Energy doesn't increase with altitude.

[Verrucosus]

Alien Crossfire includes quite a bit more than what could have been done by editing. It includes a number of new facilities, secret projects, unit modules and special abilities and most importantly, there are some special rules for the alien factions that - without any experience on my part - I cannot image to have been possible to implement even by heavy modding.

I was a bit unspecific about the alien factions. They are both from the same race that left the monoliths, but they disagree strongly about what to do with planet. As it happens, ships from each faction arrives in orbit at exactly the same time, they have a dramatic space battle (shown in the SMAX intro movie) in which they are both hit. Because they lose communications with their home planet (see a pattern?) they cannot call for help unless they build some high-tech facilities that work as a special victory condition for the aliens. Even in their current emergency situation they are more open to alliances of convenience with human factions than to cooperate with each other. When they are in the game - and if you put them in, you have to use both - their conflict tends to shape the diplomatic landscape.

One has to concede that Alien Crossfire was a big expansion and it's easy to see that a lot of work went into it even without considering the graphics, new secret project movies, tech audios etc. The alien background story, however, is so cheesy (and has so many holes) that even fan fiction would find it difficult to keep up. In my lurking days, I followed the first few months of the Spartan Chronicles, a cooperative effort. Heavily focused on the Spartan military at the start, this story eventually created a vivid image of one possible interpretation of the SMAC universe. I thought that parts of it were brilliant, other parts I found horrible (I still remember a subplot about a secret submarine that was almost painful to read), but the enthusiasm of all the writers for their storylines was contagious. That story - and a few shorter ones - helped me to get immersed into the SMAC world which by nature (because it's science fiction) is less accessible than even the most unhistoric version of Civilization. Having said that, reading the fiction (even the official background story) is not at all necessary to enjoy the game.

Verrucosus

[Petek]

This thread contains Vel's guide to SMAX. Also see the Wikipedia entry for SMAX.

Petek

[Verrucosus]

That's a good find. Vel didn't even post in that thread. By the way, do we have to "hide" his feedback thread for the printed guide in the stories sub-forum?

[Hydro]

Spartan Chronicles was one of the first to explore a number of SMAC/X ideas in considerable detail:
• What are the Spartans (Morganites, Gaians, Believers – we touched on almost all of them)? How does their ethic function?
• What does the Human Hive look like – from the inside? And what does it look like from the outside?
• What exactly is a psi adept, and how are they different from humanity? What impact do they have on a society?
• What are mindworms, how do they function, and what really is their link to Plant?
• How does military combat on Chiron actually occur, and what does it look like? What happens in a conflict of brains vs brawn?
• What are the motivations of the aliens (Usurpers and Caretakers)? If they are so powerful that they can create Planet why don’t they simply wipe out Humanity? Why did they leave Planet? What is their cultural background, what are the Manifolds, and why does that put the human refuges directly in their crosshairs?

For me these types of questions are one of the true joys of SMAC/X. It is a rich universe that goes beyond mere mechanics of the game. Indeed, if the game was merely moving units around and winning I would have lost interest a long time ago. I give full credit to Brian Reynolds and his team for a first class work – much better than the dross that passes for games, and even sells well.

Hydro

[waab]

I would like to point out that I think both SMAC and SMACx have problems with the power of the difference factions, at least early one. It is harder to play a game with Morgan than with Yang, at least early one some players here could probarbly kick the living **** out of my Yang strategy.

The thing is that I think is that the SMACx factions isn't just to wide spread in power, aliens can't be played with the humans you will kill everything very very easy. The cult demands a strategy that the AI can't handle, con has a crippled growth and the drones can outproduce everyone.

I own SMACx but I do almost everytime play with SMAC. The factions is better balanced and is more fun. If you feel that you get bored with the origional seven and the origional game I highly recommend the SNAC mod that is availible in the apolyton file section. That is a huge mod that rebalance the factions and changes the tech thread.

Other than that welcome to apolyton, and hope you enjoy one of the best game ever made.

[Kadrian]

Thanks for the welcome!

I'm a long way from getting bored with the default factions. I haven't even played a decent starting game yet, really. I'd probably get further if I actually played the game and learned from it rather than digging around in the files and reading guides. Lately, I've been studying the faction text files to see how they all fit together. I need familiarize myself with the various social settings and whatnot to really understand what's going on. I'll doubtless download and study a few custom made factions and eventually start fooling around with my own. Custom factions and scenarios look like they could be an interesting thing to get into.

Kadrian.

[CEO Aaron]

The IMPORTANT additions to SMAX are the new technologies and secret projects, not the new factions. I almost exclusively play SMAX with the original 7, and just enjoy the new cool techs and facilities that shake up the game.

I'll concede that the SMAX changes are not as well thought out as one might hope, but I'd call the whole thing an improvement. On the other hand, I don't know if it's an improvement worth $200.

[waab]

@Kadrian

Don't read guides it spoils the fun, if you don't loose a game you are doing something wrong. Trial and Error is the way to go.