1. What is this "Police State Game"?
2. How do I join?
3. What is the premise for the game?
4. What are the gameplay settings?
What is this "Police State Game"?
The Alpha Centauri Police State Game (ACPSG) is a shared single player game, using the computer game "Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri" (SMAC). While normally one person plays the game, making all decisions for his or her faction, here a group of people - anyone who wants to join - has a say in what will be done in-game, by joining in discussions and by voting in polls.
Discussions and polls are organized by a select few government officials, who are appointed by a majority of participating members. Those government officials have to follow the will of the majority, by interpreting the discussions and polls. They then write ordersets, which are executed by a chosen person to effectively play the game.
There are several other such shared games (though using other computer games than SMAC) in progress here on Apolyton. They are called "democracy games" because as said above everyone has an equal say to decide what is done in-game. For this game we chose for the name "Police State Game" , because we are playing with the faction "the Human Hive", a faction with a totalitarian ideology and an aversion towards democracy.
How do I join?
To join, you need to create a new folder under your "scenarios" directory, called "ACPSG". Then you need to download a zip archive
here, containing a few necessary scenario files. Unzip the zip archive into the ACPSG folder.
Then follow
this link and download the latest save file you can find there. Unzip the save file, put it in your "saves" folder and load it using Sid Meier's Alien Crossfire (SMAX) to check out our current situation.
It is not necessary to play the game, but if you want to download the modified factions used, please visit
Googlie's page, download the Privateers, Submariners, Gunrunners and Coastguards, and unzip them in your SMAC directory.
I would also advise to have a look at the topped threads to become up to date. If you wish you can announce your membership in
this thread. You can also get a special civicon under your name by joining our civgroup.
When all that's done, or even before that, just post in our threads and join the policy discussions and roleplay fun!
What is the premise for the game?
When the UNS Unity fell into the Alpha Centauri system, Planet was already populated with the remnants of the feuding Aliens, and it was they who witnessed the breakup of the humans` spaceship. Guardian H`minee and Conqueror Marr immediately fell upon the helpless human survivors who reached Planet, attacking all of the human bases they could reach!
From their position on Planet, the Hive Submariners could hear the other Factions` radio transmissions: grim defiance in the Spartan and Pirate Battle transmissions, more frantic tones in the messages broadcast by those Factions less prepared to face the Alien Juggernauts. One by one, the Human Factions succumbed, and now, Planet`s airwaves are dead silent.....
Armed only with what your Faction was able to salvage from Unity, as well as a partial map of Planet taken by your Escape Pods cameras in their final descent to Planet, you must prepare for the inevitable onslaught by the Aliens, as these two Titans clash with each other for supremacy of Planet!
You are a core member of the Central Committee of The Party of the Union of Human Hive Republics, and it's your and the rest of the Central Committee's job to face these challenges and lead the Hive to victory.
What are the Gameplay settings?
General settings
We are using the expansion pack "Sid Meier's Alien Crossfire".
We are playing the Hive Submariners, a slightly modified Hive faction with the aquatic ability, under Transcend difficulty level.
Our opponents are:
- The Usurpers
- The Caretakers
- The Nautilus Pirates
- The Privateers (modified Believers)
- The Gunrunners (modified Spartans)
- The Coastguards (modified Peacekeepers)
The map is specially created by our CMN Darsnan. We can say the world is of Large size and between 70% and 90% covered with water.
Game rules- Higher Goal: Allow victory by transcendance: YES
- Total War: Allow victory by conquest: YES
- Mine, all Mine: Allow Economic Victory: YES
- Peace in Our Time: Allow Diplomatic Victory: YES
- One for all: Allow cooperative victory : YES
- Do or Die: Don't restart eliminated players : YES
- Look First: Flexible starting locations : YES
- Tech Stagnation: Slower research rate : NO
- Spoils of War: steal tech when conquer base : NO
- Blind Research: Cannot set precise reseach goals : NO
- Intense Rivalry: Opponents more aggressive : NO
- No unity survey: World map not visible : YES
- No unity scattering: Unity pods only at landing site : NO
- Bell Curve: No random events : NO
- Randomize Faction Leader Social Agendas: NO
- Randomize Faction Leader Personalities: NO
Alphax.txt modifications
Our CMN Darsnan made many changes to the game. Among the most important to mention are:
- The cost of maritime units has been reduced.
- Air units have smaller movement.
- Artillery bombardment is now (more) lethal over its original configuration.
- Sea Sensors can be constructed.
- Sea Boreholes can be constructed with the advent of Nanometallurgy.
- The AI's should build Cruiser Probeships with the advent of Doc: Init.
- The “Deep Pressure Hull” ability is made available with Doc: Init.
- The “Carrier Deck” ability is made available with Doc: AP
House rules concerning game bugs, exploits and features- Total freedom in Design Workshop (upgrades anytime, during turn or on-field)
- Retro-engineering - OK, except for using the probe rover chassis before discovering Doc. Mobility
- SE switches "quickies" forbidden - (obviously you can experiment to see what effect various SE choices have, but cannot change, play moves, then change back in the same turn)
- Stockpiling in Qs anytime - OK
- Crawlers Upgrade anytime - OK (see Design Workshop, earlier)
- Multiple drops - cannot use the right click mouse feature to extend range of drop units beyond the 8 tiles (pre Space Elevator)
- Base growth through Colony Pods - can be used to increase a base size up to the applicable pre-facility limit, but cannot be used to breach that limit without the facility being built.
- Psi units cannot be assigned multiple waypoint patrol routes (to avoid instant demon boil bug)
- Cannot change an infiltrated faction's workers to specialists, for example by using the F4 screen (or the bases icon of the F2 screen)
- No base trading with the AI. Extortion is allowed.
