What makes us play SMAC nowadays?

[Verrucosus]

I suppose that for most members of these forums, SMAC has not been the "main" game they play for some time now. Still, I find myself returning with surprising frequency (about every three or four months) to this venerable game and I am under the impression that I am not alone. Why does this happen?

Please note that I am not looking for reasons to enjoy SMAC. There is no need (here anyway) to discuss why SMAC is still a great game despite its flaws and why none of the many games published in the past eight years has been able to completely take its place. What I'm looking for is the "trigger" that makes you actually start another game.

The most frequent triggers in my own case are:
(a) space race victories in Civilization
(b) space-related newspaper articles
(c) forum discussions here.
By contrast, I don't have any multiplayer commitments to make me come back and I certainly don't have a schedule (e. g. September = SMAC month) or anything of the sort. On the other hand, neither does the desire to play again come out of the blue.

So, just for the sake of curiosity, what makes you play SMAC these days?

[gwillybj]

Psychiatry. My therapist encourages me to play often and long, to keep my mind occupied and active. I remember the joy I once experienced, and hope to attain it once again, someday. In the meantime, I make maps and factions, edit alphax.txt, and start and restart games, sometimes finishing them.

[Hydro]

I have ongoing role playing multiplayer SMAC (or in the latest case SMAniac Mod), which I always enjoy. Long after the mechanics become routine the interest in the every malleable storyline remains. This also is a great escape into another SF world that is filled with characters I feel I know personally, and perhaps add a little to the ongoing mythos of SMAC.

I also fire up SP games now and then, and I find I gravitate toward Dee most of the time. Occasionally I’ll tool around with other factions, but Dee has my heart.

In the not too distant past I was having great fun with the SManica Mod, which had the advantage that I did not know all the mechanics so that the game played very differently. The factions were new, too, although many of them didn’t see all that well developed, even if there certainly was a core to most of them. What was particularly appealing is how Maniac reorganized social engineering and also made whole new strategies viable.

Another factor is Apolyton. As strange as it may sound, this feels like home with a bevy of what are now old friends. That alone is enough to keep interest going.

Hydro

[Xian]

Because it doesn't require my ears at all, its the perfect game to play while listening to music or radio broadcasts/podcasts/lectures. It uses up just barely enough of my cognitive abilities not to be boring.

Primarily because there are still no other games that do what it does with turn based addictiveness.

[Littiz]

Reading some insightful posts here triggers it for me.

I've never had the chance to become a master player of AC, so such posts make me willing to improve a bit, even if over the longest arc of time.

[Lazerus]

the Chairman still talks to me in my dreams

[Royale]

Just the idea of colonization of a planet from rag tag remains to nanotech civilization is just something I enjoy. Plus I like to think about what those techs in the game would be like in real life, and here on earth.

[Marid Audran]

I return to SMAC/X the way one returns to an old haunt, friend, or lover. The charms, the memories, the impart of the past, still holds sway.

A game like Civ2 has no less the nostalgia value for me, but I never return to it, finding it played out, old hat, too boring now. Pirates! was fun but fluff, no lasting value. Civ4 is simply not very engaging and way too cartoony (I wrote a review on it). I'm playing Railroads! now, having picked it up at the umbiqitous bargain bin, and whilst amusing, I'm pretty sure it'll go the same route soon.

Reading the Designer Notes at the end of the SMAC manual in .pdf form always stirs me to boot up the U.N.S. Unity one more time. This game was truly the culmination of some very innovative, creative, and intelligent minds.

SMAC is even tied to my own youth in a way unique to any computer game. I had eagerly devoured the serialized "Journey to Alpha Centauri" story on Firaxis's website in the months leading up to release. Probably like many, I was a rabid Civ-fan at the time eager for the "next-chapter" in the TBS-world-sim experience. I received my copy as a birthday gift two weeks after SMAC's U.S. release date. I was 19, a month into winter quarter as an apathetic and depressed community college student.

Playing SMAC for that first week was a window into a gaming experience totally unique to me. Such an immersive, alien environment, intelligently-written protagonists, mysterious backstory of Planet, the SP movies, the tech/facility blurbs, the complex wrinkles of diplomacy, the works.

SMAC actually inspired me to take botany, astronomy, psychology & philosophy courses and rededicate myself to learning. I found it that powerful. Despite's its now cooled fandom and waned influence, SMAC doubtless touched many the same way. Just look at the volumimous amount of SMAC fiction, custom factions, and scenarios.

While I regret not involving myself with the SMAC Apolyton community as much as I would have liked, being a lurker by nature, there are some truly fine men & women here. The best and the brightest of any gaming forum, IMO.

Just a few days back I decided to play a game of virgin SMAC, no X-fire, no tinkered alpha.txt file or anything else. Transcend, Spartans, no crawler use, upgrade, SE, or other exploits. Felt like it'd be a breeze. Couldn't be more wrong. Hedged betwixt Morgan, Miriam, and Yang and lost out on the land-grab war with a measley four bases, plus one on an island on the ass-end of Chrion which contributes exactly squat to my war efforts. Should have placed bases more conservatively! Should have choosen a different B-line! Should have annexed Morgan ruthlessly when I had the chance! Should have would have could have!

PKers are one continent over on the Moonsoon Jungle. He ICSed it like a total pro, and has a "forest & forget" terraforming thing going. Undisputed #1. In this game, Lal is behaving less like a UN pacifist and more like Idi Amin.

I'm in serious trouble; it's 2180, I'm way behind in power charts, at war with three factions, and it's all I can do to simply pump out defensive formers to keep from being overrun. I'm probably going to have to resort to nerve gas to keep in the game...

And I couldn't be happier.

[Hydro]

Sounds like a real struggle - which is always fun! Games where I coast to a win were never those I remember. But, those where I was honestly surprised or nearly overrun stick out, and they provided valuable lessons:

As Dee, I got a decent start but The Hive was my neighbor. I neglected my military, and soon faced swarms of 4-3-1 infantry. My poor worms were recalled and fought a desperate battle to keep the hordes at bay. Bases died, terraforming sacrificed in a sad retreat, and redoubts were finally overcome. But I pulled out after finally getting Impact, invested in rovers, and executed one of my first rover rushes – which worked until I got to the Hivean bases, where I was stopped cold by his plasma armor behind perimeter defenses. This gave me time to bottle him up and slowly peel away his defenses, and I learned that worms ignore perimeter defenses!

In another game I thought I was coasting to a victory. My Gaians controlled a good sized continent, my economy and production was clipping along, satellites were going up. All was right with the world. Until my satellites started to get shot down! WHAT! Nasty old Morgan, who was on an island next to me and no threat to anyone (or so I thought), was taking down my satellites! It turns out he had super-charged his energy production and was out teching me. **gulp** Then the Morganite drop troops arrived in a trickle, and then a steady stream to threaten my homeland. Defenses were scrambled, satellite production scrapped, research redirected, and production changed toward the military. Probe teams started flying – both ways – but my superior production finally made up for my complacency.

In one of my earliest games I was playing Gaians and was struggling against The Hive (again!). I just couldn’t figure out how The Hive was growing so quickly, and I just couldn’t keep up (my SE was Demo/Green – so I had 0 growth vs the Hivean +3 with planned). I didn’t know, you see, about population booming or supply crawlers, so I had to grow and produce the hard way. A good number of troops stationed in the fungus did the trick for a while, but eventually my bulwark wavered – but held until my impact rovers swarmed in.

More recent games against human players have proven just as edgy since they are, after all, not at all predictable. As the PKs I had a quarter of my sprawling empire nuked by the Believers (and also the Cult), and the Believers even nuked their own territory and burned their bases to the ground as Peacekeeper forces advanced on their sacred land. Ugly. Just ugly. Superior production counts for squat if your horded armies are vaporized and shining cities vanish in a millisecond. Paranoia sets in as you see glimpses of Believer probe foils lurking just outside your cities, or wonder if a pair of transports will pull up and disgorge Orange Fanatics bellowing “Onward Christian Soldier!”.

And the MP fun continues with the SMAnica Mod…

Hydro

[Marid Audran]

Actually, this game ended up going from bad to abysmal in a New Sparta minute. Hive decided to join the fray, and why not? My defenses were thin and production power thinner. Yang overran my bases, there was little I could do. I did manage to trade one of my last continental bases for one of Zakarov's, the one bordering my arse-end of Chiron outpost. I figured betwixt this and a nearby Seabase maybe I could get a second wind with this "do-over" colony. Yang & Miriam made short work of the other factions; Morgan/Dee/Zak ended up being eradicated in a continental sweep. Only Lal remained, and in this game, he is the Putin of Peaceful Builders, and the rest of Planet is one big petulant Chechnya.

Actually was looking forward to trying to "hold out," and was about to establish partial tech parity by moving in a swarm of probes to some of Yang's new conquests to the north, when some unwelcome mind worms blockaded the road and spoiled the party. I resigned in disgust, since I had enough problems without dealing with Planet's goddamn native life. Game over, I lost. Spartans are not an easy faction to play; a lot of finesse and a little luck seems to be required with early game conquests to compensate for that brutal industry penalty. Naturally, my instinct to wait, build, and prepare got in the way of proper “momentum” strategy.

Next game I played with the same conditions, this time as University. I was doing well with a respectable empire, and even better, got my revenge on Lal by invading him on his small little Madagascar sized island.

"No. Destroying you will be a service to humanity." Ah, those words warmed the cockles of my cryo-heart.

Too early, I was at ease. Again, I border Yang on my continent in this game. I told him to take his roving mind worms and send 'em packing in the quick-diplomacy menu. Big mistake. Now he's invaded with heavy swarms of Impact Plasma Guards. I can't even count 'em. What can you say about a faction who essentially runs Police State and Planned for free? Troops don’t need training, he’ll just overrun you with sheer quantity.

I'm going to lose at least two border bases, important ones at that. A quote from Vel's strategy guide, read long ago, came back to me in that bleak moment about, Uni strategy:

"Puttering around in a lab endlessly researching tech is all very well and good, but fat lot of good it'll do when Yang's 43 Impact Rovers show up knocking at your front door."

How prescient. Back to a scorched earth policy I go...

[Hydro]

Sanctimonious and two-faced Lal can be satisfying to eradicate, but Yang is always a menace. I occasionally need to relearn that lesson.

In your game it may not have made any difference if you’d given the bribe since the army-of-death would have shown up little later – and even bigger. Unless you went on a crash course in weaponry tech and army building (say, having an air force when he doesn’t) then bribes can work.

Sounds like wicked fun games, thought! The games where I struggle are always the best.

Hydro

[Darrell01]

Why do I come back to SMAC?
The whole idea of groups of humanity united by an idea really tugs at my soul. The people believe utterly that the system they have set up can save humanity and lead to complete progress. No longer are people held together by something as fickle as some physical attribute. These people are held together by something they cannot see physically. They are held together by an ideal that they have to live, discuss, debate and expand upon. The people strive to envision and create that ideal on this new world they have landed upon. The whole premise of the game really hits home for me. On top of that, its part of the Civ series. I distinctly remember talking with my friends in high school and saying, "Wouldn't it be cool if you could land on Alpha Centauri and start again on that planet?" I guess I am an idealist at heart. This is why I play SMAC.

[CEO Aaron]

Spartans are not an easy faction to play; a lot of finesse and a little luck seems to be required with early game conquests to compensate for that brutal industry penalty.

The important thing with Sparta is not to try and make them into something they're not. Spartans aren't builders, they aren't merchants. They're jackbooted thugs, and accordingly must run police ALL THE TIME.

Police is the Spartan secret weapon, far more so than Yang. At +3 police, Spartans can quell 9 drones with 1/1/1 police. Support costs? Feh! With each of your 1/1/1 putting 3 hapless drones to work, you'll reap far more in resources than you'll spend maintaining your home garrisons.

Spartan's early access to police and mobility makes for excellent exploration too. Pair up a transport with a gun foil, and let them ply the seas, picking up sea pods. The transport opens the pod, and the foil reaps the occasional mindworm. Over the course of their operational life, they'll pay their minerals many times over.

Police State also helps out with early support. That means former armies. Use those formers to crank up your nutrient income quickly. If you're not high in population, you're not taking advantage of your police rating.

Once your population gets respectable, Sparta actually becomes more well-rounded. Excess population is set to specialists, who will bring in much needed credits and research, free of the fetters of inefficiency.

Best of all, Sparta can and should expand CONSTANTLY. There's simply no good reason to every hold back from founding new bases. Your enlarged former armies should constantly be clearing new land to be annexed into your ever-growing dominion. Happiness and well being are the precursors to your populace growing soft and decadent. Thus, a little backbreaking labor is in order, breaking Chiron to your iron will.

It's easy for a novice player to look at Sparta's morale bonus and think that that's what's going to make them great. Unfortunately, it's not remotely true. Elite troops are fine to have, but they're well within the reach of any faction. That's why to really make Sparta shine, you need to make use of the awesomely synergistic qualities of Police State.

My only problem with Sparta these days is that it's SO easy to get carried away planting bases that I'll get inattentive and let the AI swipe a critical project. But as long as Sparta grabs the Weather Paradigm and Command Nexus early, good things are in store for you.

But it's not just enough to build bases and projects. You need to vanquish your aggressive neighbors to secure your just rule. So, the instant you encounter a rival, begin to plan: Not IF you will conquer them, but WHEN. Got an itchy Yang within reach? Start stockpiling probes to take down defenses, and artillery to pummel defenders. The Spartan army can't afford to sit back and turtle your lab monkeys devise new and devastating weapons of war, your troops will only be honed to their full potential in battle. And the sooner you're ready to take that battle to your rivals, the better off you'll be.

[Mead]

Originally posted by CEO Aaron


***

Start stockpiling probes to take down defenses, and artillery to pummel defenders. ***

Yes, I like stockpiling probes, but I never really got around to stockpiling artillery too much.


I seldom used artillery much except for counter native life-form operations. Against other type units, artillery just didn't seem as useful as other things that could readily kill their opponents, not merely weaken them.


Mead

[Hydro]

In MP games I build artillery primarily for defense. They’re cheap, and they are key to defend against sea attacks or random spoor launchers. Nothing is worse than having a single artillery whack your defensive probes and then have the base probed out from under you. One or two enemy artillery barrages do a real number on defenders, too.

Plus, any foil that wanders into range is in for a shock if my artillery are at a higher elevation. Then they’ll get pounded since, as I recall, land artillery gets a bonus against sea (artillery) weapons. Probe foils are, of course, dead meat and will be very little threat to my probe defenders after they are pounded…

Hydro