Bioware on Alpha Centauri

[Grunker]

While I was reading this I thought about roguelikes, I think part of the reason they're much more popular than a casual observer would think is because of the rich D&D/Tolkien/etc background lore that revolves around most of the bestiary in a typical roguelike. Nobody in the game has to explain to you what the big D is or how it looks like, you already know from preexisting media.

Which in short means developers are lazy.

Both developers and users are fucking lazy and fear change as much as a Codexian. Whenever some new fantasy game gets announced the forums are filled with "WILL THEIR BE ELVES?!? I REALLY HOPE THERE WILL BE ELVES!!!"

Laziness from the developers is not only accepted by the players; it's fucking encouraged by them

 

[scient]

Yea, Alpha Centauri is THE best Civ in my book. No more, no less.

Truth. If only unofficial patch fixed multiplayer connection issues it would've been ideal.

If you want it fixed, help Tails recreate error message so I can use that as basis to track down problematic code section. Might not go anywhere and I may end up needing situation where I have to debug the actual event but at least it would be start.

 

[poocolator]

Most people don't understand philosophical ideologies, and only realize a few basic things about each civilization, like Japanese samurais and Roman legions. It's really easy to please the second crowd, and the sad thing is, they think they're intelligent. You see lots of these poseurs at the Apolyton, Civfanatics, and other mainstream forums.

Hahaha. I was reminded of this crap.

 

[MaskedMartyr]

It wasn't the speakers intention, but why did he have to give AC bad press?

It has been a long time since Alpha Centauri and no still sequel. Can we assume that it didn't sell as well as expected? Civ has a huge audience, not many of those players will also play Paradox's games.

Perhaps it didn't sell well (I don't want to come across as 100% fanboy :twisted: ). But, has anyone seen the prices of The Planetery Pack on ebay?

The mainstream TB market place might not have room for more than 1 hit series (Civ).

Heh, oh shit I got that disc. Got it from a "laptop general" game collection at officemax, all the games were 20 dollars total.

 

[Takeda Kenshi]

I tried that Planetfall mod using Civ4's engine, and in about 30 minutes I was back to playing SMAC. Fucking astounding how well that game holds up. Only thing I could do without is all the damn bugs and glitches.

 

[Jed]

Four years from the original post in this thread, and I'm still playing SMAC ...

 

[Jaedar]

I played SMAC for the first time 4 days ago. No Civilization game has managed to hold my attention before. No total war has either, but SMAC, I can see myself playing for a very long time, I've already clocked more than 20 hours...

It's amazing how good it is.

 

[Fez]

It was a shame that Sid got his name on the front considering he seems to have gone out of his way to avoid the improvements that AC showed over Civ or making a sequel to or remake of AC.

 

[Malakal]

Well I actually prefer Civ 4 over SMAC. While it has less options than SMAC (where especially terraforming shines) it also has much better AI and gameplay mechanics. No longer do You have to micro hundreds of cities and units, resources are done in a better way and combat is MUCH improved. And no fucking alien fungi.

 

[MetalCraze]

I played SMAC for the first time 4 days ago. No Civilization game has managed to hold my attention before. No total war has either, but SMAC, I can see myself playing for a very long time, I've already clocked more than 20 hours...

It's amazing how good it is.

And now with the unofficial patch it gets the new life.
I wish moddies had a source code though as SMAC is very mod unfriendly and you can already see what incline open-source state did to say JA2

 

[Destroid]

SMAC is superior to any game Bioware ever made.

Christ Civ3 was horrible compared to SMAC, I couldn't believe how they had managed to screw up SMACs innovations so badly.

The first RTS big huge games made (Rise of Nations) was an excellent game, better than any Age of Empires or Empire Earth. Unfortunately the sequal Rise of Legends lost a lot of its charm.

 

[Topher]

I've never enjoyed the Civ games but I love Alpha Centauri... go figure. I'd say that it must be because I hate historical settings but that just isn't true. I just always felt that Alpha Centauri had some special spark, like good character, and Civ didn't. Civ always felt souless to me, well the ones I played anyway.

 

[Elzair]

I do not think that a game with a fantasy setting will necessarily be more popular than a sci-fi setting. I think it all depends on how familiar an audience is with the content of the work. Games which steal content from whatever is popular at the time of release seem to do better. So, if you were to steal ideas from Star Wars, Star Trek or Battlestar Galactica, you will probably be okay. Ultimately, the best thing is for the player to be able to associate with the content. Sean Malstrom has actually discussed the difference in popularity between Civilization and Alpha Centauri.

I am reminded of Sid Meir’s rule concerning game design. He was asked why he didn’t put future technologies in Civilization. He said it was because the player couldn’t associate with it. And that is true. Alpha Centauri is a better game than Civilization 2 but Civilization 2 was more fun because you can associate with the content of the game. Everyone understands inventing the wheel or building the pyramids. No one understands invention genome splicing mutant building or building intelligent fungi citadels.

I can understand a truck. I cannot understand a “bot”. When I cannot associate with something, I cannot have fun with it. People have fun when they are in familiar surroundings. This is why hit games tend to resemble something we are all familiar with outside gaming. Starcraft resembles various science fiction shows. Super Mario Brothers resembles Alice in Wonderland. Metroid resembles Aliens (complete with the future weapon armed girl). Grand Theft Auto resembles the urban lifestyle and gangster cliches. Zelda and various RPGs resemble fantasy fiction.

Now before the ‘unfortunate-employee-at-Nintendo-who-is-assigned-to-read-this-site’ says to Miyamoto that I am saying Alice in Wonderland was an influencer in his games, all I am saying is that the consumer has fun with these games because they feel familiar with the content. They can associate with it.

One easily avoidable mistake I see in games is that they resemble absolutely nothing you’ve seen before. The player cannot associate with the content. And you get something like Dynamite Heady.

 

[Jaedar]

That sort of thing makes me sad. Has humanity really become so utterly stupid and narrow minded that we cannot enjoy something new? Must everything be safe and familiar?

 

[entertainer]

Elzair loves Sean Malstrom very much i see