Update

Dan Magaha FIRAXIS · April 29, 2000, 10:46

Hey guys,

Just wanted to let you know that I am putting the finishing touches on the online datalinks for Firaxis' own SMAC section. I know many of you have written asking for various things like the complete story, faction profiles, etc., and the EA site isn't exactly chock-full of info. =)

It should be done in the next week or so, and we'll make sure Apolyton knows as soon as it is. Basically, the site will be everything that alphacentauri.com ISN'T, which is to say, a repository of info and cool stuff about the game. I have some cool never-before-seen concept art and preproduction stuff, as well as hopefully the entire datalinks in web format.

Dan Magaha
Web Wizard
Firaxis Games

Helium Pond · April 29, 2000, 13:25

Wow, COOL! Thanks for posting, Dan, I'm thrilled to know Firaxis is still thinking about us. But you left out any news about the most important question....

What about the patch?????

Dan Magaha FIRAXIS · April 29, 2000, 14:41

HeliumPond,

I knew that question was going to be asked (grin).. the short answer is, "I don't know".. I'll see what I can find out.

Dan Magaha
Web Wizard
Firaxis Games

Helium Pond · April 29, 2000, 14:57

Thanks Dan. It's so heartening to get some news from the company.

Aredhran · April 29, 2000, 22:22

Good to see that Firaxis is still doing *something* for SMAC... I was beginning to think that this game had been completely abandoned in favor of Civ3 and Dinos...

Aredhrans

Alex2001 · April 30, 2000, 05:28

I also want the complete story, faction profiles, etc., but will you post them also in GERMAN LANGUAGE?

Genaciv · May 1, 2000, 02:33

That would be nice.. i'm sure they'd have to hire a translator to do that, though..

Lets see.. German, Italian, Spanish, French.. any other languages? Perhaps Portuguese..

Most of the non-English speakers that I know that play SMAC speak those languages.. oh well..

- Genaciv

Dan Magaha FIRAXIS · May 1, 2000, 13:38

Well, I don't speak any other languages (elementary, broken Spanish doesn't count, does it?) and I'm hesitant to just run everything through a translation program, as it will probably botch many of the words.

An interesting idea, and one which Shiny used with their Messiah pages, was asking fans to translate for them. Once we get the main pages up, we'll talk more about translation possibilities. Do we have any volunteers here who would want to do translation?

One caution on this is that the datalinks are in a big database, and they would be the hardest to translate. Since the database was constructed mainly from the existent text files found in the Alpha game directory, it's possible I could do it that way, but it would take quite some time.

Thanks for the input,

Dan Magaha
Web Wizard
Firaxis Games, Inc.

Adm.Naismith · May 2, 2000, 10:20

Well, I haven't enough spare time to make a full "english to italian" translation, but I'm ready to share the effort with some other italians here. Anyone ready to join?

My main limit is that I only have original Alpha Centauri (USA edition) with patch 4 added.

No italian version (because of late and poor translation I had with italian Civ II, how funny

), no Alien Crossfire expansion.

Oh, and I'm not a professional translator (but they want real money for the job, right?

) but my italian is far better than my english!

------------------
Admiral Naismith AKA mcostant

Meisman · May 4, 2000, 16:31

Well, from June 6th on I have about 2 months of spare time. I'd be interested to do a translation into German. So, what do you think Dan, how much time would it take for a single person to translate all of that?

If anybody else wants to join in, he/she'd be more than welcome.

Blade Runner · May 5, 2000, 17:01

Dan,

I can translate to Hungarian (I'm a native speaker).

Blade

Dan Magaha FIRAXIS · May 5, 2000, 18:07

Hey guys..

Thanks for the volunteer help. I got a bit behind schedule this week, so the site is tentative for next week to launch. After that, we can start talking about translations. Since I basically started by working over the text files present in the game directory, the "major" localized language versions hopefully won't be that difficult (Spanish, French, German, etc.) Although, I don't know how good the native translations are for those languages. I'm sure some of you are snickering at some of the translations as we speak =)

Anyway, I appreciate the enthusiasm and will contact you all as soon as I'm ready to start the translations.

Dan
Web Wizard
Firaxis Games, Inc.

Nimrod13 · May 6, 2000, 10:43

Well, I just happen to have time (more than four months) so count me in for the German part.

Enigma · May 9, 2000, 00:17

Dan,

Any news on the SMACX v 3.0/SMAC v5.0 patch?

Ephack · May 20, 2000, 10:49

Nobody for a french translation?
I'm exactly in the same position as Adm.Naismith (but for french translation

): I haven't a lot of time, but I'm ready to help.

Transcend · May 20, 2000, 15:26

Does anyone know where that Firaxis' own SMAC section is?

Aredhran · May 21, 2000, 19:35

I'll volunteer for translating to French when we get Patch 3.

Dan Magaha FIRAXIS · May 23, 2000, 11:17

Hey everyone,

Our SMAC site is finally ready for public consumption. Apologies to all, it was actually ready last week and I just forgot to let everyone know.

Check it out at: www.firaxis.com/smac

We've got a fully-implemented online version of the datalinks, some cool concept art for some native lifeforms that never made it into the game, full downloadable versions of the Journey to Centauri stories, faction profiles, and more.

I'm always looking for fan submissions as well. If you have original stories, fan art, or a fansite you want us to put up, please feel free to email it to me at webmaster@firaxis.com.

Regards,

Dan Magaha
Web Wizard
Firaxis Games, Inc.

korn469 · May 23, 2000, 23:25

Dan,

have i got a story for you

it's called the spartan chronicles and though i do not actively write for it anymore i think it is without a doubt the longest peice of collective fan fiction for SMAC, i am truly amazed by it's lifespan and i think that it is a SMAC fan fiction classic

it is in the apolyton fan fiction forum as how to get it this might be of help

quote:

Enigma,

Glad to see that there is some interest in Spartan Chronicles! It's been around since last July, so it is getting downright venerable!

The much-vaunted Googlie has gone to the trouble of putting SC in a nice, neat series of Word documents. He also had divided it up into Chapters, which roughly coincide with major plot turns. This significant effort is at his web site http://go.to/googlie under the Download section.

At well over 500 posts (about 590, actually), putting SC into text format was no small task. The Good Googlie's edition of SC is current through January 31st. After that you are fated to pull the thread.

Maybe, if we ask nicely, Googlie will whip up another tome of SC for us!

Hydro

P.S. - Googlie also has SC maps. So in case you always wondered where in the heck are features like the Fungal Wall, the sad city of Plex Anthill, the craters that used to be Ironhome and Parade Ground, the ruins of Morgan Bank, or the horde of now liberated Hive cities, just stop by and download it! If you're interested I can e-mail you older copies, too (if they aren't on Googlie's site).

ps the site looks good i am just now exploring it though

korn469

Ogie Oglethorpe · May 24, 2000, 09:32

Dan,

If I might be so bold. I wandered over to your site and liked what I saw. I would highly recommend the Spartan Chronicles here at Apolyton as Korn suggests and would also like to see if you would consider including a link to Velociryx's web site as his definitive SMAC guides have been the most useful to those here at Apolyton.

He is working on a further refinement to SMAC guide V2.0 and will be posting it soon.

I think the majority of the Apolyton crowd here feel the guide is excellent par none.

Once his latest and greatest is out, I think the link would make a fine add to your site.

Vel forgive me if I spoke too soon as I know it is your site.

Velociryx · May 24, 2000, 10:36

Thanks for the nod, Ogie! Nope....the timing was about right, and at the risk of letting my redneck roots show forth...."ya done good!"

And yes, it is my hope that the version 3.0 of the guide will be out sometime during the long weekend....I am finalizing the various segments now, and doing some formatting work....might not be all there, but I know I can get 85% plus up by the weekend, and very likely all of it....I'm taking some last minute requests now, and adding them to the overall scheme of things...

-=Vel=-

Dan Magaha FIRAXIS · May 24, 2000, 10:38

quote:

Originally posted by Ogie Oglethorpe on 05-24-2000 09:32 AM
Dan,

If I might be so bold. I wandered over to your site and liked what I saw. I would highly recommend the Spartan Chronicles here at Apolyton as Korn suggests and would also like to see if you would consider including a link to Velociryx's web site as his definitive SMAC guides have been the most useful to those here at Apolyton.

He is working on a further refinement to SMAC guide V2.0 and will be posting it soon.

I think the majority of the Apolyton crowd here feel the guide is excellent par none.

Once his latest and greatest is out, I think the link would make a fine add to your site.

Vel forgive me if I spoke too soon as I know it is your site.

That would be great, actually. I'm always on the lookout for useful (and cool) stuff to add to the site, keep them coming.

For example, I'm going to be adding some concept art of the Aliens, as drawn and modeled by our own Brent Alleyne, next week some time.

Dan
Web Wizard
Firaxis Games, Inc.

[This message has been edited by Dan Magaha FIRAXIS (edited May 24, 2000).]

Paul · May 24, 2000, 10:59

Nice site you have there. But there is one thing that could be improved. In the Datalinks section it should be possible to get a list of for example all technologies or base facilities or whatever you are looking for. Right now you will get the first entry on a topic and there will be links only to the next entry in that topic. So if for example I wanted to find the entry for Mind Machine Interface it would take too many clicks to finally get there.

Dan Magaha FIRAXIS · May 24, 2000, 14:48

quote:

Originally posted by Paul on 05-24-2000 10:59 AM
Nice site you have there. But there is one thing that could be improved. In the Datalinks section it should be possible to get a list of for example all technologies or base facilities or whatever you are looking for. Right now you will get the first entry on a topic and there will be links only to the next entry in that topic. So if for example I wanted to find the entry for Mind Machine Interface it would take too many clicks to finally get there.

Paul,

Don't worry, that feature will be added very soon. Thanks for the feedback.

Dan
Web Wizard
Firaxis Games, Inc.

Paul · May 24, 2000, 14:57

Ok, thank you for the quick response. I just wasn't sure if that was something that was not yet finished or that you had never thought about it.

Gregurabi · May 26, 2000, 00:37

Mistakes ahoy!

Explore, Build, Explore, or Conquer.

1\3 of a movement point

DOB: 3\28\2018

DOB: 7\1\2027

Morgan's DOB

Fistleaf · May 27, 2000, 02:59

There are plenty of mistakes. Old logos and such. Firaxis simply took old stuff and pasted them together.
How about making the factions data and native life available for download?

Dan Magaha FIRAXIS · May 27, 2000, 14:50

quote:

Originally posted by Fistleaf on 05-27-2000 02:59 AM
There are plenty of mistakes. Old logos and such. Firaxis simply took old stuff and pasted them together.

This is true, but given the resources I had at my disposal, I hope you won't hold it against me or the site. A great deal of the original source content I had hoped to use had vanished, and trying to get someone at EA to send that sort of thing to me was nigh impossible. Not to mention that I had to ask people for information about a project they haven't been working on in close to a year or more, so recreating things wasn't as straightforward as it may seem.

In short, I did the best I could with what I had to work with. The standard disclaimer applies: if you have anything to contribute, I'd be glad to add it to what we have.

quote:

How about making the factions data and native life available for download?

If there is enough demand, I could certainly do that, but what on earth for? If you just mean the images, that's probably not a problem, I was considering doing that anyway, but if you meant the HTML and everything else, that's a different story...

Dan
Web Wizard
Firaxis Games, Inc.

Velociryx · May 27, 2000, 20:45

Dan, the SMAX guide is up for its "beta period" on my site:
http://clik.to/renaissance

Under the forums section, SMAC Strategy. The beta period ends June 9th, at which time, I'll be removing the thread, editing with final revisions, changes, etc. and reposting elsewhere.

Oh, and, I sent you an e-mail at your Firaxis account too....

-=Vel=-
(now going BACK to bed...LoL)

Uatu · May 30, 2000, 05:29

I can do some of the translation to Spanish.

For the record,
I'm from Mexico, and use a english version of SMAC, if that helps in some way.

Greetings