posted 07-28-99 04:52 PM ET            

Not that I would be in any hurry but ...

posted 07-28-99 05:09 PM ET            

Jeje2
There�s nothing on the Alien Crossfire-site (which BTW is a real mess !)

posted 07-28-99 06:18 PM ET            

There is a "piratical" sea based faction, and supposedly one based on "disgruntled laborers".

As well as a built in editor for factions.
(I hope it works better than the scenario editor)

posted 07-29-99 12:56 AM ET            

btw bishop don't you like aliens? if you do here's my favorite quote from the whole movie...it's by hudson

I'm ready man.
Check it out.
I'm the ultimate badass!
state of the badass art.
You do not wanna **** with me!
Check it out.
hey Ripley don't worry
me and my squad of ultimate badasses will protect you.
Check it out.
independently targeting partical beam phalanx
Vhawp! you can fry half a city with this puppy.
we got tactical smart missles, phased plasma pulse rifles, RPGs
we got sonic-electronic ball breakers!
we got nukes, knives, sharp sticks

posted 07-29-99 01:44 AM ET            

Personally, having seen the site, I've returned to being pessimistic about the whole project. SMAC needs a total overhaul, not an expansion. I can do without cyborgs and brood pits.

posted 07-29-99 04:27 AM ET            

But it (she) looks good, anyhow... Can't wait until they come around to replace Deirdre's soundbite with hers on the new site!

posted 07-29-99 04:42 AM ET            

Shining1 & Colon
I honestly don�t think that the game is all that bad, true some things are bugging (!) me (like the the stupid AI/automated movement and the inability to owerwrite saved games) but overall it�s a pretty darn good game !

It�s also true that the "Enhancement" 4.0, slowed down the loading of saved games, but again a minor inconvinience (sp?). (Although I wish they hadn�t removed the 3.0 Enhancement from the download site, I could do without the Nexus Manifold for a few seconds worth of startup time).

Let us just hope for a less buggy first version of Alien Crossfire than SMAC was !

posted 07-29-99 04:45 AM ET            

Please don't fall for the self-glorifying propaganda of so-called modernity.

posted 07-29-99 08:55 AM ET            

- if they're non-emotional they should be (relatively) immune to panic/fear in combat - which would certainly make up for a lack of enthusiasm, and probably be an advantage in psi combat as well.

posted 07-29-99 02:13 PM ET            

I hope that the six other factions - particularly the two (or more?) aliens - are more creative than the Cyborgs. I agree that the Firaxis team did a terrific job integrating the concept of the Cyborgs into the SMAC universe, but their whole premise is unoriginal. I mean, how many sci-fi stories have them as it is? Also, let's hope they put more research into their faction leaders' names in the future. Although I would never have known that Aki Luttinen was any particular variety of Scandinavian, I can imagine that the error is highly offensive to the particular ethnicities involved, as was the "Saratov" error to Russians. Although I will say that NotLikeTea's explanation *is* plausible (except for the gender question raised by FinnishGuy), as we do not know what the immigration patterns of the future will be.

I wonder if the addition of these new factions in Alien Crossfire will mean that we will be able to play with more than seven factions. Is the seven nation limit present in Civ, Civ2, and SMAC due to a technical reason, or just a design choice?

posted 07-29-99 04:51 PM ET            

Can't you just remove the MY from the end of the name?

posted 07-29-99 06:43 PM ET            

Purple
Sounds good to me

posted 07-29-99 06:59 PM ET            

I went to aliencrossfire.com and sidgames. From the sounds of things, they have not necessarily said that the spy satellites will be capable of redeployment.

posted 07-30-99 02:54 AM ET            

As you said energy is a natural resource and I know that it is used as currency but it stays a natural resources that has to be made on solar fields.
Imagine, 10 units of energy are made on solar fields and base A and 12 in base B. They both use all of that for science or storage. Trade routes give an extra 2 energy to each base. Where does that energy come from ? Not from the other base because they used it all for science or storage.
And if it where traded for goods, shouldn't there be less minerals then ? One mineral to another base in return for one energy, for instance ?

posted 07-30-99 02:57 AM ET         

Firaxis put so much thought into the "anticipated" future techs and now they screw up with details like this... even the Saratov fiasco... Now you'd expect that the Americans know something about Russia wouldn't you? It just again shows the total American ignorance of foreign cultures.

I was vaguely aware of the Finnish kvener in Norway. However, my understanding is that there are only very few of them at least compared to the Finnish immigrants in Sweden (several hundred thousands). Could you give some numbers? Didn't they move to Norway ages ago? Are they still using Finnish names? At least in the most recent decades immigration between Finland and Norway has been negligible.

posted 07-30-99 03:34 AM ET            

: : slaps himself : :

This is not a big deal - an American not knowing what's what and what's not in Norway, Sweden and Finland could be compared (if we'd all switch to tolerant mode, OK, yeah? ) to a Spaniard mixing up Wisconsin, Michigan and Illinois. Providing he knew about them in the first place. Now I've been to Norway, Sweden and Finland and then you kinda notice the difference (except for the price of a beer, come on guys, DO something ). But here in Holland, where I live, awareness of other cultures can be pretty dismal, as well. There's this TV program where holidayers are asked to point out on a map where they actually are. People put Austria in Spain, Spain in Czechia, Germany in Poland, whatever. Toecurling stuff.

What IS unfortunate, is that a commercial setup like Firaxis does sloppy research on what must have been thought of as a nice little selling point in Scandinavia or Europe in general...

posted 07-30-99 03:39 AM ET            

Make no mistake, SMACX will probably improve the game big time in the builder vs. conqueror stakes, unless FirX are completely deaf and stupid. Odds are, they aren't, and were somewhat ambused by their own playing style and that of the testers into thinking that they had a well balanced product. It seems a ruthless assessment of the A.I, such as the one you produced, was lacking from the game. And either FirX have learned from this, or they are condemned to being a tiny twobit company making mediocre games.

My point is that while SMACX can do a lot to solve the current balancing issues within SMAC, it can't escape the fact that it's just CivII with a storyline and boring graphics. I know you agree. Hence any time spent enhancing SMAC, in light of these limitations, is used questionably. The patchs are good, and need to keep rolling, and the game itself was an interesting diversion from CivII for a few months, and occasionally even now (though in a much altered form for myself). But it's place in any grand strategy for FirX needs to be looked at.

The sweep of time should really be CivIII, SMAC2, and SMEG1. That way you can design a coherent formula from the ground up, instead of moving from playing against 16 civs (or however many the game is expanded to include) in CivIII to 7 in SMAC, and with inferior options.

posted 07-30-99 04:14 AM ET         

I wasn't trying to make a big deal. But it is somewhat embarrasing that educated and talented American people like the guys and girls of Firaxis do the same goofs as the average redneck John Doe when it comes to foreign cultures.

posted 07-30-99 05:40 AM ET            

Colon, you're forgetting that the energy & minerals you see on the resources screen represents only the government's share of what is produced there, not all of it. The rest goes into private hands, and it is likely that tax on what they do with it is what makes up the trade bonuses.

posted 07-30-99 08:08 AM ET            

i.e the third part of the broom of time series.

Colon: The graphics are okay until you compare them to something else. Like HoMM3. In SMAC, you have 8 chassis, 11 guns, and a bunch of special abilities. Most units look the same, except for a change of colour or a different weapon blotch on the front. This is a step backwards from civII, where you had around 50 unique looking units - no one ever mistook a marine for a phalanx.

And don't get me started on the combat graphics. This also is a step backwards, or possibly several steps - it may be the worst attempt ever in fact.

I do like the 3D terrain, although it is extremely bland. And the 2D mindworms and infrastructure are great. But the 3D units are just crap.

Smeagol: Yeah, but for every point of trade firaxis generates they are losing a point of reputation. The only people happy with the graphics in SMAC are those who say the graphics don't matter. The only people happy with the game play are those who haven't yet found the A.I's critical weaknesses. And about the only people happy with the design are those who haven't played much of CivII or much of SMAC.

posted 07-30-99 08:40 AM ET            

Keep in mind not all of us can thrash the AI on Transcend Ironman. I know this game has weeknesses but I am having a lot of fun with it. That is what a game is suppposed to do right?!?!?! I agree with you that the units look a lot alike. Also name one successful strategy game that didn't have and expansion or add on of some sort. I disagree with the people who say this is a tired concept. If is ain't broke don't fix it. The level of depth in this game is what keeps me coming back, and is why i will probably get SMAC X.

posted 07-30-99 02:00 PM ET            

Now, as far as the issue of private energy and minerals, let us not forget that one of these squares on the "board" represents hundreds of square miles. The same square can easily accomodate both government and corporate solar collectors, government and corporate mines, etc. You, the player, representing the government, merely have the power to "zone" what type of industry can or cannot develop in each square. As far as farms, I am perfectly content to think that the food is provided to the citizens at the minimum of cost by the government, a system which would naturally develop in such an adverse environment.

I must say I agree with Dman37 on all of his points except for the diplomacy - I really hope it gets revamped to be more realistic and gives AI players abilities to develop long-term strategies, but I doubt that will happen, even with the expansion pack. As for those of you who think this is a tired concept for a game, well, that is your right, but I, for one, still enjoy this genre and I think Alpha Centauri is an addictive blast, and I eargerly anticipate Alien Crossfire despite its unoriginal Cyborg faction.

posted 07-30-99 04:56 PM ET            

You have solved this with private companies, but you haven't read my comments about this in my previous post very well.

And the fact alone that you have to fantasise this proves that Firaxis has not worked this out very well. I don't want to fantasise an entire economy to validate the phenomenon of a natural resource coming out of nothing.

About the diplomacy, I've difficulties in understanding why they actually even bothgered with implementing this feature in the game. All civ games suffer on the same problem, there's no international diplomacy, not tactics, just an AI that sees fighting as a normal thing to react on stuff it dislikes and solving of problems.
It's absolutely normal when all factions/civs have a war or five, and still run their daily business as if nothing was going on.
It would be great fun if peace would be normal and not war, that a war is considered as something serious, something that shakes your faction and not something that kills units from time to time.
Unlikely to be included in the SMACX but I do hope that there will be a time that wars are serious, things that destabilise your country and not a common event.

posted 07-30-99 05:52 PM ET            

Let's take your two base universe, with each generating 10 energy units. Now, let's say one base is PK and another is Morganic. Let's say the PKs are growing a kilo of wheat, and that wheat is valued by the PKs at 5 joules. The Morganites value a kilo of wheat, however, at 10 joules. Now let's say the Morganites are making an energy converter, which they value at 5 joules, but the PKs consider it worth 10 joules. They both trade what they were making and BOTH make a 5 joule profit. As this example illustrates, ALL currencies are merely representative of the value of products and services. Even though the PKs and Morganites did not actually produce energy, or even trade it, they both "created" 10 joules together, as the 10 joules is merely the value of the actual goods and not actual energy itself. An energy currency would have to have energy as a "backing" and would have representative currency units - in this case named (appropriately) "energy credits" - and would not be entirely dependent on the actual energy supply, just like the currencies of today are not entirely dependent on their governments' reserves of precious metals. A natural resource is NOT coming out of nothing, but rather its representative currency is being traded.

I will say I agree with your analysis of the diplomacy, which is a problem in all civ games, just like you say. I also wish there was some mechanism to represent the activities of the corporations and other internal economic and social factors.

posted 07-30-99 06:28 PM ET            

Bomberman
"I know this game
has weeknesses but I am having a lot of fun with it. That is what a game is suppposed
to do right?!?!?!"

Couldn�t have said it better myself...

posted 08-01-99 07:44 PM ET            

I was thinking(dreaming)that to incorperate more than 7 factions in one game FirX could have the original factions progress into one of the new facions during the course of the game.

(ZZZ) Pls don't wake me yet this is a good one

posted 08-01-99 08:31 PM ET            

Your future position as head of firaxis games is assured .

If you can't consistantly beat the A.I on transcend, you can't play SMAC.

Analyst:
Well, I found Starcraft got a better A.I simply from a patch (insane), but that seemed to be an inbuilt system and one which just took advantage of more units in a better rushing arrangement.

And Tim Train has commented on the fact that Chris Pine "is an A.I guy" and will be doing something along these lines to the game.

But I'd put that at number 1 for SMAC2 - an A.I scripting system that allows a good player to tweak the A.I - I'd certainly love such a system, as I can identify at least 3-5 major flaws in the current A.I.

Also, I don't recall many expansions actually trying to improve the A.I or anything.

Dman37:
No, the gameplay is what makes SMAC, and it makes it exactly the same as CivII. As Sierra has proven on so many ocassions, a good storyline is no excuse for bad gameplay.

posted 08-04-99 09:07 PM ET            

By Eastern Norway I mean the eastern part of Southern Norway (�stlandet). Finnskogen(e) is an area bordering V�rmland in Sweden. Before World War II, there were less than 500 Finnish-speaking people there. I would expect some of the Finnish surnames to have survived for longer than the language itself, though.