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Author Topic:   Gamespot's v3.0 Enhancement

eNo posted 03-19-99 01:13 PM ET
Two questions:
Is it worth the download?
Who wrote it?
Lee Johnson posted 03-19-99 01:15 PM ET
We'll know shortly. It just became available for download. :-)
Lee Johnson posted 03-19-99 01:18 PM ET
BTW, it *is* the 3.0 patch (for the U.S. version, looks like.) Here's an excerpt from the README file:
SID MEIER'S ALPHA CENTAURI
README.TXT 3.0
3/8/99
CHANGES IN ALPHA CENTAURI VERSION 3.0
-----------------------------------------------
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.
fkloster posted 03-19-99 01:34 PM ET
I can't get the sucker to download. I have a T-3 and NOTHING!!!!!!! WHATS GOING ON?
Rong posted 03-19-99 01:35 PM ET
Wow, very impressive, sounds like a patch from heaven, err, I mean, Chiron.
The question is, have all your prayers been answered? Should we start a wish list for enhancement 4.0 now?
Thue posted 03-19-99 01:37 PM ET
Did you read the text at gamespot? It say (among other things)
"The v3.0 patch includes all changes made in both the Alpha Centauri v2.0 and v1.0 enhancements. A complete list of v3.0 changes can be found in the read.me file."
But there never were a v1.0 enhancement, and they call v2.0 a patch just above the text. Sloppy...
Lee Johnson posted 03-19-99 01:41 PM ET
You're talking about a site that doesn't even run a spelling checker against its own material...
Marian posted 03-19-99 01:57 PM ET
If the Gamespot download doesn't work, then download it from my server.
It certainly is worth the download.
Go to
http://alphazone.cjb.net
You will find it in the download section under update files.
Ciao
Marian
Webmaster ACZone
http://alphazone.cjb.net
Rong posted 03-19-99 02:08 PM ET
I went to GameSpot to just give it a try since I don't have SMAC installed on my work pc. I had no problem downloading it.
Now here is the interesting part. The whole download took only 1 second! That only means one thing, some one on our corporate LAN had been downloading it before me so the thing is cached in our proxy servers.
I need to find this guy for MP matches.
Marian posted 03-19-99 02:25 PM ET
Are you sure that you not just downloaded the stupid redirect.pl (cgi) file that makes the "download starts in 6 seconds" thing to enable them to count the downloads ?
That happend to me sometimes and I just dicovered it later. One second seems to few even for a copy from a proxy server!
Ciao
Marian
Webmaster ACZone
http://alphazone.cjb.net
Peregrine posted 03-19-99 02:51 PM ET
I downloaded it from Gamespot with no problem, and installed it with no problem. Looks very good, in terms of problems that were fixed. Time will tell if the AI improvements will work...the less artillery fix alone should be worth it for me!
DerekM posted 03-19-99 03:03 PM ET
Peregrine, is your UserName related to Vernor Vinge?
Peregrine posted 03-19-99 03:11 PM ET
DerekM, to that I can only reply...huh? I'm not familiar with that name, this user name is just..you know...a username
DerekM posted 03-19-99 03:13 PM ET
Sorry. It's the name of a character in the novel, "A Fire Upon the Deep," by Vernor Vinge. It's a Hugo award winning SciFi novel that I am in the middle of reading.
Rong posted 03-19-99 03:34 PM ET
Marian, I checked. It's the whole 1.8M in one second flat.
With this World Wide Wait, sometimes you forget how fast a network should be.
Fiannaidh posted 03-19-99 03:44 PM ET
Peregrine is a type of falcon, and possibly a Tolkien Character, among other things.
DerekM posted 03-19-99 03:59 PM ET
I know it's a bird. I just thought it might be the same character I was reading about. ENOUGH! I apologize for diverting this thread.
I fully intend to download the 3.0 patch. It sounds like a big improvement.
Fiannaidh posted 03-19-99 04:03 PM ET
anyone who wants the patch NOW, here's the link: ftp://download.gamespot.com/pub/strategy/sidalpha/smacp3us.exe
Bdot posted 03-19-99 04:17 PM ET
It's always funny how the main site (this one) is always the slowest place about having patches and downloads...
Everyone else has to do their dirty work
Dredd posted 03-19-99 05:32 PM ET
+ Planet busters used by the computer player are now restricted by range.
Kiss Planet goodbye... this is the one I was waiting for!!
jedijon posted 03-19-99 06:09 PM ET
Shoot... I was hoping for a Space Elevator fix. Guess I still can't use it...
Since the SE problem wasn't fixed in either patch, is there any official word regarding if it was an intentional side effect? Is the ecological damage generated by doubling mineral output a designed balance to using the Space Elevator?
Also, what about the Temple of Planet? Why do we still have to wait until Voice of Planet is built before we can build Temples? Is this intentional (sort of that we cannot worship Planet until we can officially 'hear' Planet?)
Don't get me wrong... I'm glad that a patch is available and I appreciate the hard work that must go into the process. It's just that these were the two game problems that I was most looking forward to seeing fixed. (Well, they and the occasional crash. )
Funny how the patch wasn't listed on the Updates on the SMAC home page... Oh, well...
"Everyone should believe in something. I believe I'll have another beer"
-- Sister Miriam, We Don't Always Need to Dissent
Cedronian posted 03-19-99 07:44 PM ET
The Space Elevator project doesn`t double all your production. It just doubles it when producing orbital improvements like Nessus mining stations etc. At least thats what the Datalinks and the manual says it does and that`s the way it works in my games too.
//Ced
C M Castleton posted 03-19-99 07:59 PM ET
Hey, does this only work for the US? What about us UK chaps, and where can I get it?
MarkG posted 03-19-99 08:42 PM ET
3/8/99??
Why should people with bugs wait for 11 days??
Markos, Apolyton CS
Lord Gek posted 03-19-99 10:32 PM ET
Hey MarkG,
That is the QA delay. Assumably all was in its complete form back on the 8th and then they gave it at least an entire week of pounding (which, of course, is still nothing close to what the mass of us consumers will be able to find in just a few days).
I'm STOKED to finally get the patch but have to admit that I find making a patch something some online site can get some sort of exclusive on TACKY. While this does include some cool new enhancements, its mainly a patch with a bunch of bugfixes. Why make this harder for folk to access immediately?
Lastly, if there is ever to be a v4.0 (not that I even could see why it would be needed yet), I hope EA and Firaxis could consider releasing some sort of BETA PATCH first. My fear with this patch is that a few NEW problems will probably crop up with this patch and we'll have to wait MONTHS before we see them addressed. The power of coming out with a beta patch first would at least allow the public a chance to note some potential problems the esteemed EA/Firaxis QA team may have missed before they make a FINAL/OFFICIAL release of the given patch.
MarkG posted 03-19-99 10:54 PM ET
"That is the QA delay"
Hmm ,yeah, it makes sense...
Stormhound posted 03-20-99 11:06 AM ET
"� The Current Production at a base is now the top slot of the queue."
Not on mine it isn't. I had no problems downloading, but had to reinstall v1.0 to get the 3.0 patch to work, and then one of the things I most wanted isn't working the way they said it would...
Other than that, no complaints.
TBox posted 03-20-99 11:28 AM ET
I dunno, it seems canny to me. They don't have to pay the maintenance fee for when the 50million screaming downloaders flood the band with requests on THEIR servers. I'm not surprised the 'official' site doesn't have the patch. I'm too wussy to try MP, but from what I hear, AlphaHQ is slow enough. . .My guess is Firaxis outsourced the patch distribution, and the big build up by Gamespot was Gamespot's idea. Anyone else wonder what Firaxis' bottom line is right now? A lot of people forget that the profit margin on games software can be pretty small, and games companies are usually smaller than you'd think.
StargazerBC posted 03-20-99 11:52 AM ET
Hello everyone. I installed v3.0 but I couldn't install it until after I removed 2.0 from my com and reinstalled the orginial AC. Usually, the patches I install stack one on top of another. Was this not the case for v 3.0 or was I just wierd?
Kedryn posted 03-20-99 12:28 PM ET
I had to uninstall AC and reinstall it, just to apply the 3.0 patch. I'd made a few changes to alpha.txt (not cheating changes) and couldn't remember them all. Ugh.
Croxis posted 03-20-99 01:40 PM ET
Another bug with v3.0 is that after one turn of starting a new game, the game forces me to retire.
JaimeWolf posted 03-21-99 12:48 AM ET
Croxis: check the settings in Alpha Centauri.ini ... something like "Default Starting Year", "Default Finishing Year - first three levels", "Default Finishing Year - last three levels"
They should be set to 2100, 2600, 2500 respectively
James
eNo posted 03-21-99 05:27 PM ET
Does the patch update Yang's datalinks for the immunity to negative efficiency? It didn't do so in the v2.0 patch
eNo posted 03-21-99 07:13 PM ET
Scratch my last question and replace it with:
What does the Nessus Canyon do?
edromia posted 03-22-99 11:04 AM ET
Stormhound: the top-of-queue == current production order *does* work... sort of. If you change the top item of an empty queue while the current item is Stockpile Energy, your item will immediately move over to the current order slot.
Also, if you click on the current order slot and then decide you want to start messing with the queue, you can click on the queue without exiting the current order menu; the buttons at the bottom will change to the queue-editing buttons. I don't think this works in reverse.
Still not as elegant as the MOO2 system, but it's a lot more convenient than it was.
-M.
GreasyPig posted 03-22-99 11:20 AM ET
I'm a little surprised that they didn't include a better way of tweeking the mindworms.
Krushala posted 09-06-99 08:21 PM ET
well after I fixed the sound problem
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Author	Topic: Gamespot's v3.0 Enhancement
eNo	posted 03-19-99 01:13 PM ET Two questions: Is it worth the download? Who wrote it?
Lee Johnson	posted 03-19-99 01:15 PM ET We'll know shortly. It just became available for download. :-)
Lee Johnson	posted 03-19-99 01:18 PM ET BTW, it is the 3.0 patch (for the U.S. version, looks like.) Here's an excerpt from the README file: SID MEIER'S ALPHA CENTAURI README.TXT 3.0 3/8/99 CHANGES IN ALPHA CENTAURI VERSION 3.0 ----------------------------------------------- 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.
fkloster	posted 03-19-99 01:34 PM ET I can't get the sucker to download. I have a T-3 and NOTHING!!!!!!! WHATS GOING ON?
Rong	posted 03-19-99 01:35 PM ET Wow, very impressive, sounds like a patch from heaven, err, I mean, Chiron. The question is, have all your prayers been answered? Should we start a wish list for enhancement 4.0 now?
Thue	posted 03-19-99 01:37 PM ET Did you read the text at gamespot? It say (among other things) "The v3.0 patch includes all changes made in both the Alpha Centauri v2.0 and v1.0 enhancements. A complete list of v3.0 changes can be found in the read.me file." But there never were a v1.0 enhancement, and they call v2.0 a patch just above the text. Sloppy...
Lee Johnson	posted 03-19-99 01:41 PM ET You're talking about a site that doesn't even run a spelling checker against its own material...
Marian	posted 03-19-99 01:57 PM ET If the Gamespot download doesn't work, then download it from my server. It certainly is worth the download. Go to http://alphazone.cjb.net You will find it in the download section under update files. Ciao Marian Webmaster ACZone http://alphazone.cjb.net
Rong	posted 03-19-99 02:08 PM ET I went to GameSpot to just give it a try since I don't have SMAC installed on my work pc. I had no problem downloading it. Now here is the interesting part. The whole download took only 1 second! That only means one thing, some one on our corporate LAN had been downloading it before me so the thing is cached in our proxy servers. I need to find this guy for MP matches.
Marian	posted 03-19-99 02:25 PM ET Are you sure that you not just downloaded the stupid redirect.pl (cgi) file that makes the "download starts in 6 seconds" thing to enable them to count the downloads ? That happend to me sometimes and I just dicovered it later. One second seems to few even for a copy from a proxy server! Ciao Marian Webmaster ACZone http://alphazone.cjb.net
Peregrine	posted 03-19-99 02:51 PM ET I downloaded it from Gamespot with no problem, and installed it with no problem. Looks very good, in terms of problems that were fixed. Time will tell if the AI improvements will work...the less artillery fix alone should be worth it for me!
DerekM	posted 03-19-99 03:03 PM ET Peregrine, is your UserName related to Vernor Vinge?
Peregrine	posted 03-19-99 03:11 PM ET DerekM, to that I can only reply...huh? I'm not familiar with that name, this user name is just..you know...a username
DerekM	posted 03-19-99 03:13 PM ET Sorry. It's the name of a character in the novel, "A Fire Upon the Deep," by Vernor Vinge. It's a Hugo award winning SciFi novel that I am in the middle of reading.
Rong	posted 03-19-99 03:34 PM ET Marian, I checked. It's the whole 1.8M in one second flat. With this World Wide Wait, sometimes you forget how fast a network should be.
Fiannaidh	posted 03-19-99 03:44 PM ET Peregrine is a type of falcon, and possibly a Tolkien Character, among other things.
DerekM	posted 03-19-99 03:59 PM ET I know it's a bird. I just thought it might be the same character I was reading about. ENOUGH! I apologize for diverting this thread. I fully intend to download the 3.0 patch. It sounds like a big improvement.
Fiannaidh	posted 03-19-99 04:03 PM ET anyone who wants the patch NOW, here's the link: ftp://download.gamespot.com/pub/strategy/sidalpha/smacp3us.exe
Bdot	posted 03-19-99 04:17 PM ET It's always funny how the main site (this one) is always the slowest place about having patches and downloads... Everyone else has to do their dirty work
Dredd	posted 03-19-99 05:32 PM ET + Planet busters used by the computer player are now restricted by range. Kiss Planet goodbye... this is the one I was waiting for!!
jedijon	posted 03-19-99 06:09 PM ET Shoot... I was hoping for a Space Elevator fix. Guess I still can't use it... Since the SE problem wasn't fixed in either patch, is there any official word regarding if it was an intentional side effect? Is the ecological damage generated by doubling mineral output a designed balance to using the Space Elevator? Also, what about the Temple of Planet? Why do we still have to wait until Voice of Planet is built before we can build Temples? Is this intentional (sort of that we cannot worship Planet until we can officially 'hear' Planet?) Don't get me wrong... I'm glad that a patch is available and I appreciate the hard work that must go into the process. It's just that these were the two game problems that I was most looking forward to seeing fixed. (Well, they and the occasional crash. ) Funny how the patch wasn't listed on the Updates on the SMAC home page... Oh, well... "Everyone should believe in something. I believe I'll have another beer" -- Sister Miriam, We Don't Always Need to Dissent
Cedronian	posted 03-19-99 07:44 PM ET The Space Elevator project doesn`t double all your production. It just doubles it when producing orbital improvements like Nessus mining stations etc. At least thats what the Datalinks and the manual says it does and that`s the way it works in my games too. //Ced
C M Castleton	posted 03-19-99 07:59 PM ET Hey, does this only work for the US? What about us UK chaps, and where can I get it?
MarkG	posted 03-19-99 08:42 PM ET 3/8/99?? Why should people with bugs wait for 11 days?? Markos, Apolyton CS
Lord Gek	posted 03-19-99 10:32 PM ET Hey MarkG, That is the QA delay. Assumably all was in its complete form back on the 8th and then they gave it at least an entire week of pounding (which, of course, is still nothing close to what the mass of us consumers will be able to find in just a few days). I'm STOKED to finally get the patch but have to admit that I find making a patch something some online site can get some sort of exclusive on TACKY. While this does include some cool new enhancements, its mainly a patch with a bunch of bugfixes. Why make this harder for folk to access immediately? Lastly, if there is ever to be a v4.0 (not that I even could see why it would be needed yet), I hope EA and Firaxis could consider releasing some sort of BETA PATCH first. My fear with this patch is that a few NEW problems will probably crop up with this patch and we'll have to wait MONTHS before we see them addressed. The power of coming out with a beta patch first would at least allow the public a chance to note some potential problems the esteemed EA/Firaxis QA team may have missed before they make a FINAL/OFFICIAL release of the given patch.
MarkG	posted 03-19-99 10:54 PM ET "That is the QA delay" Hmm ,yeah, it makes sense...
Stormhound	posted 03-20-99 11:06 AM ET "� The Current Production at a base is now the top slot of the queue." Not on mine it isn't. I had no problems downloading, but had to reinstall v1.0 to get the 3.0 patch to work, and then one of the things I most wanted isn't working the way they said it would... Other than that, no complaints.
TBox	posted 03-20-99 11:28 AM ET I dunno, it seems canny to me. They don't have to pay the maintenance fee for when the 50million screaming downloaders flood the band with requests on THEIR servers. I'm not surprised the 'official' site doesn't have the patch. I'm too wussy to try MP, but from what I hear, AlphaHQ is slow enough. . .My guess is Firaxis outsourced the patch distribution, and the big build up by Gamespot was Gamespot's idea. Anyone else wonder what Firaxis' bottom line is right now? A lot of people forget that the profit margin on games software can be pretty small, and games companies are usually smaller than you'd think.
StargazerBC	posted 03-20-99 11:52 AM ET Hello everyone. I installed v3.0 but I couldn't install it until after I removed 2.0 from my com and reinstalled the orginial AC. Usually, the patches I install stack one on top of another. Was this not the case for v 3.0 or was I just wierd?
Kedryn	posted 03-20-99 12:28 PM ET I had to uninstall AC and reinstall it, just to apply the 3.0 patch. I'd made a few changes to alpha.txt (not cheating changes) and couldn't remember them all. Ugh.
Croxis	posted 03-20-99 01:40 PM ET Another bug with v3.0 is that after one turn of starting a new game, the game forces me to retire.
JaimeWolf	posted 03-21-99 12:48 AM ET Croxis: check the settings in Alpha Centauri.ini ... something like "Default Starting Year", "Default Finishing Year - first three levels", "Default Finishing Year - last three levels" They should be set to 2100, 2600, 2500 respectively James
eNo	posted 03-21-99 05:27 PM ET Does the patch update Yang's datalinks for the immunity to negative efficiency? It didn't do so in the v2.0 patch
eNo	posted 03-21-99 07:13 PM ET Scratch my last question and replace it with: What does the Nessus Canyon do?
edromia	posted 03-22-99 11:04 AM ET Stormhound: the top-of-queue == current production order does work... sort of. If you change the top item of an empty queue while the current item is Stockpile Energy, your item will immediately move over to the current order slot. Also, if you click on the current order slot and then decide you want to start messing with the queue, you can click on the queue without exiting the current order menu; the buttons at the bottom will change to the queue-editing buttons. I don't think this works in reverse. Still not as elegant as the MOO2 system, but it's a lot more convenient than it was. -M.
GreasyPig	posted 03-22-99 11:20 AM ET I'm a little surprised that they didn't include a better way of tweeking the mindworms.
Krushala	posted 09-06-99 08:21 PM ET well after I fixed the sound problem