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Hello fellow players.
I am old time Alpha Centauri: Alien Crossfire lover and I hope there are many others on this forum too. That was and still is a most amazing development in Civilization series in my opinion. That is why I kept playing it for many years even after Civ 3+ were released. There were so many features introduced in it that it took me few years of learning curve just to get to every details of it.
After some time mastering it and learning best strategy I've started to predictably beaten AI on toughest level. I guess all seasoned players would agree that AI is not really competitive in this game. So after few dozen wins I lost interest and didn't play it for decades. Recently I tried out few mods to see if they make a difference. They do add some experience on the top. I've enjoyed checking them out for a while. Unfortunately, they do no modify the core problem with weak AI. So no much change in winning strategy.
Then I've discovered a Thinker mod that specifically targets AI improvement. This one brings a new amazing experience of real competition. AI there does not cheat. Instead its choices are tuned up better to ensure its faster and progressive development. Now I am under constant pressure from my computer opponents to the end of the game. They expand and develop at accelerated speed. Human player needs to use each and every benefit it can get, think every turn, and select best option just to keep up with AI. It is so intense that the mere survival through the mid game is not guaranteed even for seasoned player. Infinitely exciting! I could never imagine myself playing this old dusty game over and over again without even sing of stopping any time soon.
Along with trying out mods out there I was working on my own text mod to fix some imbalances in original game. You see, the amount of new features and concepts was so huge that it would take years just making all this stuff work together well. Apparently no one has that much time in game industry. We should thank them for rolling out such a great product and then some of us can keep carrying the torch trying to make it even better. At some point in my modding I realized that I am working on essentially same goal as Induktio with his Thinker mod: making game more competitive and variate and re-playable. I've teamed up with this mod and joined best of both worlds in the new The Will to Power mod. After about a year of work I believe it is in quite playable state now. Further modification and releases may follow but the core engine is as I want it to be.
Feel free to try it out. Here is the readme and the alpha centauri 2 topic where you can download it.
Readme
Download
The interesting thing about this mod is that I do not introduce any new experience of vision. My goal is to use the original game features developers left us and make them shine as they were designed to! Any comments and suggestions are exceptionally welcome. Play my mod and let me know if there is still some annoyance or imbalance that spoil the joy of experiencing this greatest game of all times! I'll try to make it happen time permitting.
I am old time Alpha Centauri: Alien Crossfire lover and I hope there are many others on this forum too. That was and still is a most amazing development in Civilization series in my opinion. That is why I kept playing it for many years even after Civ 3+ were released. There were so many features introduced in it that it took me few years of learning curve just to get to every details of it.
After some time mastering it and learning best strategy I've started to predictably beaten AI on toughest level. I guess all seasoned players would agree that AI is not really competitive in this game. So after few dozen wins I lost interest and didn't play it for decades. Recently I tried out few mods to see if they make a difference. They do add some experience on the top. I've enjoyed checking them out for a while. Unfortunately, they do no modify the core problem with weak AI. So no much change in winning strategy.
Then I've discovered a Thinker mod that specifically targets AI improvement. This one brings a new amazing experience of real competition. AI there does not cheat. Instead its choices are tuned up better to ensure its faster and progressive development. Now I am under constant pressure from my computer opponents to the end of the game. They expand and develop at accelerated speed. Human player needs to use each and every benefit it can get, think every turn, and select best option just to keep up with AI. It is so intense that the mere survival through the mid game is not guaranteed even for seasoned player. Infinitely exciting! I could never imagine myself playing this old dusty game over and over again without even sing of stopping any time soon.
Along with trying out mods out there I was working on my own text mod to fix some imbalances in original game. You see, the amount of new features and concepts was so huge that it would take years just making all this stuff work together well. Apparently no one has that much time in game industry. We should thank them for rolling out such a great product and then some of us can keep carrying the torch trying to make it even better. At some point in my modding I realized that I am working on essentially same goal as Induktio with his Thinker mod: making game more competitive and variate and re-playable. I've teamed up with this mod and joined best of both worlds in the new The Will to Power mod. After about a year of work I believe it is in quite playable state now. Further modification and releases may follow but the core engine is as I want it to be.
Feel free to try it out. Here is the readme and the alpha centauri 2 topic where you can download it.
Readme
Download
The interesting thing about this mod is that I do not introduce any new experience of vision. My goal is to use the original game features developers left us and make them shine as they were designed to! Any comments and suggestions are exceptionally welcome. Play my mod and let me know if there is still some annoyance or imbalance that spoil the joy of experiencing this greatest game of all times! I'll try to make it happen time permitting.