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[Sergarr]

Does this game have mind worms?

No.

In fact, the first affinity tech unit is enough to ensure dominance against aliens.

The aliens in this game are weak as hell.

[Ibid Straydrink]

As far as vanilla goes, the aliens are there more for atmosphere and as a sort of strategic resource; choosing a certain "virtue" means they can be hunted for science, and/or as cannon fodder for those with enough Harmony affinity.

Additionally, they help Purity players to feel like badasses as they comb the surface of New Earth, purging it of indigenous life to make way for the coming era of the glorious Pax Humana.

[LordBaal]

As rightfully should be!

[Hanzoku]

True, but there's more of a feeling of accomplishment if you aren't do the equivalent of curbstomping Bambi and his mother... the Planet fighting back in Alpha Centauri by spawning a large stack of Demon Boils next to your main base was far more threatening, whatever tech advantage you had at the time.

[Rez]

Are there natural disasters, such as global warming, hailstorms, or solar flares?

As an aside, did Frank Herbert ever get any credit for SMAC?

[Loud Whispers]

True, but there's more of a feeling of accomplishment if you aren't do the equivalent of curbstomping Bambi and his mother... the Planet fighting back in Alpha Centauri by spawning a large stack of Demon Boils next to your main base was far more threatening, whatever tech advantage you had at the time.

I'm on the fence there; if the aliens pose no threat then there's little point, but one of the things I found disgruntling about AC is that you can't officially fuck Planet up. All you can do is infinite fungicidal formers.

[Rez]

Frankly, unification is a more interesting canon ending that HFY!.

Ed1: Though I don't think it would have been a strain to write more than one canon ending/sequence.

Ed2: On further thought, it occurs to me that the unification/ascension ending is very much HFY!, too.  Planet is stuck in some terrible cycle, only to be freed when

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

earthfriend shows up and blasts human knowledge into it.

[Loud Whispers]

I'd say the transcendence ending isn't really HFY because

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

It's a new stepping stone for humanity and Planet; homosapiens is pretty much gone at this point as earthhuman and planet become one and many. Humans exist as homosapiens still, but they're not the dominant form of consciousness.

You could argue it's transhumanity fuck yeah, but humanity is very much stuck in the same boat as Planet.

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Which is odd, because you'd expect them to simply be able to go into space in a hydroponics satelite and wait out the flowering event.

[puke]

As an aside, did Frank Herbert ever get any credit for SMAC?

I don't think so.  Which is a shame, considering that the Hive was basically a direct crib of his work.

http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Credits.txt

They credit some of the stock movie clips, but no literature references or quotes.

[Rez]

I hadn't thought of that;  I was more referring to the whole idea of 'hyper-deadly sort-of-sentient ALIEN sort-of-sentient attacks and communicates with man'.  That's straight from The Jesus Incident, though that's probably not the archetype's beginning. Ed: But it's, like you say, a clear cribbing.

One heck of a derail so far.  I'm working hard not to nerd out more on Herbert. 

Are there natural disasters, such as global warming, hailstorms, or solar flares?

in C:BE.

[Ibid Straydrink]

As a near religious Heinlein man, I was ecstatic when the release trailer showcased Purity. Forget Warhammer 40k, the affinity has "Terran Federation" stamped all over it. <3

While I do agree that something great was lost with all of the risk and desperation that came from conflict with the fungus, the new theme accommodates its absence well. SMAC was largely a tale of mankind's archetypal interactions with Planet- a classic modern portrayal of Man vs. Nature (or is it Man vs. God?). In CIVBE the emphasis is placed not on the external threat (which is merely the setting), but upon the internal conflict of human philosophies. The people of the eight sponsored factions, all brothers and sisters of the human race, explore their potential and evolve in different directions until, in effect, they have become separate species unto themselves, and one has to ask- what is true essence of humanity?

[Graknorke]

what is true essence of humanity?

Being able to blow up the other dudes or become god or blast a signal into space or w/e.

[BurnedToast]

So I'm trying this game out for the free weekend, I want to like it (SMAC was amazing) but.....

The AI is actually, somehow, WORSE then civ 5 - ARC declared war on me, suicided a few units into my city (did about 10% damage) then moved the survivors away.... only to move them back a few turns later, but they got killed before they could even attack. After that she just sent units in one at a time to their death, and every dozen turns or so she demanded I give her one of my cities in exchange for peace. Then some other AI declared war on me and move all his units into the water near my city where they could easily be killed in one hit  Civ5 AI was terrible, but at least it pretended to try.

The AI also does the same cheating ICS crap it did in Civ5. The player is strongly limited in his expansion by health (I found it nearly impossible to manage with only 3 cities) but the AI has no problem filling every corner of the map with garbage cities because (presumably) it gets huge cheat bonuses.

Espionage seems overpowered ~1000 power every 20 turns, or ~+50 power/turn PER AGENT, 100% free? I never built any generators and ran a massive power deficit the whole time because I could just siphon infinite power from the AI (probably because he has huge cheat bonuses to his power income....)

Tech web is a mess, just a huge mess. I ended up picking stuff more or less at random because it was difficult to get a good idea of what led to what, and which techs were important. I guess you would eventually get used to it, but... it's just a mess.

Navy ships seem overpowered, send 3 - 4 of them in and just completely blow up a city in a single turn, send in a single melee unit and mop it up. No setup time + huge damage + very tough, and not really very expensive to build? Building coastal cities is suicide.

Graphics are terrible, I hate to complain about this because I don't really care that much about graphics but... everything is just a blurry mess that runs together (I had it set on high). it's hard sometimes to tell which tiles have miasma, especially forests... because it all just blends together. Civ 5's graphics were decent enough and very readable, why did they ruin them?

Overall... not only does it feel like an expansion pack, it feels like a rushed, poorly done expansion pack. I can't believe I'm actually typing this, but I actually feel more let down by this then I did by Civ5 vanilla.

Edit forgot to mention the trade routes, which are very annoying to manage, and for some reason seem to die every 20 turns or so, so that you have to click through and start them up again. Why can't they just be automatic?

[puke]

Good to know.  Was just thinking of spending time on this.

[Ivefan]

Edit forgot to mention the trade routes, which are very annoying to manage, and for some reason seem to die every 20 turns or so, so that you have to click through and start them up again. Why can't they just be automatic?

They are seriously overpowered but i guess automatic would be nice untill you build another city and maybe get a better route.