posted 03-28-99 12:13 PM ET            

CHANGES IN ALPHA CENTAURI VERSION 3.0

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The v3.0 update to Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri includes several additions and enhancements, largely in response to customer feedback, as well as a more small fixes. A complete list of v3.0 changes is included below.

ADDITIONS\ENHANCEMENTS
� Added a new landmark, the Borehole Cluster.
� Overall game performance improved due to continuing code optimization.
� Added your total Council votes to the bottom of the Comm menu.
� Adjusted armor costs for air units.
� Adjusted global warming algorithm to make "ecological death spiral" less likely. Added ALPHA.TXT controls for global warming.
� ALPHA.TXT controls for maximum damage inflicted by artillery.
� One of the cycling info displays now shows # of council votes.
� New council proposals shown on datalinks for technologies which enable them.
� Ctrl+Shift+W toggles fog-of-war preference.
� Alpha Centauri.INI option to force preferences not to be reset whenever players start a new game at lowest difficulty level. "DontResetBeginnerPrefs=1"
� A few new ALPHA.TXT options related to time limits & atrocities.
� You can set "DisableOpeningMovie=1" to the alpha centauri.ini file to only disable the opening movie.
� Added a right-click menu to base production screen so you can obsolete units, etc.
� AI: The autodesigner no longer puts loads of armor on sea terraformers & sea colony pods.
� AI: The Autodesigner will now put Deep Radar on artillery units.
� AI: Governors won't build Genejack Factories or Punishment Spheres.
� AI: Tweaked diplomatic AI to better understand certain situations and tricks. Among other things, AI will be more aware of situations where one of the parties has a significant advantage in weapons technology.
� AI: Tweaked military AI to build somewhat less artillery.
� AI: Improved AI understanding of global warming & solar shades.

FIXES
� Planetary Governor now have packet sniffer access to all factions.
� Dead factions no longer prevent a Planetary Governor veto.
� "O" w/ supply crawlers now let you add to production.
� The menu option for Automate Mag-Tubes now un-greys.
� Square detail readout is now always correct.
� Rovers can no longer retreat from combat onto a unity pod.
� You no longer get "unable to allocate draw buffer" error message when dragging a technician onto the map in the base screen.
� You can no longer start building two boreholes next to each other.
� You can no longer enter 0< numbers in the custom map size.
� Transcendent Thought breakthroughs no longer continuously loop.
� Scroll bars for the "Give City" menu.
� You now can't blame eliminated factions with probe team actions.
� The Current Production at a base is now the top slot of the queue.
� Randomizing a faction's social agenda now changes the faction profile information.
� Single click on radio buttons preference now works
� Units no longer can teleport off north edge of screen.
� Using certain missiles no longer cause periodic hangs.
� Planet busters now destroy sensor arrays.
� New methods of sorting the F4 base screen based on resources, population, etc.
� You can now frame other factions for your own probe team actions.
� Isle of the Deep can no longer destroy a pressure dome in a sea base.
� Specialty cursors (go to, patrol, etc) now have correct hot spots.
� Accelerated start no longer causes some bases to be partially drawn on 1st turn.
� A foil is no longer visible during the landing sequence if the player starts with one.
� You can no longer regenerate unity pods by keeping a air unit overhead.
� You can no longer upgrade Locusts of Chiron to Psi Choppers.
� Moved "Pressure Dome" to top of base facilities display for easy indentification.
� Multiple orbital improvements can now be inserted into the build queue.
� CTRL-F4 and CTRL-SHIFT-F4 now work (show credits and show version)
� Cornering the global energy market now displays the correct year.
� The AI no longer can add special abilities missiles.
� The AI no longer can add AAA to transports.
� Air units now will always execute a goto command.
� Removed the message telling you to use "Ctrl+Shift+U" to upgrade units.
� Sea units will no longer be transferred to land bases.
� Mixing "police units" with "non-police" units no longer gives extra police protection.
� Planet busters used by the computer player are now restricted by range.
� Auto roads and mag-tubes now work better.
� Version checking for multiplayer games that an NT machine hosts now works correctly.
� Planes relocated by end of Pact no longer run out of fuel for no reason on the next turn.
� The first time you open the save window, clicking on the folder icon for the up directory no longer saves the game.

CHANGES IN ALPHA CENTAURI VERSION 2.0

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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. A complete list of v2.0 changes is included below.

ADDITIONS
* HOTSEAT multiplayer mode is now available!
* Play-by-email multiplayer mode is now available!
* 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. Each player has an opportunity to select a password on their first turn to provide a level of privacy. Leave the field blank to bypass this feature. When a player ends their turn, a prompt will appear for the next player. If playing Hotseat, the next player should take over here. If playing PBEM, select Save and Exit. The game automatically exits, at which point you should email the resulting save game to the next player (as indicated on the last on-screen prompt). Most features of the game are identical to non-simultaneous multiplayer games. A notable difference however is Diplomacy, which can now takes place over several turns. After contacting another player, make your selections and hit End Transmission. When the other player's turn begins, the diplomacy window will appear with your proposal. Negotiations can take place over any number of turns.
* You can now see the destination of a unit without selecting it. This option can be toggled under "Map" preferences.
* You can now disable probe team "steal technology in the RULES section of ALPHA.TXT.
* You can now release mind worms into wild using the "Turn Over Unit Control" option on the Action Menu.
* You can now customize the map size when generating a random planet.
* Probe teams are now "unflagged", meaning you cannot easily tell who controls the team.
* Atrocities have been rebalanced to avoid abuse: (a) 12+ atrocities (depends on difficulty level) will cause all factions to declare vendetta (b) Nerve stapling becomes increasingly ineffective at particular bases the more you use it.
* The Hive now has the "Immunity, EFFIC" ability; Hive never receives negative EFFICIENCY penalties.
* Password security for multiplayer games.
* Hardware 3D positional and EAX support added - Note: this can be disabled in alpha centauri.ini by entering ds3d=0 or eax=0. This also provides overall better performance and memory usage.

ENHANCEMENTS
* You can now set waypoints for patrols using the spacebar. Press "p" key as usual to start patrol, then click-and-drag mouse to first waypoint; while still holding mouse button, press SPACE to set waypoint; you can then drag line to next point, etc. When you reach final destination, release mouse button.
* Datalinks now show cost/preq of Abilities and Terraforming
* Combat report text is now larger in 1024x768 resolution
* "People" icons are now smaller for cursor in base screen "drag and drop"
* Design Workshop: dark blue letters on dark background are now more legible
* You can no longer name/rename landmarks near other people's territory.
* Pact Brothers no longer offer map in tech trade (already gives map for free)
* The world map now updates as new areas are explored, as opposed to waiting until the end of a turn.
* Up to a 40% speed increase in TCP/IP performance.
* Improved Caviar unit display performance.
* Autoexploring AI with natives improved.
* You can now automatically build roads to any square.
* voice over data link now louder on receiving end.