Sorry, it appears I'm a little late for the party...

[Control Freak]

After getting bored with Civ3 and reading posts about how SMAC was better, I went out and bought a copy. It was only $10 Canadian (which I think is roughly a dime and some belly button lint US)

Anyhow, I am very happy I did and after 2 weeks of pretty solid playing i still haven't mastered terraforming nor the political system which in my opinion is just great!

But back to my point...I'm late to the party because apperantly Firaxis no longer has Alien Crossfire for sale!!!

As I said I like the game and it would be nice to see what the expansion is like. Does anyone know where I could go to get a copy? And am i really missing out not having the expansion?

Thanks in advance for any help...

[Hydro]

There are likely copies on Ebay. A friend of mine checked before Xmas and they were running $50/each. I think there was a thread on finding Alien Crossfire a while ago. I'll look later and bump it if I can find it.

[Yxklyx]

Welcome aboard! The game is very deep - I didn't even know about POP BOOMING until recently and I've had the game since it came out (didn't play for a year or two in between). I bought my expansion from amazon.com but I don't think they have it anymore.

[bondetamp]

I lost my SMAX cd, but saw it on Amazon.co.uk for £7.65. Thinking that they were sold out ages ago and that they just hadn't updated I ordered a copy just for the hell of it and, lo and behold, about a week later I got an e-mail telling me that it was on its way.

[RedFred]

Re: Sorry, it appears I'm a little late for the party...

Originally posted by Control Freak
...As I said I like the game and it would be nice to see what the expansion is like. Does anyone know where I could go to get a copy? And am i really missing out not having the expansion?

I have seen it in the delete bin (jewel case, no manual) at various spots in Canada including Staples and London Drugs. And even the Planetary Pack (both CDs) used to be sold with a deep discount. But not in the last year.

They probably have a formula for expansion packs... say produce half the number as the basic game. You need the basic game to play the expansion pack and only some will like the basic game enough to pay for the x-pack. But I think that they underestimated the fanatical following that SMAC has. We get a lot of requests for SMACX and it is hard to find now.

And yes, you are TOTALLY MISSING OUT by not having SMACX. Better than the original and more factions to boot.

[johndmuller]

Yes, SMAX is worth having and is apparently currently available at eBay with at least 6 copies for sale (using "Alien Crossfire" as search key can also try "Planetary Pack", "Sid Meier", "Alpha Centauri"). Prices were bid up into the $30-$50 (US) range, but might go up further in the last few hours of the auctions. In my opinion, it would be worth that kind of money; with luck and/or a lot of looking you could probably find it elsewhere and/or cheaper, but how much is all that time and effort worth too?

The SMAX installation leaves you with a version of SMAC which can be used to play an MP game with a SMAC only player, so aside from being unable to play an MP game in SMAX (not to say that it is a small deficiency, however), there are no particular show stoppers to SMAC vs SMAX; the only thing that really bothers me is that Yang and Morgan are unable to pop boom in SMAC (while they can, with Golden Ages in SMAX). Although I prefer SMAX for some of the enhancements - mostly the additional Native Life units, and some of the extra facilities - I still like the original (SMAC) factions much better than nearly all the SMAX new ones and usually have at least a majority of original characters in any SP games I might start.

[Shai-Hulud]

Available at softwarefirst.com

http://www.softwarefirst.com/Product.asp?WebRef=10081089

It's £4.99, worldwide delivery, original copy. I've used the place before and it's one of the best.

[MariOne]

A voice out of the choir:

NO, I don't think you're losing out anytihing by not having SMAX.

Personally, SMAX has increased my enjoyability od SMAC by about 0.1%

I would sell it, if only I didn't have started some pbems on SMAX platform.

What I gained is:
7 new factions - I would have been able to create them anyway with mods, except maybe the specific behavior of Alien-category factions. For me, however, mods are justa curiosity, I have always been completely satisfied with the range of options offered by the 7 original faciton, I have never felt that I was missing out something by not playing with modified factions. Even with SMAX I practically always play with the 7 original SMAC factions, so there...

new techs - ok, so what? cute, but absolutely superfluous. It added almost nothing tho the depth of the game SMAC was. It screwed also some of the prereq, as now you can discover the tech allowing Hybrid Forests before the one allowing Tree Farms...

new facilities - here too, nothing you can't play without, cute, but they don't make the game more interesting or fun to play, imho

new projects - well, here maybe, the CBA granting AeroComplexes in every base... but for the rest, ditto as above

new units components & equipments, new native units
This is maybe the part with most impact on everyturn gameplay...
fungal Towers, "artillery worms" (spore launchers), aggressive marine lifeforms...
Armor & weapons with added embedded ability are an addition, but really a niche one. Tectonic and fungal missile payloads are an interesting novelty, but they happen to be used so rarely...

PATCH: ther are some bugs of SMAC (but not all) which have been fixed in the X executable (i.e. the maintenance bug, the Golden Age bug), and despite the fixing code is available and can be presumably easily exported to patch also the classsic executable, FurXs decided to not do it.

Indeed, the only reason because I play SMAX is because it is a SMAC patch.
FurXs denied to make available the fixing code in a patch for SMAC because they wold not ahev dared to make you pay the price of a new complete game for a patch.
I gave in and bought SMAX several months after it was published because I am weak, and because most of the pbems were being organised in SMAX and I wanted to take part in, to remain in the game.
I had to pay a new-game like full price for it even almost a year after it came out (~40$ or more).
I frankly regret it, could I go back, I would NOT buy it now.

[Shai-Hulud]

I frankly don't like the fuzz. From the game manual: "In the end, we came away feeling that Alien Crossfire was somewhere between an expansion and a full-blown sequel" Now, that's an overstatement to say at least. Alien Crossfire was an add-on and nothing more. But it wasn't a bad one. New factions, facilities, wonders, landmarks and technologies didn't add anything fundamental because SMAC was a good and finished game on its own. Then again, how much has the concept changed since Civilization? When compared to other expansions Crossfire is a fine product. One might think that Firaxis is just cashing loyal fans of genre? But I'm not against making profit with such a fine product that Alien Crossfire is. Either 40$ is a lot of money in your budget or then you're REALLY disappointed

[Fitz]

Originally posted by MariOne
What I gained is:
7 new factions - I would have been able to create them anyway with mods, except maybe the specific behavior of Alien-category factions. For me, however, mods are justa curiosity, I have always been completely satisfied with the range of options offered by the 7 original faciton, I have never felt that I was missing out something by not playing with modified factions. Even with SMAX I practically always play with the 7 original SMAC factions, so there...

I agree somewhat with all your comments except this one.

Having 7 new factions was critical to me just for variety. They are not all great ones, but now you can get a random mix of 7 of 14 factions to change things up a bit.

I play (pretty much) exclusively SMAX, and never go back unless I have no choice. Having reinstalled SMAC twice onto new computers of my own, and multiple times onto computers that have been borrowed for LAN play, the first thinig I do is bust out the SMAX CD immediately thereafter.

I actually have a hard time adjusting backwards to play a vanilla SMAC game at this point.

Thanks for the link Shai. I'm in need of a few extra copies right now.

[Shai-Hulud]

I couldn't think of going back to old SMAC. No matter how little difference does Crossfire make...it's still a difference. I think most of the changes we're positive and they really added a new range of possibilities.

New manifestations of native life makes for more challenging expansions and makes native forces more useful in combat against other factions. Some might say too useful(referring to Sealurks, which can really surprise Morgan). I also like new landmarks, although at least some of them were included in earlier patches. Since I don't believe in absolute defense I welcome Algorithmic Enchancement and a Brood Pit is vital to make Free Market more manageable in late game. Sea bases improving facilities are also good additions.

[Sprayber]

Originally posted by Shai-Hulud
Available at softwarefirst.com

http://www.softwarefirst.com/Product.asp?WebRef=10081089

It's £4.99, worldwide delivery, original copy. I've used the place before and it's one of the best.

Thanks for that link.

[Sprayber]

bumped for timjones

[jazion]

Strange, I keep running into it, here in Oregon anyway. Seen it at one of the big malls just recently. Buy/Sell pc game place always seems to have copies of it.


http://www.gamers-galaxy.com .. this guy seems to always have it too, a place I go to often in Coos Bay. Cool dude, he won't rip ya off.

[Shai-Hulud]

It's not in production any more but you will always be able to purchase a copy...from somewhere, Ebay for example. So far, it's been relatively easy to find, like most games of late nineties.