Tweet
For New Members The Alpha Centauri Democracy Game an introduction Contents * Introduction . . . .The computer game Alpha Centauri . . . .Roleplaying . . . .Government & Diplomacy . . . .Strategy * Teams . . . .The Spartan Team . . . .The Gaian Team . . . .The Morgan Team . . . .The Data Angel Team * Being Involved In The ACDG * Joining In * Prologue |
Introduction
The Alpha Centauri Democracy Game is based upon the computer game Alpha Centauri. It is often referred to by the abbreviation ACDG. This is the third ACDG, with ACDGII being completed in June 2004.
The participants of this game have formed on strong online community that is well versed in strategy and roleplay. This means a new member can choose to learn detailed strategies in the game Alpha Centauri, and having fun with roleplay that is composed of story writing, debating, and diplomatic intrigue.
How much participation, and what kind of participation you wish to have is your own choice. Some players will join up simply to talk with other members of the community. Other players may be interested in the diplomancy, strategy or roleplay aspects of the game.
There are 4 teams of humans that are playing in this game. If you are interested in this game you can talk in the public forum with members of all the teams. However, the major part of the action is hidden from public view as the teams maneuver to win the game. That means if you’re interested in seriously participating you’ll need to join a team.
If rather talk to other players to find out more about the game rather than reading this, come over to the Recuitment Thread and someone will be sure to help you.
The old introduction for ACDGII which has already been finished can be found here.
The computer game Alpha Centauri
Alpha Centauri is a turn based strategy game that has a loyal following of gamers due to its complexity. Unfortunately the same complexity prevented it from being accepted as a mainstream game. However, most of the people here are unfazed by that.
The game Alpha Centauri is set in a futuristic world where earth is dying. In a last ditch effort to save the human race the space ship Unity was built and sent to the nearby star Alpha Centauri. A couple of decades later, the colonists arrived and began their approach to a planet they named Chiron. However, things did not go to plan as space debris hit the ship forcing the colonists to crash land. This combined with an assassination of the captain, broke the chain of command and caused the survivors to break up into 7 separate factions with different ideologies.
The game begins as you crash land on the world. You need to built up your cities, and rediscover much of the technology that was lost in the crash. You also have to contend with the other 6 factions that are somewhere else on the planet. However, that's not all, as this brave new world is also an alien world. As you progress through the game you have to learn about and understand the alien planet you have landed on.
Usually one or two people from each faction are nominated to play the game turns. These people usually take the advice and directions of their team mates, then make the moves in the game before pass it on to the next team. Currently, the game is progresses at 1 turn every 5 days. At this rate it is expected the game will finish in a bit over a year.
Roleplaying
Roleplaying is about imagining yourself in an interesting situation or having a different persona. It's about acting out a character, and having fun while doing so.
In this case you're pretending to be someone in the futuristic world of Alpha Centauri. The type of roleplaying depends on the faction you decide to join. The different teams have come up with varying ideas on how to roleplay in their faction. So you should probably have a look at the individual descriptions of each faction.
There are many ways to roleplay in the ACDG. It is doubtful anyone will try and restrict you, but it's easier if you're with people that like to roleplay in the same ways. In the previous ACDG the favourite ways of roleplaying were in writing stories, writing newspaper articles, roleplaying your position in the government, writing diplomatic messages, and making jokes while acting out your character.
Here are some of the examples of roleplay in ACDGII.
The View from Above
The Planetary Archives
Interfaction Debating, Hive vs University & Drones - nervestapling is perfectly safe
Interfaction Debating, Cycon vs Pirates - cycon's parrots are better than pirate's parrots
Hiverian Planetary Council Motion: Call of Cease Fire
The Horror Returns....
Government & Diplomacy
The majority of factions are running a democracy for their government system. This means that many decisions are voted upon. Decisions have to be debated with arguments and reasoning before approval can be made for all major decisions. Inside each faction there is a government hierarchy, and work is distributed among the members according to their government position.
Diplomacy occurs within a team in convincing other team members of ideas and running for elections. External to the team there is inter-factional diplomacy. This involves mainly alliances and trading in the early stages of the game. Later when the global council is called it is expected that issues of global important will also be decided.
Strategy
The strategy is what attracts the majority of players to the ACDG. In ACDGII the amount of discussion on strategy and the game was staggering. The Strategy and Help forums on Alpha Centuari cannot compare to being able to sit down with other players and work on strategies in a practical situation. Many of these players have had significant experience with multiplayer and can be considered the some of the best players of Alpha Centuari around. Most of them are very happy to help out someone that is interested in learning more about how to play the game.
If you’re interested in taking a hands on approach to learning strategy, joining an ACDG team is perhaps the best way to do it. Many players in ACDGII started out knowing very little about how to play the game and have accumulated a wealth of knowledge during the course of the previous game.
Teams
The differences in the team aren't only in their roleplaying descriptions. They're also different in the way they are run, what they spend their time doing, and how they roleplay.
The teams have different governing systems and command structures. This is highlighted in the descriptions each team has provided. The priorities of each team also vary, with some giving high priority to the technical aspects of the game and others to roleplaying.
This can be divided even further. Certain teams will likely stress aggressive game play or prefer to build up their forces for the long run. In roleplay, certain factions may place high emphasis on roleplaying while making decisions. Other factions may prefer to use story writing or newspapers as the main outlet of their roleplay.
Which faction you choose should depend on what you are interested in. Once you have committed to a team you cannot change teams. This is to prevent secret information from being leaked into other factions. If you have joined a team and find you don't like it, your only opinions are to attempt and change way the team is being run or quit. Enforcing your will on all your team mates is going to be difficult so you should try and choose the team you want to join carefully.
The Spartan Team
The Gaian Team
The Morgan Team
The Data Angel TeamBeing Involved In The ACDG
People are involved in this game because it allows them to interact with other people. Some of the participants are here to learn the game from the experts that are playing. Others like to write articles or stories and show them to others in their team. Roleplaying with your team members can be something fun to do every now and again. Most often people come to this place just for an excuse to talk and share jokes.
Having others to play with is a major part of the ACDG and interacting with the others is what makes it fun. This is why we are always interested in new members.
It's not necessary to devote large amounts of time to the ACDG. Some members spent less than 1 hour a week making a few comments. If you are interested in more commitments then there are always jobs available. How much you want to get involved depends on what you decide.
Joining In
If you are interested in joining, you should first be fairly sure which team you will fit into best. One mistake people make is joining a team based on which faction they have enjoyed playing in the past. The differences between the teams are more than just what their faction can do.
You can only join one faction, and once you join that faction you will be unable to change to a different faction. This is because many of the game secrets are shared among team members, and allowing someone to change between factions may result in one team’s secrets being told to another team.
It is suggested you read each faction's description before making your decision.
Once you have chosen the faction of your choice you should look at the links at the top of the page. The links shown in the below picture allow you to join a faction, leave a faction and after you have joined the private forum link will appear there.
Remember that while you have the “Awaiting Authorization” message you won’t be able to see the private forum. When it shows the “Member” message then you will be able to click the Private Forum link and see the private forums.
These links will only be visible when you are in the ACDG forums.
To join, you click on the join link associated with your chosen faction then send a private message to the recuitment officer of the faction. Do not attempt to join multiple teams at the same time, as you will get rejected by all of them. This is so that game secrets won't get leaked out by someone that has access to multiple teams.
The factions and recuitment officers to private message are listed below.
| The Spartan Team Apply for: Membership Recruitment Officer: Contact Skanky Burns Private Forum: Enter | The Gaian Team Apply for: Membership Recruitment Officer: Contact Obstructor Private Forum: Enter | The Morgan Team Apply for: Membership Recruitment Officer: Contact AndiD Private Forum: Enter |
| The Data Angel Team Apply for: Membership Recruitment Officer: Contact Hercules Private Forum: Enter | Computer Players: The Human Hive The Peacekeeping Forces The University of the Planet |  The CMNsCreater: Buster Moderators: Drogue, Method Narrators: Kody, Honghu |
If you have any problems with joining up say something at the Recuitment Thread.
Prologue
Dried twigs cracked underneath my boots as I made my way through the preserve. This was one of the few places that the mega cities hadn’t expanded into and compared to the noise of the city it was peaceful. I found it very beautiful and counted myself fortunate being one of the few that had a keycard to this place. The smog wasn’t quite as bad here, I supposed the trees filtered out a lot of the sulphur and carbon monoxide in the air.
Up ahead a small figure became visible in the reddish light of the afternoon. I knew I would find her here, she always said being in this place helped her think and she often had spoken of her childhood when she used to visit this place.
“Honghu”, I asked quietly, reluctant to disturb her. “The last transport is leaving for the Unity within the next 6 hours”.
Her back was still turned to me so I couldn’t see her face. For a long moment I listened to my own quiet breaths as I waited for her to reply.
“I will be there within 6 hours Kody.”
Her voice seemed distant and seemed far older than her actual age. Not scratchy like a crone’s rather timeless as the voice of the ocean that had been murmuring for millions of years. She was still facing away from me so I left without saying another word.
~~~~~~~
I heard his footsteps as he walked away and blinked away some more of my tears.
The red glow of the sun filtered through the smog and cast a soft red glow over the dying forest. There used to be birds here a long time ago, but they had most likely died from the bouts of acid rain that came from the factories further to the south. It was beautiful here, but it only served to remind me of what this place once was, when the sun used to cast a yellow glow that lit the dust motes and the trees were green and alive not brown and dying. I stood among ancient ruins still beautiful only because they whispered the grandeur of better days.
This world was dying and it felt like my heart was dying with it. The memories of my past were like this forest beautiful and treasured, but fading from this world nonetheless. It was so hard to break away from the past, to remember all the wonderful things and not look back with regret. Earth would always stay in my heart no matter how many light years separated me from it. This place held my roots nothing would change that.
I bent over and scooped a handful of dirt into the jar.
“And while your children will walk among the stars they will always remember you”, I said to the stillness of the forest.
As I walked back to the shuttle the long trunks of pines silently watched my departure. A honor guard that lined the way as walked towards a new world.
The Alpha Centauri Democracy Game, an introduction - by Kody
Comment