Alpha Centauri / Call to Power: My opinion - Page 3

LordStone1 · February 19, 1999, 01:14

Huh? BR hasn't been here in a LONG time. He doesn't have time to hang around the CTP forums any more than Lt. John has time to hang around the SMAC forums.

King, everyone got over BR's "insult" two months ago.

Imran Siddiqui · February 19, 1999, 03:21

Quote:

Metat, Red Trotskyite, Colon, Beefcake, Quintirus, Robi, YYYH, and all
members of this forum who appose Bryan Reynolds, let us unite against the
common threat, Alpha Centurian.

Interesting seeing YYYH's name there. Did you even read this entire thread? YYYH has come out in support of SMAC. IN fact, he'll have it soon. He has over 1500 posts in the SMAC forums, and is excited over the game. I should know; I talk to him on ICQ every day. He's as excited about SMAC as I am (even more so!). So, Clovis, do your homework next time.

Imran Siddiqui

Beefcake · February 19, 1999, 14:52

Yeah, Reynolds posted the exact same message in a lot of forums, and never replied. Probably testing to see how many people might buy the game.

Beefcake · February 19, 1999, 18:55

...in the forums.

Colon™ · February 20, 1999, 15:51

I'm surprised this threatd still exists, it's about the oldest one in these forums.
I never was very interested in this discussion so I rarely take a look, but I did now and I was surprised to see this

Quote:

Metat, Red Trotskyite, Colon, Beefcake, Quintirus, Robi, YYYH, and all members of this forum who appose Bryan Reynolds, let us unite against the common threat, Alpha Centurian.

Eh ? I'm not sure, but I don't think I ever said something bad about Brian or opposed him. I do know I like AC, it's a good game and I like the concept.
I don't understand how my name stumbled in that list.

I find this all SMAC/CTP rivalry idiot, I buy the games I'm interested in, that's it.
(and if I have to be a part in any rivalry, I choose the side of Imperialism 2, na !

)

Akbar · February 20, 1999, 22:51

Colon, I think some of us are just flaming SMACer's because the way many presented themselves in this forum.(arrogantly, irrationally, "Lets get 'em", come to mind)
The most vocal often seem the most militaristic.

King Clovis · February 20, 1999, 23:11

Imuran, i see you and LordStone1 back Bryan Reynolds, humn, I wonder why. Are you guys SMAC members. Oh yeah, LordStone1, look at the thread and YOU tell me if people got over. Colon, I apologyze, I accidentally tyed your anme in there. I still hope you will come defend CTP against the forces of Imuran. Oh, Imuran, as with Colon, I typed in YYYH, accidentally.

LordStone1 · February 21, 1999, 01:51

What the....

Are u accusing me of being a SMACer? Why the hell do u think I'm wasting my time here if I'd rather go over to the SMAC forums? I did plan on buying SMAC but after playing the demo, I won't. I've always been loyal to CTP.

Yes, I thought people had gotten over BR's insult but I forgot about some persons. The bulk of the whole thread is from around Christmastime, and the rest are just little petty opinions that keep this thread alive for two months - much too long. Of course, if you hadn't posted that idiotic call to arms, being the "leader" of all CTPers against all SMACers, we wouldn't be talking about this.

St Leo · February 21, 1999, 23:07

I am a SMACer.:-)

LordStone1 · February 22, 1999, 01:31

And I respect that.

Quirinus · February 22, 1999, 23:25

Oh cool... can I be a SMACer and have some respect as well. Please? Pretty please?

Q

Colon™ · February 23, 1999, 08:50

And what about Imperialismers ? They deserve respect too ...

Quirinus · February 23, 1999, 15:45

Yeah! ;P
And what about... umm... what about... anyone else who wants respect. yeah! what about them?

Beefcake · February 25, 1999, 19:24

Forces of Imran!?!
What forces? I will buy CTP whether or not anyone says it is okay with them. (Except perhaps the people who are paying for it)

Give it up. There are no "forces," "armies," or anything else. And I am not opposing Brian Reynolds, I am just not going to buy SMAC. Starcraft is about all I can take from Aliens.

LordZarm · March 1, 1999, 02:29

I am never going to Buy Alpha Centauri!
I think the game looks dull and boring.

I cant wait though to Call to Power. That game looks GREAT and COOL AS HELL!!!!!
I already have preordered the game and think everyone else should go preorder this wonderfull game.

UndertakerAPB · March 1, 1999, 21:50

After playing SMAC since the first day it hit NYC store sleeves.

I have to say I hate this game,and sorry to have lossed my 50 bucks....But I did get a $10.00 rebate.So it wasn't a total mistake..

DEVIL'S ADVOCATE,
Undertaker

EdCase · March 15, 1999, 01:46

As BR said..I waited and I tried..and...well...much as i hate to say this..SMAC just leaves me cold..it gets flat,boring and uninteresting too fast..I can't relate to the game.Trust me I have tried ,really tried.Well now(in the words of B5s' intro) CTP is my last best hope.Sorry all you ardent SMACers but CIV it ain't.It has not the special something needed to ignite my gaming soul

bilious · March 26, 1999, 09:04

This is probably not the right place to post this comment but here goes anyway.
Both my wife & I love CivII so we went out and spent our £40 on Alpha Centuri. She is into sci fi and I'm not. She gave up on it halfway through the first game, I was keen to complete the game (which I did easilly on the first attempt - admittedly as the Gaians who seem to have a massive advantage) but have had absolutely no inclination to play it since.
My question to Brian is how is this possible?
What is missing from AC given that there are significant improvements over Civ II in virtually all areas ?

I personally feel that my lack of interest in Sci-Fi may have something to do with it. I don't like any of the units, they look like they were made of Stiklebricks and Duplo by some three year old, hey but thats 3D for you. Worst however are the opposition. They are all charactures and utterly predictable. Maybe this is also true of CivII but not so obviously.

I'm sure AC is a great game. Technically its definitely an improvement on CivII. Gameplay, well I think not.Its only my opinion but I'm prepared to give Call to Power a fair trial, because the same great team does not always produce the winning formula.

PS. George Lucas is an excellent producer, he is not a storywriter or source of quality screenplays. In George's original script the Emperor was chief baddie and the cutsie little family von Skywalker went round beating them up. Neither Darth Vader nor Boba Fett were invented by Lucas.

AustralianJeremy · April 2, 1999, 00:10

Wow, so many things to respond to here; please forgive this post being a bit chaotic.

First: anyone noticed the incredible sheep-like capacity of posters on forums like this to make either enter a sort of flame war between supporters of game 1 or game 2, or to post the incredibly boring "they're both good games, isn't it great that the gods of gaming have been kind to us - can't we all just get along?" etc etc.

Second: It's a SMAC vs CTP forum, so of course BR can post his opinion. And I think it's a pretty revealing one; it must be tough watching your baby taken over by a corporation like that. On the other hand, it really is SM's baby....

The pity is, what I really want to see is Civ III, an improvement like CivII was on Civ1; I want slightly better graphics, but not that can't run smoothly on a P233MMX with 32MB RAM (both SMAC and CTP run at a crawl; it's very frustrating) and which have to completely hog the hard drive (300-500MB for CTP; that's a damn lot). I find it hard to get addicted to SMAC because I think part of the appeal of the Civ series is taking command of civilizations in the real world; discovering thought control doesn't have the impact of the original CivII wonders like the Hoover Dam or Pyramids. But then CTP has thrown these out too.

The pity of this whole legal wrangle is we're getting two games neither of which is Civ III. No more Hoover Dams or Pyramids; no more races to get the Great Library... Both games are very greedy of resources, too. SMAC is slightly nicer, at least coming with a laptop install, and at least being slightly less buggy (CTP's cursor problem is really annoying). But then, the constant purple-pink and blue colours are pretty offputting (just call me shallow). SMAC uses more sensible keyboard shortcuts, though (why 'N' for end of turn in CTP? If you're going to be hitting it all the time, surely Enter or spacebar would have been a better choice).

The legal wrangling really leaves both games feeling less than whole, and leaves a sour taste in the mouth. Neither will mention CivII (no friendly "this is what's new in CivIII" sections) - SMAC because it legally can't, and CTP I guess because they feel a bit guilty about it.

Of the two, I am more disposed to like the real-world CTP, but SMAC is slightly friendlier, probably due to the experience of the designers. However, I have a strong feeling that, at least until I get an incredibly zippy computer, I'll be continuing to play Civ2.

-Jeremy

AustralianJeremy · April 2, 1999, 00:22

Oh - one final thing. One reason this may be a particularly acrimonious battle between the two games is that Civ games are *very* time-consuming. Most people will not have time for both games, so they want to know which one to devote their time to... At the moment I'd have to say if you've got anything less than a gun computer (PII300+ with 64MB+ of RAM and a huge hard disk - you'd need a about a GB to install both games), then stick to Civ2.

Weighing SMAC and CTP up after that - it'll take people a while to get into both enough to judge that on a long-term basis; at the moment I think SMAC has more depth of gameplay, but I prefer the look of CTP. The compromise solution - Civ2.

TCO · April 2, 1999, 01:17

Right on Jeremy!!! Can't come up with anything to add, but agree with your points.

Gerardo81 · April 4, 1999, 14:40

Alright, I think it's pretty cool talkin' to Brian Reynolds the other dude who wrote Civ, but SMAC sucks on my computer. Not to say the actual game sucks, it rocks but it always crashes. I have emailed several people in Firaxis for help and gotton no reply, also I have vrs 3.0 and it does ****.
However, I havve not played CIV:Call to power yet but I ordered it. It looks awesome. While all the games are cool I still think I will be playing Civ2. Email at Geardo81@hotmail.com.

Kyle · April 4, 1999, 14:59

Just a note, don't bother e-mailing, just put it up on the Support forum. You'll get a response there.

Mog the Orc · April 6, 1999, 18:58

Ok, Inexpirenced team = Doom
Expirenced team = Dai Katana

'nuff said

crisp · April 7, 1999, 18:21

re.
// Ok, Inexpirenced team = Doom
// Expirenced team = Dai Katana
// 'nuff said

umm you've got that the wrong way round;

Doom = Experienced team (check out the games written by JC & JR before Doom)

Dai Katana = Inexperienced team (most haven't produced a single game)

'nuff said

Metamorph · April 7, 1999, 20:42

You've got to be kidding me.

Alpha Centauri is not the latest and greatest in the Civ series. Alpha Centauri *IS* Civ 2. In and out. Every single feature. Every unit, every tech, every economic aspect, every government, every single individual detail of the game is a complete and utter rip-off of Civ 2.

How DARE you claim that you and your 'team' have somehow come up with some glorious new creation. I'm not an idiot. A blind monkey can see that every basic unit in Alpha is just a unit from Civ 2 with a new name, that every tech in Alpha is just a tech from Civ 2 with a new name. There's a scenario for Civ 2 which does a better job of 'space-ifying' Civ 2 than your pathetic excuse for the next level of strategy gaming.

And of course, right along with every single game feature of Civ 2, you also incorporated every glaring game flaw. Disgustingly broken Wonders. Disgustingly broken huts. And a horrifically flawed economic structure which drops game challenge down the toilet via the standard ICS approach.

So don't patronize me, Brian. I have nothing but contempt now for you and your 'group'. Go make a REAL game, and get back to me.

- Metamorph

AustralianJeremy · April 7, 1999, 21:09

Actually, SMAC's beginning to grow on me. It's not the Civ2 clone I originally thought: the factions are much more like characters than the nations in Civ2, the storyline is actually suitably inspiring, the unit modification idea is actually useful etc. Oh yes, and the terrain is actually real, 3D terrain, unlike both Civ2 and CTP.

SMAC's the sort of game that grows on you (I was annoyed at first because what I really wanted was civ3...) SMAC won't replace Civ2 on my hard drive; I'll be playing both.

Pythagoras · April 7, 1999, 22:49

Yeah! Another saved soul! I thought the SMAC demo was horible at first, but then as I played it more it really grew on me, especially the graphics. I used to hate those weird colors, but now I cant imagine being without them.

Graeme LeSaux · April 10, 1999, 01:14

Honestly, SMAC sucks. So does CTP. Long live our noble Civ2, God save Civ2!!!

fred · April 10, 1999, 17:08

this thread takes me back

------------------
i am the great one

and leader of the cow cult