Canon SMAC Story

[MysticWind]

I'm not writing a fanfic yet, but I'm going to release ideas I had for 14 factions. For the faction backgrounds, I wanted them to stay as close to the original game and storyline as possible, so it won't be too weird like many of the factions in networknode.org (Mantis-Aliens? A previously undiscovered tech group? CYBORG-ROBOTS?!?) So, what is considered canon? Michael Ely's story? The character profiles on Firaxis site? I heard that the characters' ranks are all mixed up between two sources, and there's all these little contradictions (having read Centauri Dawn, there's a part that refers to a Seven-Minute War, whilst in the character profiles there's a Twelve-Minute War). Those are little inconsistencies, true, but which sources do you consider to be the original storyline?

Also, I don't feel like going through 21 pages to find the good stories on this board. Are there any good ones you can recommend me right away? And about the Beyond Alpha Centauri story, what's the background about how all the factions got into space?

[Frankychan]

Good to see another Apolytoner has found the AC-Fiction forum.

Here's where you can find the top stories relating to SMAC

HERE YOU GO

From there, you can select the stories you want to read.

Joe is seen as the "epic" of SMAC around here, and it's got rave reviews. I think it got a 5-star rating.

Kass, Mr. Prez/Crimson Sunrise, Hydro, History Guy and Googlie are all good authors as well. (the danged site wouldn't let me rate their stories 5-stars! )

Since I'm one of the contributing members of BAC, I'll try and find you the history of how we all got to space.

......I'll let someone else try and describe what BAC is....

[Frankychan]

Ok, I think you are better off reading the BAC: Datalinks thread. The first page has the individual factions timelines....there may be some discrepancies from the timeline and the story, but we're all human after all.

[Sovereign]

Welcome! I'm one of the BAC authors.

Check out the Datalinks like my buddy Franky said. Then try reading a little BAC. If you're lost, feel free to ask me questions!

[Mr. President]

You can post in the BAC discussion thread too, y'know. I think we scare a lot of people, but we don't bite.

If you ever get an idea for a SMAC story, don't hesitate to post it up! We like reading things.

[Sovereign]

We need more SMAC Fiction authors.

After all, there could be another Alinestra Covelia (author of the acclaimed "Joe") lurking out there.

[Frankychan]

Dang it you guys, join the Poly Storywriters Guild!

But like my fellow BAC authors said, it may seem intimidating because BAC is pretty dang huge, but we're all pretty good with accepting people.

.......although there have been some minor conflicts as my good friend Crimson Sunrise knows

[Mr. President]

I'm sure our friend will learn about that soon enough.

[Sovereign]

Heh Heh. I know exactly what you mean, Crimson and Franky...

Mellian.

[Mellian]

Originally posted by Sovereign
Heh Heh. I know exactly what you mean, Crimson and Franky...

Mellian.

say my name, and i may just appear

anyway, i still feel sorry about all that nonsense.

-mellian

[Sovereign]

...Jaw drops...

Mellian , back after all this time?

[Mellian]

oh come on, just because i haven't posted in a while doesn't mean i don't lurk

-mellian

[Alinestra Covelia]

Welcome! It's good to see new blood in our tired old veins...

Generally speaking, the "Journey to Alpha Centauri" story is seen as canonical. Michael Ely then went on to write three books, which resulted in death/incarceration for some or all of the faction leaders (Yang and Santiago) so because of this limiting factor, they're not really considered 'canon'.

As for my fanfic "Joe", I tried to keep it as close as possible to the "Journey" story, and to the excerpt found in the SMAX game manual. Don't feel you have to write canonically, by all means - but if you do adopt the events background from the Ely short story, it does save you from having to reinvent the wheel.

I originally started writing in order to make a political statement. That sort of got lost in the middle of the story when I realized I was having fun. Judging from your flag by your username, SMAC fiction forums may be a good place for you to put out a persuasive argument, hidden in the form of a story!

(At one point, my username flag was the PRC flag.)

[Mellian]

i wouldn't say i am new....just an old voice that hasn't spoken in a while.

-mellian

[Mellian]

for me personally, when i get involve in some multi-author story or make some half attempt at writing some SMAC/X fic, which tend to not go all that far and never gets posted.....i try to keep true to the characteristics of the leaders and factions portrayed in the SMAC/SMAX official stories, their profiles and descriptions and in the game.

then as for the story, how things will result depends on the locations of the factions, who they are neighboured with and etc...and then also depends on the kind of plot you try to make. like, each play of the game is always different, like they are alternate realities of Chiron and what happens.

-mellian