Cheats

"The team feels that cheats are useful in constructing your own scenarios (playbalance, etc.) and that some people just like to cheat. As in earlier games by this team, enabling cheats essentially ends your game from a scoring perspective, and, or course, cheats will be disabled in multiplayer." Tim Train of Firaxis. From Dante’s Inferno SMAC page. Link to source: SMAC-FAQ


Demo

"There will be a demo released prior to the game shipping. We don’t yet have an exact date, but it will precede the main release by 3-6 weeks or so." Official FAQ from Firaxis. SMAC-FAQ.

Requirements

"SMAC requires at least a P133 with 16 Megs of RAM, 4x or better CD-ROM, and an 800x600x256 display; the system must also be DirectX compatible. The game will run under Windows 95, Windows 98, or Windows NT. Please note that these requirements are subject to change as we get closer to the release date." Official FAQ from Firaxis. Link to source: SMAC-FAQ.

Price

"Prices are set by our publisher, Electronic Arts, and we don’t yet know what they plan as far as the retail price is concerned." Official FAQ from Firaxis. SMAC-FAQ.

Multiplayer

"SMAC will be playable by up to seven players on LAN. You can also play over the internet (max number of players has not yet been determined), or two players can connect via modem or serial cable!" Official FAQ from Firaxis. SMAC-FAQ.

"Race against six of your friends to dominate the new world on LAN, modem, Internet or serial connections. Chat live over the Internet with text or the latest voice-over-data technology." Official Features. Firaxis. SMAC-FAQ

Note: There will be no options for hot seat play.

"All players take their turns simultaneously in the game. The time controls (how long each turn takes) can be set at the beginning of the game. For a real game of speed SMAC, set the controls for 30 seconds. Each player then has 30 seconds to make all his\her moves. For a more stately pace, turn off the time controls altogether. You can also set a sliding time control, so earlier in the game the time controls are shorter; once there are more units and bases on the screen, more time is available for turns. If all players complete their turns prior to the time limit, the game advances to the next turn."

Laminated Cards

In the Alpha Centauri General Forum, there was a question posed by Firaxis requesting to know whether people preferred the laminated cards as in Age of Empires by Microsoft or the fold-out poster as in Civilization II by Microprose. Most people preferred the laminated cards over the fold-out poster.

Release Date

We suspect that the game will be released in January 1999, however, the Official site indicates that, "Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri is slated for a Fall 1998 release date." Official FAQ from Firaxis. SMAC-FAQ.

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