SMAC 2

[Harvestor32]

In my opinion, the only good things Civ 3 brought to the table was the culture option and the strategic resources. In nearly every other way it was a big let down in comparisoin to Alpha Centauri.

[CEO Aaron]

Frankly, I don't consider either culture or strategic resources to be gameplay improvements. Culture's just a cheap patch to make the AI seem tougher than it is, making you commit vastly disproportionate forces to hold captured cities, and the lack of critical strategic resources make certain positions unplayable. When your neighbors have iron and you don't, you die.

Tech tree continuity should not really be an issue:
Land on AC, having travelled accross intersellar distances, and have to 'research' rovers, flight, living underwater (altogether a less hostile environment than deep space or a new planet) - this didnt affect SMAC - its just gameplay.

I have always wondered if you could mod Civ2 to play backwards: start with a fully developed map and civs, and enough weapons for MAD, and then play....

watch the world degenerate, post apocalypse more complex units require more support and time to bulid - so maybe prefer lower tech units etc. End up running around with a bunch of barbarians. From what I know of Civ3, it might be more appropriate there, cause you could nuke the resources required for high tech units

(since I visit these boards only in patches, maybe someone needs to point me in the right direction where this is old news).

[Flare]

The *only* reason why everything had to be researched over again was because the ship had been destroyed, along with the vast library of information. Go look at your local library & see how much there is to learn. Yes, removable media like CDs & DVDs remove the bulk required, but... More than that was required. Manufacturing, refining, developmental procedures. Plus, just surviving on a hostile planet. ~shrugs~ Just my $0.02 worth.

[Fido Dido]

Isn't there a tech like this..?

"People often ask me, why have we who have travelled the vast distances between stars not even fly above Planet.."

Or similar..? Col. Satinago?

[Maniac]

BTW, there were several threads on this TIME ago. It seems that none of the game developers will ever take hints.

Actually I'd say they are taking the hint. After all many people have said SMAC2 would suck unless it's made by Brian Reynolds.

[Cybergod]

But Maniac, I don't exactly see any progress being made in the field of actually producing a sequel for SMAC, only empty tales.

I don't know about you guys, but I liked the culture in civ3! I loved the way my neighbours were enlightened by my culture... (even though I doubt that Greeks and Chinese have much in common but anyways) I also believed that the strategic resources gave you a new perspective on gameplay, but I guess you can say it is rather unbalanced at times (especially with iron, argh, bad memories being envoked...).

Fido Dido, thats the beginning of the quote for the Maritime Control Centre SP, and she talks about naval superiority rather than flight me thinks

[Fido Dido]

Ah right, I knew it was for something, though I was sure it was for space flight or some such..

[gwillybj]

Fido Dido asked:
Isn't there a tech like this..?
"People often ask me, why have we who have travelled the vast distances between stars not even fly above Planet.."
Or similar..? Col. Satinago?

Yes, it is Orbital Spaceflight:

##Satellite Reconnaissance
#TECH77
I have often been asked: if we have traveled between the stars, why can we not launch the simplest of orbital probes? These fools fail to understand the difficulty of finding the appropriate materials on this Planet, of developing adequate power supplies, and creating the infrastructure necessary to support such an effort. In short, we have struggled under the limitations of a colonial society on a virgin planet. Until now.
^
^ -- Col. Corazon Santiago,
^ "Planet: A Survivalist's Guide"

The Maritime Control Center quote does begin similarly:

##Maritime Control Center
#PROJECT10
It is altogether fitting that we who have sailed the deeps of space now return again to the sea. This is in many ways a water planet, and it can be ruled from the waves. With sea power, rugged terrain can be bypassed and enemy strongholds isolated. Once naval superiority is achieved, Planet is ours for the taking.
^
^ -- Col. Corazon Santiago,
^ "Planet: A Survivalist's Guide"

[Adalbertus]

... but this copy, this human being $NAME1 now waking to lead the first Seed mission, this is the only self now immediate to you and therefore the only real you. You are flesh again, and so quite mortal, and for this too you rejoice.

Just phantasizing a bit: The sequel exists, it's Civ (2 ?). You're left on earth with nothing else but your intelligence.
The copy in the giant matrix just is the origin of religion...

[Maniac]

Ah! So if you win SMAC, you move to Civ2; when you win that, you go further to SMAC after which you go back to...

[gwillybj]

and thus is the meaning of life

[Ned]

Where is Brian Reynolds and has he produced any new games recently?

[Archaic]

He's behind Rise of Nations, isn't he?

[Alex]

He is. Rise of Nations is the first game from Big Huge Games, the company Brian started when he left Firaxis. It is scheduled to be released in May 20th. In the USA, I mean... the european release will be in June, IIRC.

[Alex]

Oh, and here are links for more info about RoN:

Apolyton RON section

Big Huge Games site

Rise of Nations Insider

[Darsnan]

I think, from a military perspective, that minefields are a must: give all units the ability to plant minefields (in "X" number of turns), and have the "minefield attack" equivalent to an arty barrage for all enemy units transgressing the mined square. A game I used to play, "Deadlock" had this capability, which I found rather neat. I'd also like to see the ability for military units to "Dig in". Say you have a long border with a questionable neighbor, and want to garrison troops at specific locations along the border in case of intrusion. In the Real World, these troops, given time, then prepare defensive positions, enhancing their defensive capability. In game simply have a command for units to "Dig In", with X number of turns to accomplish this, with an added defensive bonus as long as they stay in that location/ square. Also, concerning cities: since the populace has the capability to riot, and in some instances even defect, why I would think that they might also have the opportunity to actively participate in a battle for their city: make it a function of the attacking enemies Social Choices, as well as what, if any atrocities have been committed by the enemy. On a sliding scale, if the resultant equation equals zero, then nothing happens. If the sliding scale ends in a positive, the populace might actually welcome the invaders, and participate in the expulsion of their current overlords (i.e. increased drone activity). If the sliding scale results in a negative, then an additional unit, representative of the level of negativity "felt" by the city, would be generated, to represent to citizens desire not to be conquered by this specific enemy.
Finally, from a CMN's perspective, the option to unlock a PBEM game at any given point and take control of one or all AI's, with the idea of tweaking it on one turn to compensate for/ counter directions the humans (or other AI's) have taken in a game. Say with this function a game is set up with the agreement that the CMN will take control of the AI's for one turn at 50 years, 100 years, 150 years, etc., and give them a tweak (i.e. prototyping certain units for the AI, giving the AI's certain SP's to compensate for specific human thrusts, compensating for unexpected AI blunders, etc.) IMO, it would add yet one more layer of intrigue to the game!

D

[Darsnan]

So has anyone given much thought to the premise for SMAC2? I just had a really neat idea, that I thought I'd share: essentially the humans, after conquering the Usurpers and Guardians, find on Nessus the wreckage of one of the alien's spacecraft, complete with the aliens "warpdrive" (or whatever you want to call their FTL technology), as well as their Star Charts, which designate a large part of the galaxy as far as the "habitable" Solar Systems are concerned.
SMAC2 would start out in MY2500 with the still factionalized humans launching FTL "Colonyships" to specific Solar Systems with certain attributes. So instead of choosing the attributes of Planet while setting up the game, you instead go thru the screens necessary to choose the attributes of a desired solar system, with all of the desired parameters of the planet(s) represented. Planetfall then occurs, but lo and behold, your not the only species to colonize this planet! Other aliens/ human factions have also decided to colonize this specific Solar System, and now, once again, conflict will eventually arise!
The Marketing tie-in here is that while the game is being developed by [ Insert desired software company name here] , they publish a website with a matrix asking for fan feedback as far as the attributes of the various Solar Systems/ Planets the fans would like to see in the base edition of the game. The Software Company also establishes a matrix asking the fans to generate a whole host of alien species to populate all of these new solar systems with. The Marketing Team then generates a thread asking the fans to choose the best of these "species" (i.e. Factions) to include in the base edition.
Thoughts?


D

[Mr. President]

I've never been a huge fan of sequels (WarCraft II being the obvious exception).

[Leland]

SMAC is already a sequel of a sequel...

[MahoTsukai]

Originally posted by Alinestra Covelia
I loved the storyline of SMAC.

I believe that the success of SMAC's storyline is one of the largest obstacles to a successful SMAC 2. After all, what storyline could you come up with to better that?

The storyline of a publisher making BIG bucks with SMAC2 I guess ?

[Alinestra Covelia]

That's really nice but I prefer the story of a SMACfiction writer making BIG BUCKS with a SMAC fiction first novel

[Hydro]

AC - you should do it! I'd buy YOUR book in a heartbeat! But, please don't make it as pedantic as Mr. Ely's trilogy. It had moments of brilliance, but (in my opinion) was flat and betrayed the essence of the rich SMAC characters in the 3rd book (only Santiago stayed true - went down fighting!).

[Alinestra Covelia]

Funny you should mention that. I pedantically made sure that my fiction work actually conformed to Ely's works (at least, those that were available when I first got SMAX... which was all of one online story and maybe half a chapter of his later ones).

I hear that the Chairman gets whacked in the trilogy. One of the reasons I didn't particularly want to read it any further.

[Lucy In The Sky]

Originally posted by Hydro

Oh, one more thing that has always bugged me: SMAC ignores the conservation of matter. Think of it – when you terraform, where does all that dirt come from or go? Hmmm?

It is converted directly to energy (heat), which raises the global mean temp of Planet & causes sea levels to rise.

[rmendis]

I think that a SMAC/X based on the new Civ3 wouldn't be so bad actually...if you get to spend time with Civ3 you will find that although it is much harder, the challenge is greater for those of us already playing SMAC/X at the highest level.

I'd really love to play the new version of SMAC/X with the Civ3 engine...some pluses and minuses but overall i'm sure it'll be a good game and highly extendable...like custom maps, scenarios like in Civ3.

[Kirnwaffen]

I like the return to earth idea with a bit of a twist.

Perhaps the transcendence of human beings on Planet provokes some kind of conflict with a newly unified Progenitor fleet, and perhaps other alien races. After a long struggle, the transcends lose. Either fleeing the alien onslaught in badly damaged vessels, or exiled in shoddy transports, the remaining humans return to a devastated earth. There, they gradually piece together the final moments of the human race, and maybe even discover a newly evolved form of life...

[Haon]

SMAC2 does not need to expand the story after trancendece, I think it should be like Civ2 was to the original Civ. Improved Graphics, improved AI, new tech and wonders, and a load of other goodies, etc. Nothing so revolutionary as to leave people un familier about the game out of it.

[Finarfin]

Originally posted by Darsnan
I'd also like to see the ability for military units to "Dig in".

The "F" key in SMAC.

[Darsnan]

Originally posted by Finarfin


The "F" key in SMAC.

Heah Finarfin,

the "F" key is for Long Range Arty Fire. I also looked at my manual just to make sure that I hadn't missed the "Dig In" Command, and I do not see it. FYI.


D