SMAC schizo

cbarrett · December 30, 2002, 04:49

Hi to all, this is my first post. I love this game. I was wondering if someone plays alpha centauri the same way I do. I play a multiplayer hotseat game with myself controlling all 7 factions. Although I can't really sneak attack myself, I try to play honest to each faction as to the information they have. It makes for a long game, but it is fun to see and control how each faction runs. Role playing how each faction would react to its situation can be interesting. However, I feel kinda schizophrenic making deals with myself. I give myself hard guidelines to follow in decisions, like, "dont trade military technology to a faction that could potentially use it against you. I find the dominant factions usually wind up being university, hive, gaians. The believers ususally kick ass at the start but get crushed into submission after the other factions. The spartans are tough to play because its hard to take advantage of the military with such a low industry rating. Anyway, just wanted to see if anyone out there is a SMAC schizo like me.

Darsnan · December 30, 2002, 07:34

Heah cbarrett,
I've never heard of someone playing all 7 factions themselves before!?!

The thing that I would wonder about then is whether it becomes a matter of how good you are with each faction is the limiting factor as to how well each faction does.
I myself have just finished setting up a SMAX game where the human controls 2 factions, and each of these factions has a submmissive AI along with it. Its designed to combat a 3 AI Juggernaut I've set up led by Zak. Pretty entertaining, as well as pretty interesting seeing what the AI is doing behind your back (i.e. one submissive AI is goading one human player to attack the other, while at the same time trying to pry techs from the same human that it is trying to go to war with!).
Anyways, welcome to the wonderful world of SMAC(X)! Hope you enjoy yourself here!

D

BustaMike · December 30, 2002, 23:38

Psycho! But hey, at least you're playing a great game

Nubclear · January 1, 2003, 01:05

Hmm.....That actually sounds like fun....

VJ · January 1, 2003, 10:18

Hmm... I'll show a newbie question: How can you play hotseat on ordinary SMAC?
I've never tried MP, and quick browsing show me nothing.

Main_Brain · January 1, 2003, 12:24

I did it but only with 2 Faction and 2 PC's :=)
But I had to restrict myself for them to be at War all time and not letting me Talk (to myself :P )
it was a pretty cool Militarist vs Peaceful Powerresearcher Game :=)

spartak · January 1, 2003, 16:06

Who won?

Main_Brain · January 2, 2003, 10:48

Researcher due to HSA

Flubber · January 2, 2003, 13:23

cbarrett

I can't see how you can do this effectively separating out the interest of each faction. For example, If the best believer strategy is to probe rape the university as a prelude to invasion, can you truly "forget" about the probeships coming your way? . . . or do you find that you are patrolling more in that direction as the uni and that suddenly you have decided to upgrade your defences ( in a situation where a third party player might have seen NO signs of impending attack.)

Don't get me wrong . . . I can see where this could be fun but I think I would be second guessing myself all the time as to whether I was being fair to a particular faction--

cbarrett · January 2, 2003, 15:46

You're right it's tough to play the factions fairly. As a defending faction, I'll set up automatic patrol routes. I imagine not knowing the attack is coming. However, there are some exceptions. If university has infiltrated the believer faction, and notices that they are ramping up probe team production, they should "decide" to set up a few extra patrol routes. They might also decide to counter their production with probe team defenses. So, infiltration is critical. But I try not to use my knowledge of surprise attack to do anything different on the defending side. I try to set up my defenses, and react to attacks as they come. As the attacker, I try to scout out their patrol routes and sneak by.

Kassiopeia · January 2, 2003, 17:34

I've played SMAC on hotseat, but I only had four out of seven factions. It was quite fun, although the temptation to cheat was irresistible.

VJ · January 3, 2003, 03:42

Quote:

How can you play hotseat on ordinary SMAC?

A quick way to gain +1! A quick way to gain +1!

Nubclear · January 3, 2003, 06:16

Quote:

Originally posted by Kassiopeia
I've played SMAC on hotseat, but I only had four out of seven factions. It was quite fun, although the temptation to cheat was irresistible.

I agree

In all of my games the University tends to triumph....He recieves special intelligence from his agents in the other facitons

Also, I would like to point out that this thread shold not be named "SMAC schizo" as schizophrenia is a disease in which you hear and see things. It should be named "SMAC MPD" for Multiple Personality Disorder where u actually change personalities.

VJ · January 3, 2003, 07:25

hi,

i still would like to get direct orders how to play hotseat as i have never found a way
(that is what i am, a permament newbie)

thank you,

have a nice day

Petek · January 3, 2003, 09:36

Tuomerehu,

Have you applied all the SMAC patches? According to the readme,

The v2.0 Update to Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri includes several new features to enhance the Alpha Centauri gameplay experience as well as a host of small fixes. Most notably, v2.0 includes Hotseat and Play-by-email multiplayer modes.

The readme goes on to say:

To start a hotseat game, select Multiplayer from the main menu and then Hotseat/PBEM. After setting up Planet, select a faction for each of the human players.

If you're not seeing these options, you probably need to apply the patch.

Xian · January 3, 2003, 20:36

"During the middle years of his career, bobby Fischer played games against himself and he always won."

Yup your not alone, ive played game vs. myself well actually what happened is that i took control of 3 factions and let the ai do everything else. In the end i teamed up with my 3 favorite factions - gains hive and university vs everybody else. I ought to try it again now that i have the addon

VJ · January 3, 2003, 21:30

Quote:

If you're not seeing these options, you probably need to apply the patch.

I thought I had the patch, but I've once uninstalled the game and
then reinstalled, so I prolly don't have it, I don't see the options you see.
Thanks.

gwillybj · January 4, 2003, 01:48

Quote:

Originally posted by cbarrett:
... I was wondering if someone plays alpha centauri the same way I do. I play a multiplayer hotseat game with myself controlling all 7 factions. Although I can't really sneak attack myself, I try to play honest to each faction as to the information they have... Anyway, just wanted to see if anyone out there is a SMAC schizo like me.

Been there, done that. Been there, done that. Been there, done that. Been there, done that. Been there, done that. Been there, done that. Been there, done that.

It seemed like a neat idea at first, but I ended up quitting that game. I was calling myself so many nasty names

I had to go in the other room and cry

Alex · January 9, 2003, 08:37

Quote:

Originally posted by gwillybj

[It seemed like a neat idea at first, but I ended up quitting that game. I was calling myself so many nasty names

I had to go in the other room and cry

This is what I'd call a multiple personality disorder...