Is it me or Alpha Centauri is an even better game than Civ3?

[YefeiPi]

Aside from the setting might put off some people from AC, Civ3 seem to be inferior to alpha centauri in almost every aspect. I love the unit workshop, "crowded" interface, and a whole plethera of other features in AC over Civ3. Civ3's interface gives the game a very simplistic and cheap feeling.

Not to mention ths satisfying planetbuster animation in AC

[LordRiker]

yea i must agree with you, Alpha Centuari Was Awesome, all Civ 3 seems to be trying to do is be like a Watered down AC.

[Capt Dizle]

I was waiting for someone to say this. Why would we expect Civ3 to be up to SMAC. Civ3 is saddled with its historic setting. Sid's group is saddled with trying to prove less is more. We shall see what we shall see.

[LordRiker]

well im not compararing the historical settling, im comparing the game engine and the mechanics to SMAC. SMAC was alot of fun but Civ 3 seems more like a hassle

[kuroth]

What is SMAC???

Please dont flame me for asking this

[RalphTrickey]

I was just looking to see if I'm the only one that thought that way when I saw this thread.

I'm hoping that the game gets better after I've finished reading the manual and trying a couple of games, I'm only partway through the manual and my first game.

The UI seems much worse that ACs, but that may just be because it's different. However, I don't remember any games that required shift key + Right Mouse buttons, or <Shift>-<Delete>.

I hate the stupid double-click on buttons idea, I hope that there's a way to turn it off.

I'm very disappointed in the fact that I can't see a way to automate units. I understand that people playing at Deity feel that it's useless, but I happen to like it, especially in the early mid-game to help explore the rest of the map.

Is there a way to turn Fortify off on a number of units in case of an invasion? I haven't seen one yet.

Hopefully all these and other items will be clearer after I've read the rest of the manual.

[LordRiker]

SMAC is Sid Meier's Alpha Centuari

[Sarxis]

Re: Is it me or Alpha Centauri is an even better game than Civ3?

Originally posted by YefeiPi
Aside from the setting might put off some people from AC, Civ3 seem to be inferior to alpha centauri in almost every aspect. I love the unit workshop, "crowded" interface, and a whole plethera of other features in AC over Civ3. Civ3's interface gives the game a very simplistic and cheap feeling.

No, its just you.

[PrimitiveCiv]

I played SMAC once........it was an average game with alot of bull****................aka mindworms

so i really hope Civ III isn't an inferior game.

[Simple Girl]

No, its not just you.

Civ3 cannot be compared in anyway with Alpha Centauri by its depth and intelligence. Civ3 looks rather like cheap imitation of SMAC. They took away lots of options to make game more popular,simple and more accessible for everyone, including people who dont even care to find out what Alpha Centauri is, to get into technologies and other things. Many people just do not want to learn.
Well, "Sid Meiers", you just cannot have Brian Reynolds' talent and intelligence and pretend you are making better game, even you can take and modify old files from his Alpha Centauri.
Finally, I am really sorry for people who think SMAC "... was an average game with alot of bull****". Maybe you just failed to understand?

[ACEofHeart]

For starters, CIV3 does not capture the "atmosphere" of SMAC..
SMAC drew me in, and it never let go..
While CIV3 might be "polished" as some people have stated, after
playing it for 2 days now, I feel more underwhelmed than overwhelmed with the gaming experience..
I loved CIV2,, was lukewarm about CTP1 (got more into it after
a few mods).. I was not impressed at all with CTP2 (considering they had CTP1 on the drawing board to implement where they went wrong)
CIV3 is NOT a bad game,, it's because it is supposely the sequel
to one of top 10 games of all time, that criticisms are coming forth.
I, like many others. expected not just a LOT more visually, not just a lot more depth, but a game that would finally replace CIV2 on my harddrive.. that ain't happening anytime soon..

I'll keep playing CIV3 for awile tho...

[yin26]

I liked SMAC except for the Mind Worm mess and the infinite range missile issue. Oh, and some AI exploits really ruined it for me ... but it's a bit too early to judge Civ3's gameplay just yet (the missing features? well, that's been covered)

[MORON]

YIN not talking down Civ3 as a beta.........


The world is ending.......

[yin26]

Hey, the keyboard is missing keystrokes. I meant to put something about Civ3 beta in there somewhere!

[jones]

Straight out of the box....hmmm...it's close. I can't remember if SMAC shipped with PBEM or if they patched it on later. I know there was a patch adding some MP features but I've forgotten the details.

SMAC did seem quite a bit more polished actually. First off, it was much more "configurable" just by setting preferences in the game. Next micromanagement, in SMAC there were options like "sentry" and "zoom to city for riot/production completed/xxx" and you could set most prompts to only require one click. I think SMAC wins in presentation too, because with civ3 I have to do a lot more clicking to get the info I could readily see in SMAC's interface. Also, SMAC was much easier to use with the keyboard only. Almost everything in civ3 requires mouseclicks.

Ofcourse this is all IMHO and based on pretty limited gameplay. I guess you could say my "INITAL IMPRESSIONS" SMAC's editor was better out of the box but I have to give civ3 a free ride since SMAC had no earth map

I really want civ3 to be at least as good as SMAC in terms of ergonoamics and interface. If thats not what sid&crew have in mind, well, I guess I can accept that but I don't have to like it.