Allies

[manofthehour]

Will allies actually be effective? Or will it be like Civ2 where they don't move any units to fight a real war. That is a part of the AI I would really like to see helped. So that way my allies actually attack.

[Stuie]

Allies were definitely better in SMAC, actually agreeing to AND executing attacks on specific targets if feasible. And they enjoyed giving you units for free, too.

So hopefully they have built upon that....

[Sarxis]

I can't imagine they won't be good to have around.

I have been known to abu... I mean 'use' an ally once or twice.

[Mongoloid Cow]

SMACs dark graphics and confusing tech names (eg. Centauri Empathy, Doctrine: Mobility) kept me from getting to start alliances, so can someone PLEASE tell me what they did that was so much better to the useless system used in Civ 2, where the AI used to invite you to destroy an enemy, and when you agreed, they made peace with them straight away, or you asked them to declare war on an enemy, you paid them and then they made peace with the civ straight away.

[Earthling7]

Alliances in CivII were useless, but as has been stated, SMAC changed all that. They would give you units if they saw you engaging the enemy. I remember playing the university. The Gaians were under attack from the UN. We allied and I drove the UN forces out, taking over the cities, but allowing the Gaians to live in peace. They gave me a unit every three turns, on average.
There was also the ability to coordinate attacks. Wonderfool
Another thing that they did was vote for me to be a Planetary Governor. It seemed as if they really understood and apreciated that I had saved their ass.

The AI was smarter in another sense. An enemy stayed ans enemy, and a friend would rarely betray you.

[Blake]

SMAC's diplomacy was simply way more advanced than Civ2's, one usfull little option was forcing a truce or treaty between warring allies, like with Civ2 if your friends are scrapin' they keep asking you to join them against your other friend, which is annoying. But in SMAC you can ask the agressor to call off the vendetta, then your two friends sign a truce or treaty and all is peacefull again. Thus no more annoying "declare war on X" requests.

Additionally, in general SMAC AI's declared vendetta for a reason, usually:
Conflicting Social Engineering (basically each of the 7 factions has their own agenda, and declare war on factions with an opposing agenda, the commie declares war on the democracy, the greens declare war on the capitalists, the fundie hates both commies and deomcracies, etc,etc)
Faction power: AI's tend to declare war on the highest ranking faction, but it's more complicated than this.... the end result was power blocks, like powers #2,#3,#7 allied against powers #1,#6, and #4 drifting between alliances, to keep things unstable.

Anyway, the moral is, because the SMAC AI's actually go to war under a certain condition, if that condition remains they will remain at war. If an AI is bribed to attack another faction, they are particullary zealous in their war, once bribed, AI's stay bribed..
Suffice to say it works sufficentely well that you very rarely have an AI request you declare war, then pull out leaving you with an unwanted war.

[manofthehour]

Does anyone know if you will be able to make multi civ milliatary pact? For example, A,B,C against D,E?

[Lordfluffers]

Originally posted by manofthehour
Does anyone know if you will be able to make multi civ milliatary pact? For example, A,B,C against D,E?

Yes!!! Theres a diplomacy screen somewhere that shows how its done. Basicall all those allied to each other are connected by a red line, and those they are allied against stem off this in a different coloured line. Something like that anway, its hard to explain without you seeing the picture. Its actually a very good way to quickly see whos alligned with who and against whom.