Which faction leader are you most like?

[Frankychan]

Chairman Sheng-ji Lal

Myself? I guess I'm a cross between Sheng-ji and Lal.

I love to hear others talk about their problems and try to work arugments out rationally. I like to be the peacemaker.

On the other hand, I also have a tendency to be megalomaniacal
and some of my friends believe I have slight delusions of grandeur.

[wgabrie]

I don't know what everyone will think of this , but I think of myself as being very similar to Sister Miriam. I find that I agree with almost everything she says.

Do you remember the part of the original SMAC story where Miriam almost died in her cryo-cell, but was saved by God? I have also been saved from death by God at least once. (Thank you, God )

One more thing is that I have had a dream of leading the Lord's Believers. It was very real, and this was before I had even heard of SMAC.

[Adalbertus]

I find it very difficult to describe myself in terms of SMAC faction leaders. As a scientist - Zak. As a religious person - everytimes when I hear Miriams "Beware you who seek final principles ... He awaits you just after your last theorem": That's exactly why the religious half of the scientific community is attracted by science! Or with Einstein's words: "God is smart, but he doesn't cheat us."
During playing SMAC, I have also the tendency to play builder style until there is someone who cannot resist to make me angry (Morgan usually is the only one who can resist). In this case they'll get war until they submit. I think, that's the principle of "peacekeeping forces": Lal. There might be also something of Yang in me, Deirde more in her citations than the way it actually is played by the AI (hmm. Also in reality those who call themselves most openly "pacifists" are among the most aggressive people ... ). From Morgan and Santiago I'm quite safe (except for interest in the psycological or mathematical part of economy). I don't know SMAX, however.

I find that I agree with almost everything she says.

I agree with almost nothing, except one of the first things, where she says that evil lurks in the datalinks as it did in the streets of yesteryear, but it never were the streets that were evil. She simply is narrow-minded, has forgot how to play and has not yet noticed that God obviously has lots of humour (if we can describe this in human terms) as he is willing to deal with us stupid humans. And she also forgot about the central part of Christianity: Love.

OK, I have to admit, love and a real peaceful mind wouldn't give an interesting SMAC faction. Would ye modders take this as a challenge ?

[wgabrie]

Originally posted by Adalbertus
I find it very difficult to describe myself in terms of SMAC faction leaders. As a scientist - Zak. As a religious person - everytimes when I hear Miriams "Beware you who seek final principles ... He awaits you just after your last theorem": That's exactly why the religious half of the scientific community is attracted by science! Or with Einstein's words: "God is smart, but he doesn't cheat us."

You have a good point, and if I were to choose one thing I don't agree with Miriam on, it would be her Angry God complex.

However I don't blame her for being upset. Isn't the real reason for researching "final principles" to learn how to become a god and use godlike power?

Originally posted by Adalbertus
And she also forgot about the central part of Christianity: Love.

I have looked into this. It seems the Believers are designed to be several different groups. The play style mimics the OT Hebrew people. Under Joshua the Hebrews took over the land of Cannon and slew just about everyone.

The next group is the Catholics. They have beautiful cathedrals and a Pope to rule them. Miriam fits so nicely in that role doesn't she?

Lastly the Fundamentalists who live by the Bible and don't like the fancy cathedrals. Interestingly enough the fundamentalist movement was started to rid the church of man made doctrines and get back to the fundamentals of faith written in the bible. The fundamentals are total love for God and love others as yourself.

So to make a long story short (Too late! ) Miriam did forget about love. Too bad the designers modeled her after conflicting groups. It later drove her mad and all she had left were her angry god and a take over the promised land complex.

Originally posted by Adalbertus
OK, I have to admit, love and a real peaceful mind wouldn't give an interesting SMAC faction. Would ye modders take this as a challenge ?

I once made Miriam pacifist and made her immune to the -2 research of Fundamental to make her more open minded. I did it when someone said Miriam was put in to make people anti-Christian. I tested her in a game and it worked too well. When I got infiltrator, I discovered she had built Recycling Tanks at all bases. On top of that she offered me a treaty and was magnanimous towards me the whole time. However it was totally out of character for Miriam, I actually quit the game crying "No! Miriam's too nice. Make her stop! It's like something out of Barney and friends." I was so traumatized I couldn't play SMAC for a whole day. I ended up reinstalling SMAC, and I never changed her file like that again.

Oh well, I should probably stop making these long messages, because I may start to like it, and I'm probably clogging up the server with all my smilies.

[Adalbertus]

Originally posted by wgabrie
Isn't the real reason for researching "final principles" to learn how to become a god and use godlike power?

In short: Not for Zak, but for Morgan to pay for Zak.
Longer: Many of those physicist I know are physicist because it is fun to discover new things. And the better they are, te more openly they say it. It's a bit the awareness of the fact that the children's job is by no means done. And this curiosity is the power which really drives science (as opposed to engineering).
About "final principles": I think God is smart enough to have always a surprise for us. (Do you like surprises? ) : ) Apart of that, in the first place the discovery of a Theory of Everything (ToE) would be pretty useless, technically or economically. Btw: ToE means for physicists specifically a theory which combines the quantum theories of electromagnetism, weak and strong interaction (which already were successfully combined during the last thirty years and nobody noticed) with the theory of gravity, the genera relativity. I don't see a single reason why this should be the last word in fundamental science. If there is a final theory, then it is almost certainly that overwhelmingly simple that nobody is able to understand it

Originally posted by wgabrie
The next group is the Catholics. They have beautiful cathedrals and a Pope to rule them.

Miriam? Pope? If she goes to Yang and apologizes for her aggressiveness in the past as the pope (finally!) did, ok. She behaves more than (by far too) many popes of the past, though.

To sum up: Jesus knew why he said "My reign is not of this world" (Sorry, I don't know the words of King James' Bible). You can't run a country based solely on christian principles. For a good game you need a reign of this world, and this is what Miriam's Fundamentalism is.

[GeneralTacticus]

I think it would have to be Zakharov. That is, in my outlook on the world. When I think about what should be done on something, I try to think with almost pure logic. Of course I don't *ACT* like that, but I don't think he does either. However I *DO* have a sense of ethics, so Lal would have to be a close second.

In some ways it could even be Santiago, because I have a habit of being paranoid and probably the only reason I'm not a total psychopath is because I don't have the will. Some people say I am anyway.

[Silence]

I am a cross between, Miriam, Morgan, and Lal, very self-contraditory person I am.

I am also new here,

On the subject of Miriam, I think her organztion is similar to the Reunifed Christan Church in David Feintuch's Seafort saga, that would explain why there is the split in Catholicsm and Fundlementism going on. I do remember reading something about her being part of a disocse of some part before leaving Earth.

[aaglo]

Yang skye

I consider myself as a Yang-Deidre mixture, there's a lot of both of them in me - anti-capitalistic high-security treehugger
Besides, hard work does not kill anybody (well, it greatly depends on the line of work really... ).

[Panzer]

I'm a Zakharov, all the way! On the other hand, I do have some Yang-like tendencies (megalomania anyone?) and i do agree on some of Deidre's statements