Whither SMAC 2?

[Badtz Maru]

Re: Re: Re: Whither SMAC 2?

Originally posted by padillah


Yes, something must be done about deserts. One of the largest cities in the United States is in the middle of one of the largest deserts in the world (on purpose, to avoid the cops, but still), surely we've gotten to the point of irrigation in the desert.

I wonder if there's a way to mod it in? I know it's a simple XML change to make farms give extra food but how do I let desert be farmed? And how do I tie that to a tech?

Tom P.

Allowing irrigation of deserts would help. Make it take more time and require a later tech, but it should be do-able. Then make sure there are more nice resources in deserts.

[Urban Ranger]

Re: Re: Re: Whither SMAC 2?

Originally posted by padillah
I wonder if there's a way to mod it in? I know it's a simple XML change to make farms give extra food but how do I let desert be farmed? And how do I tie that to a tech?

You can make the desert available for farming by editing the XML files. Can't remember how now, but you should be able to figure it out playing with the files a bit. Just don't forget to backup the originals first, and put the modified ones in the "My Assets" (something like that) folder.

I don't know how to do the second part, though.

[Bkeela]

Civ IV is by far the best turn based strategy game I have every played, but it doesn't excite my imagination as did SMAC.

I find history kind of boring - especially famous battles and wars. I love the history of philosophy and science, and the intrigues of court though. Generally, however, I find history dusty and stale.

On the other hand Science Fiction with its unlimited possibilities seems exotic and exciting to me. So while playing SMAC, I was able to fantasise about aspects of my colony away from the game.

I would think about the technical limitations of living on an alien planet with a hostile atmosphere. I would imagine the early years of colonisation to be like Aliens, using LV-426 as a foundation for my imagination. Then I would imagine my civilisation advancing right up to a Star Wars level of technology, with cities like Coruscant as an example. I would imagine intrigues of court and power plays much like depicted in the show 24. I would imagine missions my probe teams would embark upon. I would imagine great generals leading wars of conquest.

I don't think about such things with Civ, because history doesn't fundamentally interest me.

[Urban Ranger]

I also think AC handles espionage quite nicely, particularly with the "spy vs spy" part. This makes probe teams quite strong, but not unbalancing.

[Imran Siddiqui]

Great OP .

I have to agree that SMAC was the most immersive experience I've ever witnessed in a strategy game. CivIV does go a great deal into bridging the gap. The voiceovers during new research was great to reintroduce to the series. CivIV can never totally beat out SMAC because of the great story behind the game, and that is one place that the new setting really works for it.

CivIV MUST make the UN work like the Planetary Council, for starters. I'd also like to see 3d terrain reintroduced to the series, along with its effects on rainfall. Also LANDMARKS... which could be like oil in the MidEast or the Great Barrier Reef giving extra bonuses (could be really fun in scenarios).

SMAC also, IMO, had the best wonder movies, by far, in the series. I also agree with UR that the pluses and minuses of SMAC's social engineering were a good thing. Perhaps a combo of the 'advancing through history' civics model and a 'balance the good and bad' of SE would be best.

[One_more_turn]

The most disturbing thing about SMAC is the color scheme.

[mike2h]

please give us smac2 before another civ. i love civ, but enough already.

[zeace]

Yay Wonder Movies!!!
Yay Planetary Council!!!

I agree that SMAC was a great game. Especially after SMAX, as long as you played with the original factions.

The only thing that broke the game for me was the algorithmic enhancement wonder that made all your probe teams invincible for the middle 3rd of the game. If you didn't get it, one othe AI would destroy you with it, so you had to beeline for it and build it. But then it was too hard to not succumb to the darkside and use it to destroy the AI.

No civ-like game has yet come up with a good way to integrate spies into the game. They're usually overpowered, but then you get spies like cIV that are nearly useless. I don't know if they need to be implemented as actual units, but they need to be put into the game in a way that makes it enjoyable to use them, but not frustrating if you don't.

But I'd by SMAC2 even if it was just a nice box wrapped around a floppy disk holding spyware.

Then again I'd probably do the same for a Col2...

[Nugog]

Having never played SMAC, this may be heresy, but could they make a SMAC style XP for cIV?

[Adagio]

Re: Re: Whither SMAC 2?

Originally posted by Urban Ranger
One thing I miss from AC is blind research. That really gives the game a totally new dimension.

I liked it too, though I do understand why most people doesn't like it

Originally posted by Guynemer
--Social Engineering: Civ4 has more governmental options, without the hard coded and inelegant pluses and minuses of SMAC.

I kinda liked the pluses and minuses more than the Civ IV civics

[Dis]

Re: Re: Re: Whither SMAC 2?

Originally posted by padillah


Yes, something must be done about deserts. One of the largest cities in the United States is in the middle of one of the largest deserts in the world (on purpose, to avoid the cops, but still), surely we've gotten to the point of irrigation in the desert.

I wonder if there's a way to mod it in? I know it's a simple XML change to make farms give extra food but how do I let desert be farmed? And how do I tie that to a tech?

Tom P.

avoid the cops? What city are you talking about? Phoenix?

[padillah]

Re: Re: Re: Re: Whither SMAC 2?

Originally posted by Dis


avoid the cops? What city are you talking about? Phoenix?

Las Vegas. "The mob" built casinos there, almost for the exclusive reason of avoiding the cops. Nobody'd bother them out in the middle of the desert.

Didn't you ever see the movie Bugsy? "The Flamingo" was the start of a huge boom in Vegas.

I don't mean to say the city itself was incorporated to avoid the cops, it was simply there. I'm saying it got big because the mob used it to keep a low profile from the cops.


Tom P.

[Dis]

I know a little bit about the town as I was born and raised there.

The mob wasn't always here. They didn't come until the 50's. And left in the 80's.

And take a drive around. We don't have much farmland. The only significant farmland we have is irrigated from rivers such as the Virgin and Muddy rivers (the shores of the Colorado are too rocky- though California uses extensive canals and irrigations lines from the Colorado for farming).

Desert is Desert. I say no to any changes to desert tiles.

The only way to model Las Vegas is using a civ2 or SMAC system of caravans (Civ2 could use food caravans iirc) or crawlers. As most of our food comes from California (which is irrigated as well, but not nearly as desert-y as Nevada)

[padillah]

Originally posted by Dis
I know a little bit about the town as I was born and raised there.

The mob wasn't always here. They didn't come until the 50's. And left in the 80's.

I understand that. That is, in fact, my assertion: the mob used Las Vegas because of it's remotness and, in turn, Las Vegas boomed as a result of the influx of tourists.

And now boasts the largest forensics lab in the country (it's no accident that the orriginal CSI is based in Vegas).

And take a drive around. We don't have much farmland. The only significant farmland we have is irrigated from rivers such as the Virgin and Muddy rivers (the shores of the Colorado are too rocky- though California uses extensive canals and irrigations lines from the Colorado for farming).

Desert is Desert. I say no to any changes to desert tiles.

Hmm, given the apparent size of a tile in civ I'd have to bow to supperior argument. A "farm" in civ is more along the lines of the entire state of Kansas. That place is nothing but farms.

Tom P.

[Urban Ranger]

If Firaxis is going to make a sequel to Alpha Centauri, the advances in game mechanics in Civ 4 (such as culture) will find their way into the game, likely with other evolutions as well.

What I would like to see:

- Faction specific tendecies expanded. For example, Gaians get bouses in environmental related techs.

- Faction specific tech(s), or techs with modifiers vs different factions

- Factions acting more like a whole, instead of a bunch of bases. Civ 4's collective upkeep is a good start, but more needs to be done.

- More underwater stuff