Good Old Reviews: Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri

[Tiamat666]

Personally, I think that the map could have been bigger (granted, I think maps should be large enough to effectively allow near-total isolation even at maxing the player/bot count, so there probably isn't a map I think is large enough) and unit design could have used a tutorial to best explain how to efficiently design custom units, but I still view Alpha Centari as pretty much my favorite TBS game EVAR!

The only thing preventing me from buying this on GOG is the question as to whether the expansion is included with the download.

I also had this "tick" for a looong time that bigger equals better. I wanted all my civ games to be "epic" and practically always played the largest map sizes available. Until I realized that quite a bit of the fun is lost in the late game phase of civ games because every turn takes forever, and gameplay starts feeling like a chore because I have dozens of cities to manage.
So I started playing the medium maps and have been quite happy with them ever since.

The same thing applies to units, improvements, technologies... I always wished there were more of them until I downloaded some Civ IV mods with an INSANE amount of content. That's when I started to appreciate the relative simplicity of vanilla.

 

[Bostur]

Also, they never tell you what nerve stapling is, only that it's considered an atrocity. Any theories?

From the icon, I've assumed it's reducing their sensory perception to the point of uselessness.

Other theories include "A device that inflicts (potentially extreme) sensations at will". Think "Push Button of Pain".

One of the great things about SMAC is that they leave a lot of detail open for the player's imagination. Many of the interludes and descriptions of secret projects are small snippets taken out of context. It allows the player to let the imagination run free trying to fill in the blanks.

I always assumed that nerve stapling was a form of high-tech lobotomy, turning the subjects into mindless but productive zombies.

Some civilian workers got in among the research patients today and became so hysterical I felt compelled to have them nerve stapled. The consequence, of course, will be another public relations nightmare, but I was severely shaken by the extent of their revulsion towards a project so vital to our survival.

http://en.wikiquote.org/wiki/Sid_Meier%27s_Alpha_Centauri#Morgan_Industries

 

[Tireseas_v1legacy]

It is. I picked it up a few months back.

Excellent...

Also, the largest maps always seemed fairly large. I generally had a few colonies up before I met another group. And could go hours before I met all of the others.

I also had this "tick" for a looong time that bigger equals better. I wanted all my civ games to be "epic" and practically always played the largest map sizes available. Until I realized that quite a bit of the fun is lost in the late game phase of civ games because every turn takes forever, and gameplay starts feeling like a chore because I have dozens of cities to manage.
So I started playing the medium maps and have been quite happy with them ever since.

The same thing applies to units, improvements, technologies... I always wished there were more of them until I downloaded some Civ IV mods with an INSANE amount of content. That's when I started to appreciate the relative simplicity of vanilla.

I enjoy both complexity and simplicity, but the size issue is more because I prefer to have a very defensive early-to-mid game with an opportunistic late game (i.e. I play the backstabbing ally or go all in on their largest fortifications first and play clean up with the rest). The nice thing about Pre-CivV Civ games (including Alpha Centari) was that you could stack units and move a substantial number in a relatively covert manner (as opposed to Civ V's one military/civil unit per space mechanic which makes armies much smaller and more difficult to maneuver). There's no such thing as a near-stealth invasion in Civ V

 

[Keneth]

I spent/wasted/invested so much time into Alpha Centauri. I've thought for years it had one of the best unit creation systems. The ability to custom design a unit to serve exactly the tactical function you need it for always felt like such a move forward in strategy gaming. I'm surprised more games haven't used it.

Spoiler

I still have my original install disk. And Manual!

 

[Starke]

I spent/wasted/invested so much time into Alpha Centauri. I've thought for years it had one of the best unit creation systems. The ability to custom design a unit to serve exactly the tactical function you need it for always felt like such a move forward in strategy gaming. I'm surprised more games haven't used it.

Spoiler

I still have my original install disk. And Manual!

I have mine somewhere, my manual belonged to someone else though...

The Fallen Enchantress games have an even greater level of "messing with individual units" than AC did. Also, it remembers the units you create, so the AI for that faction can break them out as well... unfortunately the rest of the game isn't as good.

 

[Avaholic03]

One thing I should add:

SMAC did one thing that no Civ game I've seen before or since did: the other players actually seemed to play more like leaders trying to survive than players trying to meet arbitrary win conditions. If total submission was the only way for one of the other players to continue, they'd do it. Compared to various Civ games I've played where some pissant with one city left tries to bluster and throw his weight around, it was hugely refreshing; I rarely felt like I was going to have an alliance broken in the eleventh hour just because I was doing too well, in spite of otherwise being a model ally.

Yes, this was one of its best features for sure. So much that it made subsequent Civ games all feel like a step backward. Surely a better AI system would be a priority for a primarily single-player series like Civ/AC...but unfortunately it's only got worse. By Civ 5, you could pretty much predict the exact turn your inevitable backstab was going to happen.

 

[stickmangrit]

I spent/wasted/invested so much time into Alpha Centauri. I've thought for years it had one of the best unit creation systems. The ability to custom design a unit to serve exactly the tactical function you need it for always felt like such a move forward in strategy gaming. I'm surprised more games haven't used it.

Spoiler

I still have my original install disk. And Manual!

same here. picked mine up for five bucks at a TJ Max software bin(incidentally same way i got X-Com on floppy back in the day). best part of getting a Windows 7 laptop was being able to play it again(that game did NOT like XP at all...). this is probably my favorite game of all time.

as for the folks clamoring for sequels, i think the reason we haven't gotten one is that there's some legal problems with the rights(i think EA still has them if i remember correctly).

 

[Stryc9]

Such a great game, I bought this at Costco sometime around 2000-2001 as part of this "Buy one, mail some shit in, get one free!" offer EA was doing at the time. I think it was $5 for this, and I sent in to get Nox. I spent more time with this than I did Nox to be honest. I'll still pop Alpha Centauri in and play it from time to time. Not all that long ago I found the Planetary Pack that also has Alien Crossfire on the disc at a second hand shop and that got me back to playing it again.

 

[Xeorm]

Also, the largest maps always seemed fairly large. I generally had a few colonies up before I met another group. And could go hours before I met all of the others.

The maps are pretty big, but where it places each civ can be very random. As an example, I started one game as the naval race, and was placed next to two other civs, such that my first city's borders were shared with two other cities! On the largest map!

Quit right there out of annoyance.

 

[Strazdas]

Still play this game, one of my favourites. Thought admit it suffers severely for old UI. something like Alpha Centauri with UI of Civilziation 4 would have been awesome. I mean there is no technology tree at all in that game. Other than that i think the game is great. It does get tediuos once you populate half the world but that is always with civ games.
I would pay A LOT for AC2.

The only thing preventing me from buying this on GOG is the question as to whether the expansion is included with the download.

Yes, it is, and you can run both expansion and non-expansion game (expansion disrders the balance somewhat, while original one was very balanced).

I never could understand why suppressing riots with nerve stapling was so bad thing

Imagine if you could lobotomize your workers into midnelss slaves, and some real world country would start doing it. what would be the reaction of the rest of the world?

 

[sanjuroM]

Remembered playing this in my schooling years. Kept me up many a nite just for that 'one more turn'. It was incredibly addicting and I was more of a fps quake/doom player which attest to how good the game was at sucking the player in.

Even the sound effects and low key music had a sort of hypnotic effect. No game had ever had the kind of effect on me as SMAC did. Would love to see a remake of this game with updated UI/AI and graphics to today's standards..I'd buy that in a heartbeat.

 

[Tireseas_v1legacy]

Imagine if you could lobotomize your workers into midnelss slaves, and some real world country would start doing it. what would be the reaction of the rest of the world?

*tisk, tisk* followed by "let's move our cheep manufacturing jobs there."

 

[Shodan1980]

Always used to annoy the way the AI placed it's sea colonies. Even your closest ally would place cities to exploit your land cities' improved coastal tiles. I started so many wars to reclaim sea territory from that ass of an AI. Only way round it was to place colonies you didn't really want or need to protect your oceanic borders.

Anyhoo, best Civ game of all time, and no mod that tries to recreate it ever really captures it. Social engineering was the best government system they ever came up with and I never got why they immediately abandoned it in Civ 3. And then there's the terraforming and the rainfall patterns. Genius. It's the go to Civ game.

 

[webkilla]

Loved SMAC - still do. The Expansion even more so (Sweedish pirates, HO!)

Even compared to things like Civ5 I'd say this is better.

The unit customization, based on tech advances, is something I've only ever seen on SMAC. No other civ game has that feature.

Also the social engineering feature, same thing


In short: Love the game, best civ game ever.

 

[stickmangrit]

Also, the largest maps always seemed fairly large. I generally had a few colonies up before I met another group. And could go hours before I met all of the others.

The maps are pretty big, but where it places each civ can be very random. As an example, I started one game as the naval race, and was placed next to two other civs, such that my first city's borders were shared with two other cities! On the largest map!

Quit right there out of annoyance.

never played the expansion, but almost every game i played the fucking Hive tended to get a continent to themselves, resulting in them being way to entrenched to do anything other than play nice diplomatically with them once i found them(usually towards the endgame), even with the tech bonuses of playing University. though at that point i'd usually annihilated the Believers(because fuck them) and made Morgan my *****(because fuck him too, but the other factions tended to frown on me wiping him off the map after he surrendered).

 

[UniversalRonin]

Civ 2,and AC are my favourite games of the Civ series. I loved how whichever faction you picked dictated your natural enemies. I loved the territory markers. And like a few people, still got my disk. (not installed right now, but easily one of my favorite games ever.)

 

[Tiamat666]

I enjoy both complexity and simplicity, but the size issue is more because I prefer to have a very defensive early-to-mid game with an opportunistic late game (i.e. I play the backstabbing ally or go all in on their largest fortifications first and play clean up with the rest). The nice thing about Pre-CivV Civ games (including Alpha Centari) was that you could stack units and move a substantial number in a relatively covert manner (as opposed to Civ V's one military/civil unit per space mechanic which makes armies much smaller and more difficult to maneuver). There's no such thing as a near-stealth invasion in Civ V

I totally get what you mean, because I played the same way. Only focusing on infrastructure and research until my advanced tanks and airplanes steamrolled over all backwards opposition.
Also my other main reason for huge maps was "realism". We have hundreds of large cities on Earth, right? So I always found it disturbing to manage a country or empire consisting of only 4 or 5 cities. But the large distances and defensive early game also meant that conflicts and large battles only happened later in the game, whereas in the real world we have had conflict and ancient empires at their throats since the beginning of civilization. I now regard it as a nice side-effect of playing smaller maps, that you have to be on your toes right from the start and there can be large conflicts involving all those ancient units you would normally not bother with on a large map. It's also more challenging because the AI will always build lots of units, even if he can't use them because you are on the other side of the world. So on large maps all of that production is wasted for him while you are building up your power base.

 

[Tzzimy]

After playing it again for a while, exploring it, listening to its music and making pacts with the Hive (I love to play Deirdre or Zakharov), I decided to exit when I heard that so familiar voice from the past...

"Please don't go. The Drones need you. They look up to you."

I literally froze, hit by a wave of old memories, realizing how many DAYS I spent playing that game, I just could not press the quit button!

 

[Aardvaarkman]

Ah, Alpha Centauri. One of the greats. It's really improved by the Alien Crossfire expansion, though. I'm surprised that wasn't specifically mentioned in the article.

I had a really easy time getting back into SMAC, but it might not be quite as smooth to the pallet for those weaned on later Civ titles.

Unless you have a very large mouth, I think you mean "palate," as a "pallet" is usually a wooden framework used to transport heavy objects on.

 

[SandroTheMaster]

The Mind Worms are an important part of the game, yes, but what made Alpha Centauri stand out from anything since or before was the staggering sense of grandeur that came from the clash of the philosophies in the game. Each technological advance is a glimpse of possibilities. Each secret project comes with a thought-provoking quote from one of the unique faction leaders. Yes, even Mirian.

It'd take Mass Effect before a game would tackle futurist theories and philosophy again. And then they promptly dropped it in the sequels for a more action-oriented story-telling... And they turned the pragmatic/idealist duality into a badass jerk/space jesus... thing.