Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri Secret Project: The Voice of Planet

[MarciCow]

Reminds me of Stanislaw Lem's "His Master's Voice." A suspected extraterrestrial message is beamed to Earth, and one of the possibilities is that it's a burst of information that was released when this universe was formed (Big Bang?), a remnants of the universe that existed before it. Great book, by the way.

[GarrigKitten]

Makes you somewhat feel bad for Planet. It was subjected to a massive Archive binge when it was just overcoming its own lobotomy.

[FPSCreak]

Civ 4 isn't that great. Civ 3 is by far the best Civ game, but in my opinion Centauri curb stomps all of them.

[woodwyrm]

@Tony2826 given that Zakharov basically is a deist(he more or less intellectually accepts that there is a god) while Yang, being, chinese probably has embraced a somewhat bhuddist(sp?) stance on the matter^^

[DecoySCV]

SHUT THE FUCK UP EYWA I DON'T GIVE A SHIT ABOUT YOUR STUPID BLUE CAT PEOPLE

[3Gyro]

Best secret project video in the game, and there were a lot of good ones.

If Avatar had this ending it'd actually have been bearable, but nope, Pocahontas plot lol.

[rebelanarch]

hoho. let's save the human race by wiki-ing it. lame.

[moksheebs]

Planet's own Wikipedia

[moksheebs]

lolkat the wikipedia of the future...

[Vildasnaga]

If EVER a game needed a sequel...

Please Firaxis!

[kosiak10851]

torrent

[bosqii]

nice try lol

[nowistheeleventhhour]

Yes, the mindworms function effectively as white-blood cells.

[Bonzibuddy4ever]

0:30

lol Robert Plant

[the4horseman]

@Bonzibuddy4ever Blast Planetmind with Led Zeppelin! Yeah that will do the trick!

[Skinnyoompalumpa]

if they do remake this please devs make it availible on consoles

[TheloniousFunk1]

Zakharov is the Richard Dawkins of this game, so when he starts talking about alien gods you know the shit's hit the fan.

[Valkyriefury]

lmao

[yamiblade]

So true. The Lady Deidre is probably scream on all the comms "Told ya so!"

[Alathaea]

@TheloniousFunk1 I know you were being flippant, but he's an atheist, not a Naytheist. That is to say, he refutes a God without evidence, he doesn't refute a God with evidence.

[AvocadoRogue]

@TheloniousFunk1 More like the Stephen Hawking..

[bugogorac]

The last game I played that I could call art. And I play a lot...

[NodPilot42]

A montage of all the other Secret Projects... Fitting, ain't it?

[TheWatcher337]

Indeed. It would be sweet if they could take clips of human history (at least, the good parts of it) from Earth and throw them in there

[irgy709]

the planetary datalinks video totally does that...and is still perfectly relevent to discussions on copyright law and such today.

[inkiw]

Having Miriam obtain transcendence just doesn't feel right, does it?

( with her research penalties, it's easier just to go for conquering instead any ways.)

[yamiblade]

....She's too much of a fundie to do it.

[inkiw]

I've done it once as Miriam... it was... it was odd.

[MetalSlimeHunt]

Or IS she? So many alternate interpretations...

[DrakeIcn]

I had antigravitycrafts and controlled the entire surface on the planet, and I used fungocides and killed every last plant and mindworm. They still told me the fungus were about to take over. They should have programmed the game for this possibility

[kwicksandz]

yup i had hover terroformers going round ripping up every single fungal deposit that would spawn by the end of the game. no matter how fast you remove it more always pops up!

[knifeofspaghetti]

The fungus exists primarily beneath the surface. The flavor text says that mindworms are there mainly to get rid of alien minds, not to serve some physical ecological purpose.

[Elessar267]

Of course, it IS an ecological purpose within an organism for something to exist to destroy alien entities; see white blood cells.

[knifeofspaghetti]

But unlike the razorbeak, for example, the mindworms don't tend the fungus, as far as we know.

[knifeofspaghetti]

Basically, it seemed like the only way to destroy even 80% of the fungus was to crack Planet in half.

[rbellev]

lol @ bluerisk: "i hate fungus"

gotta love ivory tower intellectuals like zachkarov with x plasma shard squads when everyone else only has plasteel defenders. I got your battle report right here! 20 to 1 odds man, 'careful review of your options' is IRRELEVANT! :D:D:D:D

[Nireves33]

Alpha Centauri.

Best. Game. Ever.

[squigian]

I really don't get why they haven't made a sequel yet :(

[Selinja]

They haven't made a sequel because you can't excel perfection :)

[DecepticonLeader]

I also bought the Planetary pack like 5-6 years ago or something. I still love all the stuff that comes with it like the poster and all the manuals and...did i forget something? Anyway planetary pack is gold! :D

[bluerisk]

Well, this conversation had two consequences so far:

First: I've "dig out" my Planetary pack.

(astonishingly it is complet and in a mint condition)

Second: I've stated playing it...of course with my "Cylon"-faction.

But you're right, the corret German name is:

Primärfunktion Aki Zeta-Fünf (the German equivalent)

@ Ctrl+Shift+W

It was just a wild guess.

Is Civ 4 any good? I've heard only bad things about it.

PS: I hate fungus

[matsku84]

Civ 4 is awesome! Definitely best of the series (I've played 'em all), and imho best game ever (I've played A LOT of games for about 17 years)!!! I'm really surprised you haven't heard anything good about it :o!? If you liked Civ 3 (or 2 or 1 for that matter), I recommend getting Civ 4 Complete so you get both expansion packs too. I bought Beyond the Sword a few weeks ago and it's pure gold!

[Ignuus66]

@matsku84 The mods are also very good, take a look at Orbis.

[PyroDesu]

@matsku84 Civ 4 is the only one I've played, and IMO, Sid Myers is a God.

[hagamablabla]

@matsku84 I heard Beyond the Sword includes the Warlords stuff?

[matsku84]

@hagamablabla Yeah, but not all of it. The 8 scenarios that came with Warlords were left out.

[Mynameisnotooo]

@matsku84 Just make sure to get a mod that removes doomstacks.

[Crimmond]

I can get a Transcendence win in about four-five straight hours. Hell, I would have gotten one today, but I was hell bent on over-running the planet with hoverships.

[bluerisk]

And I like building and the raise of huge armies. It can take hours, days, even weeks.

The only things that's driving me crazy is this "red pollution" (in Civilization it's waste). Why can't you give your terraformers the exclusive order (or workers) just to take care for this job. You can use an auto-function but then they also do things I don't want them to do.

[matsku84]

That "red pollution" or fungus (if that's what you meant) can come in very handy especially if you play with the Gaians. There actually is a "Automatic fungus removal" order. Just press Ctrl+Shift+F or locate it in the Terraform menu. You may have to switch to advanced menus by pressing F11.

[bluerisk]

It is what I meant. And it might be helpful, but I don't like how it looks.

I always play this "Cylon-Borg" (or just Cyborg) typos...Primärfunktion Alpha 5 (she could be Caprica's sister after a short Borg encounter)

And the automatic removal function is permantly?

Is there something comparable at "Civilization 3"?

Ctrl+Shift+W?

Anyway: Thanks!

[matsku84]

Lol, her/it's name is Prime Function Aki Zeta-5 in english!

Yes, it's permanent until you give other orders, but the fungus can always grow back with enough eco-damage.

I haven't played Civ 3 in ages (not since Civ 4 came out), what does Ctrl+Shift+W do?

[bluerisk]

I always take this scientific fractions (The Russian or this Borg-Queen 5 of the add-on). I can't stand it, when other fractions can have their secret projects.

All for me, nothing for them.

[Crimmond]

Factions.

They're groups, not math problems.

[bluerisk]

Sorry!

The German word is Fraktion, that's why I thought "fraction" might be ok.

Hm...

Fraction (politics), a parliamentary party

and

A political faction is presently an informal grouping of individuals, especially within a political organization, such as a political party.

In fact, they're neither informal, nor part of an political organization.

But if this is the name in the English version...

[Sardonicus83]

*lol* Groups also exist in maths (algebra).

[cdsand]

Wtf is this?

[IIArchonII]

No, the alien god is the planet itself is alive and becoming smarter

[HK47Beta]

Only Chiron though, not Earth. Chiron is an artificially engineered planet. It's apparently some sort of pseudo-conscious organic machinery for the aliens.

[knifeofspaghetti]

Notice how the Progenitor culture is so entirely shrouded in mythology and a Klingon-like warrior sensibility. The planet was made billions of years before the game starts, they've likely obscured their own past because they actively feared Transcendence. They can't even rebuild Battle Ogres, their best weapons are artifacts.

[olllj]

seizure alert!

[matsku84]

This is from a videogame set on a fictional planet and it speaks of an awakening ALIEN god, so probably not.

[spartan289]

i find it hard NOT to transcend... it's too easy...

[matsku84]

Yeah... That's why I like to customize the rules to slow things down (like pick "tech stagnation") and achieve a conquer, economic or diplomatic victory.