a windows theme only a SMAC player could love

[doctorfrog]

Hello fellow SMACers! I've lurked at this forum on and off for a few years, and I've actually owned SMAC since about 1999, but have never gotten up the guts to actually do more than 20 moves until about two weeks ago. The complexity of this game seems to simultaneously pull me in and fill me with anxiety!

Anyway, I've created a blackbox style based on the SMAC UI, available here: http://box.crackmonkey.us/index.php?...cat=ss&id=2727

Blackbox, or bb4win, its Microsoft Window variant, is a lightweight, minimalist alternative shell for Windows, and is required to use the style I've created. You can download bblean, my favorite branch of bb4win, here: http://bb4win.sourceforge.net/bblean/

Alternate windows shells let the control freak in me specify exactly what my user experience is like, and, based on my SMAC playstyle, which is remarkably similar, I thought maybe others would be the same way?

And my first game of SMAC? After some trepidation, I (playing the Hive) am rolling over Miriam, when I find that she's pacted with the Gaians, who are now flying jets over my land. And I haven't developed any flight technology yet. Wonderful.

[Zoetrope]

Is the snapshot from a Macintosh? I wouldn't mind trying it as a Linux theme.

As for your current game, I usually find in single-player that if I don't get Aerospace technology first, Yang does. The Hive then overflies my airspace constantly, even in peacetime. Presumably they're en route to Yang's enemies.

Sheng-Ji is probably beelining for Planet Buster technology, as the Hive is by far the most likely faction to fling those around like cataclysmic confetti.

My motto in SMAC is: the only tolerable Hive is a subjugated Hive. Yang makes a reasonable pet. I can lend him PBs so he can blast the other factions while I continue to look like a cleanskin.

Of course, it is, in any circumstances, well to keep the orbital defences aloft, because a stray PB could be disastrous.

In one of my favorite games I was a "builder" faction troubled by aggressive Gaians (stop raining down missiles, Deirdre!) who were pacted with Miriam who was at war with the Hive. I travelled a great distance to eject the Hive from Miriam's continent, then played my ace: I gifted the captured bases to Deirdre. Thereafter, Miriam was my unquestioning friend. A hundred or so years later, when Miriam, Yang and I were all still roughly equal as great powers, she voted me in as Supreme Leader. The Hive could have rejected the win, but rolled over.

I slightly prefer SMAX (aka Alien Crossfire, aka the expansion). Slightly because its improvements are few and the Progenitors, if they appear, are annoying. (Motto 2: the only good Progenitor opponents have been nerve-gassed to extinction.) However I regard SMAX's antidote to the HSA, and the faction-wide aerospace project, to be worth the price of the expansion (or of the Planetary Pack).

Is your SMAC fully patched? (If I recall correctly, version 4 is the latest. It's version 2 for SMAX.)

[#endgame]

Blackbox for the win! I spent ages configuring mine, then lost my settings in a crash. Very nice, nonetheless.

[doctorfrog]

endgame, if you find yourself on a Windows machine, you'll find bblean very easy to configure. It is *very* user friendly for what it is. I've been using it for over a year on my home and work machines with very few problems.

The snap is from a Windows XP machine, and the style file should work with Unix *box variants, though I haven't tried. You might have to make a tweak or two, but the color selections and whatnot should be ok. YMMV.

[#endgame]

The fact is, I enjoy stuffing around in config files etc. in moderation, but after losing all my settings, I just couldn't be bothered this time around. But thanks anyway

[Bkeela]

doctorfrog: you've owned the game since 1999, yet couldn't get past 20 turns because it intimidated you? You better not play Doom 3 then...

[doctorfrog]

Heh, it is the complexity and learning curve that was intimidating about Alpha Centauri. These things are non-existent in Doom 3, which is the opposite of intimidating.

[Bkeela]

Originally posted by doctorfrog
Heh, it is the complexity and learning curve that was intimidating about Alpha Centauri. These things are non-existent in Doom 3, which is the opposite of intimidating.

I would avoid the strategy guides and such while starting out. It will make the game seem more complicated than what it is. Just play intuitively on the easy levels until you get the hang of it. When you want to milk the game for everything it is worth, then refer to strategy guides. (Assuming of course that it was a strategy guide that intimidated you. You could be a total newcomer to civ style games I suppose.)

[doctorfrog]

I am new to 4x type games, never played anything more complex than SimCity 3000. Instead of reading a strategy guide, I am using the search function on the .pdf of the manual and Vel's guide when the online help fails me. Even still, I'm running into a lot of complication, but I'm forging ahead anyway. I've definitely had my share of "Oh, f***" moments!

They seem to be happening every turn now. I got a bit too greedy and surged too far into Believer territory. That wouldn't be so bad except the Gaians are getting quite bold about using the technology they've been quietly building up, and refuse my calls. I'm playing catch up with them, trying to build up numbers of higher-tech military at a painfully slow rate.

You bet your sweet bippy they're going to pay for it.

[dacole]

Moorowind must scare the pants of you as well, has to be the most complicated RPG in existence. Great game though welcome to the world of Alpha Centauri! I'm weird but I found reading the manual from cover to cover helpful. Anyway have fun!

[doctorfrog]

Lol, I bought Morrowind from the bargain rack at WalMart a few months ago. When I get some free time and maybe a better video card installed I'll be giving that a whack.