Has Firaxis ever said anything about the possibility af a SMAC 2?

[Asmodean]

Like the thread title says.

I seem to recall (but I'm not sure) that they said it was not in the cards. Does anybody have some hard info?

Asmodean

[korn469]

Well I have no hard info about it, but here's a couple of things that you might want to consider.

The first and most important thing to consider is that as far as I know, EA owns the rights to SMAC. So if firaxis was going to do SMAC2 it would have to negociate for those rights with EA. You may want to check into this and make sure that EA does indeed own SMAC and just didn't publish it, but I'm fairly certain that's the case.

Secondly SMAC has Brian Reynolds handiwork all over it. I think it is more than a coincidence that many of SMAC's themes and storyline have philosophic overtones, especially since Brian Reynolds has a philosophy degree. In some ways I think that SMAC is the thinking man's civ. I think it would probably lose much of its personality if anyone besides BR created a sequal for it.

Another thing to consider with BR and Firaxis is the way he left in the middle of developing Civ3 to start BHG. Certainly even under the best imaginable scenario, in which BR wanted to do something new and he was burnt out on TBS games and he had the opportunity of a lifetime with BHG getting a publishing deal with Microsoft, that there would have to be some hard feelings over his departure. Since most of SMAC's hands on development team went to BHG I'm sure that few people working at firaxis feel attached to SMAC. They may even feel that hey it's BR baby and even if we could get the rights to it we wouldn't want to do it for any number of reasons...payback, mutual respect, etc.

Then as franchises go I'm sure that civ is much larger, much more recognizable, and much more profitable than SMAC. My brother always called it Alpha Civ, and I'm sure that most people just think of it as Civ in space. If I could do a Civ5 which would come out between a year and a half to three years after Civ4, or a SMAC 2 to come out somewhere between seven to nine years after SMAC came out, I think I would go for the more recent and better established franchise.

I woukd say that the best hope for a SMAC 2 would be somewhere down the line Brian Reynolds wants to make another TBS game and BHG negociates and gets the rights to it.

[Petek]

Re: Has Firaxis ever said anything about the possibility af a SMAC 2?

Originally posted by Asmodean
Like the thread title says.

I seem to recall (but I'm not sure) that they said it was not in the cards. Does anybody have some hard info?

Asmodean

The Firaxis web site used to have a SMAC FAQ (can't find it now). The FAQ specifically stated that there were no plans to make SMAC 2. Perhaps that's what you were thinking of.

[livid imp]

Pray to the Great Cosmic Muffin that Civ4 will include many of SMACs better features.

Maybe we should all spam Brian Renyolds with adoring, flattering requests to make SMAC2 for years on end

[Mart]

I took a look at civ4 preparation and ideas that people contribute, and some little feedback from the civ4 designers - i am almost certain that civ4 will not be for players who love SMACX.

Asking Brian Reynolds if he might consider making a sequel to SMAC in some future with BHG would be some way to go. Nothing like asking him to actually do it, but just simple question - any chance BHG would see fun in making it, and possible profits when it comes to selling it. It may be viewed by us, hardcore players, as extremely interesting game, though they have to live from something...

[Dis]

I still have a dream that Brian Reynolds would go back to doing TBS games.

It's good to have dreams

[Mart]

Maybe write a short letter to him from Apolyton community about how much we still love this game? Or maybe he already gets such letters in tones every month...

[Asmodean]

Oh...so EA owns the rights. Or they probably do.

Hmmm....never mind. I want SMAC 2

Asmodean

[livid imp]

Originally posted by mart7x5
I took a look at civ4 preparation and ideas that people contribute, and some little feedback from the civ4 designers - i am almost certain that civ4 will not be for players who love SMACX.

Yea, I looked into it a while back and it basically looks like the designers are intent on continuing to spiral down into console hell. Hey! Who wants to play Diablo XXXVII? I think we are approaching a dark age of computer games. Even big deal titles like Halflife 2 and Sims 2 really haven't energized the industry the way their predecessors did.

[Kaboth]

SMAC never got the appreciation and commercial success it deserved. I think perhaps because it may have been released a little early for its time.

I love the Civ franchise but I really do not feel to excited about Civ4; not because of the possibility of even more dumbed down gameplay or anything I'm just rather tired of the whole play through history idea. I've done it numerous times in Civ2 and 3 and the idea has been flogged to death in numerous RTS, TBS Civ clones.

SMAC came out hot on the heals of Civ2 which is beloved by almost everyone unlike Civ3 and I think people were still keen on playing a Civ Sequel back then. Had SMAC been released now or even after Civ4 I think it could be more successful as gamers looked for a change in environment, playstyle.

Civ's gameplay can never be as fresh and unique as SMAC's because it must be Constrained to the passage of history to remain plausible

Hey! Who wants to play Diablo XXXVII? I think we are approaching a dark age of computer games. Even big deal titles like Halflife 2 and Sims 2 really haven't energized the industry the way their predecessors did.

I totally agree with you there hasn't been a pc game that really rocked my word for innovation and fun since Warcraft 3. There have been some excellant games like UT2004 but they have done nothing to advance the genre. The ammount of History based Strategy games and WW2 based shooters is discraceful. I think the PC games market really went through a golden age in the late 90's but now there is very little variety. I've actually bought a Gamecube to supplement my gaming because I find good PC games in short supply and with huge reqs. It was a good decision to I loved playing through Metroid Prime and Prime 2 very much different to your typical shooter. How about the ID FPS titles I don't think their gameplay has advanced since Quake 2; a venerable 8 years old now.

[Alex]

SMAC 2 is just a dream. It will never happen.

[Lord_Icewind]

Hey, when doing a review on "Mortyr", many magazines said things like "This is the most Wolfenstein-like game you'll ever find. And as we all know, Wolfenstein 2 won't ever come out"...
Some time later, it was announced.
So don't give up peeps! Cheer up!
And even if it does not come out, we can still rely on the good 'ol modders...planet bless them...

[Dis]

the problem is SMAC didn't sell that well considering all the great reviews it had. I'm sure they made a profit, but it wasn't a blockbuster title.

[Sntml]

Originally posted by mart7x5
I took a look at civ4 preparation and ideas that people contribute, and some little feedback from the civ4 designers - i am almost certain that civ4 will not be for players who love SMACX.

No doubts.

Asking Brian Reynolds if he might consider making a sequel to SMAC in some future with BHG would be some way to go. Nothing like asking him to actually do it, but just simple question - any chance BHG would see fun in making it, and possible profits when it comes to selling it. It may be viewed by us, hardcore players, as extremely interesting game, though they have to live from something...

From another point of view a question can be asked: why to do the seqel? Is the original game so bad(except bugs)? Grafics is too old and simple? Again, as we understand, TBS with 3D grafics as main feature is not for us.
Mmm.. and we already got almost the seqel - SMAX. IMHO. Nothing, but increase in quantity, nor quality (even decrase in it). And, at last, the experience, that says: thing, that already done well,.. it will not be done second time. How can we create Zakharov again? It will be just Aki-Zeta five. The prime-function . We cannot just take sand from the beach to produce new SMAC.. at least if humanity will not make nuclear war on Planet in AC system...

[Googlie]

Originally posted by Dissident
the problem is SMAC didn't sell that well considering all the great reviews it had. I'm sure they made a profit, but it wasn't a blockbuster title.

Ah, but it did !!

(This from BHG's bio of BR - my bold italics):

The runaway success of Civilization II gave Reynolds the beginnings of “name recognition” in the industry and he became a founding partner in Firaxis Games, his first entrepreneurial venture. At Firaxis, he contributed to the design of Sid Meier's Gettysburg™(1997), and then led the design and creation of Alpha Centauri (1998), his second million-selling game. In 2000, Brian sold his stake in Firaxis to pursue his new dream, Big Huge Games.