to those coming to AC from Civ 4

[Straybow]

Mmmm, firey redhead...

[Mr. President]

[Mart]

I will definitely dig into civ4 more, however what seriously turns me off is the crappy map.

locked angles, especially that one going to vertical view too early. I cannot take a wider view of a map in civ4 the way it is possible in smacx.

and map is still cylindrical. what for to show it on a sphere then? looks still crappy anyway. nothing like rendered in raytracer planets than can please eye much more.

why locking the camera in 3D? and if locking, then 2D sprites are faster, hardware requirements would be lower. There are 3 locked angles -45, 0 and +45. These are like 2 sprites for that. -45 and +45 can be mirrored

[Alinestra Covelia]

Just a note: Miriam's character in Michael Ely's novelization of Alpha Centauri is actually much deeper and philosophical than she is portrayed in the game. Worth looking into if you're a Believer.

[Sikander]

Alinestra Covelia sighting!

[PJayTycy]

Originally posted by mart7x5
Why locking the camera in 3D? and if locking, then 2D sprites are faster, hardware requirements would be lower. There are 3 locked angles -45, 0 and +45. These are like 2 sprites for that. -45 and +45 can be mirrored

Indeed, this was one of the first things I found bad about the "3D" implementation.

[Tommar]

Originally posted by Worker Bee
Well, come on. "Learn to embrace the self of society . . . the goals of the collective outweigh those of the individual, and to achieve them is to achieve transcendance"? That's sort of (meaning extremely vaguely, and in a distinctly American way) a dumbed down version of Maoism, but instead of the formal, bureaucratized language of Maoism, it gets expressed in Taoist terminology.

It's traditional for dictators to have classical interests, but the classicism (most of the time, at least) doesn't masquerade as political theory. There are good reasons for this. Dictators have to run societies, and that means taking politics as politics, even if the politics is based on some underlying racial theory.

Basically all the faction leaders are cultural stereotypes deformed into political philosophy. Lal is Ghandiesque, which is why he has to appear before you in full (but undefinably) ethnic regalia. Deirdre, Miriam, Zhakarov, same thing. Santiago and Morgan aren't so bad, but it might just be because I can't figure out the twisted ethnic logic, because one of the designer's motivations was clearly to emphasize the ethnicity and "distinctiveness" of the various faction leaders.

Notice that the two most militarily aggressive factions in the original AC are led by women.

Morgan - think Enron and Microsoft rolled up into one. It's interesting, I used to be an energy regulator, and about a year or so before the Enron scandal hit, I told my husband that Morgan's comment that begins by saying "YOU Ivory Tower Intellectuals...." was exactly the tone Enron used with us (yeah, I know, Morgan's comment was directed at the Zhakarov stereotype, not government regulators, but it still fit).

BTW, I worked for a state government that told Enron "not in my state, you don't", which is why they talked to me that way (and the fact that the federal government is taking the power away from state governments to say "No" like we did is why I quit being an energy regulator) .

It's also interesting because Enron didn't exist when SMAC was written and because you fly the U.S. flag, but didn't recognize Morgan. (Yeah, all the factions are gross stereotypes, even us, but that is what makes it humorous. I especially like the humor about Deirdre - the environmentalist running naked thru the trees, but yet builds boreholes, and I often have to take her out to stop her ecodamage.

Edited note: LOL, when I posted the above, I wasn't even thinking about the fact that I switched to environmental regulation 4 months ago.

BTW, I'm also an oriental (half-Japanese, half Polish), American, female Christian geeky-intellectual and environmentalist, so I have well-over half the SMAC stereotypes, yet none of the SMAC stereotypes are offensive to me, but are rather a bit humorous.

[binTravkin]

Not if Lazarus has anything to say about it.

You bet!
(and it's Lazerus )

If you watch Miriam's slide show during diplo, you see one shot of her when younger looking disturbingly hot.

Indeed.

And talking about this whole stereotype thing and the stuff I must say you opened my eyes. When I first saw the characters they got me somehow stunned as I couldn't think of a good real life example.

Regarding hardnesses to find Deirdres prototype - has anyone been reading about UK government investing in clean energy sources (newsScientist.com)..?

[CEO Aaron]

Originally posted by NanoDingo
I think Yang is supposed to represent a Socialist society that actually works due to being based partially on Aesthetic Virtues. In any case, the Hive can still be seen as the good old "Cult of Personality" that every era in history needs.

I'm pretty sure you mean ascetic virtues, not aesthetic:

Main Entry: 1aesthetic
Pronunciation: es-the-tik, is-, British usually s-
Variant(s): or aesthetical /-ti-kl/
Function: adjective
Etymology: German sthetisch, from New Latin aestheticus, from Greek aisthtikos of sense perception, from aisthanesthai to perceive -- more at AUDIBLE
1 a : of, relating to, or dealing with aesthetics or the beautiful b : ARTISTIC c : pleasing in appearance : ATTRACTIVE
2 : appreciative of, responsive to, or zealous about the beautiful; also : responsive to or appreciative of what is pleasurable to the senses
- aesthetically /-ti-k(-)l/ adverb
*** Definition (c) Merriam-Webster, Incorporated. Visit http://www.m-w.com/.

Main Entry: ascetic
Pronunciation: -se-tik, a-
Variant(s): also ascetical /-ti-kl/
Function: adjective
Etymology: Greek asktikos, literally, laborious, from askts one that exercises, hermit, from askein to work, exercise
1 : practicing strict self-denial as a measure of personal and especially spiritual discipline
2 : austere in appearance, manner, or attitude
synonym see SEVERE
- ascetic noun
- ascetically /-ti-k(-)l/ adverb
- asceticism /-se-t-si-zm/ noun
*** Definition (c) Merriam-Webster, Incorporated. Visit http://www.m-w.com/.

[Kirov]

Originally posted by Tommar

(..) BTW, I'm also an oriental (half-Japanese, half Polish), American, female Christian geeky-intellectual and environmentalist,(...)

Now that's a background...

[CEO Aaron]

To address the OP:

SMAC is just a more complex and intricate game. It has been to the ultimate detriment of the Civ franchise that Firaxis has been determined to continue their trend of simplification and dummying down of their game.

[d=me]

Originally posted by CEO Aaron
To address the OP:

SMAC is just a more complex and intricate game. It has been to the ultimate detriment of the Civ franchise that Firaxis has been determined to continue their trend of simplification and dummying down of their game.

That is absoultely what I think. I think the sid miers games are way too simple. I don't find a game with infantry and cannons to be enjoyable. I actually dislike all sid games.

[Tommar]

Originally posted by CEO Aaron
To address the OP:

SMAC is just a more complex and intricate game. It has been to the ultimate detriment of the Civ franchise that Firaxis has been determined to continue their trend of simplification and dummying down of their game.

I completely agree. However, I suspect that SMAC didn't make them as much money as Civ. Too bad they stopped making SMAX though. It's hard to find from a legitimate source at a reasonable price.

[NanoDingo]

Originally posted by CEO Aaron


I'm pretty sure you mean ascetic virtues, not aesthetic:

Why the Hell would I mean that?
-

Oh...I see...

What we need is Colonisation...in space! With Space-Apaches and Pocah'ztri'g'tar VII (eases tensions with aforementioned SAs, requires Digital Sentience).

[Straybow]

Dear Sir:

Let me introduce myself. I am Dr. Nwabudike Morgan. I have been requested by the Nigerian National Petroleum Company to contact you for assistance in resolving a matter. The Nigerian National Petroleum Company has recently concluded a large number of contracts for oil exploration in the sub-Sahara region. The contracts have immediately produced moneys equalling US$40,000,000. The Nigerian National Petroleum Company is desirous of oil exploration in other parts of the world, however, because of certain regulations of the Nigerian Government, it is unable to move these funds to another region.

...