4X The Unsurpassed Brian Reynolds' Alpha Centauri thread

[The Brazilian Slaughter]

Looking at the map I posted, I am really astounded at how the Morganites got so strong. Seems like the answer is Monsoon Jungle, but it makes me wonder why they took over 150 years to find me. Could be the high native level resulting in lots of big blocks, like Fungal Towers everywhere - I had to make fuckloads of Scouts to kill all the fungal towers nearby, and generally protect formers and pods for colonization.

Lol if the Morganites so much glance wrongly my way, I'm fucking dead. Better hope they don't have Impact Guns yet. I can't beat them economically so I will have to beat them industrially.

Interestingly this is my fave resolution (1366x768) even in my full HD monitor because it gives good map visilbility while leaving leader faces and that futurist lower panel big enough in my screen to help my immersion. Thanks for the tip about crashing.

Really? Curious. I wonder if you don't get crashing because your monitor is Full HD, whereas mine is just HD.

Is this value a universal limit (AKA all factions bases summed up together) or individual for each faction? The default being 50, I suspect it's individual. I dropped it in my game to 30 to mitigate the ICS/infinite city sprawl syndrome, but I don't know if it worked. In my game in Normal map size most factions have between 12 to 25 bases.

Individual I think.

Agreed. Those mini wonders were cool.

Other thing Civ 4 does better IMO is technology trading - you can only trade techs you researched yourself. While the verosimiltude of this is debatable, I find it's effects on gameplay more interesting as it makes the choices of what to research more impactful, and avoids the banal free flowing of tech that ultimately happen in SMAC.

Ah yes, No Tech Brokering rule.
Another possible alternative would be to take a page from Paradox games:
- Rather than have tech trading, have "Blueprint Trading", in which you get "Blueprints" which make researching a technology go faster. So you can't "sell tech", only the means to research it faster yourself.
- Tech Transfer through proximity, in which a technology would get cheaper/research faster if any neighboors have it, and the more neighboors, the faster one does.

I've played two games, one to the end with cheap early tech OFF and other to midgame with cheap tech ON. I've found research progress too slow in the former and too fast on the later. In the later it was so fast I couldn't differentiate it from vanilla (but it's some time since I played vanilla so I could be mistaken). I feel my ideal spot would be a middle ground between cheap tech ON and OFF options.

I play with the vanilla option "Stagnant Tech" OFF though. Maybe it's necessary to turn it on too for "cheap early tech" to become this supposed middle ground?

I am playing with Stagnant Tech On, perhaps that is better?

Thinker's Stagnant Tech is also stronger, and adjustable in the ini too.

 

[Average Manatee]

AI with monsoon jungle always grows super strong for some reason. I'm not sure why it so consistently dominates thanks to this, especially for morgon who caps out quickly anyway. I guess its mostly a momentum thing?

 

[Silva]

Supposedly, Thinker mod on custom map breaks the Monsoon jungle in smaller chunks spread around. Didn't notice it yet but seems a good solution.

 

[Hag]

Remembered I drew this piece long ago, dedicated to my sister's playstyle :

 

[JBro]

https://www.gamingonlinux.com/2023/09/sid-meiers-alpha-centauri-open-source-remake/

 

[Induktio]

Revisiting some older comments here. Currently it seems Thinker project is in the "smaller features and bugfixes" phase since I feel like most of the large features are already implemented.

- Rather than have tech trading, have "Blueprint Trading", in which you get "Blueprints" which make researching a technology go faster. So you can't "sell tech", only the means to research it faster yourself.

It might be hard to implement since we're dealing with binary patching. Also some people might consider it as too non-vanilla.

- Tech Transfer through proximity, in which a technology would get cheaper/research faster if any neighboors have it, and the more neighboors, the faster one does.

This is actually already done in the new tech formula feature. Any factions with commlink that have the tech count for the purposes of extra discount for research, while allied or infiltrated factions count twice.

Supposedly, Thinker mod on custom map breaks the Monsoon jungle in smaller chunks spread around. Didn't notice it yet but seems a good solution.

Yes, but for this feature the options new_world_builder and modified_landmarks must be enabled. It is not implemented for the stock map generator, again mostly because the mod has options to the play the game with stock settings but just with the bugfixes/better AI.

At least I assume you're supposed to get 2 nutrients within your starting base limits. It seems to usually happen but not always. Also sometimes the nutrients have fungus on them which should probably be removed if the point is to give everyone a more balanced start. It also seems to never work for me when I play the Nautilus Pirates.

That is actually expected behavior for nutrient_bonus option since it's only "best effort" and not always guaranteed if the map generator cannot find an optimal location. Sea-based factions will never have extra nutriens on their start.

Induktio , I suggest tweaking the AI against this diplo option:

"Please drop the vendetta against my friend X"

..to which they usually respond

"So be it. As a personal favor to you I shall pledge Truce with X"

It's cheesy as fuck as the AI accepts it every time. I suggest making the AI charge an amount of credits based on it's relationship with the player to accept the request, and deny it altogether if the vendetta is considered a priority in it's strategy. Don't know if it's moddable, though.

It should be moddable by patching the dialogue code. I've already done some researching on that part of the code. Is this generally thought to be a significant exploit? I don't remember anyone else bringing this feature up before.

 

[codexian reject]

Anyone has the latest release of The Will to Power mod ?

There are no releases on github page and figuring out how to compile it too much effort ( not a programmer ), while alphacentauri2 is unavailable for some time.
From what I remember he was uploading releases on dropbox, so either please give me link to that dropbox, or upload the last one and link it if you have it, thanks.

 

[flyingjohn]

here are no releases on github page

Wtf is this then ?
https://github.com/tnevolin/thinker-doer/releases/tag/300

 

[Average Manatee]

Interesting mod. But

Crawlers are disabled. That solves tons of problems they create.

uhh, way to nuke probably the most defining strategic feature of the game. Plus crawlers are the only thing that counterbalances ICS.

 

[codexian reject]

Wtf is this then ?

I don't know a way around github webpage apparently and couldn't find releases tab, while the google search link to github releases page of the mod had error message.
Edit: Now I see, the link is on the right panel, I was missing it looking for a corner button, or a tab, facepalm.

Thanks.

Interesting mod. But

Crawlers are disabled. That solves tons of problems they create.

uhh, way to nuke probably the most defining strategic feature of the game. Plus crawlers are the only thing that counterbalances ICS.

It's one edit in alphax.txt file, you can disable 90% of the features either in the ini file, or in alphax.txt, to pick and choose, it's a gold mine of cool features you can tailor it any way you want.

 

[Induktio]

I'm not sure if WTP has ever posted any releases on dropbox. Maybe you meant Thinker Mod instead because the releases have always been available on dropbox. That's why Thinker's repo doesn't use the releases tab on github for binaries. The download link has always been on the readme page.

 

[oldbonebrown]

Is there a good mod to improve multiplayer? Bugfixes and the like
One of the worst things about MP is that there is no combat replay. Your units just disappear between turns and you have to read the log to see what happened.

 

[Blake00]

CivFanatics have put together a big tribute for the Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri's 25th anniversary covering some of the best fan projects going on at the moment including a stunning short film series, a fan remake of the game itself, and much more.

https://www.reddit.com/r/civfanatics/comments/1anb8uu/sid_meiers_alpha_centauri_25th_anniversary_fan/

SMAC Fan film


GLSMAC Fan remake


SMAC AI art

 

[Endemic]

GLSMAC

If they add a space combat layer and figure out how to change turn duration, I'm interested.

 

[laclongquan]

Hint for people with 1366x768 monitors:
The game crashes a fuckload in my default monitor resolution. I recommend DirectDraw=1, windowed=0 and using 1360x768 instead.

Interestingly this is my fave resolution (1366x768) even in my full HD monitor because it gives good map visilbility while leaving leader faces and that futurist lower panel big enough in my screen to help my immersion. Thanks for the tip about crashing.

Note:1360x768 work great with FNV as it allow screenshotting. 1366x768 create horrible SS.
Note for more halpless users like me in future: always put resolution as divisible by 8. 1366x768 just create headache~

 

[DesolationStone]

https://store.steampowered.com/app/2204130/Sid_Meiers_Alpha_Centauri_Planetary_Pack/

 

[Blake00]

Yup good to see the 'mysterious' EA issue behind Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri only being on GoG and not on Steam as finally been resolved... also good to see all the old Command & Conquer games finally on there too. Now if we could just get 2K to do the same with Civ1 & 2 lol...

 

[DesolationStone]

Yup good to see the 'mysterious' EA issue behind Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri only being on GoG and not on Steam as finally been resolved... also good to see all the old Command & Conquer games finally on there too. Now if we could just get 2K to do the same with Civ1 & 2 lol...

In a perfect world, they would all release the source code of all their games and then just let the community remastering them, like the glorious Freespace 2

 

[Space Satan]

I sometimes launch neural networks and type something like "screenshot of Alpha Centauri 2 if it would be released" and then sit and cry quietly in the corner

 

[Silva]

I see where you come from but if the glimpse at a future SMAC 2 is as bland as those maps, I prefer it stays dead.

 

[oldbonebrown]

What's the symbol Judaa Maar has on his forehead?

 

[DesolationStone]

What's the symbol Judaa Maar has on his forehead?

Chiron?

 

[Cael]

What's the symbol Judaa Maar has on his forehead?

He tripped over and hit his head on the Caretaker's rod. That is why the two factions are at war.

 

[oldbonebrown]

What's the symbol Judaa Maar has on his forehead?

Chiron?

What symbol are you thinking about exactly?


It's a little more clean here

 

[chuft]

Looks like the kind of thing stamped in red ink on product info leaflets in Chinese imports.