Vote for SMAC2 at firaxis.com

[Kirov]

SMAC 2 for President!

We're winning, guys.

[Alex]

Originally posted by Dissident
I voted for Simgolf

Yes, we could have SimGolf in full 3D and the option to import your sims from The Sims 2 so they could be the golfers in the game, and...

BURN THE HERETIC!!!!!

[BlackCat]

Originally posted by livid imp


We have found a witch, may we burn her?!?

Nope, not yet. First a long visit in the torture chamber.

[dacole]

Yea I was annoyed at that as well, tried not to pick anything first. They really should have a I don't play anything other than PC option. Anyway we can tell them that?

[sentry33]

Voted

1. Which Sid Meier’s game/series (past or present) would you most like to see remade?
[...]
59% Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri
[...]
2. What is your gaming platform of choice (aside from the PC)?
Percent Answer
32% Xbox
35% PS2
11% 'Cube
21% Handheld or Mobile


3. Do you frequently play games on a laptop as well as a desktop PC?
Percent Answer
38% Yes
63% No

4. Graphics or Gameplay?
Percent Answer
3% It’s gotta be pretty
52% Balance is the key
45% Who cares about graphics?

[Dis]

Originally posted by Fosse
58% with a 39 point lead over Colonization.

I wonder how many are direct from Apolyton.

I was annoyed that I had to choose a favorite gameing platfor aside from the PC. I have played exactly one game on something besides a PC, and it was at a friends house.

I just chose mobile phone since I sometimes play bowling on my cell phone. .

and yes I did actually vote for smac- not sim golf.

and I voted for balance on the last option. SMAC gameplay is great, but it would be nice if we could have a little better graphics and sound. Or at least have the ability for other people to mod these easily.

[BlackCat]

Originally posted by Dissident


I just chose mobile phone since I sometimes play bowling on my cell phone. .

and yes I did actually vote for smac- not sim golf.

and I voted for balance on the last option. SMAC gameplay is great, but it would be nice if we could have a little better graphics and sound. Or at least have the ability for other people to mod these easily.

Nah, don't believe him - it's antichrist speaking. Let him take the watertest - put him in chains and throw him in the lake - I bet he'll float

[Commy]

SMAC 2, really, could just be exactly the same with better graphics...

[Senethro]

And increased moddability. I want to do something mean to supply crawlers like a separate Support count for them per base.

[binTravkin]

SMAC 2, really, could just be exactly the same with better graphics...

Well. I don't need SMACX with "enhanced graphics pack". I can easily live without that.

I want SMACX without all those really stupid bugs - Im a programmer and I know how such bugs appear and some of them are a very usual case of ignorance/lazyness.
One condition there and one there and such bug as "automate home defense" going out of your map would never appear..

Same goes with disbanding crawlers on SPs and changing SE at the same time.
They need only one more property - something like "costAtCompletion", which would save it's build cost under the current industry rating and then use it upon disbanding.


And map generator - a sole person, Smacksim, could optimise the map settings so that it's really really better than the original one.
I haven't seen much games where the creation team has left some areas so incomplete - it seems as they've been testing it for not more than 16h (2 working days for one person).
And mostly those games are not of any popularity.

Where do I draw it from?
I used to fiddle with map myself before I found out about SmackSim's work and I got to the same conclusions regarding 1/3 of the variables in a couple hours.
And I didn't knew how exactly those variables work.
I had to research it at first (which took me some more hours, but not even a whole working day).
But Firaxis did..

Many other features work just fine in Civ2 and 3, why don't copy the code (of course modifying it a bit for SMACX purposes) of, for example, patrol order from other Firaxis games?
IIRC Civ3 had it working (I might mistake here, but there are numerous other games in which it does work).


Also - the cheating with reload opportunity in SMACX is pretty much a result of programmer's "an easy way to do it" doctrine.


For me SMACX is a brilliant idea with little work - voila you get a bestseller!

Take the same brilliant idea, add little (and I mean not much more graphics are needed) of graphics, little to mind of AIs, little to gameplay (as I doubt much can be added without changing the idea itself), and much of testing, programming and all the other "black job"!

More moddable and more reasonable automating options would be simply brilliant.

And I speak it after finishing a 45minute turn with 300 units to issue orders to (700 units in total) and 80 bases to check.

[spartak]

Its up to 60% now.

Also see the following comment from Sid on the site


Question: Do you think there will be a follow up to Alpha Centauri? I just restarted playing it - after having been able to NOT play for a few years - and here we go again; all-nighters when my alarm clock tells me to go to work or get some sleep.
Sid: We get lots of requests from fans asking us to make another Alpha Centauri…and we’ve been talking about it quite a bit lately. So…it’s definitely a possibility down the road. Go get those Spartans!

[Dis]

Originally posted by binTravkin


Well. I don't need SMACX with "enhanced graphics pack". I can easily live without that.

I want SMACX without all those really stupid bugs - Im a programmer and I know how such bugs appear and some of them are a very usual case of ignorance/lazyness.
One condition there and one there and such bug as "automate home defense" going out of your map would never appear..

Same goes with disbanding crawlers on SPs and changing SE at the same time.
They need only one more property - something like "costAtCompletion", which would save it's build cost under the current industry rating and then use it upon disbanding.


And map generator - a sole person, Smacksim, could optimise the map settings so that it's really really better than the original one.
I haven't seen much games where the creation team has left some areas so incomplete - it seems as they've been testing it for not more than 16h (2 working days for one person).
And mostly those games are not of any popularity.

Where do I draw it from?
I used to fiddle with map myself before I found out about SmackSim's work and I got to the same conclusions regarding 1/3 of the variables in a couple hours.
And I didn't knew how exactly those variables work.
I had to research it at first (which took me some more hours, but not even a whole working day).
But Firaxis did..

Many other features work just fine in Civ2 and 3, why don't copy the code (of course modifying it a bit for SMACX purposes) of, for example, patrol order from other Firaxis games?
IIRC Civ3 had it working (I might mistake here, but there are numerous other games in which it does work).


Also - the cheating with reload opportunity in SMACX is pretty much a result of programmer's "an easy way to do it" doctrine.


For me SMACX is a brilliant idea with little work - voila you get a bestseller!

Take the same brilliant idea, add little (and I mean not much more graphics are needed) of graphics, little to mind of AIs, little to gameplay (as I doubt much can be added without changing the idea itself), and much of testing, programming and all the other "black job"!

More moddable and more reasonable automating options would be simply brilliant.

And I speak it after finishing a 45minute turn with 300 units to issue orders to (700 units in total) and 80 bases to check.

I'm not sure I follow you. Are you saying the map generator is better in civ3 than in smac? I very much disagree.

[binTravkin]

I'm not sure I follow you. Are you saying the map generator is better in civ3 than in smac? I very much disagree.

Please read again.
I just don't see where did I say it.

I never said Civ3 is better, I just mentioned thing that works there and does not in SMAC.

No game is better than SMAC.
But even with that SMACX is one of the best examples of bad programming I've seen.

The errors are just so obvious..

I used to program Wap games and errors like the crawler disband on lower IND trick and the automate home defense out of map got my boss saying "WHAT? You see this?!? Fix it! It's 10 minutes of work!".

[Chaos Theory]

Actually, I'd handle Industry changes differently: I'd adjust the minerals accumulated to reflect the new row widths, in some non-exploitable way. For example, if you have +1 Industry and 22/27 minerals towards a colony pod, if you switch to +2 Industry, you would have 22 * 8 / 9 = 19.6 -> either 19 or 20 minerals (or just allow fractions). You're still closer to completion (or at least no farther), since only 24 minerals total are required, but it makes no since that accumulated production should benefit from or be penalized by Industry changes.

That change alone would nuke the SE quickie/supply crawler exploit, and I have no problem with a player building a fleet of crawlers at +2 Industry, cashing them in under +0 Industry for their +0 Industry value, and completing the build at +0 Industry.

[binTravkin]

That way it's even more reasonable and a bit harder to execute, but still nothing big for a professional programmer - just a little function which calcs this before switching SE/disbanding a unit.

That change alone would nuke the SE quickie/supply crawler exploit, and I have no problem with a player building a fleet of crawlers at +2 Industry, cashing them in under +0 Industry for their +0 Industry value, and completing the build at +0 Industry.

Yes, it would, but about ending the project at +0 IND - it's hard to check if anyone is cheating on this and for me (both as CMN and player) it's a major complaint.