Altera Centauri: The SMAC/X Scenario Repository

[Darsnan]

Scenario Name: Guardian of Planet
SMAC/ SMAX: SMAX
Author: Darsnan
Date of original posting: 5/26/08
Original host site: Apolyton

BACKDROP: In MY 2433 several factions discovered the wreckage of a Progenitor interstellar spaceship on the farside of Nessus. After much investigation it was determined that the ships star charts were intact, and that the hyperdrive engine could be cloned.
By MY 2452 the first fleet of scoutships had been built and sent out with a mandate to investigate all of the habitable planets catalogued in the ancient Progenitor ships star charts. The results were mixed: some scoutships returned with exciting news of “Eden-class” planets, while other scouts return with tales of planets who have degraded over the eons. Still other scouts fail to return at all…
By MY2475 the "Diaspora of Man" had begun in earnest, with interstellar colony ships being sent out to the far reaches of the Milky Way as fast as they could be built.
Some of the solar systems which were settled revealed relics from civilizations which predated even the Progenitors, to include an array of stargates which augmented interstellar travel to several branches of the galaxy. One such stargate lay in the Premius star system: located approximately one AU from its primary, it was made of an unknown composite material which gave the stargate a reddish tinge. Coupled with its oblique angle to the local star, the odd protrusions which randomly protruded from its surface cast intermittent long dark shadows across its otherwise reddish surface, and thus gave the stargate its nickname: the Roulette Wheel.
There was another more ominous reason the stargate had picked up this nickname: once every so often (current calculations put it at approximately 0.000001%) the stargate misfired, and any spacecraft involved were lost forever.
One such event has just occurred: a spacechip full of settler factions bound for the newly discovered Corali system has just disappeared from the stargate without a trace. Some people wondered if the spaceship had been delivered to an undiscovered stargate somewhere else in the galaxy. Still others thought the ancient civilization which built the gates was still somewhere out in the galaxy, and every now and again they retuned this gate to deliver to them a sampling of the races which were currently using the gate system. The technicians who manned the Roulette Wheel had drawn their own conclusion: the colony ship New Hope had simply landed on unlucky 13. They marked it down as such in their logs, and moved on with preparing the next spaceship for its transit.


Guardian Hm’nee settled herself into the Prayer Seat located within the Great Communal Hall. Here, deep within the ancient chambers of the Manifold Nexus on this planet she communed with the Planet Mind, just as all of her forebearers had done since time immemorial. The Planet Mind talked to her of many things, of the history of her people, of how the Nexus had originally been an experiment, and how instead it had awakened something deeper, more enlightened on this planet. The Planet Mind also told Hm’nee of how her people had arrived here many eons ago, via the “stargate” which hung like a moon in the space above, and how her ancient ancestors, unable to reactivate the stargate to return to their own galaxy, had descended to the planet below and built this Manifold Nexus. Hm’nee closed her eyes and reached her mind out, expecting the usual communing with the Planet Mind. This time however the Planet Mind seized her awareness and transported her consciousness into space above, to show her the stargate, and something new emerging from its cylindrical maw. Hm’nee allowed the Planet Mind to direct her senses, to reach out and “taste” the new vehicle, to probe and analyze what it was. Hm’nee's senses wandered through the alien spaceship, touching this, viewing that, and determining just what itwas. What it was not was a Progenitor spaceship, Hm’nee very quickly discovered. Instead it was filled with many disparate minds, all seeking their own destiny. While some minds shared a similar attitude towards communing with planets, many other minds could only envision a planet as a resource to be used, and pillaged as needed. Hm’nee recoiled at these thoughts and withdrew her probing of the alien spaceship. These minds were poison! She began gathering the latent energy of the Nexus: it would be a simple thing to pull this spacecraft from the sky, to bring these people down to her and destroy the minds which spoke the blasphemy of pollution and waste. The energy of Planet quickly filled her, and she reached out, almost as if with her own hands, and pulled the spaceship from its orbit, drawing it down to her and her waiting minions…….


Directions

1) In your Scenarios subdirectory create a folder called "GoP", and download and unzip the attached files into it.
2) Start up SMAX, then select "Scenario", "Play Scenario", and then go to the subdirectory "GoP" and choose the scenario. The game will automatically load up with the Gaians.

Enjoy!

D

[Darsnan]

Scenario Name: Monkey in the Middle
SMAC/ SMAX: SMAX
Author: Darsnan
Date of original posting: 11/16/08
Original host site: Apolyton

Can't we all just get along?

In MY2497, after many years of warfare across countless solar systems, a Pacifist Cabal came to power in the Galactic government. Preaching a mantra of peace and love, they espoused that no matter how different each Faction was, that all peoples and species could co-exist together in harmony. To that end they established a seed colony with very disparate peoples, and used this as their prototypical example of how all sentients could live together, and get along, in close proximity to one another. The Drone faction involved promised not to resent the Hive’s domineering ways, while the Cyborgs promised not to force silicon implants onto their neighbors. The Gaians and Cultists promised to reign in their Planet-first diatribes, and the Progenitors promised not to nerve gas everyone on sight. It was going to be one big group-hug lovefest….

Yeah, right - how long do you think that’s going to last?



Directions

1) In your alpha centauri/Scenarios subdirectory create a folder called "MitM", and download and unzip the attached files into it.
2) Start up SMAX, then select "Scenario", "Play Scenario", and then go to the subdirectory "MitM" and choose the scenario. The game will automatically load up with the Hive.

Enjoy!

[Darsnan]

Scenario Name: Bonfire in the Sky
SMAC/ SMAX: SMAX
Author: Darsnan
Date of original posting: 10/4/08
Original host site: Apolyton

BACKDROP: In MY 2433 several factions discovered the wreckage of a Progenitor interstellar spaceship on the farside of Nessus. After much investigation it was determined that the ships star charts were intact, and that the hyperdrive engine could be cloned.
By MY 2452 the first fleet of scoutships had been built and sent out with a mandate to investigate all of the habitable planets catalogued in the ancient Progenitor ships star charts. The results were mixed: some scoutships returned with exciting news of “Eden-class” planets, while other scouts return with tales of planets who have degraded over the eons. Still other scouts fail to return at all…
By MY2475 the "Diaspora of Man" had begun in earnest, with interstellar colony ships being sent out to the far reaches of the Milky Way as fast as they could be built.
However once at their destinations, some peoples found the life of a colonist was a difficult and arduous task, and in some cases overwhelming, either from poor planning, or from the planet being more difficult than first gauged. This happened often enough that the Peace Keepers had set up a fleet of starships specifically designed for the transport and relocation of refugees from worlds that weren’t as hospitable as first thought.
There were also several other starships which belonged to the relocation fleet, however they never showed on any roster, nor did the Peace Keepers even acknowledge their existence. Crewed by Hive personnel trained in the methods of riot police, these ships were at the beck and call of planetary governments, and were employed primarily in the forcible removal of minority factions who either wouldn’t or couldn’t take a hint that they were unwanted on their current planet. Once removed from their planet of origin, the UN had set up a protocol whereby these unwanted peoples were humanely moved to a new planet, and that said peoples were allowed to pick which planet from a list of standing fallow planets.
The Hive had come up with its own version of this: instead of allowing the refugees to choose from the standing list, they instead used these transports as scoutships, exploring previously unmapped regions of space. If they found an Eden-class planet, they claimed it for themselves. If they then found a lower class planet, they “encouraged” the refugees to resettle to this newly discovered world, and then just backdated the standing list with the newly discovered planet. The system worked: the planetary governments, who footed the bill for the relocation, didn’t care where their unwanted went, so long as they were gone. The Peace Keepers were happy in that they didn’t have to be involved in what amounted to an unpopular and darker side of the ongoing galaxy-wide colonization effort. And the Hive was happy because essentially they were getting paid to explore new environs, with the side benefit of adding new planets to the Hive domain.

The Harbinger was a ship that belonged to the Black List. It had recently stopped off at a planet whose world government consisted primarily of the Conscsiousness and their close allies the University and Morganites, and who had deemed that there was no need for the minority factions consisting of the planet-loving Cultists and Gaians, nor of the bible-thumping Believer colony. At the request of the Consciousness government, in the same sweep the Hive had collected up other undesirables who fell into two primary groups, those labeled as Drones, and the others collectively considered brigands, or Pirates. Once the Hive Special Operations groups had herded the refugees aboard the Harbinger, the mindgames began: each Faction was segregated and isolated into generic holding pens, with no communication with anyone save their Hive Overseer. To all intents and purposes each Faction was entirely alone, and were completely dependent on their Hive Overseer for any additional circumstances that inevitably cropped up. In this environment the Overseer then doled out both rewards and punishments, all selectively tailored to condition the Factions to be responsive to their individual Overseer: everything was geared to break down the psyche of the refugees, so when it came time for them to be introduced to their new world, they would view it as a Paradise and eagerly grab at it.
The Harbinger, after exploring several dead solar systems on the fringes of known space, had decided to explore a small cul-de-sac of promising stars, and on their third solar system they had hit paydirt: a nominally habitable world, it fit the criteria as a perfect dumping ground for their cargo, and after a little “negotiating” with the various Factional leaders, each group had been transported down to the planet’s surface, with those Factions who had proved more tractable being rewarded with their choice of landing locations. Those who had been more obstinate, such as the devout Believers and rebellious Drones, were unceremoniously dumped a safe distance away from the other Factions.
While the process of colonization had been going on the Harbinger had also been scouting the solar system for any anomalies that might prove worth investigating, as artifacts of previous civilizations had been discovered in other quadrants, both in space as well as on planetary surfaces. In this case the search had proven fruitful, as some sort of artifact was discovered orbiting another world in this solar system.
The Harbinger, once its cargo had unloaded, proceeded towards the world in question: as data accumulated it appeared the world was a gas giant, with an eccentric orbit taking it well out of the normal paths traveled by the other worlds in this solar system. To an observer on another world (such as the one where they had just disgorged their carago) the gas giant would appear as a bright star, alternately brightening and growing dimmer depending on where it was in its orbit.
As the Harbinger traveled across the solar system a strange thing occurred: another artifact appeared on their screens! In this case it became apparent very quickly that the artifact was another spaceship. It also became apparent very quickly that the spaceship was not of human origins, and that it also was headed right towards the artifact the Harbinger was targeting. The Harbinger’s captain, taking the view that possession is nine/tenths of the law, quickly accelerated his ship towards the artifact, only to find the alien spaceship increasing its speed as well. The two ships bore down on the prize, moving into orbits on opposite sides of the gas giant, closing swiftly towards their prize. Just as both ships were clearing the fringes of the gas giant, the artifact, which had appeared to be a derelict single-seater spacecraft, sent out a scanning pulse, probing the two oncoming spacecraft. Immediately after this the small spacecraft jumped to life, and shot down into the ever-thickening cloud layers of the gas giant. Almost immediately a chain reaction within the gas giant began, one that the sensors on the Harbinger determined would very quickly lead to the gas-giant becoming a proto-star, and if the captain didn’t react quickly, would also consume the Harbinger in its initial burst of radiation.
The Harbinger frantically spun about, accelerating hard and attempting to break out of the gravity well as quickly as possible. However it became apparent very quickly that they would not be able to break clear of the gas-giant before it erupted……

Overseer Shin sat down in the now-empty cargo hold that had served as the housing unit for the Believer Faction they had just transported. He and his crew had been charged with cleaning up and organizing the bay for the next group of refugees that they would pick up. The work had gone relatively quickly: it wasn’t just the thought of the Watcher Eyes that dotted the walls of the bay and of who might be monitoring them, but also of the thought that once this was done there were no other pressing duties for the foreseeable future. Shin had been meticulously generating a list of serviceable items the Believers had left behind when the Harbinger’s emergency claxon had sounded. Shin and his work detail were about to leave the bay when the bay’s cargo doors slid closed, trapping them in the area. Shin looked around, seeing only the empty bay, and the accessway to the launching area. Of course - they could ride out the emergency in the planetary shuttle! Shin quickly hustled his people down to the shuttle, herding them into what had only a few hours previous been the last link to civilization the Believer faction had seen before being delivered to the newly discovered planet. No sooner had the door closed than a horrendous rending sound drowned out everything else, and the bay of the Harbinger was ripped opened by the first gouts of energy from the newly forming proto-star. The shuttle tumbled free, and was quickly swept away by the huge surge of energy erupting from the now boiling gas giant’s surface. Shin had only a glance of this before the shuttle’s polarizing shield slammed down, masking off both the visible and invisible radiation. What he had seen of the Harbinger in that instant though was enough to tell him that the ship had been completely destroyed, and that the only reason he had survived was because the shuttle was designed to withstand the temperatures of orbital re-entry, and thus had been impervious to the heat and blast that had destroyed the Harbinger.
Shin took the controls of the shuttle, trying to stabilize it against the maelstrom that howled outside. As the gas giant receded, the shuttle became more manageable, and finally Shin was able to relax as the initial surge of energy from the proto-star left them in its wake.
The polarizing shield, a facet of the resonance armor which had saved their lives, automatically lifted as the levels of radiation and visible light dropped to acceptable levels. What Shin saw as the shield lifted filled him with a deep sense of dark irony: in the center of the viewing field lay the planet Shin and his team had just deposited the refugees on to. It appeared that he would again get to meet those people he had just “assisted” in finding a new planet to call home. Only this time the circumstances would be significantly different.
Shin, deflated with this turn of events, leaning back in his seat to try and make sense of everything. As he did so his communicator came to life, interrupting his reverie before he could even begin to sort out the events of the last few hours. Idly Shin wondered which of the Factions on the planet below were calling him, and if even an offer of succor was too much to expect under the circumstances. Shin punched the communicator, only to be confronted by a strange reptilian-like alien. The visage on the screen fuzzed and wavered, and Shin could see smoke emanating from several panels behind the lizard-like creature. Even with the difference of alien body language Shin could tell the alien held a malignant apathy towards him, a loathing of pure hatred emanating from the creature as it glared back at him. The creature, a small trickle of blood dripping from a gash on its forehead, rasped and hissed something into its communicator, and an eerie, tinnish voice echoed out of Shin’s communicator, “this will be settled on the planet below”. Without another word the communication screen blanked out.


After the shuttle had landed on the planet surface, Shin sat outside on a rocky outcropping, gazing up at the alien sky. The new pseudo-sun, Bonfire was what Shin’s people were calling it, was rising in the east, and Shin wondered what had really happened at Bonfire: had it been some kind of trap designed to destroy anyone snooping around this solar system, or was it truly a bonfire, designed to signal someone else in the galaxy that trespassers had entered this solar system? Shin’s mind was already numb at the turn of events, however he, as leader, didn’t have time to dwell on how horrible their predicament was. And truly it could have been worse, as at least they had the modicum of supplies that his team had packed away in the shuttle: it would be enough to start a colony, to give him and his people a glimmer of hope on this forlorn little world…….



Directions

1) In your alpha centauri/Scenarios subdirectory create a folder called "BitS", and download and unzip the attached files into it.
2) Start up SMAX, then select "Scenario", "Play Scenario", and then go to the subdirectory "BitS" and choose the scenario “BitS”. The game will automatically load up with the Hive.

Enjoy!

D

[Darsnan]

Scenario Name: UNWanted
SMAC/ SMAX: SMAX
Author: Darsnan
Date of original posting: 6/12/08
Original host site: Apolyton

BACKDROP: In MY 2433 several factions discovered the wreckage of a Progenitor interstellar spaceship on the farside of Nessus. After much investigation it was determined that the ships star charts were intact, and that the hyperdrive engine could be cloned.
By MY 2452 the first fleet of scoutships had been built and sent out with a mandate to investigate all of the habitable planets catalogued in the ancient Progenitor ships star charts. The results were mixed: some scoutships returned with exciting news of “Eden-class” planets, while other scouts return with tales of planets who have degraded over the eons. Still other scouts failed to return at all…
By MY2475 the "Diaspora of Man" had begun in earnest, with interstellar colony ships being sent out to the far reaches of the Milky Way as fast as they could be built.
Some of the solar systems which were settled revealed relics from civilizations which predated even the Progenitors, to include an array of stargates which augmented interstellar travel to several branches of the galaxy. One such stargate lay in the Premius star system: located approximately three AU from its primary, it was made of an unknown composite material which gave the stargate a reddish tinge. Coupled with its oblique angle to the local star and the odd protrusions that covered its surface and cast intermittent long dark shadows across its otherwise reddish surface, the stargate had picked up the nickname of the Roulette Wheel.
There was another, more ominous reason the stargate had picked up this nickname: once every so often (current calculations put it at approximately 0.000001%) the stargate misfired, and any spacecraft involved were lost forever.
One such event has just occurred: a UN Resettlement transport full of refugee factions has just disappeared from the stargate without a trace. Some people wondered if the spaceship had been delivered to an unknown stargate somewhere else in the galaxy. Still others thought the ancient civilization which built the gates was still somewhere out in the galaxy, and every now and again they retuned this gate to deliver to them a sampling of the races which were currently using the gate system. The technicians who manned the Roulette Wheel had developed their own system for dealing with these “events”: the resettlement ship had simply landed on the Roulette Wheel’s unlucky 13. They marked it down as such in their logs, and moved on with preparing the next spaceship for transit….


The UN Resettlement ship New Hope had emerged from the unknown stargate and now hung above an alien, previously unknown world. The world itself was approximately 80% water, and at some time in the past an asteroid had broken up and slammed sideways into the planet, completely obliterating any landmasses that had existed in the equatorial region. Worse, it appeared that a piece of the same asteroid had impacted the stargate, as the alien monolith had obviously sustained significant damage to its exterior.
After much debate amongst the Faction leaders the choices were narrowed down to either trying their luck through the damaged stargate, or proceed down to the planet surface and wait for rescue. Both choices had their drawbacks: if they tried transitting the stargate they might end up back at their starting point in the Premius star system, or they might end up somewhere else in the galaxy, even more remote than where they were now. If they stayed and waited for rescue they would undoubtedly have to migrate to the planet below, as the New Hope was not provisioned for an extended duration. Worse, the peoples on board were not settlers: they were peoples plucked from planets who no longer wanted them, unwanted refugees being resettled (some forcibly) to new locales where it was hoped they could start anew. These downtrodden peoples were not prepared for the rigors and hardships of attempting to establish new colonies on an unknown alien world.
After conferring with the refuge Faction Leaders, Captain Jarretta agreed that the best option was to take the gamble of attempting to transit the stargate again, in the hope that it would deliver them either back to their original starting point in the Premius system, or to another known stargate. And if they ended up elsewhere, they could always make the transition again until they ended up somewhere more hospitable.
Jarretta lined the New Hope up with the stargate, and slowly entered the outskirts of the gate’s energy nexus. However as the spaceship entered the gate proper, huge energy plumes lashed out from the gate itself, raking across the bow of the New Hope, and shorting out a majority of the ship’s power systems. The spaceship, now powerless, began to drift off course, slowly heading for the side of the looming stargate. Jarretta checked the status of the New Hope’s engines, and realized the engines would not be back online in time to save the spaceship from colliding with the stargate. Realizing his spaceship was lost, he gave the command to abandon ship.
As the escape pods began to depart for the planet surface below Jarretta wondered what would happen to these peoples: forcibly evicted from their original homeworlds, lost in transit via a malfunctioning stargate, and now marooned on an uncharted alien world, it was as if the Universe itself had turned its back on them. They were the ultimate unwanteds – throw away peoples whom nobody would miss or bother looking for. As Jarretta braced for the fatal impact he wished them well…..


Directions

1) In your Scenarios subdirectory create a folder called "UNW", and download and unzip the attached files into it.
2) Start up SMAX, then select "Scenario", "Play Scenario", and then go to the subdirectory "UNW" and choose the scenario “UNWanted”. The game will automatically load up with the PKs.

Enjoy!

D

[Darsnan]

Scenario Name: Pick yer Poison
SMAC/ SMAX: SMAX
Author: Darsnan
Date of original posting: 5/10/08
Original host site: Apolyton


BACKDROP: In MY 2433 several factions discovered the wreckage of a Progenitor interstellar spaceship on the farside of Nessus. After much investigation it was determined that the ships star charts were intact, and that the hyperdrive engine could be cloned.
By MY 2452 the first fleet of scoutships were built and sent out with a mandate to investigate all of the habitable planets catalogued in the Progenitor ships start charts. The results are mixed: some scoutships return with exciting news of “Eden-class” planets, while other scouts tell tales of planets who have degraded over the eons. Still other scouts fail to return at all…
By MY2475 the "Diaspora of Man" had begun in earnest, with interstellar colony ships being sent out to the far reaches of the Milky Way as fast as they could be built. However as more and more planets were explored it became clear that another civilization had visited many of the former Progenitor worlds in between the time of the fall of Progenitor civilization and the Rise of Man. Traces of this now-vanished civilization could be found in many remote corners of the galaxy, and it appeared that they were drawn to and understood the powers of the Manifolds. Simply called “The Sentinels” because they seemed more intent on watching the planets they visited than in colonization, their artifacts can be found on many of the former Progenitor worlds that house Manifolds. Some of the Sentinel artifacts are benign, while others retain a modicum of their ancient programming and are openly hostile towards humans!
It is now MY2500…..


Sooner or later Humanity knew they would encounter the living descendants of the Progenitors, for with the Diaspora of Man taking humanity to the farthest reaches of the Milky Way it was only a matter of time before this event occurred. However it was also unanimously agreed by all the Factions that no one wanted to win that particular lottery and be the first to encounter the Progs in what would probably be their interstellar back yard, for if what had happened in the Alpha Centauri solar system was any indication as to how the Progs would react to the upstart humans, then whoever did stumble into the Progs was going to be in for a bumpy ride to say the very least!
And yet here you were, not even a year after arriving on your new homeworld of Beratan 4.0, when the skies above opened up and two Progenitor Battlecruisers, one Caretaker and one Usurper, took up orbit around your planet. You listened in on the Progenitor comm channels as each Prog Faction issued ritualistic challenges and insults, each round becoming more pointed and threatening. And then a curious thing happened: instead of escalating to all-out warfare between the two huge battlecruisers, each ship deposited a single drop ship onto the face of the planet, one at each pole, and then the two Prog battlecruisers departed as mysteriously as they had arrived.
But what would have been a xenosociologists event of a lifetime is now a waking nightmare for you, as you realize you are going to be caught in the crosshairs of an all out no-holds barred Progenitor Civil War!


Planet Specifications

Planet: Baraton 4.0
Primary: Class M (currently unnamed)
Population: uninhabited
Climate: temperate
Temperature: average
Gravity: 1.3 standard
Class: habitable

Baraton 4.0 is another planet belonging to the Manifold experiment, and so there could be an operational nexus on the planet. And of course where there is a nexus there are native lifeforms to boot. There are also rumors of an ancient city on the planetary surface. If this is true then it is probably a Sentinel city, and any artifacts which could be recovered would be of significant benefit to the Faction which discovers them!

Directions

1) In your Scenarios subdirectory create a folder called "PyP", and download and unzip the attached files into it.
2) Start up SMAX, then select "Scenario", "Play Scenario", and then go to the subdirectory "PyP" and choose the scenario. The game will automatically load up with the Spartans.


Observations

- If you don’t like the graphics go to the PyP subdirectory and delete the “terr1wreck.pcx” and “texture.pcx” files (and note you need to get out of SMAX first before deleting these files).
- There are significant changes to the alphax.txt file in this game. it is strongly recommended that you review the Datalinks at the beginning of the game, specifically concerning basic units, terraforming options, and certain facilities and SPs (examples: Robotic Assembly Plant has been moved up to Ind Auto, Mining Sats to Doc:Air, while the Empath Guild has been moved to Eudaimonia, among others).
- The Progs really don’t like to be gassed in this game.


Acknowledgements

Many thanx to the following:

- wgabrie for the graphics: I’ve been playing using his texture.pcx file for years now: much better than the default IMO! wgabrie also did the other graphics changes you will encounter in this scenario.
- Maurid Adran’s idea of having terraformers immediately available for build: no more getting 40 – 50 turns into a game and finding that the AI hasn’t even researched Centauri Ecology yet (and hence not done any terraforming at all!). From what I have seen so far in playtesting this is a significant boon to the AIs! I’ve also “encouraged” the AIs to build these terraformers by making them cheaper to produce.
- I think it was smacksim who originally proposed the idea of having terrain improvements such as mines, solar collectors, and farms linked to techs (instead of being available to build right away): combining this idea with the above of having cheapened terraformers immediately available means that the AIs do plant some forests at the outset of the game.

Hope you enjoy!


D

[Darsnan]

Scenario Name: Lilith - A Wolf in the Fold
SMAC/ SMAX: SMAX
Author: Darsnan
Date of original posting: 1/3/07
Original host site: Apolyton

BACKDROP: In MY 2433 several factions discovered the wreckage of a Progenitor interstellar spaceship on the farside of Nessus. After much investigation it was determined that the ships star charts were intact, and that the hyperdrive engine could be cloned.
By MY 2452 the first fleet of scoutships were built and sent out with a mandate to investigate all of the habitable planets catalogued in the Progenitor ships start charts. The results are mixed: some scoutships return with exciting news of “Eden-class” planets, while other scouts tell tales of planets who have degraded over the eons. Still other scouts fail to return at all…
By MY2475 the "Diaspora of Man" had begun in earnest, with interstellar colony ships being sent out to the far reaches of the galaxy as fast as they could be built. While many see this as a boon to humanity, others take a different approach to the situation, and take the opportunity to hide themselves away.....

It is now MY 2493.

PREMISE
The holo-link came to life and, as Commander Koth had expected, the signal was scrambled. “Please state your name and organization for security verification” a woman’s disembodied voice reached out from the scrambled circuit.
“Commander Heinreich Koth, Chief Executive Officer, 5302nd Composite Unit”. The 5302nd - that was the official, and legitimate, name of the organization Koth belonged to. However most people in the business knew it by another name, “Merrill’s Mercenaries”. Such as Koth’s contact here.
“Authorization verified”, the voice responded, and the holo-link solidified into a woman seated behind an ornately carved desk. ”Greetings, Commander”, the woman offered, “I am Alyssandra Sim, Contracts Negotiator for Inter Realms, Incorporated”.
Commander Koth suppressed a slight grimace. As he had expected, his “customer” was Inter Realms, which in fact was a Morganite shell company that specialized in "less than legitimate" dealings. Worse, the woman’s last name “Sim” indicated Koth was speaking to a simulacrum, and not even a real person: whoever was on the other side of the holo-link was going to great lengths to cover their tracks regarding this particular job. Koth set aside the information and pressed on, “Good day, Ms. Sim. You have contacted my organization concerning a job that aligned with my companies, um, specialties.”
The simulacrums lips raised in a half suppressed smile, “yes, we seem to have encountered a situation that has eluded our abilities to date. Essentially we would like this situation resolved, and the sooner the better”.
Commander Koth held up a single sheaf of paper which was only half covered in text, “then if your hoping for a quick resolution to the situation, can you be a little more specific than what you have offered so far?”
Again the simulacrum suppressed a half-smile, “unfortunately no. Essentially we can tell you that there is a former Progenitor world that is now called Lilith which is inhabited by 6 Splinter Factions, of which none can be found in the Data Links.”
“Yes, Lilith”, Commander Koth responded, “I couldn’t find a reference to this planet in the Data Links, either. Is this intentional?”
“We don’t know” the simulacrum responded, then waited patiently for Koth’s next question.
“The report also states that the inhabitants all seem to possess some sort of enhanced psi capability”.
“Yes, regardless of their Splinter Faction background, they all seem to sense things in an enhanced manner”.
Commander Koth considered this, then replied, “so why not send in an Empath Team instead of us?”
“It doesn’t work. For some reason the inhabitants “know” that your not one of them”.
Koth digested this, as well as what had been intimated, which was that Inter Realms had already attempted contact once, and failed. Koth tried a different tack, “perhaps Lerclerc’s Legion would be a good candidate for this assignment, instead?”
“The Free Foreign Legion declined to discuss the contract we offered them”.
Now it was Koth’s turn to suppress a smile. Leclerc’s Free Foreign Legion recruited heavily from those peoples who had felt the oppressive yolk of Hive domination, and as such espoused “freedom” and “democracy”, neither of which seemed to be a concern in regards to the Lilith “situation”. Merrill’s Mercenaries on the other hand were primarily comprised of former Spartans, Angels, and Pirates, and were more inclined to be swayed by the call of a good payday than anything else. Koth continued, “would we have to be concerned about the United Nations interjecting themselves into this situation?”
The simulacrum responded, “the Peace Keepers will not be a factor in this situation”. It was a statement made to be taken at face value.
Koth paused and considered this: either someone was paying the PKs to look the other way concerning Lilith, or else the PKs were the actual customer, and they were merely employing “other means” to bring another planet under the Peace Keeper umbrella. Either way, it didn’t really matter to Koth, “and any extra monies that we come into possession of, we will then be able to keep at the end of the contract?”
“We will have the contract re-drawn accordingly”, the simulacrum assured, then “so, do we have a deal?”
“I think I have just the Commander for this assignment”, Koth agreed.
“Excellent!" the simulacrum responded. "And remember, the chief objective of this mission is to convince these renegade Factions to enter into trade agreements with Morgan Enterprises”, the simulacrum paused, then added emphasis to her final words, “by whatever means necessary”.
The holo-link went dead, and Commander Koth was left alone in the empty conference room. Koth allowed himself to relax, leaning back in his chair and smiling bemusedly as he thought about the assignment: essentially he was going to send a troop of Merrill’s Mercenaries to a planet that didn’t exist, to make contact with Factions that didn’t want to be found, all for a customer that wouldn’t even show their face! "Yup", Commander Koth said out loud, "just another typical assignment for Merrill’s Mercenaries!"

Objective
No formal mention or description of Lilith has been recovered from the Progenitor colonization archives. The only reference to this planet came via the Caretaker Science Institute which labeled this planet as a “Science Research Station”. From what was decyphered from fragmentary records the Progenitors established an archeological dig on this planet to investigate artifacts from a highly sophisticated precussor race that had performed extensive terraforming to the planet's surface, possibly for the purpose of setting up unique climates and habitation zones for the species that lived on the planet at that time. No other records have been recovered regarding this planet.

Planet Specifications
Planet: unknown
Primary: Class M (currently unnamed)
Population: unknown
Climate: temperate
Temperature: average
Gravity: 1.3 standard
Class: habitable

Your mission is to land on the planet Lilith, ascertain the status of the native population, and then proceed to convince the local population by whatever means necessary to re-join mainstream society.

Good Luck Commander!


Directions:

1) In your Scenarios subdirectory create a folder called "Lilith", and download and unzip the attached files into it.
2) Start up SMAX, then select "Scenario", "Play Scenario", and then go to the subdirectory "Lilith" and choose the scenario. The game will automatically load up with the Spartan Splinter Faction.
3) To ensure everything is working right hit F1 and select "Faction Profiles".
4) While your in the Data Links I recommend looking at the basic units types as well, so you can plan your strategies accordingly.
Attached Files Attached Files

[Darsnan]

Scenario Name: King of the Hill 2006
SMAC/ SMAX: SMAX
Author: Darsnan
Date of original posting: 7/12/06
Original host site: Apolyton

Backdrop for the game: Hundreds of thousands of years ago 4 great civilizations developed on Planet, and many great terraforming feats were performed, reshaping Planet into the visage of a perfect Utopia for its citizens. However, these same 4 civilizations had also developed advanced weapons of destruction, and for some inexplicable reason a war ensued, shattering Planet’s well cultivated surface and destroying the utopian societies which populated Planet’s surface. Now, eons later, only traces of what was once an advanced race still remain.

Premise for the game: as the Unity approached Planet, sensors started picking up the telltale signs of the ancient, destroyed civilizations. As more was learned about the extent of the ancient civilizations, as well as the level of destruction to Planet’s surface, Shadow groups within the Unity’s hierarchy began to plot how best to exploit Planet’s resources to their own advantages. However, there is always a fly in the ointment, this case being the destruction of the Unity. Some say it was sabotage, others say that the Unity malfunctioned, while still others think it was an ancient planetary defense system that fired on Unity, destroying the spacecraft. Regardless, with the destruction of the Unity so too went the formal governing body of the United Nations. With this power vacuum occurring the Shadow groups realized their time had come, and as they consolidated themselves on Planet’s surface they began to expand their new empires, and to follow their own agendas.

You are the Peace Keepers. Your job is to re-unite the warring Factions of humanity under the U.N. banner and proclaim Planet as the Dominion of Man!

Directions for loading the Game: unzip the attached file and save in your scenarios folder. Start SMAX, select Scenarios/ Play Scenario, and then select “King of the Hill”. The game will automatically load you as the PKs.

Observations: if any of you feel you’ve played this before, you are right! This is a remake of my first SP Challenge back in January of 2003. Essentially what happened was that a little while ago Kirov had asked me if I had ever made any really hard scenarios, and when I went to point him to this game I realized the links for this game at CGN didn’t work anymore. So I decided to update the game with all that I had learned since I originally “cut my teeth” on Scenario Creation back in late ’02: it is now much more entertaining, IMO!
As usual there are some new concepts here, which should be interesting to see how you guys handle/ adapt to.


Enjoy!


D

[Darsnan]

Scenario Name: Challenge 30 smax
SMAC/ SMAX: SMAX
Author: Mart
Date of original posting: 10/8/06
Original host site: Apolyton

For some time, I thought about a challenge scenario that would be on a small map. Huge maps are a bit difficult to handle in the late game, especially for persons who like to manage bases with more detail. This scenario uses custom size map - 30x60. I thought about a series of challenges like this. SMACX one would be coded: C30x, and SMAC ones: C30v (for vanila).
----------
This game might use a name:
Survive or Perish
game code:
C30x_01
----------

You play Spartans against 6 other factions: Hive, University, Morganities, PK, Drones and Pirates.
AI factions are significantly enhanced. There are also new units, check datalinks, so you are less surprised. Some unit abilities, weapons are slightly moved due to pre-defined units. Doctrine Initiative gives now carriers and submarines.

Victory conditions:
All without cooperative. AI accomodates appropriately, and having playtested the scanario, I can tell - trust noone.

Special rules:

1) Stockpile bug is not allowed.
However, you may leave empty queue after facility or SP.

2) You have to either build SP Voice of Planet or conquer a base having it in order to win by Transcendence.

3) There is no deadline, also if you fail and want to restart, you are welcome to do so.

For ranking purposes:
AC score counts with the following addition:
- for completed game each turn before 2200 there is bonus +30 points.
- for each turn after 2200 there is a penalty -30 points.

For Alpha Centauri.ini
Faction 1=SPARTANS
Faction 2=HIVE
Faction 3=UNIV
Faction 4=MORGAN
Faction 5=PEACE
Faction 6=PIRATES
Faction 7=DRONE

Good luck and make positive scores!

[Darsnan]

Scenario Name: Summer Solstice 2006 - Dream Twister
SMAC/ SMAX: SMAX
Author: Chaos Theory
Date of original posting: 6/21/06
Original host site: Apolyton

Link broken for download. Page 14 of General Help Strategy section.

Or, Not More Pink!

As Sister Miriam tended to our wounded after crash landing in a damaged Unity lander, the powermongers from Earth built their empires as they had dreamed, according to their own, true ideals. After a generation, they stumbled across the ancient builders of Chiron - the Progenitors. Zakharov, Morgan, and Yang met in secret to plan a swift, devastating attack on all the Progenitor encampments Planet-wide, before they could fully recover. Select specimens were preserved for experimentation. In particular, Progenitor and native genetic material were discovered to be fundamentally compatible. They bred abominations so that they might control the native life that so plagued them - and that was their ruin.

In the years since, the abominations have themselves become ambitious, and some survivors have sunken to worshiping Chiron itself, begging for salvation. Now is the time for us to bring the Word of the Lord to these downtrodden, defeated people, and undo the evils their masters wrought!


The rules:

This is a SMAX scenario. I might eventually convert it to SMAC, but not yet.

Custom factions are included with this scenario. For best results, put the .flc and .pcx files in your main Alpha Centauri directory, and don't look at the .txt files.

Certain basic units are defined for the benefit of the AIs, and are not for human use. These are: AI formers, AI sea formers, and the 2-move spore launcher. If you can mind control some, you may use them, but you may not ever build them.

No cheats/exploits/bugs that are disallowed in PBEMs.

If another faction owns the Voice of Planet, you may not build the Ascent to
Transcendence, until you rectify this (by infantry, planet Buster, or whatever).

Two subtly different scenarios are included in the .zip file. Pick whichever seems appropriate.

I may yet tweak this scenario, based on feedback.


Some changes:
Specialists changed slightly.
Tech tree rearranged slightly.
SE settings changed somewhat.
High-powered weapons increased in cost.
Pulse armor removed because it's stupid and the AIs misuse it.
Copters substantially slowed.
Ships slightly sped up.
Certain special abilities are allowed on more units.
Dissociative Wave costs 50% more. Blink Displacer costs 4 times as much.
Lowered maintenance for Subsea Trunkline, Holo Theater, and Paradise Garden.
Increased maintenance for Hab Complex, Hab Dome, and Children's Creche.
Satellite, Children's Creche, and Ascent to Transcendence build costs increased.
Children's Creche is moved far back in the tech tree.
Mining platforms give +2 minerals before Adv Ecological Engineering, and +3 after.
Mines do not lower nutrient production.
Planet rating is more important in psi combat.
Psi attack and psi defense modules available much sooner.
Trance and Empath have less effect on psi combat.


Dream Twister

[Darsnan]

Scenario Name: U2 - Scenario for SMAX
SMAC/ SMAX: SMAX
Author: Mart
Date of original posting: 4/18/06
Original host site: Apolyton

U2 Scenario

No, you are not going to see Bono ordering his cloaked gravships against your bases.

This scenario is to test:
1) New pre-defined units.
2) Enhancing AI by traits in their factional files.

This new units and factional bonuses do not require any changes to files of a player, since they are recorded in a game save file.

At this moment I tested the game to 2209. AI uses well the Unity Supply Droids - no Secret Projects cashing. Also probe teams play quite a role. So far I lost 3 bases to AI by probing, that I neglected on one of my borders. Although I gave +50% defense, still the fight is not that difficult, presently it is 8 (chaos) vs. 3 (plasma).

New Units

Probes
Probe Cruiser, Cruiser, Probe Team, Scout, 11, 0, 0, DocInit, -1, 00000000000000000000000000
Hover Probe, Hovertank,Probe Team, Scout, 11, 0, 0, NanoMin, -1, 10000000000000000000000000000
HP Probe, Hovertank,Probe Team, Psi, 11, 0, 0, Eudaim, -1, 10000000000000000000000000000
Marine Probe, Speeder, Probe Team, Scout, 11, 3, 0, DocInit, -1, 00000000000000000000000001000
Probe Sub, Foil, Probe Team, Scout, 11, 0, 0, DocInit, -1, 00000000000000000000001000000
Foil Probe, Foil, Probe Team, Scout, 11, 0, 0, DocInit, -1, 00000000000000000000000000000
Synth Probe, Infantry, Probe Team, Synthmetal,11, 0, 0, IndAuto, -1, 00000000000000000000000000000

Probe Cruiser
as in many other games

Hover Probe
algorithmic enhancement

HP Probe
Psi armor
algorithmic enhancement

Marine Probe
Amphibious pods, to enable this ability for probes, although indicated as possible, standard alphax.txt has it off. Forced cost of 3 rows, AI enhancement, so it can build it more frequently.

Probe Sub
Submersible, this makes submersible ability available with Doctrine Initiative. Makes naval warfare more important. It also improves AI against human factions.

Foil Probe
As addition to Probe Cruiser.

Synth Probe
Probe team on infantry chassis with synthmetal armor. Quite new test.

Supply
Trawler, Foil, Supply, Scout, 10, 3, 0, DocInit, -1, 00000001000000000000000000000
Unity Supply Droid, Infantry, Supply, Scout, 10, 1, 0, Disable, -1, 00000101000000000000000000000
Rover Supply, Speeder, Supply, Scout, 10, 0, 0, DocInit, -1, 00000000000000000000000000000

Trawler
Foil supply,
Repair bay for making it unique and forced cost of 3 rows. Makes crawling sea for human player much cheaper. Emphasises naval element. I do not know how AI would deal with it yet.

Unity Supply Droid
Slow and repair bay for unique features. Repair bay makes it distinguishable for its scarlet cross. Forced 1 row cost and available only by scenario editor.
An interesting help for human player in early turns.
Also AI can use it, if CMN does not want to give AI too much help in early SP building. It's only 1/3 than a standard crawler gives. Already tested, sometimes AI use it excellently by giving them crawling orders. Often end up for SP building. Sometimes remain idle.

Rover Supply
As an experiment, if AI would do it, cost 6 rows, not forced.

Formers
Eco-Formers, Infantry, Formers, Scout, 9, 3, 0, BioEng, -1, 00000010000010000000000000000
SE-Formers, Infantry, Formers, Scout, 9, 4, 0, EcoEng2, -1, 00000010000010000000000000001

Eco-formers
High morale for uniquenes
Clean reactor, forced cost of 3 rows. It is here to help AI build it.

SE-formers
High morale for uniquenes
Super and Clean formers. forced cost of 4 rows.

Air units
Support Copter, Copter, Missile, Scout, 0, 0, 0, MindMac, -1, 00000000000000000000000000000
Falcon, Needlejet,Missile, Scout, 4, 0, 0, DocAir, -1, 00000000000000000000000100000
QG Needle, Needlejet,Quantum, Scout, 0, 0, 0, Gravity, -1, 00000000000000000010000000000
QG Copter, Copter, Quantum, Scout, 0, 0, 0, Gravity, -1, 00000000000000000010000000000
QG Gravship, Gravship, Quantum, Scout, 0, 0, 0, Gravity, -1, 00000000000000000010000000000

Support Copter
Attack 6, ground combat. To help AI, maybe even attack bases?

Falcon
Missile attack 6 fighter. help AI

QG units
To enable grav struts in air units.

Land combat units
Police Guard, Infantry, Gun, Scout, -1, 1, 0, Integ, -1, 00000010000000100000000000000
AA Team, Infantry, Laser, Scout, 1, 0, 0, MilAlg, -1, 00000000000000000000100000000
AA Rover, Speeder, Laser, Scout, 1, 0, 0, MilAlg, -1, 00000000000000000000100000000
AA Squad, Infantry, Gun, 3-Pulse, 2, 0, 0, MilAlg, -1, 00000000000000000000100000000
SAM Rover, Speeder, Missile, Scout, 1, 0, 0, DocAir, -1, 00000000000000000000000100000
AA Hover, Hovertank,Gun, Silksteel, 2, 0, 0, NanoMin, -1, 00000000000000000000100000000
WS Hover, Hovertank,Fusion, Scout, 0, 0, 0, SentEco, -1, 00011000000000000000000000000
BW Hover, Hovertank,Shard, Scout, 0, 0, 0, Matter, -1, 00010000000100000000000000000

Police guard
High morale and non-letheal methods police. Forced cost 1 row. AI does them too.

AA Team
anti-aircraft, laser, no armor

AA Rover
anti-aircraft, laser, no armor

AA Squad
anti-aircraft, gun, 3-pulse armor. typical defensive unit good against rovers too.
These 3 units are here to encourage AI for anti-aircraft defense. need better testing

SAM Rover
Air superiority, for counterstrike against air offensive

AA Hover
anti-aircraft, gun, silksteel armor.

WS Hover
Dissociative Wave
Sporific gas pods
Offensive unit for AI

BW Hover
Blink displacer
Dissociative Wave
Offensive unit for AI

Naval units
Escort Cruiser, Cruiser, Gun, Probability,6, 0, 0, Metal, -1, 00000000000000000000100000000
Escort Foil, Foil, Missile, Scout, 6, 0, 0, DocAir, -1, 00000000000000000000000100000
Heavy Sea Transport, Cruiser, Transport, Scout, 7, 0, 0, DocInit, -1, 00000000010000000000000000000
Carrier, Cruiser, Transport, Scout, 7, 0, 0, DocInit, -1, 00000000000000000000010000000
Sub-Carrier, Cruiser, Transport, Scout, 7, 0, 0, DocInit, -1, 00000000000000000000011000000

Escort Cruiser
Anti-aircraft with Probability sheath armor. To help AI against air attacks. needs testing

Escort Foil
SAM unit to take down planes. Possibly great help for AI.

Heavy Sea transport
For AI and also enables heavy ability.

Carrier
For transport of air units. This moves the ability to Doctrine Initiative to emphasise naval warfare.

Sub-Carrier
Submersible, As above. Possibly will help AI, if cares to make them. Needs testing.

Missiles

XX Missile, Missile, Conventional, Scout, 0, 0, 0, Orbital, 8, 00000100000000000000000000

This is a chemical missile

Factional enhancements for AI

+2 Support
SOCIAL, ++SUPPORT
This is to help AI with minerals. Possibly encourage larger military.

5% Interest
INTEREST, 5
The easiest way of giving AI a lot of energy. 5% is test. 12% for Morgan makes him attempt to corner global energy market after around 70-80 years in the game. 8% is still a lot.

Defense 150%
DEFENSE, 150
To help AI better defend itself. Assaults on AI require now much better planning.

Technology cost 50%
TECHCOST, 50
AI can now research twice as fast

Special
All AI get
- build lots of colony pods
- build lots of formers
- build lots of probe teams

Note
This is possible to do in scenarios. Tech benefits can be removed, as you can give starting techs manually, so the limit of 8 bonuses is allright. Only 3 first bonuses are limited, techcost is not.

Starting conditions

AI:
- established base
- colony pod
- 2 scout patrols (Spartans unity rovers instead)
- 3 formers
- 6 unity supply droids (crawling pre-formed tiles)

Human:
- established base
- 2 scout patrols
- 1 former
- 2 unity supply droids (idle in the base)

Note
Established base is required, since crawlers need to be homed.

[Darsnan]

Scenario Name: Aquarius - Scenario for SMAX
SMAC/ SMAX: SMAX
Author: Mart
Date of original posting: 4/11/06
Original host site: Apolyton

Pirates scenario.
AI factions are boosted.

Faction 1=PIRATES
Faction 2=GAIANS
Faction 3=HIVE
Faction 4=UNIV
Faction 5=MORGAN
Faction 6=DRONE
Faction 7=ANGELS

There are also new pre-defined units, so take a look in F1 screen.
Difficulty is that AI may attempt a victory condition you usually do not expect in this game period.
It is a save file only.
Have fun!

[Darsnan]

Scenario Name: January SMAX SP Challenge
SMAC/ SMAX: SMAX
Author: Darsnan
Date of original posting: 1/2/06
Original host site: Apolyton

The righteous need not cower before the drumbeat of human progress. Though the song of yesterday fades into the challenge of tomorrow, God still watches and judges us. Evil lurks in the datalinks as it lurked in the streets of yesteryear. But it was never the streets that were evil.
-- Sister Miriam Godwinson, "The Blessed Struggle"

Sister Miriam paused to reflect upon the lifetime of events that had led her to these convictions. In her duties as the U.N. Honorary Psych Chaplain for Re-integration Forces sent to countries decimated in the Crusader Wars, she had been confronted time and again by whole peoples and societies destroyed by the fabled Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse. In the societies ravaged by War, it had been the new weaponry, spurred by recent technological breakthroughs, that had caused untold, and in some cases unexpectedly prolonged, damage in the areas they were used. In other societies it had been Diseases, in one generation so easily contained by the “miracle drugs” of science, yet only a few generations later wreaking an untold havoc amongst those the drugs were no longer effective against. In still others it was the natural disasters, often occurring because the arrogance of man had proclaimed that the “levies were safe”, or that the “super skyscrapers were impervious to earthquakes”, or that “drought is no longer a problem in this desert”. Untold times the proclamations had been made, only to be proven wrong in stark and tragic consequences for those who had believed these false prophets. Time and again in her capacity as Psych Chaplain Miriam had been there to assist the survivors of the worst follies of men, and to point them down the path of the One True Way. Some saw this as preying upon the weak and needful. Miriam knew in her heart of hearts that these accusers had never walked down the same war-shattered streets, never seen the starving orphans, nor comforted those ravaged by the diseases to which science now had no answer. No, it was not she who prayed upon the weak, but rather it had been Science that had led people astray by promises that couldn’t be kept!
Drawing strength from these inner reflections and experiences Miriam returned to the present and the circumstances to which she and her followers now found themselves in: marooned on a strange alien planet with only the barest of necessities to survive, all contact with Earth lost, and faced with the realization that somewhere out there on this planet there were other Factions, some who would no doubt be openly hostile to her. However, considering how quickly the Unity had been destroyed, it was highly likely that most everyone else was in as bad a shape as her True Believers were. This would be to her advantage, as there would be those who would eagerly accept salvation from her Missionary Units that from her previous experience she planned on employing. And if there were those that resisted converting to the One True Way? Well, Miriam had experience in dealing with these matters as well…..
Miriam looked over the initial reports as to her current circumstances: her followers had successfully landed on planet 4 Unity Formers, 4 Scouts, 4 Colony Pods, and a Transport Foil, all neatly landed in a beautiful bay that would, with a little cultivation, prove to be an Eden to her people.
The final report though filled her with a sense of unease to which she couldn’t quite attach a reason to: her communications group indicated that the Unity had survived planetfall as well (or at least part of it), as the Unity’s beacon was broadcasting its current position, and it wasn’t far off. Finally, after much meditation and prayer on the thought Miriam arrived at a conclusion: the Unity was just another example of how Science had led people astray, and then let them down. Yes, Miriam thought to herself, just another reason not to trust Science and all of its false promises. Miriam vowed to herself she would keep this in mind in the coming years....


Welcome to the January SMAX SP Challenge! In this edition you will be playing as the Believers. All victory conditions have been enabled.

Setup as follows:

1. In your SMACX Scenarios folder create a subfolder labeled "January Challenge".
2. Unzip the contents of the attached zip file into this folder.
3. Start SMAX, select "Play Scenario", and select the scenario included in the folder.
4. Once the game has started and to ensure that the game is working properly hit F1 (Datalinks) and verify that Robotic Assembly Plants are now available with Industrial Automation. If it is, then enjoy!

Please post your results/ observations/ comments into this thread.

And remember, when all else fails, praying can’t hurt...


D

[Darsnan]

Scenario Name: Belated Winter Solstice 2005 Challenge
SMAC/ SMAX: SMAX
Author: Chaos Theory
Date of original posting: 2/23/06
Original host site: Apolyton

(for best results, copy the .pcx and .flc files to your main Alpha Centauri directory)

The story:
In 2145, Foreman Domai led a strike at Morgan Mines. It was brutally suppressed,
but Domai and some followers escaped, helped frequently by an unknown Sinder Roze.
Morgan put increasingly large bounties on Domai's head, but was cruelly taught that
money can't buy everything when shareholders in several major corporations withdrew
their support for Morgan. Two days later, he was arrested on charges of fraud.
Damning evidence surfaced, including some tapes Morgan swore under lie detection
were not of him. He was swiftly convicted and imprisoned, but while the business
world was distracted, Sinder Roze completed her takeover, and began transforming
Morgan's faction.

Domai eventually fled across the ocean, unaware he was no longer being pursued.
There, he founded a communist society, of the worker and for the worker. He
worked singlemindedly for the prosperity of his people until his death last year
of emphysema, perhaps triggered by poor working conditions among the Morganites,
or perhaps an unforseen complication of cryogenic sleep. You were installed as
the new leader, to carry on Domai's legacy and bring true communism to all of Planet.

Unfortunately, Domai was neither educated nor intelligent. You now know that
Domai made some very poor choices, and your research program is in shambles.
Even worse, rumors of weapon-bearing aliens are circulating amidst your drones.
Perhaps your old contact Sinder Roze can help?


The rules:
DO NOT .txt files besides readme.txt yet!

No cheats/exploits/bugs that are disallowed in PBEMs.

If another faction owns the Voice of Planet, you may not build the Ascent to
Transcendence, until you rectify this (by infantry, planet buster, or whatever).

Scattered across Planet are landmarks 1-8. If you have a land or naval unit
on a landmark, you may read its associated .txt file. You may use the scenario
editor to carry out instructions listed within. Only follow the instructions in each once per game.


Some changes:
Specialists changed slightly.
Tech tree rearranged slightly.
SE settings slightly changed.
High-powered weapons increased in cost.
Pulse armor removed because it's stupid and the AIs misuse it.
Artillery damage increased.
Copters substantially slowed.
Ships slightly sped up.
Certain special abilities are allowed on more units.
Dissociative Wave costs 50% more. Blink Displacer costs 4 times as much.
Lowered maintenance for Subsea Trunkline, Holo Theater, and Paradise Garden.
Increased maintenance for Hab Complex and Hab Dome.
Satellite and Ascent to Transcendence build costs increased.
Mining platforms give +2 minerals before Adv Ecological Engineering, and +3 after.
Mines do not lower nutrient production.

[Darsnan]

Scenario Name: Challenge Scenario: Things that go Thump in the night
SMAC/ SMAX: SMAX
Author: Blake
Date of original posting: 10/30/05
Original host site: Apolyton

It's a scary post-apocalyptic world.

Right wing fundamentalists have inherited the earth. "Wait" you say, weren't they supposed to ascend to heaven or something? Well… you should see the other guy!

Actually, you'll be playing the other guy...

This scenario takes place on the Map of Earth, native life and raising land are disabled (the jungles have interiors full of fungus to make you do some clearing). Further note that you get the AI no drones thing allowing you to forgo police or run FM early. Don't feel bad about exploiting this, Miriam has +8 police among other bonuses .

Miriam has 3 very strong cores, one in the USA. Another at the bottom of South Africa. A 3rd in Australia... each core has it's own HQ.

The other factions are all playable:
(They all start with an extra Colony Pod and Former)

The Gaians start in Canada, they have no meatshield between them and the thumpers. They have a rubbish start too, I mean, Canada? No jungle for the Gaians!
Difficulty: Unholy Hard.

The Peace Keepers have a nice desert in North Africa, they have the honor of being an ablative meatshield for other factions.
Difficulty: Extremely Hard.

The University starts in Russia, with no special terrain but lots of it to expand into. They wont face the full brunt of Miriam’s attacks due to the Peacekeepers and Hive.
Difficulty: Hard.

The Hive starts in China, it's a very nice start and if you hurry you can even choke off the African Believers with a well placed base.
Difficulty: Moderate.

The Morganites start in South America; they have jungle to expand into and the Spartans as an ablative shield. Of course the Spartan AI can't be relied on to hold off the Believers for long so they'll need some serious propping up.
Difficulty: Moderate.

The Spartans start at the top of South America; they have jungle to expand into and can choke off the USA Believers. They share the jungle with Morgan. Difficulty: Moderate.


Just because it's so easy to kill a giant rabid Miriam it's best to play with some self-imposed rules too:
1) No abusing crawler upgrade cash-in.
2) No reverse engineering probe teams.
3) No SE quickies or other blatant exploits/cheats like multiple drops.

Kill Miriam with HONOR!

[Darsnan]

Scenario Name: Summer Solstice 2005 AI Challenge
SMAC/ SMAX: SMAX
Author: Chaos Theory
Date of original posting: 6/21/05
Original host site: Apolyton

Basic instructions: put all the files except the .pcx files in a scenario subdirectory; put the .pcx files in the main Alpha Centauri directory.

The situation: You, as Morgan, gathered your coterie first, composed of the best and brightest accountants, lawyers, merchants, brokers, and their ilk. You found a prime location to crash land upon, and promptly set up shop. Business is good, of course, but the addition of some dumb money would cause it to boom! Time to rip someone off! The sweetest form of victory would be economic, but any victory is victory.

Changes:
More potent artillery
Ships move significantly faster
3-Pulse and 8-Pulse armors cheaper (cost of 4 and 9 respectively)
Noncombat units can be AAA
Probes can be amphibious
Fundamentalist and Power boosted
AI boosted quite a bit
Mines don't lower nutrient production
And more!

Rules: No stealing the Ascent to Transcendence! That is, you may not build it if an AI possesses the Voice of Planet. If an AI builds the VoP, you can still conquer, gas, PB, or otherwise pry that SP out of their grasp, and then transcend. No peeking at the faction files before giving the scenario a few tries! Anything else legitimate in a PBEM is fine in this scenario - no cheating, but exploits like crawlers and crawler upgrades are fine.

Any problems with the scenario - post here and I'll look into them. Too easy? I can tweak it. Too hard? Play it again!