Many people seem not be aware of a very SMAC-like game that came out in 1996 and its sequel that came out in 1998. Their are many parallels with SMAC, and in fact I consider SMAC to be a hybrid of Deadlock and Civ2. This comes up again because MANY of the things that people are suggesting for SMAC2 are present in Deadlock, especially the military options. Althout Deadlock II had more advanced graphics and added new techs and inits, the original Deadlock had a more playable demo, which you can download from this link:
http://gamespot.com/gamespot/filters...197068,00.html
Do yourselves a favor. Download the free demo and play the game. Now report back here and tell me if you think SMAC would be imporved if they grafted on the military model and resource management from this game series.
There are 7 species which correspond with eerie similarity to the original 7 SMAC factions. Here is a key for the SMAC player:
Green faction = Gaians = Uva Mosk
Insectoid faction = Hive = Ch'Chit
Research faction = University = Maug
Money and commerce faction = Morgan = Humans
Military faction = Spartans = Tarth
Mind control faction = Believers = Relu
High morale (easy drone control) faction easy for beginners = PK's = Cyth
There is an 8th faction (The Skirineen) that runs the Black Market, but you can't play as them.
