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Announcing! Aldebaran 1.beta.1 (prerelease notes)
[Edit: It's months later, and everything appears to be 'finished', as in, we have a stable public beta, discussed here. I'll belatedly add the more nitty-gritty details of the game mechanics at the end of this thread for perusal. Keep in mind that the background story continues to develop (though we have had the plot for awhile) and that the project as a whole is still very 'open', so feedback is much appreciated, and can go in either thread or to email at alde_baron@yahoo.com. ]
Well, I did warn everyone that I'd be posting over here like mad..at least I'm not pushing too many threads around by my repeated new threads...
Whoo Hooo! It's done! Well Sorta!
Structurally, my new version of SMAC is finished!
I'm variously calling it 'Smac 2' (which is just plain wrong..that's for Firaxis to birth), 'Welcome to the Galactic Coalition, enjoy your submission!' (too long winded) and 'Smack 1.beta.1: Aldebaran'.
I've been wrestling with whether or not to post some pre-release notes. The reason to withold them would be to increase the sense of wonder for the new player. Going in cold to this game is going to be very interesting! The reason to post a few notes is just to share my excitement at getting this far and test the waters to see if there will be available beta-testers. I've already been having a pre-release party while I run auto-games to test the AI on it's new planet. Here are a few notes about things to look for in the beta game, which I'll be releasing in 24-36 hours. Basically the hard part is done. All that's left is the fun part: flavor text, well, all the text, and creating a scenario or two.
Game Notes (Read at the risk of spoiling the surprises!):
0. Added a bit of humor...that would go if it were an 'official' release, but I'm not a game company, eh?
1. Tech Tree now a Tech Shrubbery! I totally dismantled and rebuilt it.
2. Socio Economic Table completely redone. Gone are all the familiar choices. Gone are Future Techs. Instead, there are four categories for the itenerant faction despot. Propoganda, Economy, Industrial Protocols, and Industrial Focus. You'll see.
3. Two Armor-Weapon Branches to the Tech-shrub. One is easy to go up quickly..the other uses planet itself in your weapons and armors, at the cost that it's slower to develop and never becomes quite as powerful.
4. Cruisers and Foils have flip-flopped. Hovertanks are easier to get than planes. Copters are now 'Auto-Defense Units'. Movement rates and carrying capacities are a bit different overall.
5. Some restrictions are easier to get to, but don't appear linearly.
6. Sattellites are gone. The atmosphere of Aldebaran One is quite unfriendly. People mostly live and work underground. But they have developed (or do in your game) 'Matter Transmission'. I was tired of trying to imagine what benefit growing food in space would give.
.What were satellites are now varying facilities for nut-min-energy extraction...all underground. ODP's protect them...can't change the mechanics, eh?
7. The infamous Supply Crawler has it's own dead end branch of the tech tree. It's a little harder to get to, and the AI bypasses the branch for the most part. In fact, there are a few dead-ends on the shrub. This is to allow the AI (or player) to bypass techs that the human might be able to use well in exchange for researching something IT uses well. Also, some powerful Secret Projects require their own tech to study.
8. Costs of facilities and SP's rebalanced (I hope).
9. Terraforming abilities appear here and there, and are broadened in the ocean (thanks Alexander III for the 'test' of that with the Hydromechanics Patch).
10. Way too many other things!
The Scenarios: Very (VERY) breifly
1. You, and a few other representatives of humanity, leave Chiron during the great Chiron Wars. You've contacted another humanoid (actually Homo Sapiens Galacticus) faction that has occupied and expanded in another region of space. Through your communiques you've learned that Aldebaran sports a habitible planet and you head there. Upon landing with your minimal supplies you discover that this other 'race' has already settled down and are prepping Aldebaran One for immanent colonisation. You don't know why, but you get the feeling that they have some strong reasons to be moving here from elsewhere in the galaxy. Things turn sour quickly and you and the other Chironians must attempt to either co-habit with the Galactics or bump them off the planet..they don't seem to want to compromise. Additionally, The Galactics have spawned their own second faction of bounty-hunters and malcontents who spurn the Galactic Coalition and might be potential allies for you.
2. Without spoiling the plot, Galactic Colonization begins abruptly and you meet a new race .
3. For some reason
you have to return to Chiron, which is one big PB crater. Good luck! This third scenario is pretty tough. Planetmind has had enough! Your destiny is looking thin..there is pressure from an outside source go go the way of the dinosaur, and there is pressure from your closest ally, planetmind, to give up your humanity to preserve it's endurance.
Anticipating Questions:
0. Need a PC user to test the mod soon[Edit: Done. with a tweak, works fine]. It works on mac, but want to be sure it works cross platform ok.
1. I'll post here again with a link to download Aldebaran as soon as I feel it's passed it's...
2. Beta Testing.
I need a few hardy volunteers to leave Chiron and go to Aldebaran to test everything. Sign up on this thread...I will email you the game....so post your email. I'm looking for about 4-6 people tops.. The only thing I ask is that if you do Beta Testing, that you give me feedback here, rather than in email..that'll help us all think linearaly instead of repeatedly.
3. Yes, I'll take suggestions! Post here.
4. Yes, I'll need art eventually! If you have those talents, please let me know!
5. Yes, I'm sending a copy to Firaxis. I don't want any trouble with copyright laws, and I want them to have access to everything immediately. My greatest hope is that they pursue a SMAC 2. I don't care if my ideas are included or not. I love what they did with Smac, and Aldebaran should not be seen as a 'fix' for Smac. Sure there are problems with Smac, but this isn't a comment on that. This is simply a testimony to the greatest thing they did with Smac....using the alphatext and factiontext. Doh, and of course I'm not going to sell it! In the end only a few of us will every play this, and that's fine with me.
6. Do not email me unless you are :an artist, a very generous one!, I have emailed you first with the game, you can't access the forum for some reason, you have something 'private' to say. I don't like the Private Message system on the forum..it's slow..so use email for that, if you need to do so.
7. I'm not going to answer questions about how the game works. Let's just wait until the Beta is done.
8. Hopefully I'll be working on a 'Mod-makers manual' with Tokamak and whoever else can contribute. We'll see.
9. Sorry for all these stipulations. It's not like there are many people on the creation forums right now. It's just that I like to anticipate things if I can.
10. This is a SMAC variant, not Smax. I've no idea about Smax as I can't use it on my Mac. I'd like to make some additions for Smax, but that's hard from this position.
Whew!
I'm sure I'll think of more things to post, but this should do for now. Sign up for Beta testing, and look for the final 'Beta' soon!
-Smack
Well, I did warn everyone that I'd be posting over here like mad..at least I'm not pushing too many threads around by my repeated new threads...
Whoo Hooo! It's done! Well Sorta!Structurally, my new version of SMAC is finished!
I'm variously calling it 'Smac 2' (which is just plain wrong..that's for Firaxis to birth), 'Welcome to the Galactic Coalition, enjoy your submission!' (too long winded) and 'Smack 1.beta.1: Aldebaran'.
I've been wrestling with whether or not to post some pre-release notes. The reason to withold them would be to increase the sense of wonder for the new player. Going in cold to this game is going to be very interesting! The reason to post a few notes is just to share my excitement at getting this far and test the waters to see if there will be available beta-testers. I've already been having a pre-release party while I run auto-games to test the AI on it's new planet. Here are a few notes about things to look for in the beta game, which I'll be releasing in 24-36 hours. Basically the hard part is done. All that's left is the fun part: flavor text, well, all the text, and creating a scenario or two.
Game Notes (Read at the risk of spoiling the surprises!):
0. Added a bit of humor...that would go if it were an 'official' release, but I'm not a game company, eh?
1. Tech Tree now a Tech Shrubbery! I totally dismantled and rebuilt it.
2. Socio Economic Table completely redone. Gone are all the familiar choices. Gone are Future Techs. Instead, there are four categories for the itenerant faction despot. Propoganda, Economy, Industrial Protocols, and Industrial Focus. You'll see.
3. Two Armor-Weapon Branches to the Tech-shrub. One is easy to go up quickly..the other uses planet itself in your weapons and armors, at the cost that it's slower to develop and never becomes quite as powerful.
4. Cruisers and Foils have flip-flopped. Hovertanks are easier to get than planes. Copters are now 'Auto-Defense Units'. Movement rates and carrying capacities are a bit different overall.
5. Some restrictions are easier to get to, but don't appear linearly.
6. Sattellites are gone. The atmosphere of Aldebaran One is quite unfriendly. People mostly live and work underground. But they have developed (or do in your game) 'Matter Transmission'. I was tired of trying to imagine what benefit growing food in space would give.
.What were satellites are now varying facilities for nut-min-energy extraction...all underground. ODP's protect them...can't change the mechanics, eh?7. The infamous Supply Crawler has it's own dead end branch of the tech tree. It's a little harder to get to, and the AI bypasses the branch for the most part. In fact, there are a few dead-ends on the shrub. This is to allow the AI (or player) to bypass techs that the human might be able to use well in exchange for researching something IT uses well. Also, some powerful Secret Projects require their own tech to study.
8. Costs of facilities and SP's rebalanced (I hope).
9. Terraforming abilities appear here and there, and are broadened in the ocean (thanks Alexander III for the 'test' of that with the Hydromechanics Patch).
10. Way too many other things!
The Scenarios: Very (VERY) breifly
1. You, and a few other representatives of humanity, leave Chiron during the great Chiron Wars. You've contacted another humanoid (actually Homo Sapiens Galacticus) faction that has occupied and expanded in another region of space. Through your communiques you've learned that Aldebaran sports a habitible planet and you head there. Upon landing with your minimal supplies you discover that this other 'race' has already settled down and are prepping Aldebaran One for immanent colonisation. You don't know why, but you get the feeling that they have some strong reasons to be moving here from elsewhere in the galaxy. Things turn sour quickly and you and the other Chironians must attempt to either co-habit with the Galactics or bump them off the planet..they don't seem to want to compromise. Additionally, The Galactics have spawned their own second faction of bounty-hunters and malcontents who spurn the Galactic Coalition and might be potential allies for you.
2. Without spoiling the plot, Galactic Colonization begins abruptly and you meet a new race .
3. For some reason
you have to return to Chiron, which is one big PB crater. Good luck! This third scenario is pretty tough. Planetmind has had enough! Your destiny is looking thin..there is pressure from an outside source go go the way of the dinosaur, and there is pressure from your closest ally, planetmind, to give up your humanity to preserve it's endurance.Anticipating Questions:
0. Need a PC user to test the mod soon[Edit: Done. with a tweak, works fine]. It works on mac, but want to be sure it works cross platform ok.
1. I'll post here again with a link to download Aldebaran as soon as I feel it's passed it's...
2. Beta Testing.
I need a few hardy volunteers to leave Chiron and go to Aldebaran to test everything. Sign up on this thread...I will email you the game....so post your email. I'm looking for about 4-6 people tops.. The only thing I ask is that if you do Beta Testing, that you give me feedback here, rather than in email..that'll help us all think linearaly instead of repeatedly.3. Yes, I'll take suggestions! Post here.
4. Yes, I'll need art eventually! If you have those talents, please let me know!
5. Yes, I'm sending a copy to Firaxis. I don't want any trouble with copyright laws, and I want them to have access to everything immediately. My greatest hope is that they pursue a SMAC 2. I don't care if my ideas are included or not. I love what they did with Smac, and Aldebaran should not be seen as a 'fix' for Smac. Sure there are problems with Smac, but this isn't a comment on that. This is simply a testimony to the greatest thing they did with Smac....using the alphatext and factiontext. Doh, and of course I'm not going to sell it! In the end only a few of us will every play this, and that's fine with me.
6. Do not email me unless you are :an artist, a very generous one!, I have emailed you first with the game, you can't access the forum for some reason, you have something 'private' to say. I don't like the Private Message system on the forum..it's slow..so use email for that, if you need to do so.
7. I'm not going to answer questions about how the game works. Let's just wait until the Beta is done.
8. Hopefully I'll be working on a 'Mod-makers manual' with Tokamak and whoever else can contribute. We'll see.
9. Sorry for all these stipulations. It's not like there are many people on the creation forums right now. It's just that I like to anticipate things if I can.
10. This is a SMAC variant, not Smax. I've no idea about Smax as I can't use it on my Mac. I'd like to make some additions for Smax, but that's hard from this position.
Whew!
I'm sure I'll think of more things to post, but this should do for now. Sign up for Beta testing, and look for the final 'Beta' soon!-Smack
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