Proposal : FreeAC

[Closey]

Originally posted by Blake Closey: I like the web site so far
But what does one do to make posts in the forum! :unbanned:
It'd be good to set the forum up properly for discussion, there are a few topics which need to be discussed, and decisions made as early as possible...
It might be a good to have it moderated too, with threads for current discussions, and an ideas / suggestions thread and ofcourse a welcome thread.

Uhm.. well.. I did actually add some Forums, and you're supposed to be able to post. Hold on and I'll check.

uhm.. *notices the time* actually.. I'll look into it while at work tomorrow.. I think I could use the few hours worth of sleep I'd get if I go to bed now. Sorry about this, I'll have it working tomorrow. (That's probably what I get for doing things while too tired )

[Sikander]

My main problem with SMAC's current terraforming is that for the most part it doesn't take into account the effects of the terraforming on the Planet as a whole. Thus you can raise terrain until the sea disappears (where is the earth coming from to do this?), or build thousands of square miles of condensors without effecting the humidity / rainfall anywhere else. There are too many free lunches. Anything which can be supported with a realistic argument, even one based upon future technologies which seem reasonable is fine.

For instance I could see lowering terrain in one place and raising it in another. You could level your whole continent and take the earth and use it to raise the sea floor until you had a larger but lower altitude continent. Of course you would reduce the surface area of the sea, which might impact the amount of water in the atmosphere, and thus the raininess of squares somewhere on planet.

[Closey]

Originally posted by Sikander
My main problem with SMAC's current terraforming is that for the most part it doesn't take into account the effects of the terraforming on the Planet as a whole. Thus you can raise terrain until the sea disappears (where is the earth coming from to do this?), or build thousands of square miles of condensors without effecting the humidity / rainfall anywhere else. There are too many free lunches. Anything which can be supported with a realistic argument, even one based upon future technologies which seem reasonable is fine.

Ok, yeah good point. I've always wondered where all that extra dirt used to make new mountains came from. Yeah, terraforming really need to be based on something that makes it more realistic (but that doesn't say that I don't want even more things to do to the planet) There ought to be quite a few more methods that could be added. I wagely recall an old thread about different terraforming methods and I think there were quite a few good ideas in there. Several inspired by the Mars trilogy written by Kim Stanley Robinson.

Oh yeah, the FreeAC forums are up and running now. And now you can even access them and post in them..

[Kassiopeia]

How about getting up a specific thread dedicated to plot-based brainstorming?

[Sprayber]

Originally posted by Blake

Factions could arrive in a number of ways, on their own colony ship, on a joint colony ship (like the unity), they could breakaway from an existing faction at some stage in the game....

This would result in an even greater range of potential ideologies. Additionaly, because this is our game we can include things like uniqe victory conditions for different factions.
We can include really radical factions, like robots or replicators (imagine a faction where you had to build population).

.

You brought up a really cool point. I have heard many suggest how cool it would be to have it to where if certain conditions were met, a new faction could spring up from an already established one. It looks like everyone has their work cut out for them.

[Blake]

Closey, would it be possible to have longer posts on your forum?
(yeah, it would have to be me that asks... )

Anyway, hop over to the new forum and read this thread... it's rather important and feedback would be valuable (either post in the new forum, or here...)

[Blake]

Something for the writers...

There is heaps of stuff to write, short stories like the Book of Planet reports would be good. If you write about events, places, techs, factions, victories, the-particullary-voilent-discharge-from-weaponX, etc then they can be coded in Unlike SMAC writing you don't need to write about an existing thing or event, unleash your creativity and let your imagination run wild... (or something )
Details like fancy codewords that insert the appropriate names into the story can be handled later, placeholder names like 'Bob', 'Leader', 'Underling' could be used for now.

It'd also be good to come up with placenames, weapon names, etc in the text, because they can then be used in the game. (seriously, don't count on the coders to come up with any good names for these things)

Anyway, dont wait for someone to tell you what to write - just write

And yeah, a writers forum is definitely needed.

[Kassiopeia]

Goody goody.

placeholder names like 'Bob', 'Leader', 'Underling' could be used for now.

The sketches might turn out to be a lot of fun with the placeholder names

(seriously, don't count on the coders to come up with any good names for these things)

[Closey]

Originally posted by Blake
Closey, would it be possible to have longer posts on your forum?
(yeah, it would have to be me that asks... )

Probably.. I'll check it out right away

[edit] Three times as long? Would that be enough? I could make them even longer tho if you feel that you need more space..

uhm.. oh yeah.. they're visible too.. the forums that is..

[Blake]

Allright guys, if you havn't yet head over to our new forums, register and get posting.

Forum Index

A welcome thread

Climate Model

A thread on Terraforming and the raise terrain problem.

Random ideas and gibberish.

Proposal for a new Victory type (It's positively evil )

Some tech tree ideas

Last but not least, are we Civ'ing or are we MOOing.

[korn469]

so any updates on the project? any thoughts about adding in a few of the better ideas (like armies and resources) from civ3? it sounds interesting though, i just hope everyone hasn't lost interest in it

[Jac de Molay]

my meager .02$

I think there should be more terra-forming options no matter how "un-realistic" it may be. The ability to shape Planet has always added a nice strategic element to the game.

As far as original plot, I was thinking along the lines of a comet striking the earth like the one that killed off dinosaurs, and it would transmute earth's ecosystem, causing new, agressive and dangerous life forms to arise. The "factions", as it were, would represent various shadow societies left in the wake(of course representing differing ideologies).

Also liked a lot the previous idea of faction workshop.

Dave

[Blake]

Lost interest? Hardly.

Armies: From Civ3? You gotta be joking. We will be using CTP2 style armies.
Resources are a definite possibility, but wont function exactly like in Civ3, rather they'll make it possible to build certain things slightly cheaper, or allow construction of extra facilities. For example the uranium resource allows the construction of one nuclear powerplant which increases production in all mines/boreholes @ base by +50%.

We have a fantastic climate model in the works, making all facets of terraforming more realistic, with more tradeoffs. You wont nessecarly have any more terraforms but they will have a much greater impact on the climate, so shaping the world is something you'll be able to do on grand scale.

Our storyline is quite generic, earth starts dying from overpopulation. Colonisation drive is started. Anyone with the means starts launching space ships to other planets de da de da. Earth dies.

We will be using a "Non-Player" faction system for easily adding native life, barbarians, neutrals etc. You'll have a great deal of freedom in setting up your world.

We also have a new forum: http://www.freeac.org/cgi-bin/ib3/ikonboard.cgi

[Blake]

Speaking of Civ3. There is very little in Civ3 worth stealing. Virtually all the "innovation" *cough*cough**splutter* was in fancy animations & art. In fact there was no innovation worth speaking off.
THe only part of Civ3 with any real merit is the faction diplomacy/trading table thing, and that seems to me to be less fun than the SMAC diplomacy style. But VERY worthwhile looking at in a multiplayer context (SMAC uses something almost identical in IP MP games)