What is considered canon in Alpha Centauri?

[firebomb173]

In addition to the game itself, what is considered canon? Besides the main game and its expansion, there are novels, the online faction leader profiles, and the GURPS supplement. I am also wondering if, in addition to whether they are considered canon, were written by anyone involved in the game.

[Buster's Uncle]

I don't know that there's any kind of community consensus about that.  I'd hazard that the majority haven't had any opportunity to read the GURPS stuff or the Ely novels, for one thing.

[Yitzi]

In a game like SMAC, canon is inevitably a fuzzy concept.  After all, canon as indicated by the quotes strongly suggests that the Spartans were wiped out by the Gaians, but you can play a game where that doesn't happen.

Everything that happens before the game starts is definitely canon; after, it's somewhat fuzzier.

[JeroenDStout]

In a game like SMAC, canon is inevitably a fuzzy concept.  After all, canon as indicated by the quotes strongly suggests that the Spartans were wiped out by the Gaians, but you can play a game where that doesn't happen.

Introducing it to a friend he wondered what the implication was that you could see the faction dominance and hear quotes from other factions before finding them. My own head-justification is that you are sort-of looking at historical documents (i.e., Book of Planet) and that all the turns you do are in the past.

Or, even, all the things you see in the game are the dreams of Planet once it reaches godhood.

[BeyondChiron]

Well the probable canon is that

*At some point near the late game Yang either was wiped or recluded to his bunkers, since he mostly dissapears from science quotes. On the very least he must have stuck until the Will to Power (Explore 9) since thats what allows Thought Control. And the Self Aware Colony is generally attributed to him so that keeps both him and Miriam up to Self Aware Machines (Discover 12)
*Miriam has quotes up to Controlled Singularity (Conquer 15) but its a previous book so idk. Her quote in Psi Gate (from Matter Transmition Discover 13) kinda implies either mass suicide or a last stand using one of those though.
*The Spartans were wiped out by the Gaians after Probability Mechanics (Build 7) since Sparta Command had one of those, after the Will to Power since the Dream Twister was probably theirs and the quote involves the destruction of Assassin's Redoubt and around Quantum Power (Discover 11) since the Headquarters quote (which once tell about the aftermath of it) involves a quantum tank
*Lal also becomes pretty irrelevant. He was either wiped out or just realized the futility of his job towards late game and allowed himself to be absorbed by the gaians or the university
*Which leads that despite the Lab 3 incident, the Gaians and the University probably became pact brothers at some point, since the Voice of Planet was done by Zakharov
*Deidre was the one having all the visions and dreams of Planet and the Gaians were probably the ones who achieved the Transcendence. The University (and the peacekeepers if they did survive) probably co won with her.
*I think Morgan almost pulled an economic victory, but the transcendence won over him.

Also

*The Gaians probably started around the Pholus ridge and the Manifold Nexus given the AoT and the Pholus Mutagen
*The Hive Probaly started around Barren Wastelands judging their render appareance
*The Morganites considered Mount Planet their land or were fighting for it if we're to take the Longevity Vaccine MorganTV spot accurate

[Geo]

And then there were the expansion quotes from Alien Crossfire...
Domai seems to have fielded singularity weapons in the end.

[Buster's Uncle]

I sorta like to think of Crossfire factions as having landed on the opposite hemisphere, out of touch with the first seven for as long as possible, having parallel adventures...

[BeyondChiron]

I rarely play Smax because i dont really like any of the new factions. But the things can can be assured are

*The Free Drones were fine and good up to 2216 and iirc, the gamegoes up to 2500 yrs in the gurps book. They probably made the cloudbase academy given that the quote is an obvious reference to Santiago's quote about aerial combat combining flexiblity, mobility and initiative. Idk about the superstring quote because it doesnt outright mention it.

*The Conciousness and the Cult made the contact with the aliens. I think the Cult met with an Usurper betrayer and fought against them and the Conciousness with the Caretakers, since she speaks of a her and the relationship between them sounds far more diplomatic.

[Buster's Uncle]

Of course, for any of the Xfire factions to be splinters of any originals as they are commonly held by most SMACers to be, you have to ignore that (excepting Cha and the Progs) they're there on Planet, intact factions like any other, MY 1.

[BeyondChiron]

I dont understand what you are saying. I mean of course they start at MY1 but thats gameplay mechanics.

[Buster's Uncle]

Well, the ultimate level of cannon is what's in the game, yes?

[BeyondChiron]

Well in games like Civ i think the background takes precedence over what happens in game since each game is different.

[Buster's Uncle]

That's a different thing than I was talking about - obviously you can't take plot from the interactive part of an interactive medium.

But what's in the datalinks, the leader quotes, the movies -anything that's already in place at the beginning of the game and not generated by variable gameplay- is fact in the game's universe, not to be contradicted by anything from my fanfic to Michael Ely's officially-sanctioned professional novels.  What's in the game is cannon over all else.

[Yitzi]

That's a different thing than I was talking about - obviously you can't take plot from the interactive part of an interactive medium.

But what's in the datalinks, the leader quotes, the movies -anything that's already in place at the beginning of the game and not generated by variable gameplay- is fact in the game's universe, not to be contradicted by anything from my fanfic to Michael Ely's officially-sanctioned professional novels.  What's in the game is cannon over all else.

Don't you mean "canon"?   

[Buster's Uncle]

[blinks]

No, I meant honkin' big artillery guns.

I don't make mistakes.