Using blurbs to reconstruct the official SMAC story

[korn469]

Enigma

you had in mind exactly what i was thinking!

i need some help but we need information on exactly when a faction gets mentioned for the last time

the gaians - transcendent thought
the hive - monopole magnets?
UoP - voice of planet
morgan - singularity mechanics?
spartans - Tachyon Field?
believers - controlled singularity
pk - fusion power?

i now see that Zak was attacking the mindworms and not the gaians

bustamike i am not sure that your theory on the dream twister but it is interesting and certainly a possibility...if it wasn't the spartans who built it then most likely it was the gaians

so apparently the hive and the U.N. were both on the decline by mid game and faded into obscurity while the spartans were building a powerful army...then the gaians erradicated the spartans...though i do not see how, especially if the spartans had the cloning vats, the cyborg factory, the command nexus, the nano factory, and the neural amplifier...

possibly planet destroyed the spartans...

two quotes

quote: That is our last-ditch attempt to win humanity a reprieve from extinction at the hands of an awakening alien god. As we approached we were confronted by the ruined splendor of Sparta Command. The true immensity of the place became instantly

ok human kind is about to be destroyed by Planet, which had just destroyed Sparta Command and most of the Spartan Federation...that is what zak is talking about when he says saving mankind from extinction

also when the gaians say that they approached Sparta Command it doesn't sound like they fought their way in...also i don't remember any quotes about the spartans saying they were at war with the gaians

so my best guess is that late game planet went crazy (like in SMAC 1.0) and wiped the spartans off the map...the spartans had the cloning vats so they had lots of large cities probably creating tons of eco damage and then planet destroyed them...

later the UoP to save themselves built the voice of planet while morgan was getting ready to corner the global market...then the gaians transcended while miriam attack the UoP

enigma where did you find that quote about morgan talking about the power company? i'd LOVE to hear it...i can't remember ever hearing it before

korn469

[iMac722]

What about the SMACX blurbs? I just want to know what they are. So just put them in my post called, SMACX Blurbs becaus I just want to know what they are.

------------------
And I asked him,
What is thy name?
And he replied saying:
My Name is iMac: for we
are many..

[Basil]

quote: And when at last it is time for the transition from entrepreneur to emperor, it is then that the true genius of our strategy shall become apparent, for energy is the lifeblood of this society and when the chips are down he who controls the energy supply controls Planet. In former times the energy monopoly was called "The Power Company"; we intend to give this name an entirely new meaning. CEO Nwabudike Morgan "The Centauri Monopoly"

(Blurb for the Quantum Converter)

[EternalSpark]

I don't think that the Hive got pushed into obscurity, rather, they just didn't do much... the faction stuff says the Hive is isolationist, maybe they just left everyone alone, maybe?

[Provost Harrison]

It strikes me that at the beginning they were fairly equal, but the university and gaians pulled ahead. Miriam started to make good leaps around the time of nanotech, along with Morgan who pulled close (seemed to have a lot of stuff then, Digital Sentience, Self-Aware Machines). But I have a hunch of advances on the side up to Will to Power, and the appropriate asceticism where down to Yang (formulation of Thought Control?) If Assasin's Redoubt collapsed, as well as the stuff postulated on by the Spartans, could the Spartans have been crushed by many sides at once, maybe an alliance between the Gaians and Hive? Brother Lal does come in as late as Centauri Psi, so I'm sure he isn't destroyed and somewhere up there, but never quite outstanding.

Miriam seems to have a burst of stuff, but whether this is just a hatred of other factions technology she has observed (eg, Uni) is unknown. In late game, however, Univ, Gaians and Morgan are dominant. But Univ did get to the first transcendent thought first, I'm sure (had Temporal Mechanics and Controlled Singularity first), just by sheer gap. Hence the voice of planet. But Deirdre must have pipped them at the post with the construction of 'Ascent to Transcendence', but just used the quote from transcendence for the transcendent thought tech. I think University was probably dominant, followed by Morgan (in tech and energy sense, respectively). But the Gaians sneeked in first with transcendence, despite them not necessarily having the technology Threshold of Transcendence.

Well, that's my hypothesis.

[Enigma]

And Morgan was about to corner the Market. Thanks for the exact quote Basil that is my favorite quote in the game but I normally skip most of them.. plus my sound has not been working in a long time. This quote is one of the most obvious ones in the game! Morgan clearly was about to corner the market.

There are quite a few quotes near the end by philosophers and the like.. I wonder how the factions were involved in those? And what is the Centauri Psi quote? I remember Lal being in the MMI quote (makes sense for diplo victory) but after that everything is rather foggy.

It really fits well that the Spartans were destroyed by planet, what with the cloning vats and all.

I remember bits and pieces of the Tachyon field quote.. but not the quoter.

Of course they really were not considering real life situations when they made this story. The thought of the Spartans making the cloning vats (under AI control) is laughable. Although that would be a dramatic ending, 3 years before Morgan corners the market Zack builds the voice.. then Deidre finishes the Ascent

It is rather interesting that Miriam has quotes in the end. Personally the way I view her quotes is her standing on a pulpit encouraging masses of people to go into a blood frenzy to kill the University(?) infidels. She builds a psi gate and sends in troops through that to invade the UoP.

It is more difficult to envision the plot since diplomacy is not mentioned in quotes. Only example is the retro viral engineering quote..

If we ever really get stumped we could just ask Firaxis
[This message has been edited by Enigma (edited April 28, 2000).]

[Fistleaf]

Remember the network node blurb:

^I don't know but I've been told,
^ Deirdre's got a Network Node.
^Likes to press the on-off switch,
^ Dig that crazy Gaian witch!
^
^ -- Spartan Barracks March

The Spartans were probably at war with the Gaians and were mocking Deidre.

[Enigma]

*bump*

Anyone have anything to add to this thread? I thought it was kind of interesting...

[joer]

Sure, why not?

I think some of the work that has been done to reconstruct the 'official story' is really great, and goes much further than anything I have imagined.

However...I think there is a certain point where the flavor texts get overanalyzed.

Remember that those quotes are, apart from the vaguely defined ideologies, the most important way for us to get to know the characters of the faction leaders better.
So I think that, in some cases, Firaxis simply used the SP quotes as a tool to flesh out the personalities, while still having something cool to say that's related to a specific SP. I don't think that means that the SP was built by a faction, merely because the faction leader said the quote.

SP's where I think that's true:

Weather paradigm: Does that quote really mean that the Gaians 'built/discovered' a paradigm which lets them terraform better? Or is it simply a form of ideology being spouted off here that works well with the SP?

Citizen's Defense: Interestingly enough, it doesn't work in psi-battle, does it? But it sounds like part of a story, true enough.

Telepathy Matrix: No real evidence the Gaians built that. Maybe, since they're always described as the most 'empathic' and 'understanding', but I'd guess that the flavor text should simply show that Deedee is the kind who likes to write poems.

Virtual World: The quote explains a fundamental truth of Yang, rather than specifically say that he linked every computer center to an entertainment theatre. I am not sure if the latter would be in character for him.

Space Elevator: That refers to earth, so is most likely from a book written by Zak before the Alpha-Centauri mission. Again, no evidence he built the space elevator.

Merchant exchange: While it makes sense Morgan built it, the flavor text is again a description of his fundamental ideology, rather than a reference to anything 'built'.

Longevity Vaccine: Yeah, know, wouldn't we all love to live forever?

Command Nexus: Description of Spartan knowledge, rather a specific installation being built.

The Believer quotes stick out the most, since it's just religious blurb that's included in there, often contrary to the spirit of the SP, rather than any reference that they have achieved any technological advance.

Planetary Transit: Observation of people's behaviour, but no indication that the Believers built a huge, planet-spanning transport facility. That'd suit Morgan much better anyways.

Universal Translator: A quote bible quote, which is the opposite of the point of the SP. After all, the Universal Translator does allow to understand.

Self-Aware Colony: Miriam: 'Will we create false gods to rule over us?' -- Zak: 'Sure, why not?'

Clinical Immortality: Again, a contrary, critical point to the SP, fueled with cute Bible words.

Bulk Matter Transmitter: Same point as above. I'm pretty sure those Miriam quotes support my theory well, since I doubt she would allow those SP's to be built by hert faction.

Datalinks: Lal's ideology, most likely taken from a report before the Alpha-Centauri mission.

Just another point of view (and, yes, I still think it's a cool thread).
-joer.

[Famyn]

There is plenty of evidence that the Gaians built the Telepathic Matrix

Watch the film, at the very end the Matrix building is on top of other buildings that are clearly a Gaian city.

Also, I think that the Longevity Vaccine also indicates that Mount Planet is inside Morgan territory, although strangely enough the terrain shown in the wonder movie doesn't mesh with the terrain on the map of Planet.

[Famyn]

Now this is just speculation.

I think the Gaians built the Dream Twister, and the Spartans built the Neural Amplifier. This speculation assumes that the Gaians and Spartans were at war, which is pretty obvious from some of the datalink files.

It would make sense that Gaians were using native life forms and other psi units in their attacks against the Spartans, who very well could have had superior weapon technology. The Dream Twister is used against Assassin's Redoubt, a Spartan base. It would also make sense then that the Spartans would develop the Neural Amplifier as a way to slow down the mass psi attack.

While it never really says who built the Dream Twister, the Gaians would benefit the most from it, esp. if they were primarily using psi attacks. A few demon boils here and there and presto: dead Spartans.

[Zaxxon]

I don't understand why everyone just assumes that the Spartans are toast. Hasn't anyone ever had their home base (Sparta Command, in this instance) be destroyed, but still lived on until the end of the game? I prefer to think that perhaps the Spartans just suffered a similar fate to the Hive and the PK's. Their empire begins to dwindle after the climactic battle at Sparta Command, but does not entirely fade away.

[Hydro]

Along the same line, we can reconstruct part of the history of Planet itself. This is my favorite quote from datalinks:

##Sentient Econometrics
#TECH75
The fungus has been Planet's dominant lifeform since about
the time of the Lower Paleozoic on Earth. But when, once every
hundred million years or so, the neural net at last achieves the
critical mass necessary to become sentient, the final metamorphosis
kills off most of the other life on the planet. It is possible that
we humans can help to break this tragic cycle.
^
^ -- Lady Deirdre Skye,
^ "Planet Dreams"

This quote gives a clear glimpse into Planet's past, and hints at how ancient it truly is. It also, by inference, suggests the Progentitors have been around a very long time if they created Planet, which has been in existence for around 600 million years (which is the time period of the lower Paleozoic (which means 'early life') on Earth). So the Progenitors were forming planets and sentient ecosystems when multicellular life was just evolving in Earth's ancient oceans! Imagine!

Hydro

[EternalSpark]

quote: In late game, however, Univ, Gaians and Morgan are dominant.

Then the game wasn't played well if only 2 builders and a hybrid were there.

quote: maybe an alliance between the Gaians and Hive

In AI and MP games, I find an alliance and Hive always happens, for the most part.
[This message has been edited by EternalSpark (edited May 13, 2000).]

[Alinestra Covelia]

Have Firaxis either confirmed or denied that there was a final story to the post-landing history of Planet?

Personally, I think it's quite likely that there was a vague idea of who should get which quotes, but no real overspanning plan or plot to them. Often enough I make parallel stories like that, but which have no real great plot to them. It then amuses me when other people try (and sometimes frighteningly succeed) in finding rhyme and reason to it.

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"In all creation, there can be no task more onerous or tedious than that of playing God." - Stephen Fry, 'The Liar'.