Alpha Centauri Manual

[Animal Mother]

Does anyone know where I could get a downloadable version of the alpha centauri manual - *.pdf perhaps?

[Hydro]

Animal Mother,

You may not need the manual, depending on what you are looking for. If you need tactics and a terrific how-to manual then I recommend getting Vel's SMAC/X Guide. An old version is available in Word or PDF, but a much better buy is his official v4.0 Guide. See the link at the top of this web page.

Most of the functions in the game are explained in Datalinks within the game. I can send you a a Word summary of all the hot keys, which I put together for a friend a while ago.

What types of things are you looking for?

Hydro

[Animal Mother]

The thing is, I don't know how to research anything. I only downloaded this game recently. Sure you can set in to which field you want to research things(military,population,etc), but is it possible to specify which technology to research as in civ3?

[Darius]

If the "blind research" option is ON (the default), you can only choose from the four broad areas Explore, Discover, Build, and Conquer. But if you turn blind research OFF, you can select individual techs. But you can still only choose from among the half-dozen or so choices the game offers when the time comes to select the next tech. This is probably the way the majority here play the game, and you get a better understanding of the tech tree that way, but it's fun to try it the other way sometimes.

It sounds like what you need is not the manual (although that would help), but the tech tree. Helium Pond created a most excellent one-page version of the tech tree. Alinestra Covelia has it on her web site at http://www.enixine.dabsol.co.uk/SMACmisc.html

[RedFred]

There are basically three research options: directed, blind and double blind. In directed, like Civ2 you have numerous (but not all possible) new tech options come up every time you complete a tech. In blind you can vaguely influence the tech you will get by switching between one of four tech priorities: Explore, Discover, Build & Conquer. In double blind you never adjust your priorities after the start of the game.

Googlie's website has a teenie tech tree that was prepared by Purple. You can download it to solve some of your tech questions. It only takes up a single page, so I tend to use it more than the original. I don't have Googlie's website handy but if you click on his website button you can find it. Just go to the "we need more threads" thread and you can find one of his posts.

[RedFred]

Looks like I double posted with Darius.

[Darius]

I think my original post (my first paragraph) went in, then your post, then my edit (my second paragraph). So I TRIPLE-posted with you.

[Animal Mother]

Thanks for the help, as for that link to the strategy guide Hydro, where is it?

[RedFred]

There should be a link here at Apolyton. Back out to the Alpha Centauri homepage screen, I think info on how to order Vel's guide is there.

[Googlie]

You can also link to the Publisher thru the same website page that you can get the teeny tech trees from:

http://googlie2.tripod.com/spartanchronicles/id10.html

Also you might want to try Primagames.com - they still have the SMAC Strategy guide for sale at US$20 - not so strategy-rich as vel's Guide, but a useful page description of each tech, base facility and special project. It's at:

http://www.primagames.com/strategy/book/1070/

Cheers,

Googlie