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[EuchreJack]

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.

Agreed, that is probably the only reason I actually figured out how to use the Formers myself, so that I could get them to give me more of what I needed rather than what was optimal.

[Rolan7]

Can we talk about the lives of the Centaurans, though?
Starting from the dehumanizing realities of the tanks, and proceeding from there as they discover inner truths and outer realities (the planetmind).

What does it mean to be a citizen in such a world?

[EuchreJack]

Can we talk about the lives of the Centaurans, though?
Starting from the dehumanizing realities of the tanks, and proceeding from there as they discover inner truths and outer realities (the planetmind).

What does it mean to be a citizen in such a world?

Well, it all depends on the faction, obviously.  They vary so much, the real question is what do they have in common.  Answer: the worms.  Even Gaians take time before they stop being a threat to survival and start being "friends".

[Rolan7]

I was worrying that it might matter less than one would think.  The Paean points out that facilities aren't really locked by faction at all.  Some are better suited for certain social engineering choices, but even that's iffy. 

Recycling tanks are a relatively benign and early example, mostly scary for how omnipresent they tend to become.  A cultural taboo gets tossed out (well, recycled) almost immediately upon Planetfall, in order to survive.  I like how it hints at the further stages of... change that humanity will undergo.


A lot of faction builds can't nerve staple (entire bases) or rely too heavily on police, and yet anyone can build a genejack factory with the proper technology. 

Still, Lal's quote for the Recreation Commons indicates that the same "facility" might look very different in different factions.  Why wouldn't a Morganite take a loan against their body?  Or a Gaian return to the circle of life?  One commenter suggested that Hive citizens might enter the tanks alive, but I wonder if they're the only ones.

On a lighter note, something I didn't really understand is how little manual labor is likely necessary from the Centaurans.  Industrial Automation and similar techs describe an economy based on robots and telepresence.  Human lives are too rare and fragile to be wasted moving boxes in this hostile environment.  Eventually they go full super-saiyan/transcendent, but this mechanized industrial base happens surprisingly early on.  It's an interesting rule of the setting that they quickly discover ways to conveniently store and utilize incredible amounts of energy, yet the lack of fossil fuels makes powered flight (and chemically-explosive weapons) impractical.

The Paean for the Genejack factory touched on the implications of that.  Genejacks aren't dumb zombies that cart metal ore around.  They're perfectly intelligent - perhaps even optimized - they simply lack any personal ambition.  Chilling stuff.

I kinda wish the Fundamentalist social engineering wasn't so mechanically bad, because it would seems to fit the Gaians well thematically.  Not that Democracy is antithetical to them, but... yeah.  I definitely spent a lot of time romanticizing them.

[Aoi]

But is that really "dehumanizing"? A lot of literature views one of the ultimate triumphs of (personal) humanity is overcoming 'basic' instincts in the name of some 'greater good'... going into the recycling tanks are literally one of the last things that an individual can do to further the cause of their society and costs them nothing, in a time/material/labor/etc. sense.

The different factions can easily spin it differently-- Morganites get paid, Gaians view it as a return to nature, Spartans view it as a matter of brutal necessity, the Hive has it as a matter of duty, even Miriam can explain it in a positive way: You're freeing the soul from its mortal confinement. ...Not sure how University would do it (there can only be so many corpses used in the name of science...) or the UN  ("Well, it's what they voted for, much as I personally disagree?").

The Genejack Factory is a much more interesting case-- what they are is ultimately uninteresting to me, but what it says of the people who utilize them...

[Rolan7]

I find the Spartan faction the hardest to understand in some ways, more so than Yang's hive.  The Hive, horrifying as it is, can be described as simply adapting...

Well, no.  Every faction can be defined as adapting to Planet.  That's why none of them are good or evil, even at the beginning.  Much less after they progress beyond our primitive concepts of morality, heh.

Ironically Lal's Peacekeepers may be the hardest to defend.  They shroud themselves in the laws and rules of the old world.  What does that even mean, as a transcendental ideology?  While classically liberal, it's inherently backwards.
And not even cherishing the old-human identity as the Believers seem to.  The failed states...

But, no, they champion democracy.  Maybe I should give that more credit.  Maybe the Peacekeepers are ruling by rational consensus in this transhuman age.  Yes, that is why their people count more.  Because they are allowed voices.  Many factions can run democracy, but I think it's fair to imagine that it's more meaningful under a Peacekeeper dome.  Because I almost compared to them to the University's "rational consensus", but there are many indications that University society is extremely tiered.  The Peacekeepers are more egalitarian, mechanically.

[Rince Wind]

I love how my view of the leaders changed when I got to know them better. Miriam seemed to be a religious nutjob at first, but some of her quotes, especially the endgame ones, belong to the most thought provoking ones in the game.

[EuchreJack]

I generally see Lal's Peacekeepers as the only faction that actually wants to rule with the other factions.  They WANT to bring the other factions into the fold.  Every other faction basically wants to rule alone.

I also find the Spartans hard to characterize, other than the brute force need to survive.  Once the basic threats of survival are over, what are they offering?  When they have become masters of Alpha Centauri, what is their goal?  Fortify in fear?  I'd actually respect them more if they tried galactic dominion in order to keep humanity secure.

[E. Albright]

Re: Miriam, It helps that canonically - judging by the quotes, project movies, etc. - she goes from being a tyrant imposing her myopic tunnelvision of what society should be to a victim having other myopic tunnelvisions imposed on her. The other leaders have story arks where they become increasingly powerful and their societies become more exaggerated, but the beliebers go from strong and confident early to beleaguered and dissenting in the later references.

Although yes, Lal seems to stay true to principles, and Santiago is poorly fleshed out.

[ChairmanPoo]

Spartans are easy. Just looks at any military regime ever, or, well, historical Sparta. Once you have dealt with the "threats" you keep the military mindset in case "future threats" arise. And anyone who objects to this will be considered a threat. Militarism for the sake of militarism. Turtles all the way down. There's a reason why military dictatorships tend to place military bases in the middle of cities and it's not to protect them from foreign invasion.

[Robsoie]

It made me think, maybe a missed opportunity of SMAC was what happens just before each factions pods make their landing on Planet : the murder of the Captain of the Unity just after he allowed the launching of those pods.

That could have played a role in the various events, as with some random stuff they could have made the assassin belonging to a random faction at first, alowing some more background story.

I think some novel tried to elaborate that the murderer was a woman that apparently went straight nihilist and decided humanity should just die , maybe with some help by a manipulative faction leader bastard that pushed her right buttons, but in the end i think it could have played a role in the story that happens in the background during the game.

[Sartain]

It made me think, maybe a missed opportunity of SMAC was what happens just before each factions pods make their landing on Planet : the murder of the Captain of the Unity just after he allowed the launching of those pods.

That could have played a role in the various events, as with some random stuff they could have made the assassin belonging to a random faction at first, alowing some more background story.

I think some novel tried to elaborate that the murderer was a woman that apparently went straight nihilist and decided humanity should just die , maybe with some help by a manipulative faction leader bastard that pushed her right buttons, but in the end i think it could have played a role in the story that happens in the background during the game.

I disagree, I think it's very much a strength of the game that the exact circumstances surrounding the Captain's assassination are never fully explained.

[Frumple]

Which is weird, 'cause I could swear I remember the game just saying outright it was Santiago that offed 'em? Maybe I just misread something, back in the day.

[Hanzoku]

In the story that was delivered with the game (remember when that was a thing?), the others suspected Santiago was the one behind it (given her general gun nut behavior), but were never 100% sure.

[Robsoie]

The 2 free background story of Alpha Centauri that were available on the now defunct website can still be downloaded from there  on the bottom of this page :
http://alphacentauri2.info/official/Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri The Story_cfm.htm

"Journey to Centauri" is the one that setup everything from before the start of the game and in the end the journal of the murderer, just usual nihilism crap , cert

Spoiler (click to show/hide)

Sarah Jaydo's Journal
Why have we come to the stars? Why didn't we surrender when we had the chance? Are we so blind, that we believe this new world will be different, immune to suffering and crime and violence?
The Unity mission was a feeble candle flickering in a blasted night. We rode this illusion into the sky, and now we will die here, or, perhaps worse, die on Planet. Those of us onboard rode an illusion into the night; those who stayed behind took their chances on a dying world.
As for now, we continue to do what humans have always done. We eat, sleep, make love, hone our skills, pass the time. And deep down we wait for someone, some special human, to rise above it all and make the thousands of years of history, of suffering, all worth it. To enlighten us, by which I mean end our pain, heal our wounds, take away the uncertainty.
But I have seen the sweep of history, and we are no better off now than we have ever been. Just more aware. Planet will be no different.
Unless...