Foothold: A 'stand-alone' scenario by Smack at Apolyton (alde_baron@yahoo.com)

	Welcome to Foothold. This is scenario one of a developing series of stand-alone scenarios. To play, simply choose 'Play Scenario' from your game interface and then select 'Foothold.SC' from this folder. That's it!


Stand-alone:

	A stand-alone scenario (SAS) can be played without any extra installation whatsoever. 
	This is due to the fact that the SMAC or SMAX interface will examine all files in a scenario folder and use them to supercede any corresponding files in the main game folder. In this case, 'Foothold' is generally set in the Aldebaran universe, and uses the Aldeb game engine. The nice thing is that you don't need to perform any installation at all to play the game in this context.


Scenario Framework: Foothold

	This is a balanced scenario suitable for Single Player or Multi-Player games. You can choose to play at any difficulty level. In single-player games you will control the Planetlover Faction, a splinter of the Gains from Old Chiron. 

	Any factions can be played in MP games, but If you are going to play an MP game, please read the MP notes. The background story by Kassiopeia can be found on Aldebaranweb: www.geocities.com/alde_baron and at Apolyton in the SMAC/Fiction threads.

	It should also be noted that all AI factions are set to Passive, giving Foothold a 'builder' feel. Otherwise, the AI have no special settings. They are the actual super-AI factions used in Aldebaran and start out in comparable situations to the player.


Background: Foothold

	Foothold takes place just as the Chironian Survivors, the Galactics, and the Outlaws are landing on a new planet, Aldebaran. (2300 AD). The survivors of Chiron include 5 splinter factions: The Planetlovers (Gaian), The Syndicate (Hive), The Universality (University), The Peacemakers (Peacekeeper), and The Nauticon (Spartan). Sadly, the Morganites and Believers did not escape Chiron during cataclismic end of the Great Chiron Wars (2250-2275 AD).

	The Galactics and Outlaws are factions that developed out of the Second Mission from Earth in the 21st century. This scenario represents the first 'hard-contact' between the mission to Alpha Centauri and the second, possibly more successful mission to explore several star-systems in the neighborhood of Sol.

	In a nutshell, The Galactics represent a second mission from Earth in the 21st century. Unlike the mission to Alpha Centauri, the Second Mission utilized near-lightspeed drives and a vastly more stable colonization platform. Because of the nuances of Near-Lightspeed travel, this mission has experienced about 500 years of development during a mere 150 Earth Years. The majority of these 500 years were spent travelling the local galacitic neighborhood and dropping off colony units at likely planets. The faction eventually came to regard itself as superior to the rest of humanity (if they exist) and hence renamed their species Homo sapiens galacticus, to reflect their interstellar nature. As you will learn in subsequent scenarios, the Galactics also learned that 'We are NOT alone.'

	The Outlaws, or United Non-Complicity Front, are a rebel faction representing escapees and malcontents from the Galactic Empire.

	At the opening of Foothold, you find yourself on what appears to be a vast and unpopulated continent in the southern hemisphere of Aldebaran.


Scenario Objectives: Foothold

	The objective of Foothold is to control Aldebaran by any means necessary. Winning by Transcendence is not possible, otherwise, points are scored in exactly the same way as a regular game. Look for a post of high scores and other information on Aldebaranweb: www.geocities.com/alde_baron


MP Notes: Foothold

	If you choose to play a multi-player scenario you may of course choose how many players will be human and how many will be AI-controlled. You should understand that this scenario uses two faction sets, one for the Human Players, and one for the AI. Therefore, when Playing MP, follow these directions for each faction you choose to be human-controlled:

A. For SMAC players (able to load factions directly in-game):

1. Choose Multiplayer, Scenario, and select this scenario.
2. You will be prompted to choose the difficulty level. Do so.
3. As you are prompted to choose factions to play as human players:
a. Select the faction you want.
b. Choose 'Load' from the button menu.
c. Click on the highlighted text and remove the 'AI' suffix from your chosen faction.
d. For example when you choose the Syndicate faction and click 'Load' you will see 'SYNDICATAI'. Click on the text and change it to 'SYNDICAT' and load.
e. Click 'OK' and continue to select additional Human factions in the same way.

B. For SMAX players (unable to load factions directly in-game):

1. You must decide which factions you want to be human-controlled before starting up an MP scenario.
2. Open the alpha.txt file included in this folder (not your game folder)
3. You will find near the end of this alpha.txt the lines:

#FACTIONS
PLANETLOVERAI,   PLANETLOVERAI
SYNDICATAI,     SYNDICATAI
UNIVERSALAI,     UNIVERSALAI
AQUATICAI,   AQUATICAI
OUTLAWAI, OUTLAWAI
GALACTICAI,  GALACTICAI
PEACENIKAI,    PEACENIKAI

4. Remove the 'AI' suffix from  the lines that you want to be human-controlled.
5. For example, say you wanted a 3 player MP game with the Planetlovers, Outlaws, and Galactics. These alpha.txt lines should now read:

#FACTIONS
PLANETLOVER,   PLANETLOVER
SYNDICATAI,     SYNDICATAI
UNIVERSALAI,     UNIVERSALAI
AQUATICAI,   AQUATICAI
OUTLAW, OUTLAW
GALACTIC,  GALACTIC
PEACENIKAI,    PEACENIKAI

6. Save this alpha.txt. Remember, this is the one in the Foothold Folder, NOT the one in you main game folder.

7. Start the game, choose MP, Scenario, Foothold, and choose the same factions you altered in your Foothold-alpha.txt.

Any questions you might have may be directed to alde_baron@yahoo.com

Good Luck!

-Smack
