The original factions of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri

[NibaTCat]

Best game of the Firaxis production. Doing the sequel would be the best present they could be for all us videogamers.

Go Gaia's Stepdaughters, go <3

[Windrake101]

Thumbs up for Gaia's stepdaughters smashing Lord's Believers!

[blinkyrem]

1. epic game

2. Now be honest how many of you bribed the planetary council to allow atrocites then used mass armies of nerve gas units. That is how I won the game.

3. After you've won who removed all the fungus on the map with around 50 super former gravships

[Nightshift10000]

Colonel Corazon Santiago & The Spartan Federation all the FUCKING WAY, WHOW, HELL YEAH!

[75birddawg]

dwn with the Babylonian mysteries

[funb0t]

The Spartan colonel is HOT!!!

[Varastaja]

Civilization V finally adapted "zone of control" introduced in SMAC, you consume all movement points if you move from hex adjanent to enemy unit to another adjanent unit. Flanking was also major upgrade, and single unit/hex supports my strategy.

Sequel could be based on hexes too, it MUST have design workshop and maybe more emphasis on building base infrastructure, you'd need factories to build vehicles and heavy weaponry.

[TheArabassist]

make Alpha Centauri 2 now!

honestly though, this is far superior to any other CIv game. Civ V only competes due to up to date tech.

Oh, and hooray for the Morganites

[Daleksaresupreme1]

there is a hidden extra faction called the Firaxians they can be accessed by opening the Faction Editor, going to "Load Faction", and either typing in "sid" (to set Sid Meier as faction leader) or "brian" (to set Brian Reynolds as faction leader) as the faction to load. Once loaded and saved, the Firaxians can be added to a game

[Enruler]

Out of all the games I've played this is still in the top 5 favourites. I've even started playing it again recently. I've literally been playing this game off and on for over half of my life haha.

[JaxsinP]

Zakharov reminds me of Michio Kaku, lol.

[ih8makinusernames]

I still am amazed that the writing team on this managed to make a turn based stradegy have one of the most deep, thought provoking and metaphorical storylines of all time. Each faction represents a human vice:

Gaians: Ecological Devotion almost at the cost of their Humanity

Morgan: Unrestrained Capatalism

Uniiversity: Science at the cost of morals

Miriam: Fundementalist Religion

Spartans: War

UN: Bureaucracy/Shortfalls of Democracy

Hive: Communism/Totalitarianism

Hive's my favorite :)

[insideous57]

I always found the game fascinating, it showed how different social structures would fare in a much more challenging version of the earth. The inevitable political corruption, despots and fundamentalists growing large but stagnant, the scientists and tree-huggers prospering, the old clashes between science and religion, enviroment and industry, peace-lovers and warmongers

[hdckdsadd]

good work

[llrotllort]

"Beware of he who would deny you access to information for in his heart he dreams himself your master"

Such an old game and such a great quote, funny that now in 2010 going into 2011 there are governments who want to control and censor the internet.

[TeshnosFire]

Still the best Civ in my book. (D: And it's not even called Civ)

And I love how you added Planet's voice at the end. (In all rights, it is a faction :D) Where does that piece of text come from though? I never heard this particular one before.

[pinkgothic]

@TeshnosFire I'm actually not sure. I just rummaged through the audio files I had (the ones supplied by matsku84) and stumbled across it. It's (to my shame) been a bit too long since I obsessive-played Alpha Centauri. I didn't know where to place it back when I made this video either, though.

I've had to switch laptops, so I don't have my video files with me, but I'm fairly sure it was a tech audio file. I should dig out my backups and find out!

[insideous57]

@pinkgothic It's the soundfile from the pop-up in game when you build an Aerospace complex. (hence Planet bitching about the contrails) Yes, I do play this too much. But damn its good (:

Good vid too btw

[pinkgothic]

@insideous57 There's no such thing as playing too much Alpha Centauri! ^_~ And thanks.

[Archris17]

@TeshnosFire I loved Alpha Centari, except once it started moving into what I call 'hand-waving science'. Telepathy, nanotechnology... They just seem too far 'out there' for a game that started out very grounded in reality. The mind worms were neat as a native life-form on the planet, but when the whole issue of "Oh god, the whole planet's CONSCIOUS!" came up, I was like, "Really? Seriously? That's a bit hard to swallow."

And the planet quote is when you research Doctrine: Airpower

[rotccadet2010]

The believers and the hive are the two evilest factions of them all and need to both be destroyed. the other five can live and work together well!

[Myrth1]

@rotccadet2010 The Believers. Hive can be REALLY useful as ally. Believers are useless in hands of AI, not to mention that they starts wars more often than Spartans and Hive taken together, most likely crushing factions like Peacekeepers or University, which cripples the whole planet and all other factions, as there is no one to trade and techtrade

[stonem001]

are hive bases all really immune to negative efficiency??

if so they are awesome - will have to give them a go

[Myrth1]

@stonem001 Not really. They have they "native" -2 efficiency rating. BUT they don't suffer inefficiency from Police State and Planned Economy, so the choice is obvious, especially as the Planned give them another boost to their production....

... but really, no one can build faster than Free Drones from Alien Crossfire. NO ONE!

[stonem001]

@Myrth1

you mean -2 economy

[Myrth1]

@stonem001 Right, I have to checked it. Well, that means it's time to start playing SMAC again, as I'm starting to forget such basis ^^

[WatchRyder]

I didn't really identify with any of the factions that strongly.

The spartans were the most obvious choice in some ways. But a libertarian faction would of been cool as well

[HardWarUK]

They got the artwork and graphic and sounds so perfect in this. From the days where developers CARED....!!

[Myrth1]

@HardWarUK And from the days where games were something more that "oh, let's just put nice graphic here and no-brainer gameplay thare" xD

[Rider339]

I like military in this game and like playing as Spartans or Gains (for the early mindworm capturing) and I hate miram. (despite I'm a roman catholic in real life lol)

[Myrth1]

@Rider339 And who said she's also Catholic? xD From the context of the game all we know is that US turned in some kind of teocracy in the XXI century. Most likely Protestant one.... But yeah, Mirian i probably the only leader which simply CAN'T be liked.

[DaveDoggOwns]

I like how the original factions are more balanced and less fanatical (except The Believers).

[neongecko06]

Yang makes a good point about "becoming the master of the output" and striving for more ascetic virtues. It's a shame that under his cult of personality few would appreciate his ideals personally, rather than being fed them by the collective mindset. :-/

[justicetrooper]

I don't know why, but I could never get comfortable with any other faction than the hive. I recently found a way to nullify his economic situation by using the HQ city and transport convoys to pump ridiculous amounts of energy in and hold the entire economy up on one base.

[WholesomeBurn]

Personally, i prefer Prokhor Zakharov and the univerity of planet... but if i was a leader of a civ on planet i would wanna be that fraction... Sure, you may be able to make more units, but your attacking me with rocks and im pwn you win anti-matter rays :D

[OmegaPuppy]

I'd like to make a note that the video said "...and behind electrons, quarks." At least in accordance with the Standard Model, electrons are elementary particles and do not consist of smaller particles. Protons and neutrons, however, are made of smaller particles, quarks. I just wanted to make that clear.

[pinkgothic]

@OmegaPuppy Good catch! Though I always did interpret that as "beyond the size of the electron", not "within electrons".

[SkulpturaX]

@OmegaPuppy A quark is an elementary particle. An elementar particle is a particle not known to have substructure. Therefore, electron could be defined as quark too.

[OmegaPuppy]

@SkulpturaX That is true, but is an oversimplification in regards to what was said in the clip. It's clear that that is *not* what they were trying to instill in people's minds in the dialogue.

[SkulpturaX]

@OmegaPuppy "Behind atoms we find electrons and behind electrons, quarks." It goes from large to small. First we have the atoms, smallest known particles in atoms are electrons, smaller than electrons are quarks. It does not say that quarks are smaller pieces of electrons, it says that there are smaller particles than electrons.

[AgentNick42]

UNIVERSITY OF PLANET FO LYFE DAWG.

But seriously. University of Planet was the very best faction.

[Enerccio]

@AgentNick42 BROFIST! UNIVERSITY FTW!!! I love to win with Ascent to Transcendence!

[HardWarUK]

The word you are looking for, with regard the other vid showing the new factions, is that you are paying a homage to the other one. Homage, a French word for 'in awe of and servitude (to the original idea)'

[pinkgothic]

@HardWarUK Psst, if I had been looking for the word, I'd have used it. ;D But thank you, anyway. It's certainly *accurate* :)) albeit considerably more positive than I'd label my work.

...can't actually argue with that, come to think of it. ;) *laughs*

[HardWarUK]

Excellent - just like the other one! Agree totally with the post on the other one about the music fitting the video, which so few video posters get right!

May Light be Your Leader AND Your Follower in all things. Planet.

[pinkgothic]

@HardWarUK Thank you very much. :) The Box does make it easy, mind, since it has such a steady, section-wise build-up. I'm guessing it'd probably make a great backing to a great many things. ^_^

[grodzilla2]

there anyway to get the sound on my Ipod? its seriously that good.

[pinkgothic]

@grodzilla2 The music is Orbital's The Box, but if you mean with all the voice clips strewn in, then I'm sure I can find that on my harddrive somewhere. :)

Either way, glad you like it!

[grodzilla2]

ya, if its not too much trouble, an audio version of this vid would be awesome. its that good.

[pinkgothic]

I sent you a PM, let me know if you got it. :)

[Ignuus66]

there is no sequel but planetfall (civ 4 mod) is as close as you can get to one

[do0rkn0b]

these games.. sigh.

[cell12345]

I love playing as Miriam, spreading like a disease over planets surface, culling the heathens or forcing them under the Lords rule... Mwahahaha! God will's it! Deus Vult! Mwahaha!

[Jinx1337]

#1

Thing is, every single faction in this game is scary to an extent.

Deidra? How many non-gvmtal organizations do we have today which enforce their rules on us (thanks to EU's / US lobbying and EU's commitology) caring more about flora&fauna, hurting humans in the end? Green fanatics are just as evil.

Zakharov? Just youtube "HAARP project".

Lal? Human Rights are good, unless they start protecting the criminals more than the victims (Jail standards in EU)

[Jinx1337]

#2

Yang? I don't think I need to give any examples.

Santiago? US playing world police and relying on hard power alone.

Miriam? There is relgion and then, there are religious fanatics.

Morgan? Evil corporations imposing their rules on governments.

Not a single faction is 'good' in AC. Some might seem evil to you, because you tend to lean to some sides more than the others.

[Cocarat206]

Whats scary is, people like Yang, Marion, and to a less scary extent, Morgan, all are very real in this day and age. >.>

[pinkgothic]

@Cocarat206

Well, that's what makes them so tangible in the game, in turn, though, doesn't it? :)

[RabidWaffles]

@Cocarat206

Far, far too many Miriams and not enough Lals and Zahkharovs, if you ask me.

Now if only the world worked like SMAC

Someone help me breed mind-worms and killer fungus. We'll all either ascend to transcendance or die horribly.

[RabidWaffles]

I like both SMAC and Civ 4.

Also I like either the peacekeepers and the university, they're most in line with my beliefs.

oh, btw, i'd argue a society without individualism is even worse. then you just end up with an unquestioned corrupt prick, which is even worse than a questioned and doubted corrupt prick.

[pinkgothic]

But you probably wouldn't have enough individuality to care. ;-)

But, yeah; I found Yang creepy, too. Of course, it doesn't help that he's one of those factions that you should hope to encounter early and cull just as early, lest you'll be ground to fine pulp later. :)) That probably has something to do with my perception, there! :))

[RabidWaffles]

@pinkgothic

Which is arguably the worst part.

Anyways, Yang's bad, but he's still a better neighbor than Miriam, who is basically all "HELLO I HAVE FIVE MILLION BASES CRANKING OUT IMPACT TROOPS"

[pinkgothic]

@RabidWaffles

Guh, true. I try to get rid of both as soon as possible. >.>;;

[xXxStRyK3RxXx]

this game is a unique mix of philosophy, science, politics and economy, and for studying physics, I play as Zak all the time, though he lacks morality...*g*

[pinkgothic]

Science, bitches. It works.

[xkcd reference, for those who don't know it.]

[deefromott]

for I have tasted the fruut

[excl0213]

i love this game , is like civ4 but better , wat better i always play as univercity and pacekeepers , and i have miriam and hive and diere! so if you ppl think i am a nerd for taking this game so seriusly , burn in hell!

[pinkgothic]

Wow, dude. Relax. o_o

[excl0213]

jsbfhehhhhhhheabfhaew lol

[Kirbywasfun]

Its kinda sad that this game is better than Civilizations 4....makes me wonder if they can even make a better sequel. Games today are deluded compared to the golden age of games. starcraft, alpha centauri, FF7 & 8, Ocarina of time....I loved the 90's. Make a sequel of the 90's please!

[Valkyriefury]

Homeworld!

[Valkyriefury]

I think they should just boost the AI and the Graphics. Maybe make Corssfire more complete. Otherwise, have gameplay remain almost identical.

[pinkgothic]

@Kirbywasfun There are some pretty awesome games out today, too. I'm pretty sure the ratio's still much the same, too. :)

PixelJunk Eden. LittleBigPlanet. inFamous. Portal. Psychonauts. Those are the ones off the top of my head. They're not strategy or RPG games, but I don't actually spend much time in those genres (whoops, eeek!).

However, despite that: Sequel-of-the-90s for the win! :))

*tosses Kula World onto your pile of absolutely amazing 90s games, though* SMAC is godly. :D

[HardWarUK]

@pinkgothic The ratio is not the same in any way - at least on PC. A Xmas 1999 edition of PC gamer had 48 reviews in it. Last year Gamespot only reviewed 78 all year! We may get a few good games every year, but we don't get a deluge of great games every year like we used to.

Remember, you have to wait a couple of years to see if a game is a classic, not just after it's release. So older games like X-Com and Sid Meier's Pirates have already been proven, as we all know these decade+ old games.

[pinkgothic]

@HardWarUK Aah. You may well be right, actually - I don't actually pay an awful lot of attention to PC gaming (guilty as charged). I'm a console-tard. :]

[Neltharion1989]

@Kirbywasfun Starcraft II seems to have lived upto its predecessor. However the removal of medics and firebats in multiplayer still makes me sad. Even if they have been replaced with "better" units.

[MrJero85]

@Kirbywasfun well no this is the golden age the 90's sucked just as bad. Think of the trully great games of today and you will that today is the golden age.

[dageezerboi]

@MrJero85 golden age was defo the late 90s. games today are for ADD kids

[Yaaroslav]

SMAC is good. Civil is bad

[pinkgothic]

SMAC is definitely good, but if people enjoy Civ, let them. :) More SMAC for us that way. ;)

[Nitros14]

The expansion factions just didn't resonate with me as much as the originals.

The extremism of the factions was what made them so gripping. Their best and their worst showing naked.

Yang's vision of a totally new way of organizing humanity was the most compelling for me. Without the harmful individualism which has corrupted every society before it. One heart, one soul, one mind, one goal.

[pinkgothic]

But also kind of creepy. And usually one of the factions you had to cull very early on if you weren't playing them. ;) But, agreed. They're all quite fascinating. :D

[flobbingdonkey]

I agree this game is awesome. The particular thing that vexes me is that I personally found it very difficult to play as a faction that i personally didnt agree with ideologically. I hated miriam with a passion, as well as yang. I used to only play as the peacekeepers or the university. Is that sad or what. I possibly took the game too seriously, although i was only in my teens when i first played it :D

[pinkgothic]

I wouldn't call it sad at all! The game puts a lot of effort into making the factions consistent in themselves, so if you disagree with a leader on ideological levels, it's impossible not to be reminded of what you disagree with it at essentially every turn. That's not fun no matter how "not seriously" you take it (given that the game took itself seriously, anyway; if it was satire, obviously that wouldn't be a problem).

tl;dr: No worries, I think that's normal. :))

[Neltharion1989]

@flobbingdonkey Same actually, I normally ended up at war with Miriam on a regular basis and Lal never agreed with my pursuit of science xD Though Morgan was always willing to fund me.

[SRAANG01]

@flobbingdonkey You are so right! I felt the exact same way. I also hated Miriam and Yang. But I liked Santiago and Lady Deirdre. I didn't even want to be allied with them . I usually made a point to wipe them out first and win a democratic victory

[Dooby143]

@flobbingdonkey Hey, that's me too, and I imagine a lot of other players too. Nothing wrong with that.

[BangkokSpark]

@flobbingdonkey I did exactly like you!

[kristicuk]

@flobbingdonkey I was a kid as well when I played it and most of the time I played it with the University, Gaia, or Sparta. I hated Miriam and Yang as well. Morgan was the most boring one. And Lal from the Peacekeepers was annoying as hell at that council thing. He always had the most votes, lol.

[AlfaCentauri2060]

This game is a holy masterpiece

[justicetrooper]

This game with cinematics (similar to the secret projects) for every tech in addition to the quotes would be amazing.

[pinkgothic]

I don't know, I like it the way it is. :) I'd be afraid the effect of it as a reward might water down if each tech had a video blurb.

[justicetrooper]

You've got a good point there. The reward feeling might go away once you have to watch a cutscene every few turns. Especially if transcendent thought had a cutscene. XD

[pinkgothic]

Guhaha. A terrible thought, indeed. :)) The Planet quote repeating ad nauseaum is bad enough already. :))

[justicetrooper]

Though I would not oppose the option for cutscenes in place of the interludes.

[pinkgothic]

Good point!

[karansena]

they should realse this game

[pinkgothic]

Do you mean re-release, or rescind the rights to and release into a less restrictive license now that they don't actively sell it anymore?

[inkiw]

I love SMAC, it's probably my favorite game of all time.

[ProphetTenebrae]

I always thought it was a shame that the Civ 4 conversion project for SMAC never saw fruition - as Civ 4 really lacked the depth... I mean, the seven factions in SMAC were nicely balanced and all unique and interesting... and I think that the system of governance/economics etc. has never really been neared by other similar games.

I mean, Civ 4 tossed in religion and culture... but I mean, the government options really just affected upkeep mostly.

[pinkgothic]

I've never played Civ4, but, in my opinion, SMAC is still easily one of the most philosophic games, ever. Off-hand, I can only think of the edutainment game they made out of Sophie's World as more packed with philosophic thought; and that didn't really go into depth with any of the subjects presented, whereas SMAC focussed really well on its core point of (for lack of a better way to summarise it) the definition of sentience.

[pinkgothic]

(continued)

So, even comparing those games - SMAC wins by actual -depth- (and, counting all quotes, possibly ties with breadth).

It's a real gem. :) I'm very glad I have a copy.

[ProphetTenebrae]

Perhaps I am nothing more than a pretentious pseudo-intellectual but I think much of what is said in the game is quite insightful and indeed, all Civ 4 had was Leonard Nemoy reading historical quotes - which, while of themselves impressive - are not nearly as impressive as coming up with stuff like this.

Not much you could do to improve the game, except fancy up the graphics... maybe a few gameplay issues to resolve but otherwise fantastic.

[pinkgothic]

Well, if you are, so am I. ;) Couldn't agree more.