Why so quiet?

[Blake]

I couldn't help noticing that AC-G/H/S is near deserted, so, where are we all?


Not to hijack my own thread in the first post or anything, but has anyone else found Civ3 pales in comparison to SMAX, particullary in the areas of diplomacy, funness and depth of strategy?
I've just downloaded the patch, hopefully that'll fix the rampant corruption problem. But I'm sure I'll still miss Yang, Lal and the rest of the unity crowd. And ofcourse the humble Formers, which are everso more interesting than the workers...

[knowhow2]

I just got back today from my holiday... but somebody mentioned that Apolyton have been down for sometime now (few days?).

[big_canuk]

Hey, maybe they got the problem fixed. This is the first time I checked the forum for a few days. (Normally I check a few times per day!). Everything loaded fine and fast this time, but this is the first time in 10? days that it hasn't been excruciatingly slow. I just couldn't be bothered to come. Hopefully word will spread, and everyone will come back. I really miss the friendly strategy talk. People haven't migrated to other forums, they just quit coming completely. Hopefully none quit for good!

edit: ahha. They didn't fix the problem, but they moved the site to a different server, temporarily. Good for them. Good idea. Wish they/I had thought of it sooner!

http://apolyton.net/about/

[MrWhereItsAt]

Hm. Well I check Apolyton (usually) Civ3 every day, but for the last week it has usually told me I am unauthorized to access apolyton.net! This cleared up yesterday I think. Server probs no doubt, but have some actually been able to get here over that time?

[MrWhereItsAt]

And hey Blake, what were you doing posting on NY's that late in the day anyway? Don't they celebrate New Year's on the Mainland?

[TresXF]

well, usually i post some news about my projects every few weeks (with marginal feedback) and occasionally give some answers to a thread.

but that's normal for a game which was published 3 years ago. i don't know many games which are still being duscussed and some creators still making stuff for.

[Vlad Antlerkov]

Well, what with the forum being completely buggered recently, and my returning to school, I haven't really had much time to post.

Besides, I actually haven't played SMAC for at least a month.

[Clear Skies]

I think with Apolyton being down for so long, a lot of people have got out of the habit of coming to the boards. Of course, being the manic-obsessive strange person I am, I tried at least twice a day!

Wow, the thing doesn't censor the b-word (see above). Unusual...

Well, it's good to be back - now all we need is everyone else back!

Beyond that, does anyone else think the Civ3 section of 'Poly should be totally separate from the rest, i.e. on another server? Might help cut the problems down...

[Kirnwaffen]

I think most people have moved on to CivIII. Personally, I play games in streaks, so I'll be here for a month or two, then move on to CivIII, MOO for a little while, Diablo II, and back to SMAC/X again.

[Velociryx]

Sadly, yes. Civ3 is a terriffic game, but IMO, better AI aside, SMAC/SMAX wins the head to head competition hands down....

-=Vel=-

[Alex]

Hmmm... my last SMAC game was a long time ago... I got excited with Civ3 at first, but now I'm willing to get back to old and good SMAC.

As Vel has pointed out, SMAC wins the head to head competition, or is it that I got used to it? I don't know, there must be something in SMAC that makes me feel warm and fuzzy... Whenever Miriam starts to talk about God and my lack of faith, I cannot help but smile tenderly, thinking "Oh, Miriam, here you come again...".

Civ3 is a good game - could be an excellent one if properly patched and tweaked. But SMAC is more of a love thing, I don't know... I know I'm starting to sound ridiculous...

[Sikander]

I SMAC

SMAC is better than Civ 3 in almost every way. Even the AI is good (I never thought I would say this!) in comparison when you consider just how much Civ 3 is simplified and forces you to advance along a very few 'tracks'. As for being able to use your imagination and create there is no comparison. Civ 3 has no design workshop, no crawlers, specialists aren't very good, etc. You end up playing the game very much like the AI does, and still winning handily. And while I don't much care about eye and ear candy in a game, it is worthwhile noting that SMAC kicks Civ's butt here as well.

I am the sort of person who much prefers a history type game to a sci-fi type game, so I didn't love SMAC instantly. But the game kept unfolding, so that my playstyle kept evolving to take into account the many things I discovered myself, or the huge number of things I learned on this forum. There is probably no game that I have ever played which has remained both interesting and fresh for so long as SMAC.

I'm taking a break from SMAC right now, and getting into Europa Universalis. It's a fun game, but the longevity depends upon the huge variety of situations you can start from more than different approaches to the game system itself. SMAC will occupy a significant place in my game rotation for as long as I have a machine that will run it though.

[vitamin j]

I've never played Civ of any kind, but I just know it's only a matter of time before the wayward children return to the SMAC fold. There are those who said SMAC was just R+D for Civ 3, but they got it backwards - Civ 3 is just a test for SMAC 2!

[vootguy]

Exactly... Civ3 to me seems to be just a taste of what's to come. Civ3 pissed me off so much though, that I had to return to SMAC to remind myself why I love these kinds of games.

I can see a lot of people returning to the SMAC fold as well... Civ3 is annoying to play at times. And I don't know how the turn times in Civ3 can be so atrocious... SMAC works fine and it's basically the same engine in a lot of ways.

If they made a Civ3 mod for SMAC, it would be twice as good as the existing Civ.

[Blake]

Well, I'm back from a "Outward Bound" course of 3 weeks in the great outdoors, tramping, climbing, getting up at 6 in the morning for a cold swim . (and no computers! )

Anyway, good to see that AC-G/H/S is thriving again
Now it's off to AC-Creation