Post if you're not a bot! (And how did you find us?)

[Rextraos]

Yo, I'm Rex.

Been playing SMAC and SMAX for a few years now, wasn't that into playing games with mods back then but it's only natural to change your mind about it when you find out how awesome they are.

I found this place via google whilst wondering if there was any fan art I could use as my screen background.

[Buster's Uncle]

Did you find any fan art you liked?

[Rextraos]

Yeah, the fanart is pretty cool. The only wallpapers though are of the different faction cities, hoping to find some more wallpapers.

[Buster's Uncle]

Have you seen this?

Ladies of AC Wallpapers 01

From Mylochka: http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?action=downloads;sa=view;down=300

Here's a set of 5 1920 x 1200 pictures suitable for use as desktop wallpapers 

[Rextraos]

Haven't seen those, they're really cool. It's a shame my laptops max screen resolution is 1280 x 800

[fuze2100]

hi  am Fuze, got the name in a diff game when some one really made me mad... i spent over 700 bucks in first month and 2 yrs making sure he and his friends never forgot the day they did what they did to me.  they were not smart enough to realize id come back and kill em all like Jim Jones.   gotta love the drones..

any ways. i played both smac and smax for long time, took a break and now i find game way to easy.. its like i dont even have to try.
 i found site looking for patches randomly on web seeing if there is a way to play with a challenge  i have not installed any since i dont know how to work them

[czar]

Hi!
I play smax from long time, I found this forum through the facebook group

[aade]

hi i'm not a bot and i found you through google while trying to get alpha's group go to to work, still
havent found out yet but i may do here .
hi i am a single 50 year old male own flat and play alpha centauri most times through i have alpa centuri ,and planetary disks and also GOG's version love the game but  keep getting my butt handed to me on a plate
things would be  so simple if i got assemble groups to work, can you help

aade

[Buster's Uncle]

Group to play against?  Post in the Command Nexus subforum - be patient...

[bvanevery]

Hello!  I've been playing SMAC/X on and off for 17 years now I think.  I even tried to write my own game in a similar vein once upon a time, but I was never able to solve certain problems.  Lately I started writing narrative heavy After Action Reports for some reason, hadn't really done that before.  I think it was a reaction to running out of things to do in the game.  Also playing on 256x256 maps, something else I hadn't done before.  Other recent dusty corners uncovered, things I've rarely done: drilling aquifiers on squares that don't have energy, nerve gassing alien cities, genetic atrocities.

I went looking for a SMAC/X specific forum because I was babbling on and on about this stuff on my venerable game design mailing list.  Although I think the few subscribers have a passing level of interest, the volume of posts I was making, would warrant people more specifically versed in the details of the game.  I think I found this forum by brute force web search ala "alpha centauri forum".  Looking for forums that still have a pulse, or better yet, a volume of users.  It's an old game so I guess I can't expect so much though.  It's still the best Civ-style game, nobody has ever done better or even come close to equaling it IMO.  I did try Pandora a couple years ago, but at least at the time, they didn't have narrative anything to speak of, and that's not the same.

The recent release of Civ VI triggered my latest round of SMAC/X.  There seem to be all these tile gewgaws that modify adjacent stuff.  Like they had discoverd or invented something especially new or kewl.  I thought, "They did that in SMAC back in 1999!"  Awful lotta stuff buried in the SMAC builder subgame.  I often forget about echelon mirrors, although I'm pretty consistent with Condensers if I get The Weather Paradigm.  I think those belong on "rolling, arid" land that has some "rolling, not rainy" land next to it.  The mirrors, I've been putting on the "flat, rainy" bits because they don't make great squares themselves, they help other squares with a bonus.  So I figure it is best to have a nearby "rolling, rainy" square with a solar collector get an additional energy bonus.

Truth is I can forget to do any of this stuff though.  SMAC/X suffers from the "wait to win" problem.

[gwillybj]

Hello!  I've been playing SMAC/X on and off for 17 years now I think...

Also playing on 256x256 maps, something else I hadn't done before...

Truth is I can forget to do any of this stuff though.  SMAC/X suffers from the "wait to win" problem.

Welcome! More than just a few of us have been playing SMAC/X from the beginning or very near. I got SMAC in February of 2000. I'm not sure when I got the Planetary Pack. It wasn't a long time after, though.

If you know how to change or add available map sizes, I find it interesting to play on 360x180.

It's easy to forget stuff during a game because there's so much going on. Even if you're plainly going to win, that complacency can make you make mistakes.

[bvanevery]

Welcome! More than just a few of us have been playing SMAC/X from the beginning or very near. I got SMAC in February of 2000. I'm not sure when I got the Planetary Pack. It wasn't a long time after, though.

I didn't play it immediately on release.  I discovered Civ II: Test of Time in 1999 I think.  I got addicted.  I had quit my job in order to be a self-described game developer during the dot.com boom, so I had a lot of time to blow on it.  Later I discovered SMAC, and played that incessantly.  I've had a love-hate relationship with it over the years.  It's a rather flawed game, but still the best 4X TBS that has been made.

If you know how to change or add available map sizes, I find it interesting to play on 360x180.

Sweet Jes Miriam.  Well let's see, 256x256=65,536.  360x180=64,800.  I guess we're talking about comparable pain.  Ok I'll give it a go.  Maybe it will fit in the mini-window with less distortion.

Ha ha, have actually chosen 192x384.  Just to take myself back to my retro Atari 800 8-bit roots!  Those were memorized numbers back then, frequently occuring.  It is exactly 9x a "Huge" map.

Have you noticed that you can't Quick Start one of these custom sizes?  Even though I modded the game menu to give me a "Giant" map, a Quick Start will just throw it back to a Huge map.

It's easy to forget stuff during a game because there's so much going on. Even if you're plainly going to win, that complacency can make you make mistakes.

I never think of changing the Elvises to different specialist types.  That's a micromanaging bridge too far for me.  I mean crap by late game I might have 40 cities on a big map.  Think I'm gonna worry about Engineers and crap like that??  Lucky if I'm not falling asleep just adding recycling tanks to new bases by then.

I never use Governors.  Too incredibly stupid.  I might do it if I was going to narrate / sandbox a game after awhile, not actually worry about winning it.  But none of my narratives have quite made it to that late a game, so far.  Run out of narrative steam before then.

[Quinch]

Heyo folks - I've been playing SMAX since, uh, whenever GOG got it on their repertoire, so I guess a while now? I found this site poking around their forums' patch thread and here I am!

[bvanevery]

Welcome!

[gwillybj]

Heyo folks - I've been playing SMAX since, uh, whenever GOG got it on their repertoire, so I guess a while now? I found this site poking around their forums' patch thread and here I am!

Great to have you. If you find yourself in a bind, there are fine resources here, both digital and biological.