What is Alpha Centari about?

larsenex · December 20, 2003, 20:30

I do not want to open another thread that pits one against the other, but is Alpha Centari the same as or similiar to Civ CtP2? Is it older than Ctp2, do I daresay is it better or has feature that are better? My friend used to play it and I cant remember what it looked like. Did it come before or after Ctp2?

Thanks for your patience with me...

Lars

centrifuge · December 21, 2003, 01:54

Alpha Centauri is made by the same people that mage civ1,2, and 3. It takes place on a newly colonized planet in the alpha centauri star system (surprise, surprise

) Anyway, I found the feel of it quite similar to civ2. Which isn=t surprising since it was made not long afterward. The AI is notoriously easy to deal with. However, there are many new features such as a unit workshop that make it a respectable game in its own right.

larsenex · December 21, 2003, 10:15

I had thought you had to build a ship to go to alpha centari or am I thinking of another game? Also did Alpha come after Ctp2?

Thanks again

Lars

Locutus · December 21, 2003, 10:28

Alpha Centauri is the end-game project of Civ1/2/3, similar to the Gaia project in CtP2. You have to build a space ship with colonists and launch it to the Alpha Centauri star system to colonize it.

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri (SMAC) is also a game that's sort of a sequel to Civ2, where the game continues once you arrive at Alpha Centauri, so you can actually colonize that system (it also plays very similar to Civ2, as centrifuge remarked).

Alpha Centauri was released in 1999, roughly at the same time as CtP1.

For more info on the game, check the SMAC section of Apolyton: http://apolyton.net/smac

larsenex · December 21, 2003, 16:35

Actually I am a bit confused. Isnt CtP2 the same as Civ 2? Are they different? They are about the same game correct? Better yet which came first Ctp2/1 or Civ 2? and why? I really like Ctp2 and the mods that go with it, but was wondering about Civ 2, or alpha centauri.

Thanks again

Lars

MrBaggins · December 21, 2003, 17:44

Civ2 is the classic (if somewhat aging) Sid Meier & Brian Reynolds sequel to Civilization (1), which was based loosely on the Avalon Hill Board game of the same name.

CtP (and subsequently CtP2) came after Civ2, and pays homage to it, in many ways, but has a significantly different feel... partly for the better and partly for the worse.

Locutus · December 21, 2003, 21:52

Like MrBaggins says, Civ2 is based on Civ1 and it's made by Sid Meier and Brian Reynolds, it's a really old game, it was released in 1995. It's the same type of game as the Call to Power series, but it looks and plays very differently (see http://apolyton.net/civ2/ for more info):

Civ2 was probably one of the most popular PC games of all times, so obviously many games similar to it have been released. Alpha Centauri is one example and Civilization 3 (the official sequel to Civ2, released in 2001) another (both were incidentally developed by the same people who made Civ2).

The two Call to Power games (released in 1999 and 2000) are yet others examples of games inspired by Civ2, but they were made by very different people from a very different company. It can be slightly confusing that the first CtP game was officially called Civilization: Call to Power, but the Civilization prefix was only there to help sell the game to old Civ2 players, it doesn't mean CtP and Civ aren't very different games. For one thing, they are 4-5 years newer and have much more advanced graphics and the like, but many of the concepts in the game were also changed (opinions differ widely on whether the changes are for better or worse). But the basic game concepts are still the same as in Civ1 and Civ2 (replay history, build cities, research advances, create wonders, expand your empire, conquer your neighbours, rule the world, etc), so the CtP games (as well as SMAC) are often still regarded Civilization-type games (called that way because the original Civ1 basically defined the genre).

So the Civilization gaming world roughly looks like this:

Civilization 1: released in 1991, inspired dozens of other games and defined the 'Civilization-genre'.

Civilization 2: released in 1995, the official sequel of Civ1, it perfected the Civ concept and became one of the most popular PC games ever.

Civilization 3: released in 2001, the official sequel of Civ2, a much more modern game with many changes, but not necessarily a better game (it's not easy improving on (near-)perfection).

Alpha Centauri: releaed in 1999, a game similar to Civ2, but with much more modern graphics and a different setting (Alpha Centauri rather than Earth); gave Civ2 players something to play with until the release of Civ3.

Civilization: Call to Power: released in 1999, a game inspired by Civ2, but a very different game made by a very different company, which hoped people would regard it a sequel to Civ2 even though it's really unrelated.

Call to Power 2: released in 2000, a sequel to CtP1, which improved upon its predecessor, but it's still unrelated to Civ1/2/3 (the Civilization prefix had to be dropped due to legal issues). Of course, the people in this forum will say that CtP2 is the best game of them all, but beauty is in the eye of the beholder...

(There are some other games that are often also seen as falling in the 'Civilization genre' (such as Colonization, FreeCiv, Clash of Civilizations, etc) but they are all also similar yet unrelated games to Civ1/2/3, like CtP and SMAC)

Hope that helps...

larsenex · December 22, 2003, 23:54

Yes Locutus thank you very much. =)