posted 04-06-99 03:00 PM ET     

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Should I get patch 3.0, given both the positive responses, and the negative (this thing still crashes) kind of responses to it? Currently, my SMAC is fine under 2.0

Vote now! Yes or No

posted 04-06-99 08:24 PM ET         

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Good Things:

Good AI... Those pesky spartans are getting smarter.

Borehole Clusters...1 city in there will run your empire.

Bad Things:

They've fixed that bug that let you put any armour onto an aircraft for free, under v3 my Antimatter Blink Clean Choppers cost a fortune !

On the Whole, it's a good patch.

posted 04-06-99 09:51 PM ET            

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Agreed.

1. Much better AI: plays more strategically and builds much more sensible units. AI now makes good use of AAA and SAM abilities. Also seems to terraform better. Much more challenging.
2. The Borehole Cluster rules!
3. Yeah, I do miss my free aircraft armour, but it was an unfair advantage to the player as the AI didn't make use of this bug.
4. Diplomacy seems to be slightly improved - more realistic and a couple of changes (e.g. an enemy will demand the return of a city you've just captured).
4. Patch 3 fixed my sound stutter bugs.
5. The game crashes no more or less than before.

I recommend the patch.

posted 04-07-99 03:27 PM ET         

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Here's an extract from the v3 readme...

SID MEIER'S ALPHA CENTAURI
README.TXT 3.0
3/8/99

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.