The Factions The fate of Planet is in the hands of twenty one factions that fight for control, seven at a time. Each faction represents a specific ideology, from technological superiority to capitalistic efficiency to an amusing joke. Alpha Centauri Factions Gaia's Stepdaughters Human Hive University of Planet Morgan Industries Spartan Federation Lord's Believers Peacekeeping Forces Alien Crossfire Factions   Caretakers  Cult of Planet Cyborg Consciousness Free Drones Data Angels Nautilus Pirates Manifold Usurpers My Custom Factions Borg Cannabis League Federation Feminine Union Mindworms with Minds Pretty Princesses Wrestlers

Click on the name to get the .zip of  the complete [except where otherwise noted] faction files.

Screenshots:  (To give you a little flavor of  this set of factions and the upgrades I made to them.  More factions follow...)

I took the trouble to reload the original graphic files to provide basis for comparison.    Click on the thumbnails for a better look.

Before:	After:
Now, I think that's a Planetary Council that looks ready for prime time on the right.   Note the fungal tower growing out of the Mindworm base to the left of the council, above.   ...Almost not Gaian-looking enough, considering the back-story implied.

Before:


Note  the see-through flags on the pot-head formers above, the see-through text on the comlink, The Wrestlers' Believer-bases, the inappropriate border colors, and all those identical white dots on the world map in the corner: 

Pretty much the same shot below, reflecting some of my changes.  Note the now-peach/no-longer-nearly-Believer-orange of the Union flag and text.  The hippies have turned their Gaian-splinter bases into giant bongs with little clouds of blue-green smoke rising behind and so many maryhootchie roof-gardens and window boxes the whole place is turned green.  Flair's bases (my third stab at new base graphics for him) are gold-roofed stadiums, (hue-shifted from those lovely blue-domed bases you may have seen the Shadow Ghosts or MarsGov in,) avec lit-up entry gates.  -I was tempted to draw in floodlights out front.  Finally, note all the pretty colors down there on the world map- with the possible exception of Mindworms/Drones, easily distinguished from the official factions.

After:

Compare the Mindworm and League bases below.  At least they don't look alike.

Yes, those Princess sea bases are on log rafts, and the Perimeter Defenses are wooden fences while the Tachyon Fields are brick walls.  Yes, those bases are little pink houses.  I love my niece.  Actually, I made this for my brother.  He hasn't played Alpha Centauri in years because it's crack- and this will ruin him.  I am bad.

Finally, one with just the Borg base switched to the previous look.  (Also, note the Federation base.)  My half-buried-Borg-sphere-bases (my second stab at it after wasting a lot of time trying to get the perspective right on a cube) may not look like much, but they don't look like the Borg Queen is Chairman Yang.

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Six of the aboove custom factions were originally downloaded off the innerweb; the Star Trek ones years ago off The Arrival, the other four recently off Apolyton.   When I finally worked out how to load them (had to fix the Wrestlers rules file first), no one but the Feminine Union had any colors to their flags or text (which was illegible that way)- and Britney's color was too nearly identical to Sister Miriam’s.  It was even more annoying to have identical non-colors for the rest; something had to be done.

Poking around, I saw the difference between the Union's .pcx file and the rest- there were little color boxes in the lower left-hand corner.   After that, the fix was pretty easy.

It also bothered me that the Eighth (Mindworm) faction defaulted to Gaian graphics and colors.  So I made them their own files, with Deidre's eyes glowing red (and later, a larval mindworm on her forehead) and fiddled with the color of the bases, to further distinguish them from the Gaians.   Shaggy also had Gaian bases, so I shifted their hue, too.  Then I decided they both still looked too Gaian, and proceeded to add elements to customize the bases.

Things snowballed from there.  (That's British understatement, to say the least.)

The Princesses faction is original work.  (She really really does live in a pink house.  My brother's a Mellencamp fan.)  I've carefully noted the extensive changes I made in the .pcx files of each of the rest, less to take credit for all my hard work than to avoid taking credit from the original creators, (what information I have as to who they are is in the files posted below).

I note in passing that I don't like PhotoShop's user-hostile interface, and most of the work was done the hard way, in Microsoft Paint.  That includes scan lines.

I haven't done a lot to the text files.  They mostly needed a little proofreading, sometimes more base names, tweaks to the datalinks entries- stuff like that.  I make no claim to any great understanding of how they work, and haven't concerned myself  with balancing them.  (The hippies and my perfect niece have an extra + to Planet rating because I'm playing the SMAniaC mod, and green factions should be able to capture a few mindworms early.)  The Princesses, in fact, aren't supposed to be balanced.  (The Mindworms and the Union seem kinda ridiculously overpowered, by the way.)  Neither have I added Alien dialogue.

I don't mind much that they're mostly ridiculous in the context of the game milieu, either.  Especially the funny ones.

I'm very proud of the graphics improvements, though.  I hope if you're familiar with the original versions, you'll be impressed.  These upgrades have eaten up around a month of my life- as in, sleep four hours and do nothing else all day, except some play testing.

Now, if I can get the .flc files working, I'll be set.

Many thanks to the original creators of these factions, and people far, far too numerous to keep track of who have posted useful information about SMAC/SMACX modding in various place on the internet.  Special thanks to the creators of ACEdit, and various posters of helpful tips at Apolyton forums, without whom this much truly would not have been possible.  Particular thanks to Maniac, whose custom factions in the SMAniaC mod did a lot to inspire me.

...

The better part of a year later, you can see that I kept working after my first seven custom factions.  The results have gotten more sophisticated and the collaborations have been fun.  Loyalty and integrity matter.

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More Custom Factions (and some graphics goodies)

Borg6.66	Mindworm Cult	Empathi	Federation too	MC Yangsalot	Strategist	SuperNewbs	Texas	UniCom	Ypunag

Borg6.66	Cult of Mindworm	Shields (A happy-funtime goody pack of base defenses for faction artists.)	Empathi (Just graphics)	Federation: The Next Generation (Alternate version for Fake Trek fans)
Pimp My Yang	Strategist (Graphics only)	Pyramids (A base graphic I haven''t used- - but it's only mid-afternoon)	SuperNewbs (An overkill faction for beginners)	Texas
New University Commonwealth	Voracious (Graphics only)	New Bases (15 bases, never used anywhere [aside from Deadlock] and ready to drop in!)

SMAniaC Factions (Just my versions of the faction art- the rest of the faction files, and the originals, are included in SMAniaC-- you can find it here.)

Atlantis	Bree	Empaths	Genesis	Republic	Shadow Ghosts	Templars

Atlantis	Bree	Empaths	Genesis
The Centauri Republic	Shadow Ghosts	Templars

Alternate Offical Factions (Just graphics for now.  Splinter factions created for the Eye of the Beholder scenario, but usable anywhere...)

Flower's Children	Protectorate	Academy	Morgan Franchise	New Sparrta	Conclave	United Nations	Harmonists

Autochthone	Rainbow Warriors	Cyborg Intellect	United Workers	Node Masters	New Vikings	Starlost

Children of the Flower (Alternate Gaians -w/text file)	Protectorate (Alternate Hive)	Academy (Alternate University)	Morgan Franchise (Alternate Morganites)
New Sparta (Alternate Spartans)	Conclave (Alternate Believers)	United Nations Forces (Alternate Peacekeepers)	Harmonists (More alternate Gains
Autochthone (Alternate Caretakers)	Rainbow Warriors (Alternate Planet Cult -w/text file)	Cyborg Intellect (Alternate Consciousness)	United Workers (Alternate Drones)
Node Masters (Alternate Data Angles)	Vikings (Alternate Pirates)	Starlost (Alternate Usurpers)

Alternate Gender Factions (The official factions with alternate gender leaders; created for multiplayers, but usable anywhere. )

Gaia's Stepchildren	Human Hive	University of Planet	Morgan Industries	Spartan Federation	Lord's Believers	Peacekeeping Forces
		Cyborg Consciousness	Free Drones	Data Angels	Nautilus Pirates

Gaia's Stepchildren (Lord Daniel)	Hive (Chairwoman Shinae Yang)	University (Provost Praskovya Zakharova)	Morganites (CEO Marrifa Morgan)
Spartans (Colonel Crisanto Santiago)	Believers (Brother Marvin)	Peacekeepers (Sister Prashanti Lal)
Conciousness ( Prime Function Aki Zeta-7)	Drones ( Forewoman Domai)	Data Angels (Still Sinder Roze)	Pirates (Captain Ulrika Svensgaard)

Deadlock Factions (Just graphics for now.  For  Deadlock III: Manifolds Destiny by Buster's Uncle , but usable anywhere...)

Ch'cht	Cyth	Humans	Maug	Re'Lu	Tarth	Uva Mosk