PolyCast Special on "Alpha Centauri"

[DanQ]

Revisit Planet. More than nine years ago, the turn-based strategy game Alpha Centauri and soon after its Alien Crossfire expansion pack was released by publisher Electronic Arts. Developed by Firaxis Games, its community remains strong to this day. Towards recognizing this fact, Apolyton Civilization Site (ACS) presents a special edition of PolyCast (PC) focusing on the game with a panel of individuals well-known for their long-standing involvement in its community.

ACS staff member DarkCloud leads this special's panel with Darrell "Darsnan" Nandal, Erik "Hydro" Spande and Maniac to discuss the many aspects of AC, commonly referred to as SMAC, from its initial release to the possibilities of a sequel. A PC regular co-host, ACS Chief Owner/Administrator Daniel "DanQ" Quick makes a brief cameo.

Entitled "Focus: Alpha Centauri", its total runtime is an 79m54s -- a ~75% extension in length over current regular PC episodes. PolyCast is an official podcast of ACS and is also the collective banner for both the PC and sibling ModCast series'. ACS is the only known community to produce its own Civilization podcasts.

[DanQ]

Summary of Topics

- 01m41s | Introductions
Introducing DarkCloud, Darsnan and Hydro. (Maniac joins in later.)
- 04m51s | Style
What is Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, (SMAC); game dislikes; how the co-hosts found SMAC; and an overview of the factions (including Alien Crossfire).
- 21m08s | Gameplay
Darsnan and assisting SMAC's Artificial Intelligence (AI), and generating Playing By Email (PBEM) games and scenarios; upgrading the game's acquatic elements; utilizing the conditioned response of players as an advantage; what to give the A.I. to start a game to help it out; and some key individuals in the SMAC community past and present.
- 39m10s | Fiction
Looking back on Michael Ely's SMAC triology; remembering both the Spartan Chronicles and the Chiron Chronicle; on the writing styles of Alinestra Covelia as seen in the story "Joe"; though its title is not recalled during the recording, Velociryx's Magnum Opus" is what is being referred to, written by Velociryx; the funny "Morgan Spy Tanning Lamps" by Elemental and "Santiago Claus" by Vi Vicdi.
Getting into "The Wizard of Chiron" by Raging Mouse; DarkCloud himself on his first and second "University Saga" and, his most proud work, heading "The Chrion Chronicle" which eventually gave birth to the "Beyond Alpha Centauri" spin-off; The most prolific SMAC fiction writer, Erik 'Hydro' Spande, on his more than thirty published stories; the premiere SMAC story index, the Chiron Archives compiled by Illuminatus (here's one: Mindworm Tales by Googlie; comparing Vel's to the official strategy guide for SMAC.
- 54m31s | Modding
The reknown Network Node factions; using FacEdit and scenarios; the "SMANIAC" MOD by Maniac who himself talks about it; also from Maniac, the "Planetfall" MOD.
- 67m51s | Remarks
Tuning in to PolyCast, the sense of SMAC community and the possibilities of a sequel for the game.

[Maniac]

Ooh Interesting! As I missed half the episode most of it is new for me too.

Disclaimer: Sorry for being ununderstandable sometimes. I don't really speak very understandable in the first place, and I forgot to record my own sound so it's 'second hand' if I understand correctly.

[DanQ]

Originally posted by Maniac
Ooh Interesting!

As I missed half the episode most of it is new for me too.

... I forgot to record my own sound so it's 'second hand' if I understand correctly.

Yes, as a result what is heard from you is from a backup recording I made of the conversation. My thinking is part of the difficulty understanding what you say at times is more because of your microphone than your voice.

[RobWorham]

Very interesting!!

Brought back some great memories..............

[Heraclitus]

SMAC

This was a brilliant idea DanQ!

Best polycast feature besides grils playing civ ever! Please consider doing similar specials for other games or even another SMAC one in a 6-12 months in the future.

[Heraclitus]

Alpha Centauri is still the best game I have ever played.


The editing of this game was very very good, I loved the quotes and sounds. Too bad Zak, Morgan or Yang wheren't to be heard, they had very good quotes. The disscusion was very interesting.


I have a question for the SMAC community, have there been any petitons to release the source code of SMAC? In a manner similar to what could have been done with Civ2 (if it hadn't been lost) or CTP2. This would allow the community to improve the AI.

[Verrucosus]

Well done! I don't think we've had as packed an episode yet. (The topic helped, of course.)

Originally posted by Heraclitus
Please consider doing similar specials for other games or even another SMAC one in a 6-12 months in the future.

Allow me to second that proposal.

Verrucosus

[DanQ]

Originally posted by RobWorham
Very interesting!!

Brought back some great memories..............

Originally posted by Heraclitus
This was a brilliant idea DanQ!

Best polycast feature besides grils playing civ ever!

The editing of this [special] was very very good...

Originally posted by Verrucosus
Well done!

Too bad Zak, Morgan or Yang wheren't to be heard, they had very good quotes. The disscusion was very interesting.

The choice as well as the order of the quotes follows the order in which the factions are mentioned in the segment preceding it. If a faction wasn't mentioned, I didn't include their in-game quote (I'm certain I didn't miss any!). I also abbreviated the quotes from how they are presented in SMAC so as to make them even more succinct (IMO anyway).

Originally posted by Heraclitus
I loved the quotes and sounds.

The incorporation of those quotes and the AI dialogue were my favourite parts of editing this special. It added to the post-production time and effort, but I believe it was well worth it.

Please consider doing similar specials for other games or even another SMAC one in a 6-12 months in the future.

Originally posted by Verrucosus
Allow me to second that proposal.

We are looking at other Poly-covered games as other bases for PC specials but nothing is set yet -- part of the reason being waiting for the reception to this one. This "Focus" is the third in a series (the first was Civilization: Revolution and second Civilization IV: War of Two Cities), but the first with an approach closer to your typical PolyCast episodes.

I don't think we've had as packed an episode yet. (The topic helped, of course.)

Other than the "Girls Playing Civ" special Heraclitus mentioned, this is the second longest PC production to date.

[DarkCloud]

Best polycast feature besides grils playing civ ever! Please consider doing similar specials for other games or even another SMAC one in a 6-12 months in the future.

Glad that you guys enjoyed it.

FYI Dan has some segments archived for later use in ModCast- we talked for a long time about some modding topics. I don't think I'm at liberty to say what was cut out- but maybe Dan can drop some hints, but it was at least 4 modding topics and one polycast topic dealing with Hydro.

--
And Dan, you did a really good job editing the piece; especially all the hard work putting in the faction voice samples.

[vyeh]

Dark Cloud, thank you. This was my first PolyCast. Looking at the descriptions of the other PolyCasts, I gather that this was your first time moderating. Great job.

I enjoyed Darsnan and Hydro. They were both very interesting.

It was too bad about Maniac's microphone. I would like to have heard more about the development of SMAniaC.

And finally, thank you, DanQ, for featuring SMAC!

[DarkCloud]

I have a question for the SMAC community, have there been any petitons to release the source code of SMAC? In a manner similar to what could have been done with Civ2 (if it hadn't been lost) or CTP2. This would allow the community to improve the AI.

Hmm... I don't believe there have been any. It might be worth a try to start something on the forums here and CivFanatics.

[DanQ]

Originally posted by vyeh
Dark Cloud, thank you. This was my first PolyCast. Looking at the descriptions of the other PolyCasts, I gather that this was your first time moderating. Great job.

Yes, it was DC's first PolyCast and he led the panel no less!

Glad you enjoyed your first exposure to the series.

And finally, thank you, DanQ, for featuring SMAC!

Welcome.

Hope you'll tune into other PC productions (PC and/or ModCast) past, present and future.

[vyeh]

Originally posted by DanQ
Hope you'll tune into other PC productions (PC and/or ModCast) past, present and future.

I'm listening to Girls Playing Civ right now (since it was recommended in this thread).

[Maniac]

Originally posted by vyeh
It was too bad about Maniac's microphone. I would like to have heard more about the development of SMAniaC.

Anything in particular you'd like to hear or ask?

Perhaps they could be answered in a Modcast, considering there's also some other stuff waiting to be used.