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4X The Unsurpassed Brian Reynolds' Alpha Centauri thread

Favorite Faction?


  • Total voters
    267

Cael

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Worms don't get affected by morale penalties right?
Assuming I have a few captured worms and run Green economy and Wealth, will it somehow downgrade their combat performance?
No. Native lifeforms are not affected by morale penalties. They are the saving grace for Gaians who have a morale penalty straight off the bat.
 

RK47

collides like two planets pulled by gravity
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Dead State Divinity: Original Sin
That's nice. Now a Morgan Green / Wealth with free upkeep in fungi doesn't sound so bad after all.
I always have trouble keeping enough defense for Morgans. They're way too gimped on Support.
 

Cael

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Messages
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That's nice. Now a Morgan Green / Wealth with free upkeep in fungi doesn't sound so bad after all.
I always have trouble keeping enough defense for Morgans. They're way too gimped on Support.
Gaians get +1 Planet off the bat and can go mindworm hunting right from the start. An early mindworm rush by Gaians is no joke.
 

RK47

collides like two planets pulled by gravity
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Dead State Divinity: Original Sin
You say that, but it's very RNG.
As unlikely as it may seem I've had games where I only succeeded in capturing the first guaranteed worm as Gaians.
After that, I must've killed a dozen before getting a second captive.

Anyway found another quirk:
Based on Kalin's idea of defensive probe team (basically give your probe team armor) for some reason I cannot designate them as defenders
So if there are other military units in the stack, they will take the blow instead of the Probe team
e.g 0-2-1 Trance Probe Team stacked with 1-1-2 Empath Rover
if a mindworm attacks the stack, the rover takes the blow instead of the Trance Probe Team
 

Cael

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Messages
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You say that, but it's very RNG.
As unlikely as it may seem I've had games where I only succeeded in capturing the first guaranteed worm as Gaians.
After that, I must've killed a dozen before getting a second captive.

Anyway found another quirk:
Based on Kalin's idea of defensive probe team (basically give your probe team armor) for some reason I cannot designate them as defenders
So if there are other military units in the stack, they will take the blow instead of the Probe team
e.g 0-2-1 Trance Probe Team stacked with 1-1-2 Empath Rover
if a mindworm attacks the stack, the rover takes the blow instead of the Trance Probe Team
Gaians have a good excuse to go mindworm hunting. Other factions, less so. Native lifeforms are the only ones who can get to Elite status (or equivalent) for Gaians.
 

RK47

collides like two planets pulled by gravity
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Dead State Divinity: Original Sin
I got Air Power as Morgan, prototyped an empath Jet to take care of worms more efficiently.
And suddenly the base riots.

:hmmm: So Air units automatically counts as leaving borders for Free Market? That sucks.
 

Cael

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Messages
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I got Air Power as Morgan, prototyped an empath Jet to take care of worms more efficiently.
And suddenly the base riots.

:hmmm: So Air units automatically counts as leaving borders for Free Market? That sucks.
Yep. Air units always generate unhappy people. That was in at least one of the Civs as well.
 

Destroid

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I got Air Power as Morgan, prototyped an empath Jet to take care of worms more efficiently.
And suddenly the base riots.

:hmmm: So Air units automatically counts as leaving borders for Free Market? That sucks.
Yep. Air units always generate unhappy people. That was in at least one of the Civs as well.

I wonder why they did that, since the reality of the modern world seems to be that most people don't think you're at war unless you have boots on the ground.
 

RK47

collides like two planets pulled by gravity
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Dead State Divinity: Original Sin
I got Air Power as Morgan, prototyped an empath Jet to take care of worms more efficiently.
And suddenly the base riots.

:hmmm: So Air units automatically counts as leaving borders for Free Market? That sucks.
Yep. Air units always generate unhappy people. That was in at least one of the Civs as well.

I wonder why they did that, since the reality of the modern world seems to be that most people don't think you're at war unless you have boots on the ground.

The only counter to this bullshit is to build the Punishment Sphere and use that colony exclusively as army HQ :lol:
Anyways, I started another run with Democracy/Green/Wealth Morgan and it felt somewhat easier to manage the low support. The base doesn't riot anymore when I deploy Empath Jet to take care of worms.
 
Last edited:

laclongquan

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Searching for my kidnapped sister
Another weird start -
where would you settle the 2nd colony?

kU6rQRV.png
Bad placement right at start. Great Dune never make a good neighbourhood to begin, as you are going to spread your colonies round and round your HQ.
If you start in or around Great Dunes, it's enough of an excuse to restart right then and there.

But if you dont want to, you really should move north to the shore and make a city there to exploit the monolith. Still bad location anyway.

Anyway, suppose you want to plant a 2nd colony - where would you place it and why?

yeYXPgS.png
The riverfarm on left side of the colony pod is a good place as it exploit the jungle, the river, the sea resource, and it's near enough.
Barring that, if you can spare a former to remove fungal, the fogged fungal border shore next to the fogged sea resource is a good place to exploit two sea resources and the jungle.
Also barring former and fungal remover, the clean tile just outside of the border next to above tile, is a good strategical place: It control the channel, it can access two sea resource and the jungle. All its weakness is the initial tile's weak resource. The fungal site mentioned above cant control the channel completely.
 

Absinthe

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Jan 6, 2012
Messages
4,062
You say that, but it's very RNG.
As unlikely as it may seem I've had games where I only succeeded in capturing the first guaranteed worm as Gaians.
After that, I must've killed a dozen before getting a second captive.

Anyway found another quirk:
Based on Kalin's idea of defensive probe team (basically give your probe team armor) for some reason I cannot designate them as defenders
So if there are other military units in the stack, they will take the blow instead of the Probe team
e.g 0-2-1 Trance Probe Team stacked with 1-1-2 Empath Rover
if a mindworm attacks the stack, the rover takes the blow instead of the Trance Probe Team
Defensive probe teams are usually used by factions like Morganites who do not have normal defenders owing to their awful support rating. It's just a cheesy way to get defenders with free clean reactor, just like the armored supply crawler defense grid. You can also use probe defenders to circumvent the morale penalties of Wealth (or Gaian faction) since probe teams use probe score to determine their morale instead. Morgan loves probe defenders because he can pack his bases full of them while going dem/market/wealth and have the kind of defensive standing army he should not be able to afford before Clean Reactors.
 
Last edited:

Dreed

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Grab the Codex by the pussy Insert Title Here RPG Wokedex Strap Yourselves In Codex Year of the Donut Codex+ Now Streaming! Divinity: Original Sin 2 A Beautifully Desolate Campaign Pillars of Eternity 2: Deadfire Pathfinder: Kingmaker Steve gets a Kidney but I don't even get a tag. My team has the sexiest and deadliest waifus you can recruit. Pathfinder: Wrath I'm very into cock and ball torture I helped put crap in Monomyth

Citizen

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Can you copy and paste it for me? Google is China-proofed, or should I say, China has completed the Hunter-Seeker Algorithm secret project.

W ciągu dwóch dekad Alpha Centauri Sida Meiera

Wszystkiego najlepszego, Planet!

Artykuł Alister MacQuarrie, współautor

18 sierpnia 2019 r

Faszyści, komuniści, eko-wojownicy i resztki liberalnego porządku starego świata brutalnie sprzeczają się o przyszłość ludzkości na planecie, która próbuje ich zabić. Zatoka rozszerza się między tymi, którzy mają i tych, którzy nie żyją, gdy długowieczni Władcy Talentów pracują nad trutniami Dronów utrzymywanymi w ryzach przez masową rozrywkę i brutalność policji. Sztuczna inteligencja widzi wszystko, nawet w sny, gdy ludzie stają się bardziej jak maszyny, a maszyny stają się coraz bardziej jak bogowie.

Dwadzieścia lat temu w lutym ubiegłego roku Alpha Centauri Sid Meier wezwał graczy do stworzenia nowego domu dla ludzkości wokół naszej najbliższej gwiazdy. Począwszy od zakończenia zwycięstwa w kosmicznym wyścigu Civilization 2, SMAC stanowił zupełnie nowy kierunek. Uwolniona od ziemskiej grawitacji gra łączy w sobie horror science fiction i dzikie utopijne możliwości z innowacyjną mechaniką i wciągającą fabułą. Jednak najbardziej interesującą rzeczą w SMAC jest to, że uznaje, a nawet uwzględnia moralne implikacje gatunku 4X. Tam, gdzie cywilizacja często dążyła do nadania uroczego połysku zimnej maszynerii postępu, Alpha Centauri pyta, co kryje się w tym połysku. Pod wieloma względami wydaje się, że rozpoczęcie głównego nurtu gry jest nadal niechętne.

Od momentu, gdy kapsułka ucieczki frakcji rozbije się na powierzchni obcego świata, SMAC podkreśla Twoją kruchość na tej nieznanej granicy. Zniknęły zielone pola i ośnieżone góry Ziemi. Ten świat, znany tylko jako Planeta, jest pokryty czerwonym pyłem, duszącym grzybem, gęstą dżunglą i śmiertelnymi robakami umysłu. Pomiędzy tym wrogim krajobrazem, rzadką ścieżką dźwiękową a izolacją od pozostałych sześciu frakcji, o których wiesz, że tam są, SMAC mówi ci, że to nie jest cywilizacja. To jest przetrwanie.

Do czasu, gdy Twoja technologia osiągnie wystarczający poziom, aby terraformować nowy świat, wydaje się, że został zarobiony, wydarty z zębów środowiska całkowicie odpornego na włamanie. Rodzimy grzyb rozkwita i rozprzestrzenia się losowo, dusząc farmy i ukrywając ukryte stada dżdżownic zamieszkujących wrażliwe osady. Ale posadzić niektóre drzewa na Ziemi, a w szczególnych warunkach planety wkrótce staną się inwazyjne i rozprzestrzenią się, tworząc ogromne lasy. Dominujący wiatr na planecie wieje na wschód, więc podnosząc teren, możesz tworzyć grzbiety, które wychwytują deszcz z jednej strony i pozostawiają pustynię z drugiej - potencjalnie akt wojny, jeśli twój cień deszczu osłania sąsiada. Linia brzegowa może zostać zmieniona, tworząc mosty lądowe lub kanały obronne. Niewiele gier 4x daje graczom tak dużą kontrolę nad środowiskiem. Mniej jeszcze pokazuje konsekwencje. Lasy inwazyjne mogą być niewygodne; nadmierne zanieczyszczenie stwarza ryzyko ataków dżdżownic w większej liczbie i wzrostu poziomu mórz w miarę wrzenia klimatu. Nieobecny 15 lat w Civilization i większość jego naśladowców - dopiero niedawno ponownie wprowadzonych do Gathering Storm - klimat jest kluczową częścią życia SMAC.

jpg

Siedem frakcji walczy o kontrolę nad tym światem. Pomimo funkcjonalnych podobieństw, każda przedstawia inną wizję przyszłości ludzkości, z natychmiast zrozumiałym pojęciem: pasierbice Gai są ekologicznymi pseudo-mistykami; Federacja Spartańska jest survivalistą, który czyni prawymi; Morgan Industries oznacza niepohamowany kapitalizm. Ideologie znajdują odzwierciedlenie w barokowych nazwach miast, takich jak On Walked On Water, Cosmograd, Seat of Właściwa myśl, Last Rose of Summer. I oczywiście każda frakcja ma swojego przywódcę.

To są prawdziwe gwiazdy Alpha Centauri. Seria Civ znana jest z kreskówek przedstawiających przywódców narodowych, ale są po prostu tym - bajkami, gdzieś między cesarzem a maskotką. Alpha Centauri to złożone postacie z motywami i historiami, a gra mocno stawia Cię w swoich butach. Zamiast być efemeryczną reprezentacją ludu, jesteś Lady Deirdre z Gaian lub Przewodniczącą Yang z Hive, utrzymywaną przy życiu przez wieki dzięki technologii długowieczności. Bez względu na to, kogo wybierzesz, inni przywódcy są wszechobecni na mapie świata i poza nią. Nowe odkrycia, zaplecze i tajne projekty pochodzą z głośnymi cytatami, zwykle od jednego z siedmiu przywódców frakcji, którzy przedstawiają świat Alpha Centauri. Krótkie fragmenty wiedzy poszerzają ich charakter i światopogląd przywódców oraz zapewniają kontekst dla nowych odkryć. Deirdre, naukowiec środowiska, podziela swoje zachwyt nad rodzimymi ekosystemami Planety lub jej filozoficzne rozmowy z gestaltową świadomością samej Planety, ale od czasu do czasu ujawnia niepokojący komfort wojny psychicznej. Raporty Lala dotyczące praw człowieka przeplatają się z jego melancholijnymi osobistymi refleksjami. Miriam, obalająca Biblię teokrata, jest także spostrzegawczym teoretykiem społecznym, często mającym rację co do zagrożeń związanych z technologią. Wielu aktorów głosowych pochodzi z tego samego kraju, co ich charakter, i nadają swoim cytatom wyraźną osobowość, która staje się znajoma, a nawet pocieszająca, jak starzy przyjaciele. Podczas gdy drzewo technologiczne maszeruje, ich historie, historia ich społeczeństw i ich ewentualne losy są przedstawione w migawce.

Tego rodzaju opowiadanie historii jest teraz powszechne, a Alpha Centauri nie była pierwszą, która to zrobiła. Ale zwięzłość i często piękno pisma są imponujące, szczególnie w grze strategicznej, w której gracz jest zazwyczaj tak usunięty. Jest bliżej fragmentarycznych narracji o Sunless Sea lub Cultist Simulator niż bardziej zdecydowane pop-upy Stellaris. Na przemian filozoficzne, informacyjne lub poetyckie łącza danych tchną życie w zimny biznes statki. Uruchom orbitalne laboratorium hydroponiczne, a melodyjny głos Deirdre opisuje ich dziwne piękno: „życiodajne gwiazdy na opuszczonej planecie, ogrody na skrzydle”. Zbuduj jeden z najwcześniejszych obiektów, niewinnie brzmiące zbiorniki recyklingowe, a Sheng-ji Yang ujawnia: „Ostatecznym obowiązkiem każdego obywatela jest wejście do zbiorników i zjednoczenie się ze wszystkimi ludźmi”.

jpg

SMAC jest pełny Czekaj, co właśnie zbudowałem? chwile. Świat, który tworzysz, niekoniecznie jest szczęśliwy. Gra nie ukarze cię za stworzenie koszmaru. Niektóre frakcje mogą oceniać; większość tego nie zrobi, zwłaszcza jeśli uchylisz Kartę ONZ. Ale bardziej niż jakakolwiek inna gra 4X, w którą kiedykolwiek grałem, SMAC chce, abyś pomyślał o tym, jakie społeczeństwo chcesz stworzyć.

Zaskoczyło mnie, gdy ostatnio wróciłem do gry, jak często mówi o etyce. Od scenki otwierającej, w której siedem frakcji dzieli się „nie według narodowości, ale przez ideologię i ich wizję nowego świata”, dusza ludzka jest identyfikowana jako teren konfliktu. Kiedy wybierasz frakcję, pierwszą rzeczą, którą widzisz, nie są jej statystyki, ale stwierdzenie ich filozofii. Przełomom społecznym towarzyszą cytaty Arystotelesa, św. Augustyna, Platona, Lao Tzu i innych omawiające, co to znaczy budować dobre społeczeństwo. Inne odkrycia wskazują na niezamierzone konsekwencje postępu, gdy Lal zauważa bezmyślne niszczenie miejscowych środowisk przez nieświadomych ludzkich osadników, lub Yang chwali się, że jego genetycznie zmodyfikowani robotnicy-niewolnicy nie odczuwają bólu.

Grając w Civilization, nie myślę o budowaniu kilku robotów śmierci i deptaniu po moich sąsiadach. W Alpha Centauri konsekwentnie unikam Sfer Karnych, Fabryk Genejacka lub buntujących nerwy dronów. Nawet gdy nauka przechodzi od wiarygodności w niedalekiej przyszłości do kryształowych iglic i tog, nawet gdy systemy etyczne Planety zmieniają się z tradycji zakorzenionych w przeszłości Ziemi na coraz bardziej odległe filozofie, opisy tych technologicznych strachów dają mi przerwę.

jpg

Alpha Centauri nie jest świadomie „grą wiadomości”. To nie przypomina Bioshocka ani Spec Ops: The Line, gdzie jestem karany za przestrzeganie podanych zasad. Nikt się nie dowie oprócz mnie. Nikt na martwej Ziemi nigdy nie będzie wiedział, jakie są ich odległe dzieci. Po prostu w sposób, który wciąż jest niestety rzadki poza tytułami niezależnymi, Alpha Centauri ma podstawowe zainteresowanie etyką i gotowość do konfrontacji z własnymi implikacjami z pewną dozą uczciwości. Uznaje imperatywy gatunku, sugerując jednak, że prawdziwym zwycięstwem nie jest zwycięstwo w bitwie o planetę, ale jej przekroczenie.

Planeta to ponury, samotny świat, w którym ostatnie resztki ludzkości najprawdopodobniej skazane są na powtarzanie swoich najgorszych błędów, szerzenie śmierci i dewastacji nawet na gwiazdy. Ale Alpha Centauri nigdy nie traci nadziei na możliwość przerwania cyklu. Gdy twoja frakcja przechodzi ze społeczeństwa przygranicznego do czegoś naprawdę nowego, odkrywanie tajemnic Planety ujawnia, że ona również powtarza się przez tysiąclecia, a uśpiony umysł roju prawie osiąga czujność, zanim ponownie zapada się w zapomnienie. Ostatecznie możesz połączyć się z ogromną kolektywną świadomością Planety, przekraczając ludzkość i stając się czymś zupełnie nowym. Albo możesz koronować się na króla na ostatniej żyjącej skale we wszechświecie.

„Jesteście sierotami, wasz świat ojczyzny pochowany jest tak młody wśród eonów. A teraz wypełniacie niebo, gdzie obserwowaliśmy milion zachodów słońca płomieniem i smugami, nie zważając na ciężkie lekcje, których wszechświat próbował cię nauczyć. Czy jesteś powiew życia, aby ożywić samozadowolony świat, ziemscy ludzie, czy podstępny rak, który trzeba wyciąć? ”
 

Silva

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Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
Here, Jason Liang

On two decades of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri

Happy birthday, Planet!

Article by Alister MacQuarrie, Contributor
18 August 2019

Fascists, communists, eco-warriors and the remnants of the old world's liberal order violently squabble for humanity's future on a planet trying to kill them. The gulf widens between the haves and have-nots as long-lived Talents lord over toiling Drones kept in line by mass entertainment and police brutality. Artificial intelligences see everything, even into dreams, as humans become more like machines and machines become ever more like gods.

Twenty years ago last February, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri challenged players to make a new home for humankind around our nearest star. Beginning where Civilization 2's space race victory left off, SMAC represented a completely new direction. Freed from Earth's gravity, the game combined sci-fi horror and wild utopian possibilities with innovative mechanics and engrossing story. Yet the most interesting thing about SMAC is that it acknowledges and even embraces the moral implications of the 4X genre. Where Civilization has often strived to put a cute gloss over the cold machinery of progress, Alpha Centauri asks what that gloss hides. In many ways it feels like the beginning of a conversation mainstream games are still reluctant to have.

From the moment your faction's escape pod crashes to the surface of an alien world, SMAC emphasises your fragility on this unknown frontier. Gone are the green fields and snow-capped mountains of Earth. This world, known only as Planet, is covered in red dust, smothering fungus, dense jungle and lethal mindworms. Between this hostile landscape, the sparse soundtrack, and the isolation from the other six factions you know are out there, SMAC tells you this isn't civilisation. This is survival.

By the time your technology has advanced enough to terraform the new world, it feels earned, clawed from the teeth of an environment utterly resistant to your intrusion. The native fungus will bloom and spread at random, choking farms and concealing hidden packs of mindworms that home in on vulnerable settlements. But plant some Earth trees and, in the peculiar conditions of Planet, they will soon turn invasive and spread to create vast forests. Planet's prevailing wind blows eastward, so by elevating the terrain you can create ridges that capture rain on one side and leave desert on the other - potentially an act of war, if your rain shadow covers your neighbour. The coastline can be altered to form land bridges or defensive channels. Few 4X games allow players so much control over the environment. Fewer still show the consequences as well. Invasive forests can be inconvenient; excessive pollution risks mindworm attacks in greater numbers and rising sea levels as the climate boils over. Absent 15 years in Civilization and most of its imitators - only recently reintroduced in Gathering Storm - climate is a crucial part of SMAC's living world.

jpg

Seven factions vie for control of that world. Despite their functional similarities, each represents a different vision for humanity's future, with an immediately intelligible concept: Gaia's Stepdaughters are environmentalist pseudo-mystics; the Spartan Federation are might-makes-right survivalists; Morgan Industries stands for unbridled capitalism. Ideologies are reflected in baroque city names like He Walked On Water, Cosmograd, Seat of Proper Thought, Last Rose of Summer. And, of course, each faction has its leader.

These are the real stars of Alpha Centauri. The Civ series is known for its cartoon representations of national leaders, but they are just that - cartoons, somewhere between emperor and mascot. Alpha Centauri's are complex characters with motives and histories, and the game places you firmly in their shoes. Instead of being an ephemeral representation of a people, you are Lady Deirdre of the Gaians or Chairman Yang of the Hive, kept alive through the centuries by longevity tech. Whoever you pick, the others leaders are omnipresent, on and off the world map. New discoveries, base facilities, and secret projects come with voiced quotes, usually from one of the seven faction leaders, that flesh out the world of Alpha Centauri. Brief snippets of lore expand on their character and worldview of the leaders, and provide context for your new discoveries. Deirdre, the environmental scientist, shares her wonder at Planet's native ecosystems or her philosophical conversations with the gestalt consciousness of Planet itself, but reveals every now and then a disturbing comfort with psychic warfare. Lal's reports on human rights are intermingled with his melancholy personal reflections. Miriam, Bible-thumping theocrat, is also a perceptive social theorist, often right about the dangers of technology. Many of the voice actors are from the same country as their character, and they lend a distinct personality to their quotes that becomes familiar, even comforting, like old friends. As the tech tree marches on, their stories, the story of their societies, and their possible fates are hinted at in snapshot.

This kind of storytelling is now common, and Alpha Centauri wasn't the first to do it by any means. But the brevity and often the beauty of the writing is still impressive, especially in a strategy game, where the player is usually at such a remove. It's closer to the piecemeal narratives of Sunless Sea or Cultist Simulator than the more staid pop-ups of Stellaris. At turns philosophical, informative, or poetic, the Datalinks breathe life into the cold business of statecraft. Launch an orbital hydroponics lab, and Deirdre's melodic voice describes their strange beauty: "life-giving stars on a desolate planet, gardens on the wing." Build one of the earliest facilities, the innocent-sounding recycling tanks, and Sheng-ji Yang reveals "It is every citizen's final duty to go into the tanks and become one with all the people."

jpg

SMAC is full of these Wait, what did I just build? moments. The world you're making is not necessarily a happy one. The game won't punish you for creating a nightmare. Some factions might judge; most won't, especially if you repeal the UN charter. But more than any other 4X game I've ever played, SMAC wants you to think about what kind of society you wish to create.

What surprised me when I returned to the game recently is how often it talks about ethics. From the opening cutscene, where the seven factions divide "not by nationality, but by ideology, and their vision for the new world", the human soul is identified as a terrain of conflict. When you select a faction, the first thing you see isn't their stats, but a statement of their philosophy. Social breakthroughs are accompanied by quotes from Aristotle, St Augustine, Plato, Lao Tzu and others discussing what it means to build the good society. Other discoveries hint at the unintended consequences of progress, as Lal notes the thoughtless destruction of native environments by oblivious human settlers, or Yang boasts that his genetically engineered slave-workers feel no pain.

When playing Civilization, I think nothing of building a few death robots and stomping on my neighbours. In Alpha Centauri, I steadfastly avoid Punishment Spheres, Genejack Factories, or nerve-stapling rioting drones. Even as the science goes from near-future plausibility to crystal spires and togas, even as the ethical systems of Planet mutate from traditions rooted in Earth's past to ever more distant philosophies, the descriptions of these technological terrors gives me pause.

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Alpha Centauri isn't self-consciously a 'message game'. It doesn't feel like Bioshock or Spec Ops: The Line, where I'm punished for following the rules supplied. Nobody will know but me. Nobody on the dead Earth will ever know what their far-flung children become. It's simply that, in a way that is still unfortunately rare outside of indie titles, Alpha Centauri has a basic interest in ethics and a willingness to confront its own implications with some measure of honesty. It acknowledges the imperatives of the genre while nonetheless suggesting that the true victory is not winning the battle for Planet but transcending it.

Planet is a bleak, lonely world, where the last remnants of humanity are most likely doomed to repeat their worst mistakes, to spread death and devastation even to the stars. But Alpha Centauri never gives up hope in the possibility of breaking the cycle. As your faction transitions from a frontier society to something truly new, exploring Planet's mysteries reveals that it, too, has been repeating through the millennia, its dormant hive mind almost reaching sentience before collapsing again into oblivion. Ultimately, you can choose to merge with the vast collective consciousness of Planet, transcending humanity and becoming something altogether new. Or you can crown yourself king on the last living rock in the universe.

"You are orphans, your homeworld already buried so young among the aeons. Yet now you fill the skies where we watched a million sunsets with flame and contrails, paying no heed to the hard lessons the universe has tried to teach you. Are you a breath of life to invigorate a complacent world, you earthhumans, or an insidious cancer which must be excised?"
 

Jason Liang

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When playing Civilization, I think nothing of building a few death robots and stomping on my neighbours. In Alpha Centauri, I steadfastly avoid Punishment Spheres, Genejack Factories, or nerve-stapling rioting drones.
cuck

Nobody will know but me. Nobody on the dead Earth will ever know what their far-flung children become.
nice
 

Silva

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Started a new game with Sinder Roze. It's a weird experience because as good as her probe abilities are, it's still too dependent on RNG, no matter how you stack things to your side. I was super cautious with my hacks, doing it only with elites and after getting that enhanced algorithm (that improves chances even more) but no way. Once you miss an attempt, it's vendetta. And if you tried to frame another faction, it declares vendetta too.

That's a real pity because I was managing to play the other leaders like a fiddle, manipulating the strongest against each other by probe & frame, and being friends with everybody. It felt like a Morgan and Lal hybrid. I was doing so good that I didn't need to do a single attack the whole game (I entered war twice but managed to get by just by capturing/subverting units and bases until they ask for truce). But then I failed at one key probe and the strongest factions vendetted my ass to death and I quit (I always play on Ironman so there's no retry).

Perhaps It would be better if they ditched the RNG altogether for hacking and instead made it cost money. Or at least give more consistent results in the RNG, or something.
 
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Cael

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Joined
Nov 1, 2017
Messages
20,287
Started a new game with Sinder Roze. It's a weird experience because as good as her probe abilities are, it's still too dependent on RNG, no matter how you stack things to your side. I was super cautious with my hacks, doing it only with elites and after getting that enhanced algorithm (that improves chances even more) but no way. Once you miss an attempt, it's vendetta. And if you tried to frame another faction, it declares vendetta too.

That's a real pity because I was managing to play the other leaders like a fiddle, manipulating the strongest against each other by probe & frame, and being friends with everybody. But then I failed one probe and they vendetted my ass and I quit (I always play on Ironman).

Perhaps It would be better of they ditched the RNG altogether for hacking and instead made it cost money. Or at least give more consistent results in the RNG or something.
This always had RNG. Even Civ 4 with the spy points cost, it has a RNG element to it. I don't see it as a problem any more than a combat between two units having a RNG element. If you want everything to be deterministic, you are playing the wrong genre.
 

Silva

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Messages
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Rio de Janeiro, Brasil
This always had RNG. Even Civ 4 with the spy points cost, it has a RNG element to it. I don't see it as a problem any more than a combat between two units having a RNG element. If you want everything to be deterministic, you are playing the wrong genre.
Oh sure, but I think the way things are, its almost impossible to play Sinder Roze as a "fiddler" like I described above, which seems like it should be her main mode of play.

One thing that seems weird, for eg: no matter how good your probe teams are, the chances for stealing tech and surviving are always 75% 67% no matter what. And this against an unguarded base. I think that against Sinder Roze you should have at least a couple probe teams of your own guarding the base, otherwise hacks should be almost 100% guaranteed or something (specially midgame when Sinder has enhanced algs). But the way RNG is, even a little backwater unguarded base has a big chance of fucking your game, making the whole point of her faction kind of moot.

Tl;dr: its like they had an awesome idea for a hacker faction, but the mechanics don't accommodate well such idea.
 
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Cael

Arcane
Joined
Nov 1, 2017
Messages
20,287
This always had RNG. Even Civ 4 with the spy points cost, it has a RNG element to it. I don't see it as a problem any more than a combat between two units having a RNG element. If you want everything to be deterministic, you are playing the wrong genre.
Oh sure, but I think the way things are, its almost impossible to play Sinder Roze as a "fiddler" like I described above, which seems like it should be her main mode of play.

One thing that seems weird, for eg: no matter how good your probe teams are, the chances for stealing tech and surviving are always 75% 67% no matter what. And this against an unguarded base. I think that against Sinder Roze you should have at least a couple probe teams of your own guarding the base, otherwise hacks should be almost 100% guaranteed or something (specially midgame when Sinder has enhanced algs). The way it is, even a little backwater unguarded base has a big chance of fucking your game, making the whole point of her faction kind of moot.
Manipulation of that nature is always risky, whichever game you play, as it should be. You want to win as Sinder? Bribe his units.
 

Hellraiser

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Joined
Apr 22, 2007
Messages
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Danzig, Potato-Hitman Commonwealth
When playing Civilization, I think nothing of building a few death robots and stomping on my neighbours. In Alpha Centauri, I steadfastly avoid Punishment Spheres, Genejack Factories, or nerve-stapling rioting drones.
cuck

Pretty much. Guess the guy could not into cost-benefit analysis.
 

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