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[Robsoie]

Something i liked to do when it was possible was rescuing a defeated faction leader from the HQ of the faction that beat them down by sending a good probe team there, something that was a good thing to do with Miriam (it was a feature introduced in the Alien Crossfire expansion actually, so it's not available in the base game).

But it was also possible for an enemy probe team to do the same against you, a probe team into your HQ could free the leader of a faction you previously destroyed.

Good way to get new super loyal pact brothers and sisters.

[Sartain]

Something i liked to do when it was possible was rescuing a defeated faction leader from the HQ of the faction that beat them down by sending a good probe team there, something that was a good thing to do with Miriam (it was a feature introduced in the Alien Crossfire expansion actually, so it's not available in the base game).

But it was also possible for an enemy probe team to do the same against you, a probe team into your HQ could free the leader of a faction you previously destroyed.

Good way to get new super loyal pact brothers and sisters.

Holy crap I learned something new about Alpha Centauri in 2020! 

[Hanzoku]

Huh, I never even knew that was a thing either.

[Robsoie]

And it's a really cool feature if you want to somehow roleplay a bit your faction.
But you'll have to protect the recently rescued faction a bit as if i remember well, they're respawned in the map somewhere (similar to a landing) with a few colony pod but not much in term of soldiers , making them a very easy target. Not a problem if it happens early game, but if you rescue in late game they're mostly going to be useless with nowhere to really expand their own territory.

[Damiac]

I can't really get into Stellaris because a lot of it just feels like you are constantly just waiting, you get a decision to make every year or so, constant fast forwarding.

What made Stellaris finally 'click' for me was somebody pointing out that it's a political simulator, as opposed to... whatever you'd call stuff like Civilization that clearly delineates the two styles of play (4X doesn't quite work).

Hmm... lots of waiting, frustration, and strange things happening due to arcane rules... I guess political simulator fits there.

[Sartain]

I can't really get into Stellaris because a lot of it just feels like you are constantly just waiting, you get a decision to make every year or so, constant fast forwarding.

What made Stellaris finally 'click' for me was somebody pointing out that it's a political simulator, as opposed to... whatever you'd call stuff like Civilization that clearly delineates the two styles of play (4X doesn't quite work).

Hmm... lots of waiting, frustration, and strange things happening due to arcane rules... I guess political simulator fits there.

I played a lot of Stellaris and I'd say it's more along the lines of those "clicker" games where you click click click stuff to make your numbers go higher and higher

[Robsoie]

Something that my be of interest to some people here :
Scient, the coder of the most usefull Scient Patch that fixes and improve many things for Alpha Centauri is working since a bit more than a year on creating an open source clone of the game
https://github.com/b-casey/OpenSMACX
http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=21226.0

[Radio Controlled]

Alpha Centauri is my jam.

Here's an old blog that talked about the game and tries to deduce its story, that I quite enjoyed reading: https://paeantosmac.wordpress.com/

[Karnewarrior]

Alpha Centauri was really cool. It's a shame it looks kind of garbage compared to today's graphics.
BE tries to scratch the itch but whiffs on what made SMAC actually stand out, which wasn't story or mechanics but how both backed each other up so readily. BE's all about gathering the largest percentage bonus to damn near everything and customizing your faction into a jack-of-all-trades because who *willingly* leaves a weak point in their armor, but that just sucks all the feeling out of the leaders. BE's leaders don't feel as complete as SMACs either.

That said, I still play more Civ6 than SMAC. Beyond the eyeburn graphics, SMAC's gameplay is frustratingly simple and a bit grindy. Warfare mostly just amounts to stacking the most attack units you can afford onto a tile with a defensive unit and skittering them along until they die, killing and looting as they go, and the strong bias towards mobility means stuff like infantry gets pretty much obsolete by the midgame. The AI is either too warlike if you or an ally is near Miriam or Santiago, or not warlike enough if you're distant from them. The combination of combat being just unit spam also winds up meaning a whole lot of micromanagment later on, especially once Fungal Blooms start happening all over. It just eventually becomes a bit of a slog.

I dunno, I like SMAC better as a book than a game, honestly.

[Jopax]

Yeah it would really do well as a remaster/remake of some sort, nothing super fancy, just up-rez it a bit and it should be fine.

That said, if anyone wants to give it a shot as is, it's on sale right now on GoG for like a buck fifty, which is a damn steal for something that could provide dozens if not hundreds of hours of fun.

[Rolan7]

Oh, nice catch.

Interestingly the game can be *highly* automated to avoid interface slog.  I usually leave cities under the "Build" governor, and sometimes tell them to stop wasting time on units.  Units are auto-designed to use new technology by default.  All units can also be put under AI control - this is most obviously handy for Formers, but it's also handy on aircraft, exploration ships, or a roving defense force. 

Even the even the late-game fungal blooms can be delegated to AI-controlled units - you know, for a time.
I sorta want to try automating a planet buster now, hehe.

But in other words, if you just want to experience it, the game basically has a cinema mode
Or if you prefer theorycrafting and semi-LP, there's still the Paean!

[EuchreJack]

Yeah, I often found Formers actually worked better under AI control.

[hector13]

Planet Taming Woman

It is a fun game, I rather enjoy playing as leaders I wouldn’t normally agree with like Morgan and Yang.

I recall a game with Yang I went bananas and had cities everywhere, so I had a lot of votes in the planetary government thing. One of my cities was getting a bit uppity, so I decided to rescind the ban on nervestapling by bribing one of the other leaders to vote with me.

The very next turn an emergency meeting was called to put the ban back in place, then I got pop up after pop up from some of the other leaders saying they were declaring war on me for committing atrocities, and I remember staring at my screen and saying “but it was legal when I did it!”

[sluissa]

Yeah, I often found Formers actually worked better under AI control.

Only problem with AI formers is they don't see a big picture strategy. If you just want each tile pumping out the maximum it can of whatever resource is most efficient for that tile, I think that's how it handles things. And that's not usually a bad thing. But sometimes you need a tile to produce more of something, even if that's not the most efficient use of that tile. Sometimes you just need more energy credits than food, or vice versa. Also letting it plant forests on its own can be a pain depending on how you want to handle the fungus.

[Robsoie]

If you want a much improved AI in every sectors of the game, Formers included, give a try to the Thinker mod (that just got recently a v2.2 release)
https://github.com/induktio/thinker