I Want to Play Alpha Centauri

[AngryEddy]

I've never played any civ games before, can anyone give me a good tutorial or teach me how to play this shit? It seems very convoluted.

 

[Sranchammer]

Get good.

 

[laclongquan]

Codex LP of Alpha Centaury http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/lets-play-sid-meiers-alpha-centauri.91661/




And turn on the Help and Tutorial options.

 

[Spectacle]

Just play on the easiest difficulty and learn as you go. You get enough bonuses at that level that you can recover from the mistakes you'll inevitably make. The ingame hints are also quite useful on your first playthrough.

 

[Zarniwoop]

Easiest difficulty, tutorial messages on. This game really holds your hand and explains everything in detail the first time you encounter it. Well maybe not by modern moran standards but still, you should be able to figure it out.

 

[codexian reject]

Play vanilla, expansion spoils more than it improves. Particularily, it fucks up game balance, atmosphere and storyline backdrop.
Expansion is a lame mod, made by people ho didn't really get what the appeal of the original was. Also, for the first time player, vanilla should be easier ( "cleaner" ) to get into.
You have .exe files for both, vanilla and expansion versions available, even if you have Crossfire expansion installed.

Edit:
If you've never played civ, or 4x game before, then Civ 2 is the most newbie friendly imo, if you don't mind shitty graphics.
SMAC is of course the best of them all and it's not really much more complex than the other Civ games and certainly less complex than many popular space 4x games.

 

[Jaedar]

Like people have said, just fire it up with tutorial messages and easiest difficulity. Don't be afraid to automate workers after you get a couple.
That was how I first played it, and it was the first civ game I play too.

 

[codexian reject]

Some more advices:

If your goal is to learn the game quickly, not to win on your first try - choose medium difficulty ( with equal rules for player and AIs ), or one level below, if you're really struggling to survive.
The easiest difficulty would teach you bad habits, since it's so forgiving that you don't have to worry about happiness and other important mechanics at all.
Play a lot of quick games on the smallest map size. Peacekeepers faction is the most newbie friendly and easy to grow in any circumstances.
Don't automate anything imo, instead analyse terrain types, improvements, buildings and try to make informed decisions about everything.
On medium difficulty and smallest map you won't have enough bases and units for micro to kill your enjoyment.
Even if your decisions will turn out to be ill informed, you'll learn from them once you'll identify the mistakes.

I've learned playing Civ games without manual and english skill in my early teens, like most codexers I guess.
It's a casual franchise for everyone not some hardcore strategy and as said SMAC is not much more complex, just a bit less intuitive due to s-f setting.

Just keep trying and skills you'll develop over time will translate nicely onto the whole 4x genre.
The fun comes from figuring out the system, once you play it really well it's not as fun and mysterious any more, I envy you.

 

[mastroego]

First, yes you're a bit late to the party, but not TOO late for an increase in your personal status .

Second, here's the most comprehensive guide ever:
http://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/198636-sid-meiers-alien-crossfire/faqs/8430

 

[AngryEddy]

Codex LP of Alpha Centaury http://www.rpgcodex.net/forums/index.php?threads/lets-play-sid-meiers-alpha-centauri.91661/




And turn on the Help and Tutorial options.

That first video was incredibly helpful.

 

[laclongquan]

Glad to hear that.

 

[laclongquan]

THat gamefag guide is a great one, but mostly for indepth player. A total newbie should learn and experience things for himself. A firsttime Gaian is very nice. Ditto with Morganite.

 

[mastroego]

Yes, I know, I point to it because even skimming through it will give an idea of the deepness of the game.
I am a newbie myself after all this years, if you consider the level of mastery that can be attained.


One thing I don't see often said about SMAC: it's one of the few games (or the only one?) where you can decide how research works.
You can have directed technology research, which a skilled player can optimize to his builds.
You can have "overseen" research, where you just select the fields you'd want to focus on.
Or you can have total random research, where you just fund your lab rats and hope for them to come up with something useful.

Needless to say, this adds an entire dimension of its own to the game.

 

[AngryEddy]

Can anyone explain how secret projects work and when I should build them? Also, how do I cancel units from the visual build queue [not the text build queue] and from them automatically being built even when my governors are turned off.

 

[Destroid]

Can anyone explain how secret projects work and when I should build them? Also, how do I cancel units from the visual build queue [not the text build queue] and from them automatically being built even when my governors are turned off.

Secret projects are like super buildings (many of them have global effects) and only one can exist in the world, whoever builds it first keeps it (unless you capture the city). When (and if) you should build them is up to your needs and strategy. The in game encyclopedia in all civ games is pretty good and will tell you all about them.

 

[Trash]

Play vanilla, do get the fanpatch, lose a couple of times against the AI, rtfm and have fun. Voila.

 

[codexian reject]

You'll find the latest versions of the patches here: http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?action=downloads;cat=2 ( scroll down for fanpatches)

SMAC mean vanilla version, SMAX mean expansion version

 

[catfood]

SMAX is junk, don't bother with it. Or at the very least if you simply must play the X version play with the original factions. The ones that come with the expansion are either cheap copy-cats of those from the original or completely overpowered and broken.

 

[codexian reject]

One more tip, to run the game with desktop resolution - edit file:
Alpha Centauri.ini

add line:
DirectDraw=0

under:
[Alpha Centauri]

Edit:
One more. In game, in preferences, enable a pause at the end of turn.
With default setting, it's too easy to waste a turn by advancing to the next one, without making sure you've done everything you wanted.

Yes, this thread made me install SMAC again.

 

[AngryEddy]

The more workers I have, that increases build speed right?

 

[Zarniwoop]

The more workers I have, that increases build speed right?

Depends on what tile you allocate them to and what improvements you have on that tile. The more total production a colony has, the faster it builds. Production is measured in minerals in SMAC. So as the old saying goes: WE REQUIRE MORE MINERALS.

 

[AngryEddy]

For anyone just getting in to the game like me, this guy has one of the best, if not THE best guide out there for the basics [especially for things like where to build your base, tile worth, how to play each of the races]:

http://www.land-of-kain.de/docs/smac/

 

[laclongquan]

One more tip, to run the game with desktop resolution - edit file:
Alpha Centauri.ini

add line:
DirectDraw=0

under:
[Alpha Centauri]

Edit:
One more. In game, in preferences, enable a pause at the end of turn.
With default setting, it's too easy to waste a turn by advancing to the next one, without making sure you've done everything you wanted.

Yes, this thread made me install SMAC again.

Create my smac-at-desktop-rez.txt

 

[Johannes]

For anyone just getting in to the game like me, this guy has one of the best, if not THE best guide out there for the basics [especially for things like where to build your base, tile worth, how to play each of the races]:

http://www.land-of-kain.de/docs/smac/

He's clearly not a too good player, take all the strategic/tactical advice given there with a grain of salt.

 

[AngryEddy]

When should I start fucking around with the economy/science sliders?