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

[Chumbles]

Stars shine on Chiron
Threads increase, proliferate
Wonder what is human.

Found via Google.   

[Buster's Uncle]

Found personal text and sigline entries in your profile right away.  Good.  Serviceable robohaiku, check.  That Galactus sure knows his AI coding.

What search terms?


Greet 'im, people - I think we got a live one here.

[Misotu]

Hi, found this site through Google while looking for SMAC/SMAX patches.

I used to play a lot of SMAC/X many years ago when the games were first released, including a lot of PBEM over at Apolyton. Haven't played for years but trying a demo of Civ BE got me nostalgic! I had so much fun with these games and I had forgotten how immersive they are.

Is there anyone else around here who remembers Apolyton back in the day?

[Buster's Uncle]

I joined the community about five minutes before the schism, so I don't know that I count.  We do have a number of oldtimers, though.  Check out Command Nexus for MP and several of them.

[Buster's Uncle]

My co-owner sisko is bdanv, Mart and Kirov are currently running MP, and I don't know how far back the others go, except many of them were around before me, six years ago.

I thought I recognized your handle when you signed up, but I wasn't sure that wasn't because I'd just seen you browsing at CFC - but my memory has turned you up from that Peacekeepers succession game at WPC, so I do sorta know you a little.

Hi!  They'll be thrilled to see you in Command Nexus, and I suspect some replacement opportunities are about to come up -a few key MPlayers have gotten a little scarce recently, and we need to get some games moving again, 'cause all the others are getting frustrated.

There's a MPlayer profile thread stickied in there...

Oh - and there's a succession game in progress but a little stalled for the same reason so many games are ATM -if only an accomplished oldtimer would happen by and jump in-  really; you can pretty much just grab the turn and go for it.  Mart will be glad, I reckon.

[gwillybj]

I joined Apolyton in March of 2001, so they all had 2 years on me.
It was a thrill to be in on strategy and tactics discussions even that late.
Then there were the many fan-made factions; some very well done, some not so much.

[Misotu]

Hi BUncle and gwillybj 

BUncle, I wondered about you too but my memory is not as good as yours ... yeah, Peacekeepers were definitely my thing when I knew what I was doing, back in the day ...

PBEM. Oh gosh. I'll have to play a bit more, I'm so rusty*, but I did enjoy those PBEM games ... SMAC players are always such a fun bunch. I will wander over and take a look.

* I'm not kidding on the rust ... ran up a little Gaia game when I first got it installed and all was going reasonably well until suddenly my bases were growing unexpectedly at a rate of knots. I was baffled. Wot was going on? Had ... ahem ... completely forgotten about pop booming and rediscovered it accidentally.

Now *that's* rusty   

[Kirov]

BUncle, I wondered about you too but my memory is not as good as yours ... yeah, Peacekeepers were definitely my thing when I knew what I was doing, back in the day ...

PBEM. Oh gosh. I'll have to play a bit more, I'm so rusty*, but I did enjoy those PBEM games ... SMAC players are always such a fun bunch. I will wander over and take a look.

Hi there, Misotu! I don't believe we met at 'poly, however I've been there for quite a while, around the times of the first Demo game. Glad another vet decided to pop in. 

Feel invited to the PBEM area, there's still a few of us left. Once we finish the Rising Sun game, we with Yabcok will surely look for another game. You may also remember bintravkin, who joined us some time back.

Don't worry about the rust, I know what you mean but all will come back to you soon. I'd like to have an HtH with you and we can think about some 4p game. What do you think?

I like the PKs, too. The only faction to truly embrace vertical growth.

[Misotu]

OK Kirov, you talked me into it   

I PMed you, going to be off-line (unusually) until around the end of the month but after that I have lots of free time   

[Mind Worm]

Hello, another fan to SMAC reporting ! 

Ok, so... I´m not so newbie to this game as you may think.
I´ve had my little share of games played and won:

Transcendence Victory with the Gaians on Citizen difficulty in a standard sized random map planet

Economic Victory with the Morganites on Talent difficulty on the Earth map
(it was such an advantage to begin in India with its high terrain  )

Conquest Victory with the Spartans and Cultists on Talent difficulty in a standard sized random map planet (Spartans)
and in a tiny sized random map planet (Cultists).


But I´m still a newbie for many more things like game and rule mechanics.
For example, how can I achieve a Diplomatic Victory ?

Do I only have to be nice to everyone ? Treaties of Friendship (and Brotherhood ?) with everyone ? Buy their votes ? Give gifts to the agressive factions until I can be their friend or at least buy their vote ?


And... some trivia info about me:

My favorite factions are Gaia´s Stepdaughters and Cult of Planet.
My favorite Victory is Conquest (with Mind Worm´s swarm it´s better  ).
I like tiny maps, I don´t get lost in the map, don´t have to monitor so many bases,
and it takes me little time to play and win.

I hate the Nautilus Pirates and the Human Hive, too many bases to take...
my Planet Busters spamming comes to mind.

[Buster's Uncle]

Mindworm capture is definitely a powerful asset of the +Planet factions in the early game.  I depended on that when I was playing the SMAC demo extensively pre-release; it was about the only way to win in only 100 turns, and then only if the Believers weren't too far away on the map.

[Mind Worm]

Mindworm capture is definitely a powerful asset of the +Planet factions in the early game.  I depended on that when I was playing the SMAC demo extensively pre-release; it was about the only way to win in only 100 turns, and then only if the Believers weren't too far away on the map.

Clever strategy. 
Was it hard to do ?

[Buster's Uncle]

Very.  Took some luck and a lot of practice to pull off.

[Mind Worm]

Very.  Took some luck and a lot of practice to pull off.

It would be cool to play a scenario with that challenge.

I found this site googling "Alpha centauri maps/scenarios".

[Raaf]

Hello, I'm 16 years late on this epic journey, but as I have just retired myself from work, I am planning to make up for it.

So expect me to ask lots of beginners questions, as I have been fooling around on the easiest level for about a week now, but there are still far too many factors in the game to get my mind around it.

But I find the atmosphere great, reminds me of the great SF novels of the 1970's, of Niven and Pournelle etc.
And the graphics are acceptable for somebody who worked on mainframes in a former life :-)