Print

Please login or register.
1 Hour 1 Day 1 Week 1 Month Forever
Login with username, password and session length

[Sharp]

Planet Busters were fun but SMAX Tectonic missiles were hilarious as well, like the opposite of planet buster, no negative diplomatic side-effects and incredible at destroying opposing navies on a coast or starving out enemy farmland by blocking clouds for rainfall.

I can remember using a few missiles to creep up onto Sea Pirates and then take most of their bases with my army while their navy was helpless to defend.

[Dr. Johbson]

I LOVE this game. Totally love it. The whole world feels so much more alive than any other 4x, even the dated AI doesn't bother me. After playing this a few years ago, I just can't get back into Civ. I haven't played for a while, but I've still got it installed if anyone wants to get together for a game. Warning, though, I'm terrible!

[Markus]

... Eh, I played Gaians and just used war to make everyone my vassals. High Locust Of Chiron production (With high veterancy on build) certainly helped.

Leaving everyone your tiny slaves provides much needed council votes. The end.

[Sharp]

The AI really needs an overhaul on oversized maps, I pretty much had no contact with one faction apart from their Isle of the Deep gobbling up my transport and alien artifact (damn you Prophet Cha Dawn!) and then a 100 turns later I want to talk to get some trade going because I am planetary guv'ner and (s?)he? surrenders to become a vassal even though I am the only victim from our "war" as the Cultists were miles away from my territory.

I mean I could crush them like bugs if I wanted to and if I wasted like 20 turns just to reach them so I don't know if it was my massive strength advantage or it being a custom-sized huge map (exceeding normal operational parameters) but I was like bwuh, why can't the damn Drones surrender like that while im eating up their bases?!?

[TripJack]

FYI guys there is an unofficial AI patch for Alpha Centauri that you can get here if you want to try it out. This patch also includes all of the fixes from the older unofficial patch (by scient) mentioned earlier in this thread.

Kyrub, the maker of this patch, is a true bro. He has released similar patches for several other fantastic strategy games of yore, namely X-COM, MoO, and MoM.

[GlyphGryph]

The AI really needs an overhaul on oversized maps, I pretty much had no contact with one faction apart from their Isle of the Deep gobbling up my transport and alien artifact (damn you Prophet Cha Dawn!) and then a 100 turns later I want to talk to get some trade going because I am planetary guv'ner and (s?)he? surrenders to become a vassal even though I am the only victim from our "war" as the Cultists were miles away from my territory.

I mean I could crush them like bugs if I wanted to and if I wasted like 20 turns just to reach them so I don't know if it was my massive strength advantage or it being a custom-sized huge map (exceeding normal operational parameters) but I was like bwuh, why can't the damn Drones surrender like that while im eating up their bases?!?

People get angry at those who destroy their cities. You never did that to them. They knew they were going to lose if they didn't run to someone stronger, and you were simply a lot more appealing as overlord/protector.

[Pakhawaj]

Just started playing this game and I'm not really sold on it yet, the interface is poor and I seem to be at war all of the time. I enjoy peaceful games. :\

Are there any graphical mods? I tried looking briefly but the only mod I found was the official patch. My eyesight is less than perfect and I find it difficult to differentiate between ordinary tiles and tiles with fungus growing on them.

Also, is there a limit to cities or is there a city maintenance mechanic? I've been holding off from building too many cities just in case.

[sambojin]

If you ever played Civ 1 or Civ 2 the expansion thing will be natural to you. The further you get from your capital (founding colony) the more dissent (drones) you get. A military unit quells one drone, a military unit with the "police" upgrade quells two drones. Drones don't work, and if they out-number your specialists (empaths, science blokes, etc) you get an uprising. Nothing gets done at that colony then, move a military unit in to quell dissent. There's also some economic-scale-of-distance-negatives in the world economy thingo.

So, have a defensive unit in your colonies (and/or a 1-1 police unit) and keep expanding forever.

You will always be at loggerheads with someone, no matter how peaceful you are in-game. Your original faction and your society ethics will mostly bring you into conflict with someone. Choose the UN (Lal) if you want a chance for peace, or buy them out with the Morganites (Industrialists) or tech-gift them with University (Zarakov?).

It's the beauty of SMAC that you can never sit on your haunches entirely. If you want total peace, you must dominate everyone or win through diplomacy of an economic, technological or military order.

If you've got SMAX, I'll give you a faction file that can let you go a fairly peaceful, yet still moderately balanced route. It's boring though. Peace through superior (faction skill) is the name of the game in SMAC. But you're not limited to what you started with. That's why it's so good.

Edit: yes, mid-red fungus on mid-brown terrain could be annoying. I'll see if I can re-sprite something for you. Is garish purple ok to see on brown? The game is really damn moddable

[sambojin]

Actually, I've got to ask. Did anyone notice SMAX getting smarter with it's mini-swapfile AI? It was meant to force you to change tactics or at least change factions once in a while.

The game get's better apparently. AFAIK it was half the point of the expansion. Not rubber banded, just gets to know itself and you as a challenge. It's meant to get better at beating you, but a fresh install really doesn't know what it's doing against your playstyle (other than civ 1/2'ing you).

[Pakhawaj]

If you ever played Civ 1 or Civ 2 the expansion thing will be natural to you. The further you get from your capital (founding colony) the more dissent (drones) you get. A military unit quells one drone, a military unit with the "police" upgrade quells two drones. Drones don't work, and if they out-number your specialists (empaths, science blokes, etc) you get an uprising. Nothing gets done at that colony then, move a military unit in to quell dissent. There's also some economic-scale-of-distance-negatives in the world economy thingo.

I played Civ 1 briefly just before Civ IV came out, but I didn't really learn many of the mechanics, even so, that sounds simple enough- just keep on expanding.

So, have a defensive unit in your colonies (and/or a 1-1 police unit) and keep expanding forever.

There's always a defensive unit in my cities, the game complains otherwise.

You will always be at loggerheads with someone, no matter how peaceful you are in-game. Your original faction and your society ethics will mostly bring you into conflict with someone. Choose the UN (Lal) if you want a chance for peace, or buy them out with the Morganites (Industrialists) or tech-gift them with University (Zarakov?).

It's the beauty of SMAC that you can never sit on your haunches entirely. If you want total peace, you must dominate everyone or win through diplomacy of an economic, technological or military order.

I thought that might be the case, I'm playing as the Hive currently and as soon as I made contact with the Christian faction they declared war upon me without even a pretence at diplomacy whereas the Planet-loving faction (Gaians?) seemed very eager to make friends from the get-go. I'll probably play as Lal next, he has quite a nice voice.

If you've got SMAX, I'll give you a faction file that can let you go a fairly peaceful, yet still moderately balanced route. It's boring though. Peace through superior (faction skill) is the name of the game in SMAC. But you're not limited to what you started with. That's why it's so good.

Haha, well, don't give me it if you think it's boring, I want to have fun! Thank you for the offer though.

Edit: yes, mid-red fungus on mid-brown terrain could be annoying. I'll see if I can re-sprite something for you. Is garish purple ok to see on brown? The game is really damn moddable

If you could do something like that, I would be grateful. Garish purple sounds wonderful!

Those were two incredibly helpful posts sambojin, thank you. I'll give the game another good go. Honestly if you manage to change the colour of the fungus I think that would help a great deal towards my enjoyment of the game, I wouldn't have to click every tile to read what's on it at least.

[justinlee999]

FYI guys there is an unofficial AI patch for Alpha Centauri that you can get here if you want to try it out. This patch also includes all of the fixes from the older unofficial patch (by scient) mentioned earlier in this thread.

Kyrub, the maker of this patch, is a true bro. He has released similar patches for several other fantastic strategy games of yore, namely X-COM, MoO, and MoM.

I recognize Kyrub, he made TFTD Extender, something I've been longing for a long time.

[beorn080]

You will always be at loggerheads with someone, no matter how peaceful you are in-game. Your original faction and your society ethics will mostly bring you into conflict with someone. Choose the UN (Lal) if you want a chance for peace, or buy them out with the Morganites (Industrialists) or tech-gift them with University (Zarakov?).

It's the beauty of SMAC that you can never sit on your haunches entirely. If you want total peace, you must dominate everyone or win through diplomacy of an economic, technological or military order.

I thought that might be the case, I'm playing as the Hive currently and as soon as I made contact with the Christian faction they declared war upon me without even a pretence at diplomacy whereas the Planet-loving faction (Gaians?) seemed very eager to make friends from the get-go. I'll probably play as Lal next, he has quite a nice voice.

The Believers are ALWAYS a threat and a nuisance if you don't play them. They like it best if you use fundamentalist on the political screen, and since that comes with a -2 to research for +2 probe and +1 morale, its not worth it early game. Add in that Knowledge is something the believers hate, and +2 research is hard to ignore for taking, and then the Believers ALWAYS want your hide.

[Shades]

Does anyone know of a good graphics patch / mod for this. Really want to get back into playing it but I find the visuals not very pleasing.

[Tellemurius]

Does anyone know of a good graphics patch / mod for this. Really want to get back into playing it but I find the visuals not very pleasing.

NOT PLEASING!?!?

THOU SHALL NOT BE PART OF THE TRANSCENDENCE

[10ebbor10]

Does anyone know of a good graphics patch / mod for this. Really want to get back into playing it but I find the visuals not very pleasing.

Me too, for some reason this is practically the only thing that prevents me from really enjoying the game. Which is weird, since I don't care much about graphics otherwise and my computer can't run anything higher than medium.