanks and flying fortresses? I don't think I've ever played a game where I would get the techs needed for those unless I purposely waited for them.

[Alex12]

For those of you who play regularly, how often do you actually get to use all the tanks and flying fortresses? I don't think I've ever played a game where I would get the techs needed for those unless I purposely waited for them.

Fairly regularly, for me. Maybe that's just my play style, though.

[elliott20]

for me, I almost never get there as the computer usually crumbles far before I can get to that point in the game. And any human players I play against are just too aggressive to ever allow us to last that long.

[Artanis]

I also tended to get the later techs on a pretty consistent basis. But then, I like the really big map sizes where it takes a long time to wipe out everything no matter how aggressive you are.

[UncleWolf]

I get them about every other turn. Of course i play as the university

If I have any allies in danger I will trade one base to them for one of theirs so i can get closer to the enemy. Eventually my allies will have only one base left in the middle of my empire so i end up crushing them all! (but that one last base is always hard to get rid of because they have (what seems like) hundreds of guys defending it)


oh yeah. Probe teams and super fungicidal terraformers ROCK!:smallbiggrin:

[KIDS]

Alpha Centauri, very well balanced, many options, fun, great unfolding story and a billion of available strategies. I always loved that game!

[Mr. Friendly]

For those of you who play regularly, how often do you actually get to use all the tanks and flying fortresses? I don't think I've ever played a game where I would get the techs needed for those unless I purposely waited for them.

Almost always.

But then my standard method is to play Gaians or Cybernetic Conciousness; I expand as quick as I can and have the new outlying cities expand as quick as possible. My main cities then switch to Secret Projects, essentially for the rest of the game. Once I have expanded until I encounter the computer, I stop expanding in that direction and shore up that border. Repeat in all directions. After that I basically just tech up and make money.

As the Cybernetic, I will just diplomacize my way through things with the AI, giving them almost everything they want as long as they leave me alone. Once I have outteched them, I start in with the Deathspheres and superweapons.

As Gains (or Cult of Planet) I pretty much just race around capturing as many mind worms as possible, getting them as much experience as possible. When someone pushes me to the point that I will tolerate it.... then the Will of Planet crushes them. Since I am almost always going for Transcendance though, I make it long enough to get the cool tech stuff.

[TheEmerged]

I played Civ2 more than is probably healthy.

Civ3, I'm sorry, stunk.

Civ4 was okay, but frankly wasn't good enough to drag me away from WoW.

[Hawriel]

Well its been afew years sence Ive played AC I do remember it fondly. I am one of thoughs peaple who like Civ because of historacle reasons. However I am perfectly willing to spress my ires about the game. For combat I loved Civ 3 with the last expantion for the game. You could make your own world map and units in the editor. Planes ruled the seas as they do in real life. In Civ 3 you can kill off ships and tanks with planes. Sorry black shues but you have been proven wrong 55 years ago. Artillery I loved in Civ 3. they actually worked in a supportive roll with range. Civ 4 I hate with a pation how arty and planes work. Civ 4 does have a social engineering aspect to creating your goverment. It just of corse fallows Sids thinking of an ideal extream liberal veiw point whare all of the 'Ideal free thinking' options are the best choice. Civ 4 did fix spearmen VS tanks BS but then again the computer Civs have tanks when I just now get knights or they make 20 spearmen for my one swordsmen per turn and attack with a hord. the last problem with the game. Recorcess. Its a great Idea but there is a problem. In both Civ 3 and 4 I will find that I have no iron or copper or coal with in my borders. Game over. AC is probibly the better game but not by much.

[Indon]

It just of corse fallows Sids thinking of an ideal extream liberal veiw point whare all of the 'Ideal free thinking' options are the best choice.

What?

Dude, I do awesomely with Republic/Caste System with river valley civilizations, and until they released the expansion, that had corporations and was pretty awesome, State Property (Communism) was superior to Free Market (Capitalism) pretty much always. Heck, frequently Merchantilism was superior to Free Market.

Not to mention, Free Religion was just plain bad if you didn't have more than two religions distributed through your nation, and I'd like to meet someone who actually used Pacifism for any significant time.

Now, the expansions polished up the social system, but I definitely don't see this 'extreme liberal viewpoint' stuff. Especially since the best governments in Civ 2 were probably Democracy and Fundamentalism.

[A Rainy Knight]

I personally like Civ IV, mainly because it seems like a big improvement over Civ III. No more of this "My fortified spearman laughs at your pathetic attempts to attack" business. Bring in the swordsmen specifically promoted to take cities. So yes, I think that the addition of promotions and the merging of "Attack" and "Defense" into simply "Strength" made Civ IV's warfare a lot more fun. And I haven't always found that the free-thinking civics are the best, either. When you like to wage global-scale warfare against every other nation in the world (I've done it before, too), it helps a bundle to go with Police State/Vassalage/Theocracy.

Not to mention the fun of killing everything using the Praetorians. :smallbiggrin:

[elliott20]

In my experience with Civ games and AC, heavily liberal governments are almost ALWAYS only good for peace times or when you're so far ahead of your enemies in infrastructure and tech that you can afford to lose the extra troop support. The extra resources that result from it though can be nice.

[Ponce]

I prefer Civ3 over Civ4, personally. Perhaps I am somewhat biased, but I played the early versions of Civ4, back when memory leak was a problem and artillery pieces damaged every target on the stack. Even in a sort of trebuchet vs. tank situation. :smallsigh:

I have tried Civ4 again recently, and it is much better, but I still believe I prefer Civ3. I liked the improvements on city assimilation in Civ4, but the border rules following the conquering of an enemy city pester me.

Alpha Centauri isn't even in the running for me, sorry.

[LordVader]

I haven't played Civilization, and it may have better gameplay, but I like the flavor of AC better. Especially the distinct factions, it makes for a nice change from all the Earth-based games. Lots of humor in there, too.

Designing and naming your units is also great. Who can resist the "Super-1337 Cruiser of Doom"?

I wish Sid would stop spamming Civ games and get back to SMAC. Alien Crossfire did upset the balance somewhat, but it was still fun.

[Winterwind]

I haven't played Civilization, and it may have better gameplay, but I like the flavor of AC better. Especially the distinct factions, it makes for a nice change from all the Earth-based games. Lots of humor in there, too."We know now that Einstein was wrong! God is not only rolling dice - he even cheats!"

:smallbiggrin:

[Eakin]

I've played Civs 1, 2, and 4. Ditched 1 for 2 as soon as it became possible, but 4 has a nasty habit of crashing my computer so I bounce between 2 and 4. Have to pace myself, though, if I want to have a functional life outside of the game.

Never played Alpha Centauri very much, but now I really want too... Is it abandonware, and if not where can one download/purchase a copy?

Also on my list of 4X games to try: Galactic Civilizations 2

[Cryopyre]

MoO! (Masters of Orion for you supposed Sid Meier fans)

Oh wait... sigh, SMAC I guess, but why all this hate towards Civ, it's an awesome game too.

If they came out with A SMAC 2 and 3 I'd buy and play, but I have to say, overall:

MoO, get a new version that's DESIGNED by SID MEIER.

MoO III was okay, but you can more easily arrange your civilization in MoO II

Edit: FOr some reason I though MoO was a Sid Meier production, it's not

So with that, definitely SMAC, but civ is a cloe runner up

[LordVader]

I've played Civs 1, 2, and 4. Ditched 1 for 2 as soon as it became possible, but 4 has a nasty habit of crashing my computer so I bounce between 2 and 4. Have to pace myself, though, if I want to have a functional life outside of the game.

Never played Alpha Centauri very much, but now I really want too... Is it abandonware, and if not where can one download/purchase a copy?

Also on my list of 4X games to try: Galactic Civilizations 2

That one is a great game. You should be able to get AC for about $10 off Amazon, but should you choose to purchase the expansion, that'll be about $80 more.:smalleek:

[Winterwind]

but why all this hate towards Civ, it's an awesome game too.No doubt about it, and I like to play it every now and then, too. It's just that the question of the OP was which one is better, and AC simply wins this contest. For me, anyway.

[NEO|Phyte]

Man, this thread is making me want to dig up my Alpha Centauri Planetary Pack (game and expansion on a single disk, wheee! Also came with a map of Planet and a huge ass-poster containing the entire tech tree)

[Eakin]

That one is a great game. You should be able to get AC for about $10 off Amazon, but should you choose to purchase the expansion, that'll be about $80 more.:smalleek:
80? How does an expansion pack to an old game cost that much?

[Elektro]

80? How does an expansion pack to an old game cost that much?

Because as elliott20 said, it's no longer being made and because, as this thread has shown, there are still tons of people who thinks SMAc/SMAX kicks total ass. :smallbiggrin:

I'd have to say that SMAC and SMAX are the best strategy games made; great story, decent graphics (for late 90s, they're not that bad?, and as mos people have touched on, almost infinite tweaking ability. You can even make your own, unique faction if you don't like the ones provided.

I usually play as Morgan - if you go democratic/green/wealth/eudiamonia you can make like +10000 credits per turn. Buckets of Money + probe teams = unstoppable. I usually play as the pacifist/builder factions so I go transcendance almost all the time.

I'd also love to see an updated SMAC. Just needs a graphical tweaking and improved AI. Unfortunately, Brian Reynolds, the true genius behind the game no longer works for Take Two or whatever conglomerate has the SMAC rights. It's not likely that we'll see a remake. There was a SMAC mod project for Civ 4 but it's withering on the vine now. We can always hope! :smallsmile:

[Winterwind]

I usually play as Morgan - if you go democratic/green/wealth/eudiamonia you can make like +10000 credits per turn. Buckets of Money + probe teams = unstoppable. I usually play as the pacifist/builder factions so I go transcendance almost all the time.Quite ironic, considering that if the AI was playing Morgan, they would very likely declare war on you for wasting valuable ressources with a Green economy. :smallbiggrin:

[Elektro]

Quite ironic, considering that if the AI was playing Morgan, they would very likely declare war on you for wasting valuable resources with a Green economy. :smallbiggrin:

Heh, definitely. While I don't agree that there is a liberal bias, there has definitely always been a bias against capitalism (and religion to a lesser extent) in the Sid Meier games. I mean come on, -5 planet? The problem is that the game never truly got finished in the social engineering system. It was supposed to have a second variable: ruthless, moderate and idealistic, which would further modify the choices we have now.

I always thought of the Morganites more as neo-classical libertarians who focus on economic solutions for sociopolitical problems, rather than the greedy robber barons most people see them as. And anyways, I love Morgan's quotes. That one about the "power company" is awesome. :smallamused:

[Poison_Fish]

I liked both games.

But I think Alpha Centauri was more innovative.

[Tom_Violence]

I've said it before and I'll say it again, but I really really want someone to make a Civ IV Alpha Centauri Mod, cos I love AC but the 'old skool' graphics kinda do my head in these days.

[Winterwind]

Heh, definitely. While I don't agree that there is a liberal bias, there has definitely always been a bias against capitalism (and religion to a lesser extent) in the Sid Meier games. I mean come on, -5 planet? The problem is that the game never truly got finished in the social engineering system. It was supposed to have a second variable: ruthless, moderate and idealistic, which would further modify the choices we have now.Oh, interesting, how would that have worked in detail?
Also, yeah, capitalism is a pretty bad choice in AC as compared to the the other two economic options, at least in most situations, and ruins the Planet rating thoroughly. Communism is regarded surprisingly kindly in Sid Meier's games, on the other hand; the "eliminates corruption" it has in Civilisation II always cracks me up. Yeah, no corruption under communism, alright! :smallbiggrin: (Yeah, I know that's because it is supposed to be working communism, but still...)


I always thought of the Morganites more as neo-classical libertarians who focus on economic solutions for sociopolitical problems, rather than the greedy robber barons most people see them as. And anyways, I love Morgan's quotes. That one about the "power company" is awesome. :smallamused:While their outlook on the world is very materialistic, I tend to share your view of the Morganites.

[Elektro]

Oh, interesting, how would that have worked in detail?


Ask and ye shall receive ... Brian Reynolds Designer Diaries (http://www.gamespot.com/features/alpha_dd/060498/index.html)

And about communism, I agree wholly. Nice in theory, not so nice in practice. I'm sure you know with all the money you're spending to fix up the old GDR. :smallwink:

I'd love to play SMAC against a real person - I wonder if we can find enough people here to play?

[Winterwind]

Ask and ye shall receive ... Brian Reynolds Designer Diaries (http://www.gamespot.com/features/alpha_dd/060498/index.html)Thanks, I'll read it immediately. :smallsmile:


And about communism, I agree wholly. Nice in theory, not so nice in practice. I'm sure you know with all the money you're spending to fix up the old GDR. :smallwink: Indeed, and besides, I'm from Poland originally and go often enough to visit family there, so I should know. :smallbiggrin:


I'd love to play SMAC against a real person - I wonder if we can find enough people here to play?I would participate, at least if we find a good time for that - though I'm pretty sure I would suck, I tend to abuse the save/load function in Civilisation/Alpha Centauri quite a bit. :smallbiggrin:
I hope saving/loading works well in Alpha Centauri multiplayer games - it would take quite a while to finish (though when I played it once with friends, we actually managed to finish a session within one afternoon. Well, we did not finish it entirely, but one player had enough of an advantage to definitely win the game).

[NEO|Phyte]

@_@

SMAC with other biological players?

IT WOULD NEVER END.

I'd be up for it.

:edit: question is, do enough of you have the expansion?

[Indon]

That one is a great game. You should be able to get AC for about $10 off Amazon, but should you choose to purchase the expansion, that'll be about $80 more.:smalleek:

I wouldn't look for the games seperately, were I you.

I'd look for the "Planetary Pack" (think that's the name), which contains both the game and the expansion.

Edit: I bought it a few months ago from a military exchange, of all places, I imagine it shouldn't be hard to find it in real stores.

[Captain van der Decken]

You could just get the expansion as abandonware.

[GolemsVoice]

Hmm, I definitely would join a game against/with real people every time! It gives you all the interesting parts of the game, while you can also chat during the boring parts. And, finally diplomacy which is mor than "Give me all your shinies, I have 20/20/20 Doom Titans"

[NEO|Phyte]

I just finished a 368% game, with a Transcendent victory. Could have finished loads earlier by self-electing myself as ruler with my few thousand votes, but where's the fun in that? Plus I wanted to build all of the secret projects in my capital, because I'm a project whore.

Its almost creepy when you've set your energy allocation for 0% research and you're STILL getting 4 transcendent thought researches finished a turn.

On that note...

DAMMIT GOVERNORS, STOP BUILDING TECTONIC/FUNGAL MISSILES, I DON'T CARE IF THEY ARE TECHNICALLY TERRAFORMING UNITS! >:C

[LordVader]

My favorite factions would have to be the Spartans from the original, and the Pirates from the X-Pack. I like military-oriented factions, and love building up strong navies, so the Pirates was the logical transition.

[Captain van der Decken]

I prefer University, really. The probe penalty (Especially with the knowledge value) would suck if the computer ever actually used the dang things, and the heaps of research is just great.
P'haps I'm just lucky.


And, finally diplomacy which is mor than "Give me all your shinies, I have 20/20/20 Doom Titans"
:smalltongue:

[Driderman]

I prefer University, really. The probe penalty (Especially with the knowledge value) would suck if the computer ever actually used the dang things, and the heaps of research is just great.
P'haps I'm just lucky.

University's penalty to probe is eliminated completely by the secret project The Hunter-Seeker Algorithm. So as long as you make sure to get that, you don't really have much of a drawback at all

[Winterwind]

I like the Gaians best personally - catching mind worms from the start is awesome, and they fit my expansionist style rather well (perfect efficiency is just great!). University is a close second though, and probably stronger overall.

[Elektro]

Okay, since there are enough people, I made us a thread to discuss MP SMAC/SMAX. Check it out -- Planetfall: SMAC MP (http://www.giantitp.com/forums/showthread.php?t=65852)

My favorite factions are Spartans, Morganites, and Peacekeepers from both an in-game and out of game ideological standpoint. I love playing against the University as Morgan, because I can focus on econ output and steal techs galore. The Hunter-Seeker Algorithm can be a problem, but I play with the expansion and just pick up the Nethack terminus if needed.

[Ethdred]

I prefer University, really. The probe penalty (Especially with the knowledge value) would suck if the computer ever actually used the dang things, and the heaps of research is just great.
P'haps I'm just lucky.


Another person who says the Ai never uses probes! I can't get away from the damn things. Whenever I'm playing, every faction just spams them like made. Most annoying. So H-SA is a must for me!!

[LordVader]

Consider yourself lucky you don't play SMAX: Nethack Terminus pwnz the Hunter-Seeker Algorithim quite handily. :smallwink:

And yes, I'm aware this is horrible thread necromancy, but I figured it was better than starting another thread on the topic of this game.