Recycle Old Threads Drive Canceled!

[Xaren Hypr]

Originally posted by Xiodos:
Try Alpha Centauri by Sid Meier.... Many a night was completly lost playing this game.

Many a night, eh...try many a week on my end

It's also relatively easy to modify (i said, relatively...) as it's data files are aldo in text format. I still lose a few weekends to it every so often.

[Roanon]

Originally posted by zenbudo:
Mostly where it shines is in the AI. They're smart, efficient, and remember things. I was surprised when I got a message from a race groveling for peace, saying that they know they started the war, but didn't know I'd fight back so hard.

WOW! Finally an AI that does not have the usual style of "I hate you because you are nonAI and will attack you any time I like without any reason even if I have less chance than an ant trying to strangle an elephant"

[Fyron]

but it has the important note that you still design the units...

Yeah, but you always end up with the same small set of units anyways. The design process in SMAC isn't really very broad.

[Chronon]

Originally posted by Imperator Fyron:

quote:

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but it has the important note that you still design the units...

Yeah, but you always end up with the same small set of units anyways. The design process in SMAC isn't really very broad.

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That's true in comparison with SEIV or the MoO's, but in comparison with the other Civ's SMAC is light years ahead.

I'm not sure I'd put SMAC in the 4x genre (just one planet), but it is still the best Civ game to date (in my view, anyway). SEIV gets my vote for best 4x game, but I haven't played GalCiv, and have only a couple of hours of MoO3 under my belt (I'm still trying to figure out how to do things. The UI doesn't make it very easy... ) I had high hopes for Stars! Supernova Genesis, but that project seems on permanent hold.

[raynor]

In space-based 4x games with tactical combat, designing ships is a lot of fun because you can actually see and hear the different weapons and so forth. In a terra-based 4x game with no tactical combat, IMHO, a primary advantage of designing units is to tweak the unit cost to suit your individual strategy. So, instead of building one unit that is strong in both attack and defense, you can instead build a couple of good defenders with no attack rating and a whole bunch of units with a strong attack. So, I would say that SMAC is going quite well in the unit design arena. Given that SMAC doesn't have tactical combat, I think they did quite, quite well with their design choices.

[oleg]

I am still very puzzled why so many people here believe 4X means interstellar games only !!! Where did you get this idea ? For God sake, SMAX is arguably the best 4X game ever. Civ2 is a classic 4X game. MoM too is a perfect example of 4X game for me!

[Fyron]

Originally posted by raynor:
In space-based 4x games with tactical combat, designing ships is a lot of fun because you can actually see and hear the different weapons and so forth. In a terra-based 4x game with no tactical combat, IMHO, a primary advantage of designing units is to tweak the unit cost to suit your individual strategy. So, instead of building one unit that is strong in both attack and defense, you can instead build a couple of good defenders with no attack rating and a whole bunch of units with a strong attack. So, I would say that SMAC is going quite well in the unit design arena. Given that SMAC doesn't have tactical combat, I think they did quite, quite well with their design choices.

So? You get the exact same thing in the Civ games. Units with high attack and low defense, and units with low attack and high defense. It all boils down to the same thing. The unit design choices are not much of a choice at all in SMAC.

Oleg:
SMAX has nothing on SE4 for the best 4X game ever. And, I would have to disagree that it is the best Civ game. Civ 2 ToT is a much better game in almost every way. Now if Civ 3 had been ToT + SMAX, it would have been a good game. Hopefully Sid Meier gets shot or something so he can't destroy any more classic game titles...