The Alpha Centauri thread.

[Wizard]

When the cats are away, the mice will play. Thrawn86 & I play a lot of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, and I figured this could help us out. When Kman returns, he can delete, close or leave this thread as he pleases, but until then, it will be up. This may be incredibly boring to you other posters, so don't feel like you'll be missing much in this thread, unless you play AC.

Anyway, thrawn86, your Believers-always-win-on-Transcend theory has been disproven. They're currently 2nd in the game, w\the Gaians in 1rst. I'm in 4th now, behind the University, the Gaians, and the Believers. I've cornered the energy market, though, and my main base (Mormon Industries; oh yeah) is nigh-impenetrable. I've got 30 (yes, 30) Clean AAA Probability Sentinels in it, covered with a Tachyon Field, a Perimeter Defense, and an Aerospace Complex. Problem? They're all Very Green(That's what happens when you go Democracy, Free Market, Wealth, and Eudaimonia). I'm hoping it won't matter, that there are enough of them that they'll have time to heal in between attacks. And they'll all get better, of course.

And Free market actually isn't that bad. I've found that your Planet rating doesn't seem to matter much. I don't capture mind worms---I kill them! Dream Twister Empath Psi Speeders will take care of any mind worm problem you have, planet or no. The police rating is what hurts, but if you concentrate on having a few killer units rather than lots of weak ones, it's not too much of a problem. And the money---oh, the money. I was generating 2000 energy per turn near the end, not counting the money from stockpiling. +4 energy per base, AND +1 energy\square! It's great!

[K Man]

{appears in a cloud of smoke and flame!..}

The cat is never far away. Anyways, I would never shut a thread down on thie board...it's for crap like this. Threads that are either; short, have no point, or are just for fun. So post away man, just so long as there are no attacks on anyone, the post can stay. I'm not that harsh of a moderator am I?

Is this a PC game? I myself am severly interested in trying out Galactic Civilizations or Homeworld II...if anyone out there has played them, let me know.

k

{PS - Obviously it wasn't that hard to get online out here, but I'm still in seminars all day with sight-seeing at night, so sproradic posts will still be the norm.}

[Wizard]

It's for PC. I'm in class right now (I'm a T. A. in here, don't worry), and I'm about to fall asleep. Reason? I played the darn game until 4:00 AM last night---7:00 AM this morning where you are. I don't know if there's a Mac version, but I'd assume there is one. If you've ever played any of the Civilization games, it's by the same guy. It has some very cool quotes. My favorite?

"Mary had a little lamb, little lamb, little lamb.
Mary had a little lamb.
Its fleece was white as snow."

~Assassin's Redoubt, final transmission.

Assassin's Redoubt is the name of a city in the game. The planet is chock-full of mind worms that drive people insane and then lay their larvae in the brains of the fear-paralyzed victims. Sounds gruesome, but after you've fought an illithid, not much fazes you.

The whole game takes place in the future after the U.N. ship Unity malfunctions on its way to colonize Alpha Centauri. Seven different factions exist:

the Gaians (tree-hugging environmentalists determined to avoid destruction of Chiron [the planet; they just call it Planet in the game, though.]),

the Morganites (my personal favorite; they head Morgan Industries, and are bent on a hostile takeover of everyone),

the Peacekeepers (what's left of the U.N.),

the University (a bunch of scientists determined to pursue unfettered research),

the Spartans (survivalists; even their civilian society is paramilitary),

the Hive (your basic totalitarian police state),

and the Believers, the rabid fundamentalists of the game.

What's nice is that you design your own units, and yet they're not ridiculously complicated like other games that allow this can be (Ascendacy, ugh!)

[K Man]

Sounds like a slick game. Personally, my all-time favorite was STAR CONTROL II for the 3DO. Awesome game if you ever get the chance to pick it up. Espionage, controlling ancient firepower and ships, treaties etc...but at the same time not, not all that hard to pick and play...

Personally, I like to keep my games pretty simple. If people put as much effort into running thier own lives as they with games like Sims or civilizations...maybe the world would be a better place. But this isn't a soapbox thread.

Maybe I'll have to check it out sometime after I finally beat Temple of Elemental Evil one of these days.

[thrawn86]

Sorry I haven't replied to this thread. Too busy playing Alpha Centauri...

[Wizard]

So I've been converted from Free Market to Green economics, and from Cybernetic to Eudaimonic future society. If you're Morgan, Wealth will give you that fantastic +1 energy/square, and Green\Democracy gives you the efficiency to pump all your energy into Labs and start going 4 turns/tech, then switching it all to Economy and buying (in this order) energy banks, tree farms, network nodes, fusion labs hybrid forests, then research hospitals. Energy begets energy, man. It's great.

[K Man]

[TheUdjat]

Word.

And that's hilarious, man.