So, Metaliturtle, a newcomer to SMAC (Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri), posted in the WPC AC forum http://www.weplayciv.com/forums/showthread.php?t=538 wanting to know if there was a way to GodMode AC.  I suggested a custom faction with nothing but bonuses, he threw me a picture of Dan Quayle, and vyeh was good enough to help with the text file.

This is a deliberately easy overkill faction.  It is for beginners, to ease them into the game's learning curve.  When you get bored, and you will, eventually, please trade up to a real faction- the AI in AC aint too bright, and you wont need or want this much boring advantage once you learn your way around.


To install and play the faction, there are a few different easy ways.  For all, the first thing to do is put the files in this zip into the root AC directory- the one where terran.exe (and terranx.exe, if you have Alien Crossfire) is.

If you have unpatched original SMAC, start a new game- when you get to the faction select screen, hit the Load button and type newbs.

If you have a patched version, you make a new folder to dump backups in, and drop one of the official factions, the Gaians (gaians.txt and gaians.pcx), for example, in the folder.  Then rename the newbs.txt and newbs.pcx to gaians.txt and gaians.pcx.  Start a new game- select the Gaians, and the SupahNewbs should be in their place.


Alternately, you need to back up a copy of alpha.txt, then open a copy in Notepad, or the simplest text editor you have, one that will add no formatting when you save.  Replace
#FACTIONS
GAIANS,   GAIANS
HIVE,     HIVE
UNIV,     UNIV
MORGAN,   MORGAN
SPARTANS, SPARTANS
BELIEVE,  BELIEVE
PEACE,    PEACE

which youll find almost at the end of the file, with

#FACTIONS
newbs, newbs
HIVE,     HIVE
UNIV,     UNIV
MORGAN,   MORGAN
SPARTANS, SPARTANS
BELIEVE,  BELIEVE
PEACE,    PEACE

 and start a new game as before.  This is actually less trouble than messing around with multiple back ups and renamings.
***

For Alien Crossfire, its simpler.  Back up alphax.txt, and open a copy.  Find 
#NEWFACTIONS
CYBORG,   CYBORG
PIRATES,  PIRATES
DRONE,    DRONE
ANGELS,   ANGELS
FUNGBOY,  FUNGBOY
CARETAKE, CARETAKE
USURPER,  USURPER

;
; These are factions you want included in the startup list.
; These may also be chosen when a random faction is selected.
; First item is file name, second item is search key.
; These should always be the same except for debugging purposes.
;
#CUSTOMFACTIONS
and add a line:

newbs, newbs

yielding:
#CUSTOMFACTIONS
newbs, newbs


Save.  Start a new game.  When you get to the faction select screen, note that there are pull-down menu buttons to the right of each faction name.  Select the Newbs from that list.  Feel free to fool around selecting factions for the other slots, but make sure you have the SupahNewbies highlighted when you hit OK.  The game sets you up playing the highlighted faction, not necessarily the one in the first slot.


VAUGUE BEGINNER TiPS:

When the game starts, before you move anything, poke around.  Read the tutorial messages.  Hit F1 and read stuff in the datalinks.  Select game>preferences and explore the game settings you want in the various preference menus.  Hit E and check of the social/research/economy settings.  Hit [control] S and save your game before you start exploring.

All guides and tips and forum help in the world wont do you any good if you dont know enough to understand the advice.  Its overwhelming at first, because theres so much to learn- but dumber people than you have managed.  Get to exploring the game, and Good Hunting!
