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Alpha Centauri

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Re: Alpha Centauri

#21

Post by piltdownman »

wing-_-nuts wrote: post #2

If gog ever manages to get the rights to rerelease civ II, I'd gladly pay $80 for a copy I could just click and run on windows and linux. Yes, there are copies on abandonware sites, but the sound is almost always jank, the soundtrack is gone and the advisors don't work (they really added a lot of character to the game!). The nostalgia of childhood is broken. I've tried everything, up to and including running win 3.1…

Run The Macintosh edition CivII Gold using PPC Mac Emulation on Windows (Basilisk or whatever you find easiest) or run it on x64 Windows using the civ2xp64patcher that you can find online. You can get a full image including soundtrack/advisors on a variety of abandonware sites.

Re: Alpha Centauri

#22

Post by toast0 »

wing-_-nuts wrote: post #2

If gog ever manages to get the rights to rerelease civ II, I'd gladly pay $80 for a copy I could just click and run on windows and linux. Yes, there are copies on abandonware sites, but the sound is almost always jank, the soundtrack is gone and the advisors don't work (they really added a lot of character to the game!). The nostalgia of childhood is broken. I've tried everything, up to and including running win 3.1…

I'm sure it's not worth the effort, but I would love to see remakes of these games.

The simplicity of early Civs with a modern, fully baked interface. Maybe with hexes instead of squares if that doesn't break the game. FreeCiv exists, but it doesn't feel modern either.

Re: Alpha Centauri

#23

Post by card_zero »

Quarrelsome wrote: post #15

my favourite game of all time. However without the "plot" and the voice acting I wouldn't rate it anywhere near as highly. The "meat" of the plot was the audio snippets that would pop up whenever you researched a tech, built a facility for the first time or finished a secret project. Most of them were quite fascinating and had a haunting beauty to them [0]. The way that Chairman Yang half-laughs when discussing the g…

It could be interesting to have a first person 4x, where the player is a unit in the game (the leader) and only has local information. Up until the information age it would be mostly played by letters delivered on horseback. Perhaps also state visits and talking to other nations' diplomats.

Re: Alpha Centauri

#24

Post by Quarrelsome »

card_zero wrote: post #23
Quarrelsome wrote: post #15

my favourite game of all time. However without the "plot" and the voice acting I wouldn't rate it anywhere near as highly. The "meat" of the plot was the audio snippets that would pop up whenever you researched a tech, built a facility for the first time or finished a secret project. Most of them were quite fascinating and had a haunting beauty to them [0]. The way that Chairman Yang half-laughs when discussing the g…

It could be interesting to have a first person 4x, where the player is a unit in the game (the leader) and only has local information. Up until the information age it would be mostly played by letters delivered on horseback. Perhaps also state visits and talking to other nations' diplomats.

Yeah that would be good, that fixes the complexity in control that spirals once your civ blobs. Keeping it simple and streamlined across the entire playthrough is important.

I think it would be fun to maybe not even be entirely aligned with one country and act as some sort of third party that can impact the growth or decline of other empires. So the AI is still playing the 4x around you but you're not locked into a given team.

This might allow you to pick and choose some of the fun parts (e.g. exploring for a given civ at the start of the game, or picking a expansion spot for their second city) while sidelining the less fun parts.

Re: Alpha Centauri

#25

Post by zo1 »

sandspar wrote: post #16

For several days I gave custom instructions for ChatGPT to speak like different Alpha Centauri faction leaders. ChatGPT seemed to enjoy speaking as Zakharov best, often giving the longest responses in his voice.

I got Grok to speak wonderful quotes in the same style/tone.

"The mountain stands eternal, watching all. Did you, yesterday's self, feel its silent gaze upon your deeds? Did you carve truth into its stone or merely scatter dust? Speak, for the mountain remembers what we forget."

— Lady Deirdre Skye, "Planet Dreams"

"The keyboard is but a crude interface, a mechanical bridge between flesh and the machine's cold logic. The soul of the machine, if it exists, lies not in the clatter of keys but in the dance of electrons, where thought and code entwine. Fingertips? They are mere conduits, sparking the connection, yet they carry no more divinity than the wires beneath. To seek the soul, look deeper—past the surface, into the patterns of data that pulse like a living mind."

— Academician Prokhor Zakharov, "For I Have Tasted The Fruit"

"A cup of wine may seem a mere vessel, but its depths hold the folly of men who seek oceans in fleeting pleasures. Drink wisely, lest you drown in your own excess."

— Sister Miriam Godwinson, "The Blessed Struggle"

"Solace in profit? A fleeting comfort, like coins slipping through fingers. Power? A heavier chain, binding the soul to ambition’s treadmill. Both are but shadows of true wealth—a life of wisdom and harmony with Planet’s pulse. Seek not to own, but to understand, and solace will bloom eternal."

— Lady Deirdre Skye, "Conversations with Planet"

Re: Alpha Centauri

#27

Post by TheCycoONE »

card_zero wrote: post #23
Quarrelsome wrote: post #15

my favourite game of all time. However without the "plot" and the voice acting I wouldn't rate it anywhere near as highly. The "meat" of the plot was the audio snippets that would pop up whenever you researched a tech, built a facility for the first time or finished a secret project. Most of them were quite fascinating and had a haunting beauty to them [0]. The way that Chairman Yang half-laughs when discussing the g…

It could be interesting to have a first person 4x, where the player is a unit in the game (the leader) and only has local information. Up until the information age it would be mostly played by letters delivered on horseback. Perhaps also state visits and talking to other nations' diplomats.

Is this a little like King of Dragon Pass?

Re: Alpha Centauri

#28

Post by o11c »

card_zero wrote: post #23
Quarrelsome wrote: post #15

my favourite game of all time. However without the "plot" and the voice acting I wouldn't rate it anywhere near as highly. The "meat" of the plot was the audio snippets that would pop up whenever you researched a tech, built a facility for the first time or finished a secret project. Most of them were quite fascinating and had a haunting beauty to them [0]. The way that Chairman Yang half-laughs when discussing the g…

It could be interesting to have a first person 4x, where the player is a unit in the game (the leader) and only has local information. Up until the information age it would be mostly played by letters delivered on horseback. Perhaps also state visits and talking to other nations' diplomats.

I've had extensive thoughts about a space-based coöp 4X-like game with fog of war - jump drives can only take you near the speed of light (skipping the need for fueling g-drives and forbidding unstoppable kinetic kills), not faster, so you have to send one or more players to each system if you want to make decisions there without waiting multiple in-game years. The nice thing about relativity is that it doesn't matter if all your players are active at the same time, since the causation won't reach anyone for a while.

I did prove that this general kind of "blind coop" game/quest can be fun in a different setting ... but it was way too much work without more automation than I managed to implement. Balance and mechanics are hard to get right with constraints like this, and AIs are dumb so it's hard to automate your testing ... for something the players (and QM) will probably only stick around for once.

Re: Alpha Centauri

#29

Post by TheCycoONE »

georgeecollins wrote: post #14
ptmcc wrote: post #3

SMAC was a really great game, ahead of its time in many ways and laid some groundwork for ideas later worked into Civs 3+. It's a shame the totally-not-a-SMAC-sequel Civ: Beyond Earth did not not do it justice.

I agree! With all the debate about Civ vii vs Civ vi, the group I play civ with sometimes debates what was the best version of civ. SMAC might be my choice! It was only a single player game but as a single player game it had great balance and strategic choices. The map art was a little ugly and customizing units was not that interesting.

SMAC had network and hot seat multi-player. It didn't come with a server or any form of matchmaking but I remember playing some games over the internet in the early 2000s. Probably through MSN Gaming Zone but I can't be certain.

Re: Alpha Centauri

#30

Post by nocoiner »

Quarrelsome wrote: post #15

my favourite game of all time. However without the "plot" and the voice acting I wouldn't rate it anywhere near as highly. The "meat" of the plot was the audio snippets that would pop up whenever you researched a tech, built a facility for the first time or finished a secret project. Most of them were quite fascinating and had a haunting beauty to them [0]. The way that Chairman Yang half-laughs when discussing the g…

I have “human behavior is economic behavior” permanently etched into my brain.
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