Unmodified alphax.txt

[Buster's Uncle]

Unmodified alphax.txt

Once in a while, someone needs this, so...

http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?action=downloads;sa=view;down=99

[Green1]

Thank you, BU. I was preparing to offer mine.

[Buster's Uncle]

...You could post plain alpha.txt...

[Green1]

Well, I could do it but the alphax.txt is pretty long. Going over what all the .txt in detail can do would be interesting reading. Most of the old topics on that are archived or maybe they never went over it back in the day.

The only alteration I ever dared to do with it was change the (in my opinion) stupid mandatory retirement year. But i have heard other folks do some crazy things with it like altering AI build ques and such. As I mentioned, hard to find good info on it these days as many forums on it are archived.

BTW, never done MP, but how does the alphax.txt work with MP if two folks have different stuff in the alpha.txt? Is there some kind of checksum?

Also, what about the Upatches? There are two versions. Some are going pure Scient, others are going Kyrub+Scient PLUS. I am sure others only have the Firaxis WinXP patch. I think they are three separate .exes. I also think scient/kyrubs has the WinXP in it? How does that work in a MP environment?

[Buster's Uncle]

I believe they agree in advance what patches and such.  Perhaps sisko or another CMN will amplify on that.

Information on what does what in alpha and alphax.txt is hard to come by partly because the CMN crowd doesn't share what they know very freely, because it could be used to cheat at MP, and most of the people who know that stuff are CMNs.  It's frustrating.

[Green1]

I believe they agree in advance what patches and such.  Perhaps sisko or another CMN will amplify on that.

Information on what does what in alpha and alphax.txt is hard to come by partly because the CMN crowd doesn't share what they know very freely, because it could be used to cheat at MP, and most of the people who know that stuff are CMNs.  It's frustrating.

CMN? So a nuetral party has to host it pitboss style? And ego kids could alter the .txt to mess folks over in the day? What a headache for the MP crowd!

We need the euro guys to fix that. The Russians, in particular, are rabid 4x gamers. Over on some other game forums they made mods for other older games to prevent that. It would also help matters if the version (including scient/kyrub/winxp/retail1999/retailGoG) would list on opening screen. Maybe one approved alpha.txt and a checksum program to enforce it. That would increase MP.

Then again, explains why the Civ community (and to an extent, SMAC) is fragmented the way it is with all this ego cheating. Hell, I think even nowadays for Civ, you have to be in a clan to get a game. Some of those guys are pretty anal, too, even then. I'd rathered deal with bnet kiddies or the MMO crowd.

[Buster's Uncle]

I'm not aware of any actual cases of actual cheating, going back 3 1/2 years, now...

[Green1]

I'm not aware of any actual cases of actual cheating, going back 3 1/2 years, now...

That is a relief. There are some gaming communities that are rife with it. The FPS and RTS crowd comes to mind. I never delved much into the MP world of the 4X genre. 4X was mostly a private little pleasure. I apologize for any uninformed perceptions of 4x MP.

Only frame of reference I have for 4X MP is some Civ 4 BtS on gamespy years back. But, games sucked. Lots of quitters, lots of really pissed off and anal folks. Got so bad, you could hardly find a game and if you did, it would be over in 5 minutes. Then, they came up with all these locked games where you had to sign up on some clan site and reserve to get in.

I did have one or two good games though out of 20. So, it was not too bad.

[NewAgeOfPower]

Thanks, BU.

[Buster's Uncle]

No sweat; somebody needs it from time to time, so I'm glad you prompted me.  Content is content, anything people might google for is bait, and we're building something here.

[BFG]

Hopefully this doesn't count as a necropost...just wanted to mention I appreciated your making this available too.  I ended up needing it tonight when I accidentally overwrote my backup.

By the way, it might make sense to replace this alphax with a version that fixes the bugs noted at http://www.civgaming.net/smac/alphaxguide_v1_3.html.

[gwillybj]

btw, that same address

Hopefully this doesn't count as a necropost...just wanted to mention I appreciated your making this available too.  I ended up needing it tonight when I accidentally overwrote my backup.

By the way, it might make sense to replace this alphax with a version that fixes the bugs noted at http://www.civgaming.net/smac/alphaxguide_v1_3.html.

has the detailed info green1 is looking for is his post above:

Well, I could do it but the alphax.txt is pretty long. Going over what all the .txt in detail can do would be interesting reading. Most of the old topics on that are archived or maybe they never went over it back in the day.