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Author Topic:   BRIAN REYNOLDS ON SMAC: A FORUM EXCLUSIVE (Mr. Reynolds, please have a look.)
yin26 posted 03-16-99 10:31 AM ET   Click Here to See the Profile for yin26   Click Here to Email yin26  
[Dear Mr. Reynolds, your fans on this forum would be extremely grateful if you could cut-edit-and-paste this into a complete interview. Our sincerest thanks. If you can't or won't, I'll just crawl away and hope nobody saw anything. ]

Yin: First, Mr. Reynolds, thank you for the invitation to come interview you (work with me on that a little).

Mr. Reynolds:

Yin: Since this interview is taking place entirely on the Official SMAC Forum, I thought it would be fitting if my first question were about the forum itself.

In a day and age when many gaming companies are actually quite cautious about the criticism that gets posted to their official sites, Firaxis has been extremely forgiving in this regard. Is there a method to your apparent madness?

Mr. Reynolds:

Yin: I see. Now as to the game itself, I'll get right to the question everybody is asking.

PC Gamer gave SMAC a 98%, which indicates near-perfection. And although GameSpot also gave SMAC a very high rating of 9.1, GameSpot's readers only rated it a 7.6:

Now that the game has had some time on the market and been the beneficiary of patch 2.0, what score would you give SMAC as it stands today?

Mr. Reynolds:

Yin: O.K. Now for the tough question. A.I. was one of your focuses from day one with SMAC, but most gamers agree that the A.I. still far from presents either a thoughtful governor or a worthy adversary. Any plans for fixing these A.I. problems?

Mr. Reynolds:

Yin: Finally, Mr. Reynolds, GameSpot has announced a special "Download Enhancement" to be available on their site March 19th. Any hints on what's in store for your loyal fans?

Mr. Reynolds:

Yin: On behalf of the many loyal (and some who are working on it) SMAC players who routinely gather at this forum, I'd like to express my sincere thanks for sharing some of your valuable time with us.

Oh, and by the way, did you ever once, even for a second, wish some of your most vocal critics would get their brains eaten by mindworms?

Mr. Reynolds:

Yin: Thanks again.

Aga1 posted 03-16-99 03:40 PM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for Aga1    
lol
MrSparkle posted 03-16-99 03:41 PM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for MrSparkle  Click Here to Email MrSparkle     
Are you capable of anything other than goading?
yin26 posted 03-16-99 05:05 PM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for yin26  Click Here to Email yin26     
I'm soooo misunderstood.

Mr. Reynolds, these are serious questions. If you have the time, please answer.

Yours Truly,

Ambassador Yin

Rong posted 03-16-99 05:11 PM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for Rong  Click Here to Email Rong     
If you really want to talk to Brian, go to alt.games.firaxis.alpha-centauri. He's quite active there.
Freddz posted 03-16-99 05:21 PM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for Freddz  Click Here to Email Freddz     
And Yin, change your name before you go
SnowFire posted 03-17-99 12:08 AM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for SnowFire  Click Here to Email SnowFire     
I am not Mr. Reynolds, but I'll try and throw a few answers out.

Y: In a day and age when many gaming companies are actually quite cautious about the criticism that gets posted to their official sites, Firaxis has been extremely forgiving in this regard. Is there a method to your apparent madness?

SF: I have absolutely no clue what you're talking about. Being nice on the forums is madness? I think you mean to rephrase your question that Firaxis hasn't been forgiving in that regard, or else I'm misinterpreting you.

Q: What score would you give SMAC as it stands today?

SF: Not my job. Other reviewers are totally out of my jurisdiction. We'd just like to say that we put out the best product we could with the most amount of feedback without spending overly excessive time nitpicking flaws, which we hope to fix in future patches.

Yin: O.K. Now for the tough question. A.I. was one of your focuses from day one with SMAC, but most gamers agree that the A.I. still far from presents either a thoughtful
governor or a worthy adversary. Any plans for fixing these A.I. problems?

SF: Turn off the automation and do it yourself, it's more fun and then you don't have to worry about automation problems. The AI is much smarter than in previous games, it's just that there are so many more options in SMAC that the computer starts to run up against the limits of programming and processing capability. The result is that the infinitely adaptable and crafty humans can still beat the AI, which is to be expected- even a game as seemingly "simple" as chess took a supercomputer to stand a chance against a human. But, you do have a valid point. Am I intending to add improved AI to the patch? I sure hope I am!

Again: I speak for no one but myself, and certainly not BR. The other two I'm not going to handle.

Achilles posted 03-17-99 12:22 AM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for Achilles  Click Here to Email Achilles     
Congratulations Yin, that was a very civil post.
P.S. I mean that in all sincerety, no sarcasm .
Wen_Amon posted 03-17-99 04:01 AM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for Wen_Amon  Click Here to Email Wen_Amon     
Hmmm, I wonder if good old Mr Reynolds is gonna reply. I really wanna know the answer to that mindworm question...
Shining1 posted 03-17-99 06:01 PM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for Shining1  Click Here to Email Shining1     
Except that I don't think ANYONE in firaxis ever reads a thread with the equivilent of 'ATTENTION: "INSERT NAME HERE", - IMPORTANT BLAH BLAH BLAH BLAH SMAC'.

Well, I've certainly never seen it happen. Brian gives interviews to reliable journalists (well, okay, people who write stuff about computer games) from time to time, and I'm pretty sure he doesn't sit around smoking his pipe the rest of the time.

Mike Ely replied to a point similar to this in a thread called 'The current age of silence', referring to his 'Insert Big Number Here' hour weeks, and how, while the firaxis staff do read the forums religiously (i.e once on sundays, if they feel guilty ), they don't really have time to reply to any posts.

Besides, I suspect that Brian is feverishly trying to fix the game to AVOID any more bad publicity, rather than trying to answer difficult questions about it...

Brian Reynolds FIRAXIS posted 03-17-99 09:30 PM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for Brian Reynolds FIRAXIS  Click Here to Email Brian Reynolds FIRAXIS     

Yin: First, Mr. Reynolds, thank you for the invitation to come interview you (work with me on that a little).

Mr. Reynolds: Aw, shucks, it's a privilege.

Yin: Since this interview is taking place entirely on the Official SMAC Forum, I thought it would be fitting if my first question were about the forum itself.

In a day and age when many gaming companies are actually quite cautious about the criticism that gets posted to their official
sites, Firaxis has been extremely forgiving in this regard. Is there a method to your apparent madness?

Mr. Reynolds: Well, to quote Lal, "free flow of information is the only safeguard against tyranny." (or did I write that?)

Yin: I see. Now as to the game itself, I'll get right to the question everybody is asking.

PC Gamer gave SMAC a 98%, which indicates near-perfection. And although GameSpot also gave SMAC a very high rating of 9.1, GameSpot's readers only rated it a 7.6:

Now that the game has had some time on the market and been the beneficiary of patch 2.0, what score would you give SMAC as it stands today?

Mr. Reynolds: I don't know, how about 100? As I've mentioned elsewhere in the forums, it would be kind of dumb for me to "review" my own game. But I've also commented that I think on the whole we did a better job on Alpha Centauri than on Civ2, and I think Alpha Centauri is the better game. SMAC does seem to be a "love it or hate it" game; some people are turned off by the whole science-fiction topic (preferring the historical); others are inspired by it. As a designer I found that the subject matter let us do some things that we couldn't do in a history game; and on the other hand prevented us from doing some things we could before.

Yin: O.K. Now for the tough question. A.I. was one of your focuses from day one with SMAC, but most gamers agree that the A.I. still far from presents either a thoughtful governor or a worthy adversary. Any plans for fixing these A.I. problems?

Mr. Reynolds: On the contrary I think most gamers find the AI a worthy adversary on the upper levels of the game; I also recommend the "Aggressive Opponents" and "Iron Man" options for players who don't think Transcend level is hard enough (!) Some grizzled veterans of previous Meier/Reynolds games have found some ways to trick it, but we have worked on that issue for version 3.0.

Yin: Finally, Mr. Reynolds, GameSpot has announced a special "Download Enhancement" to be available on their site March 19th. Any hints on what's in store for your loyal fans?

Mr. Reynolds: Check out Gamespot on Friday!

Yin: On behalf of the many loyal (and some who are working on it) SMAC players who routinely gather at this forum, I'd like to express my sincere thanks for sharing some of your valuable time with us.

Oh, and by the way, did you ever once, even for a second, wish some of your most vocal critics would get their brains eaten by mindworms?

Mr. Reynolds: Are you kidding? Have you seen the teeth on those things?

Yin: Thanks again.

Brother Greg posted 03-17-99 09:55 PM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for Brother Greg  Click Here to Email Brother Greg     
Amen Brother Brian.
LLGamer posted 03-17-99 09:57 PM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for LLGamer    
Excellent, Mr Reynolds! It's hard to keep your sense of humor when someone says your child has two heads and waddles. Bravo!

Keep it up for many years to come!

eNo posted 03-17-99 10:06 PM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for eNo    
My compliments to you Mr. Reynolds!

SnowFired: Nice answers!

Shining1 posted 03-17-99 11:10 PM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for Shining1  Click Here to Email Shining1     
I humbly stand corrected.
MrSparkle posted 03-17-99 11:43 PM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for MrSparkle  Click Here to Email MrSparkle     
I can't believe he posted. Balls, I tell you.
Lightbow posted 03-17-99 11:57 PM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for Lightbow  Click Here to Email Lightbow     
Brian is the man!!!
Alexnm posted 03-18-99 12:20 AM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for Alexnm  Click Here to Email Alexnm     
Wow, it's starting to be really fun! It's great to see that all this contend can be handled with some nice good humour. After all, it's a game! Congratulations Brian!
(As for Yin, I guess he's really enjoying himself... if you know what I mean.)

Alexnm

yin26 posted 03-18-99 01:59 AM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for yin26  Click Here to Email yin26     
I sent him an e-mail of thanks (and an apology for not thinking of better questions).

I also sent him an e-mail a few days back letting him know about this "interview." Inside that e-mail I expressed my hope that his answering might help lighten the board up a bit and bring some focus back to the game. I hope that will be the case.

Thank you, Brian.

SnowFire posted 03-18-99 02:20 PM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for SnowFire  Click Here to Email SnowFire     
Hehe- accept no substitues. Good replies Brian, much classier than mine.
Imran Siddiqui posted 03-18-99 02:33 PM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for Imran Siddiqui  Click Here to Email Imran Siddiqui     
Hmm, talk about responding to the customers! I don't know of anyother company that would do this. Bravo Brian!

Imran Siddiqui

jsorense posted 03-18-99 03:16 PM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for jsorense  Click Here to Email jsorense     
I would like to thank yin26 for posing these questions and following through with Brian Reynolds before and after Brian answered.
I also want to thank Brian Reynolds for taking the time to answer yin26's questions and, especially, the manner in which he responded.

BTW, what's the next game from Firaxis going to be? ;-)

Rong posted 03-18-99 03:58 PM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for Rong  Click Here to Email Rong     
They have teeth? I thought they use Psi combat.

A really nice gesture by the creater of this marvelous game. I am touched.

Delusions of Grandeur posted 03-18-99 04:27 PM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for Delusions of Grandeur  Click Here to Email Delusions of Grandeur     
The only other company it know of that has done this kind of thing was Cavedog.(wonderful company, by the way)
DerekM posted 03-18-99 05:59 PM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for DerekM  Click Here to Email DerekM     
Kudos to Brian Reynolds!

I actually got a response from the designer of Fallout on their forum. Black Isle Studios is another excellent company when it comes to responding to the gamers.

wickedwombat posted 03-19-99 08:42 PM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for wickedwombat    
Thanks Brian....

In a way I should be cursing you for the sleepless nights that I have had because of your creations....

Well, I'm trying to watch my cursing, so, THANKS A HELLUVA LOT!!

---try new Raid for fungus---

MikeH II posted 03-22-99 12:01 PM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for MikeH II  Click Here to Email MikeH II     
It seems I missed a lot these last few weeks.

Fair play to Brian Reynolds for some nice answers.

I'm in the lucky position of never having had a single problem with AC and being too 'stupid' or inexperienced to beat the AI everytime at the highest levels. I love the game. I just wish I had the time to play it more often. I think that the governers are great, I wouldn't rely on them to run a city alone but I'll use them in non-critical areas of the empire.

I think I'd give AC 93/4 % There are a few things I think could be improved but in general it is excellent. I think it is as good for its time as Civ was when I first played that, which is very high praise. I think the only strategy game I have played which is better is Championship Manager 2 and that kind of relies on a love of Football/Soccer.

BTW If anyone at Firaxis is a Soccer fan I'd reccommend getting your hands on a copy of Championship Manager 3 when it comes out later this month (not sure if it's going to be released in the States, Championship Manager 2 wasn't but it is the most addictive game I have ever played, including Pirates! (2nd) and AC (3rd)) See what they do to get people sucked in. The philosophy seems to be similar to Firaxis' philosophy. Immense complexity packaged incredibly simply. Not that I'm suggesting you need tips on making addictive games of course.

MikeH II posted 03-22-99 12:02 PM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for MikeH II  Click Here to Email MikeH II     
Apologies for the typos in that post, I must look at the screen not at my fingers in future.
CrayonX posted 03-22-99 07:01 PM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for CrayonX    
Thanks Brian.

As echoed by everyone else, thanks for paying attention to us lowly, out-of-shape, red-eyed, insomnic SMAC addicts....

You the man

CrayonX

Wen_Amon posted 03-23-99 04:56 PM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for Wen_Amon  Click Here to Email Wen_Amon     
Hey Im in shape! If only I wasnt 200 pounds overweight, and these lovehandles are gettin to touch the floor, aww man the phones ringing, oh well... back to smac.
Brian Reynolds FIRAXIS posted 03-24-99 10:45 AM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for Brian Reynolds FIRAXIS  Click Here to Email Brian Reynolds FIRAXIS     
Hi All,

By the way, wanted to jump back in and remind everyone to support Alpha Centauri for Internet PC Games Top 100! Just send a message to "[email protected]" and include the line:

5 Alpha Centauri [3168]

Thanks!

Brian Reynolds
Alpha Centauri Designer
FIRAXIS Games

Chillum posted 03-24-99 11:11 AM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for Chillum    
How many times would you like us to vote :-)
uncleroggy posted 03-24-99 11:23 AM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for uncleroggy  Click Here to Email uncleroggy     
Chillum,

As the Democratic party said in Chicago during JFK's Presidential election, "vote early and vote often".


uncleroggy out

December Man posted 04-20-99 04:51 PM ET     Click Here to See the Profile for December Man    
. . .probably everyone's favorite. . .

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