Is there any way to get more than 7 factions at a time?

[dnzrx]

I heard whispers that it is possible.

Are they true?

[YiLong]

I searched this a while ago, and the answer is unfortunately no. Not unless you want to reprogram the entire planetary council thing. Would have been nice though... Let's hope EA relinquishes franchise rights, and we see a SMAC 2 in the works.

[bdanv]

for the moment, the answer is no.
however, scient may do something about it when he finishes with the bug fixing.

anyway, where do you hear those whispers, dnzrx?

[vyeh]

I heard whispers that it is possible.

Are they true?

At the bug fix project (see my sig), we've discussed it. I remembered answering a post somewhere from someone interested in having up to 15 factions. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a thread in the bug fix project that addressed it, so I created one: Having more than 7 factions. I have copied all three posts in this thread into that thread, so we don't overlook the interest. (Of course, you are welcome to post additional requests, but it isn't necessary to repost your original post.)

To answer your question, it may be possible, but it has to be done through a patch to SMAC/X rather than within the existing SMAC/X. Part of our consideration to include a fix of this nature (we consider them mods rather than bugs) is whether there would be any controversy and the difficulty of implementing it.

I searched this a while ago, and the answer is unfortunately no. Not unless you want to reprogram the entire planetary council thing. Would have been nice though... Let's hope EA relinquishes franchise rights, and we see a SMAC 2 in the works.

I'd like to hear your thoughts on reprogramming the entire planetary council. Why would you want EA to relinquish franchise rights? Do you think another company would be more likely to do a SMAC 2?

While I remain pessimistic about a SMAC 2, I believe that an increase in the player base might marginally increase the possibility. We have seen more help requests from people who have purchased the Sold Out Software re-release of SMAC and SMAX.

We hope that the patch might encourage former players to resume the game. Finally (and this is a crazy thought on my part), I hope to see the development of a fanatical following of SMAC that could be used to sell EA or whoever on the idea of a sequel.

One thing that has intrigued me is the number of downloads of the pre-release version of the patch. The patch project began at 'poly in February of 2009. Unfortunately, the management of 'poly would not allow the patch to be posted.

In June of 2009, scient and I decided to post the March 2009 version on CGN (see my sig). I did not do much publicity (maybe discreet posts at 'poly and CFC). The pre-release version was downloaded over 360 times in less than a year. This is significantly more than the number of unique posters at the four major SMAC forums in the same time period.

I can only conclude that there has been major word of mouth. And there may be a lot of players who are not interested in the SMAC forums, but are interested in patching their games (and who might be interested in a sequel).

I'd be interested to know how you learned about SMAC and where you bought your game.

for the moment, the answer is no?
however, scient may do something about it when he finishes with the bug fixing.

Our priority structure is a little more refined then doing modifications after fixing the bugs. If we find that there are still bugs that cause crashes to desktops or prevents the game from loading, those are top priority. However, we have released some changes that did not fix a bug but were intended to give modders more flexibility.

One example is that we increased the maximum number of units from 2047 or 2048. We had reports that some player were encountering the limit in long-running games on big maps. The fix required changing one value and we couldn't see anyone complaining about more units, so it was done.

I hope you will consider downloading the patch. You can download the patch at WPC where no registration is required. You can also download them at CGN from the public files section without registering, but WPC is so much more pleasant and you can read the changelog while waiting for the patch to download. You can also download it from the CGN forums area but registration is required.

I also hope you will tell your SMAC playing friends about the patch.

This has been a very long answer to a short question.

[YiLong]

I'd like to hear your thoughts on reprogramming the entire planetary council. Why would you want EA to relinquish franchise rights? Do you think another company would be more likely to do a SMAC 2?

I'd be interested to know how you learned about SMAC and where you bought your game.

I don't really know much about modding SMAC, my experience of mod work is limited to FPS games, and only then in level design and 3D work. No programming skills whatsoever. It was just something I heard in another thread when I went searching for more that 7 factions. (Actually, this was one of the very first things I searched on Apolyton)

And about EA... maybe I didn't do my research fully, have they finally bough out Firaxis? I heard rumours of this a while ago, but don't know how it developed.

As for the other question, I had always known about SMAC, but had never played it before (was playing Civ back at the release time) I'm from the UK though, and many shops stock Sold Out Software games. I have bought many classic games at nice low prices from them, but this has to be my favourite. I brought it to China with me because I knew the PC I would get here would not run the games I play on my rig back home. After having played for a few months I'm now urging my friends to go out and get a copy.

A great game, and it has aged well. Love the tactical depth it has when compared to Civ.

[vyeh]

I don't really know much about modding SMAC, my experience of mod work is limited to FPS games, and only then in level design and 3D work. No programming skills whatsoever. It was just something I heard in another thread when I went searching for more that 7 factions. (Actually, this was one of the very first things I searched on Apolyton)

And about EA... maybe I didn't do my research fully, have they finally bough out Firaxis? I heard rumours of this a while ago, but don't know how it developed.

EA failed in a bid to acquire, through hostile takeover, Take Two Interactive, the parent of Firaxis.

As for the other question, I had always known about SMAC, but had never played it before (was playing Civ back at the release time) I'm from the UK though, and many shops stock Sold Out Software games. I have bought many classic games at nice low prices from them, but this has to be my favourite. I brought it to China with me because I knew the PC I would get here would not run the games I play on my rig back home. After having played for a few months I'm now urging my friends to go out and get a copy.

A great game, and it has aged well. Love the tactical depth it has when compared to Civ.

The nice thing about SMAC is its tactical depth. You might be interested in Sid Meier's remarks about the origin of SMAC.

[Blake00]

At the bug fix project (see my sig), we've discussed it. I remembered answering a post somewhere from someone interested in having up to 15 factions. Unfortunately, I couldn't find a thread in the bug fix project that addressed it, so I created one: Having more than 7 factions. I have copied all three posts in this thread into that thread, so we don't overlook the interest. (Of course, you are welcome to post additional requests, but it isn't necessary to repost your original post.)

To answer your question, it may be possible, but it has to be done through a patch to SMAC/X rather than within the existing SMAC/X. Part of our consideration to include a fix of this nature (we consider them mods rather than bugs) is whether there would be any controversy and the difficulty of implementing it.

Unfortunately your link has stopped working mate. I'm curious to know if you guys ever got anywhere and tried to increase the player count above 7?