hi, is AC really that great?

[alphaomega]

whats your thoughts? Firstly I loved CIV 2, but havent played much of CIV III...YET, I have other games to complete first. But I love the idea of future tech of AC, but I have heard all the complicated tech trees can be extremely daunting and confusing. Reading the PCGamer rating who call it one of the best games ever, I can understand people thinking this games awesome and many opinions I have seen love the game and all its new details, but I know some people who think it sucks compared to Civ, the biggest complaints being its far too complex and not enjoyable. Also the game apparently would end at a certain year ( I think it was 2800) no matter what. So no matter how good you are and wanted to play on it would have to just end. Also do you get mega weapons? And do the graphics put you off? anyway your thoughts please before I go and get the game seeing as its so damn cheap...thanks

[Kassiopeia]

hi, is AC really that great?

Yes it is. I've spent a year of my life on this forum and I've played AC more then the Civs combined.

Also the game apparently would end at a certain year ( I think it was 2800) no matter what.

Huh? Never heard about that. I think you can play as much as you want.

And do the graphics put you off?

They do their job. They are not to impress but to relay information. The Secret project videos are decent but at least I get bored after seeing them the first time (so I turn them off).

Also do you get mega weapons?

Singularity Planet Busters that devastate an area a bit larger then the radius of a single base... I think they can be called "mega weapons".

[alphaomega]

Yes it is. I've spent a year of my life on this forum and I've played AC more then the Civs combined.

why do you prefer it? is there anything big it has over the civ games apart from the obvious space age? How are the unit customisations? is it really almost limitless?

Huh? Never heard about that. I think you can play as much as you want.

so it dosent just end after you get to a certain year then ok thats cool. can you tell me the ways u can achieve victory?

[Kassiopeia]

why do you prefer it? is there anything big it has over the civ games apart from the obvious space age? How are the unit customisations? is it really almost limitless?

Well the unit workshop is one thing. You can design and build units entirely from scratch; you can select the chassis, the weapon system, the reactor type, the armour plating, any special add-ons, all by yourself.
Also I find the diplomacy in AC much more dimensional then in Civ3. The science fiction theme appeals to me (I've even written several AC-based fanfics). Somehow AC has more variance, depth and mood then the Civs. It can appear simple, and you can play it fairly much and enjoy it even if you don't know all the mechanics behind the scenes, but there's still much to learn.

so it dosent just end after you get to a certain year then ok thats cool. can you tell me the ways u can achieve victory?

I might be missing some...

Conquest - pretty obvious, kill kill kill.
Economical - collect *lots* of energy credits and at a certain tech level you can use them to overtake the planet economy, making you supreme.
Diplomatical - get as much allies and population to gain support in forms of votes. Then you can try to use these votes in the Planetary Council to get yourself elected Supreme Leader.

And my preference (which nets most points):

Transcendance - develop all the techs and build a secret project called Ascend to Transcendance. Pretty much like the SS victory in Civ.

[Joel Velasco]

Do I love the game, YES. Of all the games on the market today, including the Civ series, AC is my favorite. Considering that it is four years old, that's saying a lot.

For me, one of the reasons why I like it so much is that I don't have to suspend my disbelief as I did with any of the other Civs. After all I know history, and when I see Americans in 4000 BC or Persians running away with the game, I go "Yeah right". With AC its all in the future. Further more, you don't have any previous prejudices against this Civ or that tech, its all new.

As far as being to complicated, I do not believe its more complicated than Civ tech trees. The only daunting thing is that it is all new, but trust me once you understand the basics, it wont be a concern. If you have played any of the Civs, the most complex elements of the game are already understood. I would strongly suggest that you get the combo pack with AC-Alien Crossfire (SMAX). Hopefully they will have the tech tree poster within, which is much better than trying to figure out branches in the help menu.

To tell you the truth I have no idea if the game shuts down in 2800. Each turn is a single year, and even on the most difficult levels you will exhaust techs, growth, and world domination long before 800 turns. So to answer your question, you'll have plenty of turns to "mess around" even when the game is in the bag.

Graphics aren't state of the art, again its an old game, but the movies are on par with the latest editions of Civ. The bonus, is a rich back story that develops during the game. Also included are voice bits for each building that is constructed, some of which are rather amusing.

You want mega weapons? How does Cloaked String Disrupter Quantum Gravships sound to you? Even without knowing anything about what all that means, your imagination has to be dreaming up all sort of possibilities.

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

AO

By all means get it. It is by far IMHO the best of the TBS to date. I too loved CIV2 and were it not for my expectations being raised to the point they were for SMAC would have probably liked/loved CIV3. But since SMAc set the new bar for my expectations I simply can't get the addiction to CIV3.

Big plusses for me over previous TBS games

Social Engineering verses governments. The Social Engineering workshop/screen allows so many different nuances in how to manage your faction/empire that it far outshadows anything the CIV line has to offer. It breaks down governement into 4 eperate flaovrs.

1st level is type of government - Police State, Democracy, Fundamentalist

2nd Level is type of economics - Free Market, Planned, Green

3rd Level is dedicated to the focus of the faction - Power (war), knowledge (research), wealth

4th level is a future society - Cybernetic, Eudamonic, or Thought Control

The combinations of choices between these 4 levels allows much customization depending on the circumstances you face. Much moreso than say CIV 1- 3.

Unit workshop - The allows you to custom build most any chassis with weapon armor and other specials so that you have a near infinite choice of options available.

Terraforming - THis can often be said to be a game within a game. The ability to completely change the landscape exists. You can raise and lower land from/to the seas. The strategy one uses is an often discusses one. Suffice it to say to almost everyone agrees never ever allow the game to handle any task. Auto terraforming, base governors etc. are OK to start but you rapidly learn the AI stands for Always Idiotic.

Special new units such as crawlers allow you to garner resorces without having to assign a population point and whats more they can garner those resources outside base radii. So one can set a crawler half way across the world and have it transport back the equivalent of nuts (food), minerals (shields in CIV speak), energy (trade arrows in CIV speak) every turn to a given base.

Don't get me wrong there are a few odd 100 or so bugs inthe game and first thing I would do after you get the game is go to the FIraxis site and patch it with the latest SMAC patch.

But if the game you want is one full of opportunities for meaningful decision and variety of choices SMAc is your game. CIV 1-3 doesn't give you nearly the flexibility that SMAC does.

[Kassiopeia]

Cloaked String Disrupter Quantum Gravships sound to you?

They are Deathspheres, not Gravships.

[Lefty Scaevola]

I thirst for the the game when deprived of it.

[Ned]

The game is the best in the series, IMHO. Civ II is the second best, but AC is sooo much better than Civ II it is hard to descrbe.

IMHO, Civ III is hardly in the same league as Civ II and AC.

[Method]

there is actually a limit. i believe its in the datalinks. on citizen (chieftain), specialist (warlord), and talent (prince), the game ends in 2600 (IIRC) and librarian (king), thinker (emperor), and transcend (diety) it ends 2500 (IIRC). you might think that that's not nearly enough time, but really, my average game is finished in the late 2200's. i'll be through the tech tree by 2350 at the latest. even when i played on citizen, the game rarely went past 2400. even if you do get to the limit (i never have) i imagine it would let you keep playing, just like you can keep playing after you win.

do not, whatever you do, buy civ3. it really is a waste of money.

[The_Spartan]

yea you can keep goin if you want but your score wont go up or down after you win or reach the limit.

[Zakharov VII]

I believe there's also a line in alpha.txt where you can change the "retirement" date...

Z

[alphaomega]

I just got the planetary pack at my store for 15 bucks!!! yeah I got the tech trees and am just flicking through the manual. Reading some of it sounds really cool, like the sea bases, the manual seems great. It dosent tell you much about units though. I'll read through it first before I actually start playing which will be when I have finished system shock 2.
thanks for the comments. I loved civ II (I dont really play it much now) and I know with civ III they took away wonder movies for some unexplained reason and also i've read corruption is way too great and its full of inconsistancies and alot of fans who got the game seem to be dissapointed (ive looked at gamespot, gameranking etc) but reviews praised it highly but I havent played it hardly yet to know. one thing I didnt like about the civ games is how a spearman can damage a Modern Armored tank but isnt this alot less likely in civ III?..but the fact that the multiplayer add-on is $30 and did not ship with the game is real kick in the jewels, I wanted to play over LAN.

Lastly is alien crossfire a worthy expansion and is the latest smac patch 4.0? And when units upgrade do you actually see the visual difference? thanks again guys I will soon be a smac addict.

[Mr. President]

Alien Crossfire is pretty cool. The aliens are outstanding.

[molly bloom]

As a certain William Shakespeare might have said-

a game of infinite variety, which makes hungry, where most it satisfies.

The weapons workshop is such pure, untrammelled FUN on one level, and capable of such subtle finessing on another, that it should please the most anally retentive gamer. The social engineering of the factions (while the factions themselves might seem limiting, consider the civs and governments in Civ II- how often do they turn fundy in later age, especially Zulu/Mongol?) gives you a great deal of latitude, and some of the special project movies are firm favourites- the Dream Twister gave me the bejeebers when I first saw it play at 3:30 a.m. one early long night's journey into Alpha Centauri. The back story, the joy of discovery as the fog of unknown territory clears, even things like selected quotes from the Datalinks, and getting the punning references in the Hall of Fame titles- what's not to recommend?