*Malfunction* Cryo-Pods Opening!!!

[Dygash]

Stream sweeps out into the artifical environment as the Pod's cover rises...

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Having just joined Apolyton and its SMAC community i noticed the lack of introductory places for people wanting to spread out their wings and get a taste of the community you've all built here. I'm a new player to AC and i haven't managed to get the expansion pack yet although i am currently in an ebay bidding war as i type this, so fingers crossed. I think the civ4 remake is a fantastic show of community strength and endurance just like the survivors of the Unity crash-landing, when the merchandise is 'seemingly' abandoned by its makers the people rise as one to create their own ideals and dreams for the game. Respect to all of you making this happen. I would offer any skills if i had any in this area but i haven't developed any...yet. I love learning new things. Just starting my journey into the land of Perl 5.6. I'm hoping to experiment with many of the mods created so far to create a balance for my own gaming that will compliment my tastes and so far i've developed a tendancy to play the Morganites but i am trying to test drive other factions. as i work my way through the information here i have come to see that the level of detail in the admin of the game is something i have sorely overlooked. I hope creating this thread was okay and best of luck with the civ4 work.

Dygash

[smacksim]

Welcome Dygash. We did used to have a welcome thread of sorts I think, but that was back on 2000 or so! You're perfectly welcome to start new threads on that or any other Smac-related topic. Welcome to 'Poly.

[Kataphraktoi]

no need for bidding wars...and welcome to poly

[Zoetrope]

Greetings! On Chiron, a Morganite always has my respect: it is a more subtle game you play.

I myself have had success with all factions in Alpha Centauri except the Spartans (I'm too much a builder).

In Alien Crossfire I have difficulty playing as the Planet Cult: they are just too weak. They don't even get the xenofungus resource bonus that Deirdre does; one would have expected that Cha Dawn would teach his followers to live on fungus alone as he did. Maybe I'll edit alphax.txt to arrange that. This would also make the PC a more profitable trading partner.

Back to Business:

The AI Morgan can spy every effectively: I once had a very long tussle to control his island's bases: every time I overran several, he'd buy them back! Lost many good units that way.

Do you play Free Market for most of the game? I find it presents a rewarding challenge to have such a low police rating.

Later, the more worms, the richer; but in the early stages, when centauri tech is backward and morale is poor, the low planet rating means that the worms can eat Morgan alive. Careful strategy and tactics are key.

How do you go about building up your faction to an economic powerhouse? What about the neighbors? Do you preemptively buy them off or wait until they encroach, threaten, invade? Make intensive use of spies?

Late in the game, as Morgan I go fungus crazy: I surround my bases with xenofungus and worm and locust sentries at least three squares deep, so that even with the massive ecodamage every base causes, I'm in no danger of massive worm stacks popping up on new fungus.

Incidentally, in Crossfire the Pirates faction would benefit from sea level rises. I must try a minerals heavy strategy with them one day: they surely rule Water World!

Certainly when I created a huge map with scattered small islands, and found myself as Domai (the tech-challenged, heavy industrial worker faction's leader) on a tiny islet, the Pirates reached me very soon and hammered my solitary base and mere couple of units so hard (every sorry turn) that I never stood a chance to develop any infrastructure or technology to fend them off. That was the fiirst time I've had any trouble as the Free Drones, so it was very, very humbling.

How do you cope being a builder when sandwiched between the likes of Santiago, Yang and Miriam? Sometimes Deirdre gives me grief too, when her Green priorities and my Morgan's Free Market clash.

Ms Skye's one of those missile lobbers who love to smash other builders' terraforming. One time I was on fair terms with the mighty Miriam, but Dierdre was her ally but adjacent to my faction and constantly bombing me without provocation (I forget whether I was Morgan, Lal or even Zak!) so I had my hands tied.

However, on the far side of the world, Yang was invading the Believer's turf and had taken two bases on her continent. Sensing opportunity, I flew troops around the globe, drove Yang out, and (here's the sinister move) gifted the bases to the Gaians. Deirdre's subsequent diplomatic crisis took her mind off me for good.

In the end, there were three comparably great powers: Miriam, Yang and me; knowing this I decided to call a vote for Supreme Leader anyway; astonishingly Miriam voted for me, and Yang acquiesced!

In other famous victories, as Morgan I was a safe distance from the action (of the opponents I remember only that the Cybernetic Consciousness were across a wide strait).

I cleared the fungus, built my infrastructure, and based my defence on early warning systems (border sensors) and active harrassment of rivals: I built a large stock of conventional missiles and (taking my cue from Deirdre in the game mentioned above) launched them en masse against my nearest neighbors, thereby quelling the material (military and economic) threats they presented.

One advantage for Morgan of missiles is that the peaceniks don't get time to miss the home town troops.

Liberal use of probe teams kept me in the fore of knowledge and filled my coffers while draining theirs.

I think that was the game wherein I ended up with my whole territory covered in fungus (paradoxically) to keep the wild worms at bay! No planet pearls either, but the fungus resources more than sufficed.

Although I have won economic victories, I recommend turning off random events so that market crashes don't hamper Morgan's style. It's all very well to spend, spend, spend; but for a global buyout, cashed up reserves are good to secure.

[Dygash]

Fungus 3 squares deep, i will have to try that. Concerning the Free Market i make it a priority in my strategy, i have so far found its a great way to build up my energy reserves fast, fast enough to hurry colonisation. I have often been finding the Peacekeepers (that title always fools me, should be called U.N. coz Peacekeeper makes me think of the violent race in Farscape, which of course didn't exist at the time of the game's creation) are good allys, with enough bribary i have my thumb under them. I seem to piss off Deirdre, Miriam and the Spartans alot. Diplomatic tension always exists between myself and Prok but we tend to remain in a steady truce except when i wind up fighting Yang, its like every time this happens they are pact brothers. Everytime!!! I find a good strategy mid game is to crush the Spartans as soon as possible until they surrender, once they are my slaves i give them back a fair number of their cities (not so many that i have no military presence there) and share all of my tech, which makes them a formidable force at my disposal, naturally i constantly bribe Lal every decade or so with a tasty piece of tech or say about 500 credits. Inevitably i find it far to easy to become Supreme Leader once Miriam and Dierdre have been eliminated (as is often the case when i play the Morganites) like i said i'm a new player so my strategies arn't too strong yet. Last night i played the Peacekeepers and eliminated the Believers, Spartans and Yang. Once i had the Planet Buster developed it was a simple matter to bully the others into submission without committing an atrocity. I also paided much more attention to city admin and terraforming only giving up control in favour of automation when there was simply too much to do. I feel i need to pick up on my infiltration practise so i'll give the believers a go tonight, Miriam is always infiltrating me. At one point she had a single city left and it seemed she sent dozens upon dozens of them at me until she was finally subdued. She doesn't give up easily it seems.

[Dygash]

Always the sign of a good game when you can only find four copies of it on the internet!!!!!!!!!

I have scoured the net and i found one alien crossfire in the laptop collection for $125 and on ebay the bidding wars still continue for 3 but the one with a few hours left on the main one its exceeded my price range and gone up past £50. LOL!!! People across the world are desperate for this game, why the hell won't they re-release it? I have also scoured the London shops to no avail. The link in the FAQ no longer works too. Icarumba...

[GeoModder]

Wish you luck, but with a team starting an attempt to mod C4 to AC you might be even less fortunate in future to find a copy of SMAC(X).

[Kataphraktoi]

I have scoured the net and i found one alien crossfire in the laptop collection for $125 and on ebay the bidding wars still continue for 3 but the one with a few hours left on the main one its exceeded my price range and gone up past £50. LOL!!! People across the world are desperate for this game, why the hell won't they re-release it? I have also scoured the London shops to no avail. The link in the FAQ no longer works too. Icarumba...

try scouring your PM box. its in your control panel area