Being a big fan of Alpha Centauri, I am just wondering if anyone knows that Sid Mier has plan for Alpha Centauri II. Sid did a good job with Civ III. It would be nice to see some of the features in Civ III used in Alpha Centauri II

Don't count on it. I think Sid even said it was completely out of the question.
:(

Shame

Why, Sid, Why? AC has so much more possibility than the CIV series. For one, you wouldn't have the endless arguments in these forums about what is "historically correct" in a computer game. If it takes place in the future, you get to make your own rules.

Hey Mikoyan, do you have a link or know where Sid has said it was out of the question?

Hey, Dan from Firaxis visits the Civ3 forums, so we could put links to a ACII suggestions and Ideas thread, in this forum, and try to encourage him to make the game.

I would hope that there is a chance of AC2 but look at the whole thread, it looks very unlikely!

I´d like to see a SMAC 2 as well. SMAC is a great game, but could use some improvements, like better AI. A sequel is high on my wish list.

Well, Sid seems to be tired of TBS games, at least for now... And although Firaxis owns the rights to SMAC, the game was designed by Brian Reynolds, who definitely don't seem to feel inclined to make a TBS game again...

If Sid wanted to make a new TBS and Brian wanted to work on SMAC concepts again, then they could join forces to create the ultimate TBS experience... Not likely to happen at all. :(

Based on the job done on Civ3 I would consider a SMAC 2 by Firaxis to be a horrible tragedy. I positively would prefer that SMAC 2 never be done than by Soren and hacks.

Originally posted by jimmytrick
Based on the job done on Civ3 I would consider a SMAC 2 by Firaxis to be a horrible tragedy. I positively would prefer that SMAC 2 never be done than by Soren and hacks.

How sad. How true.
:( :( :(

I hope they never make SMAC2, coz if they did, it would probably look too much like civ3, and that is a drittspill, to say it in norwegian. The only good aspect of civ3, that I can remember in a hurry (haven't played it in a very long time), is the culture thing, that you actually can take over another player's cities just coz they envy your great culture. That rocked.

Oh, no AC2? what a shame!

If they do make one, I'd like to see better graphics, and not such a clear storyline, change it a bit here and there, maybe have a star wars age where you can fight aliens...

AC has much more potential than Civ, but...
No AC 2???!!!
how could they!

I know AC2 would be on my wish list of games...

But there is some light, like Colonization, some fans of AC got together and decided to make a new Free Version of the game, formely known as freeAC, StellaPolaris combines the best elements of civ, ac, and even colonization together to make one really great game! :goodwork:

http://www.stellapolaris.info/

cool spy.To bad the Firaxis doesnt makes a SMAC2
but then it would be horrible..im happyy with SMAC now but it can get boring....after X years....so now im still enjying :D

maybe we will see rise of intergalactic nations (alpha centuari-like RTS game).

That would be cool.. the smac story is solid, and I think if they would just contiune it out some more...

Check out networknode.org for some good stuff.

AC is the best game of this type and Firaxis would be making a dire mistake not pursuing it further

Originally posted by Amesjustin
AC is the best game of this type and Firaxis would be making a dire mistake not pursuing it further

The problem is, the key people who created SMAC left Firaxis and are working now in "Big huge Games" (their first game will be Rise of Nations ). Sid actually had very little to do with SMAC, as BR himself admitted once. Other than name "Sid Meiers Alpha Centauri" and Copyright issues, Firaxis cannot in principle make a sequel. Its totaly up to Brian Reynolds and his team, maybe some day they will return to SMAC , although, isnt SMAC near perfection?

It is a shame. Alien Crossfire is an excellent game. It is far better than Civ3 in almost every respect. Even diplomacy, which could be a bit stronger, is a million times more accurate and engaging than Civ3. I would really love to see a sequel to this game, of the same caliber, of course. It could use an updated interface, more tech options, etc. This game has so much potential as it stands. I can't see why they wouldn't make a sequel. Didn't it sell well when it first came out? I think it did.

-Jim

If they made SMACII i don't think i would want a totally new game. I think if they are going to make a second alpha then they should keep the game essencially the same and just touch up the graphics and add some new minor features. Kind of what they did to CivII, CivIII is not drasticly different from CivII it just adds new aspects to the game and the graphics are 100% better.

If they made SMACII i don't think i would want a totally new game. I think if they are going to make a second alpha then they should keep the game essencially the same and just touch up the graphics and add some new minor features. Kind of what they did to CivII, CivIII is not drasticly different from CivII it just adds new aspects to the game and the graphics are 100% better.

srry about the double post

In these forums seems to be good programmers and graphicers..
Why are u gonna start developmenting ac2..?
Some would do units, some base scripts.. etc..
It could be a totally new mod or even a new game..
:scan:
Okay.. Maybe taken from too far, but..
:rolleyes:

ËDITED: this was second post of the upper one..
sorry:o

Two double posts in a row! :D

good suggestion, orangebear, IF they could afford the rights to the name, story, etc.

suppose that would be expensive....... very.

I'd would love to see AC2....Get Reynolds back in there!

Potentially reviving this thread, I've gotta ask, why not an AC2? even if Fraxis does a poor job, why not let them take a crack at it. Not like people who don't like Civ III still don't have Civ II to go back on to....

You never know Fraxis might even surprise y'all and make AC2 better then AC1. Really hope that Sid qoute is false, and if it is true that that Sid changes his mind....

Originally posted by Falcon02
Potentially reviving this thread, I've gotta ask, why not an AC2? even if Fraxis does a poor job, why not let them take a crack at it. Not like people who don't like Civ III still don't have Civ II to go back on to....

You never know Fraxis might even surprise y'all and make AC2 better then AC1. Really hope that Sid qoute is false, and if it is true that that Sid changes his mind....

It's not really sid's call in this case, but Brian reynolds, and he's plenty busy with real-time games and Big Huge Games.

The Smac story is pretty much close-ended- You transcend and essentially become "one with Planet" or whatever it is they do. I wouldn't be sure how they could pick up the story where it left off.

I would like to see a sequel as well, but I think it's highly, highly unlikely.

I reckon you should never say never! ;) I loved AC along with alot of other people. Civ3 didn't include alot of AC features which was puzzling to me. AC was such a leap forward.
I don't think that the storyline is a problem, since the all civ games are just the same in premise.

well i wouldnt want some other orginization to try and make SMAC 2. If they make it, i'll try it, and probably like it... I like civ3.

Story line would either be exactly the same, or some really creative person could make up a "sequal" but I'd say keep the plot essentially the same.

Imagine a redone high quality moving Diedre leaderhead.....

or better yet decent-looking terrain. I love the way the planet-generator worked, but the really need to improve the variety on the terrain

It's not really Brian Reynolds' call. When he left, the rights to the game stay with Firaxis. The corporation owns the IP rights, not an individual. (I'm assuming it's this way, it is with most every other corporation in the world).

FWIW, I'll be the dissenting voice. I think that Firaxis could do a great job on it (but it'll never happen as EA will never fund a sequel as it's not a sequel to a sports game).

...it'll never happen as EA will never fund a sequel as it's not a sequel to a sports game....

Or The Sims... or SimCity. :D

People should be talking about Alpha Centauri 2.. Not Civilization 4!

Damn right! A majority of my suggestions for the offical Civ4 tread where ideas from SMACx and the multimap(earth and earths outer orbit) from CTP.

Originally posted by warpstorm
It's not really Brian Reynolds' call. When he left, the rights to the game stay with Firaxis. The corporation owns the IP rights, not an individual. (I'm assuming it's this way, it is with most every other corporation in the world).

It really depends on the contract. Firaxis would be stupid to do anything different than what you are saying, but it MAY have been written so that BR has the rights. What is more likely is a "Joint custody" of the game where they both have rights to it - together. Which leaves us all screwed.:(

I wish we could get some straight answers from Firaxis on this...

What I would like to see for a SMAC2 would involve maybe a wider view of the TBS experience in the future. Like maybe involving more than one planet? Space? After all, most endings in that game gave you wide and far perspectives of the future, like returning to a nuked earth, and building a Dyson Sphere around Alpha Primary.I would certainly like to see the futire, rather than a rehash of the same story like the Civs.

Unless Civ 4 is going to be allot like AC Im not getting it civIII was the worst game ever

civ3 with c3c 1.15b is a very good game. I agree if it were to incorporate a lot of the things AC had and it didn't, Civ4 would be great.

Given the choice of AC2 or Civ4, I would go AC2.

And if wishes were horses, beggars would ride...

I think that the game engine would need a complete re-write to accomodate better graphics and the AI would need a complete overhaul. Considering the market for SMAC was pretty small, the chances of there being a SMAC II are some where between none and non-existant.

The best hope is to go after other games like Galactic Civilizations. That and keep your SMAC cd around for a quick fix when you are feeling nostalgic.

D.

Originally posted by gen.dragolen
The best hope is to go after other games like Galactic Civilizations. That and keep your SMAC cd around for a quick fix when you are feeling nostalgic.

GALCIV is more like CIV3 in space. I'd like to see a game like SMAC, where you're dealing with a single planet instead of a galaxy. There was a CIV2 mod that used Mars as a background. Unfortunately, CIV3 doesn't easily lend itself to that kind of mod.

Galciv is an O.K. civ-type game..... kinda' disappointing in my opinion(very good game though! - Love sci-fi stuff)...... I don't know how to explain it, I just hope the next civ game will have SMACx goverment model and unit creatiion...

I like how in SMAC, when you have beaten the AI down really badly, they will swear a pact to serve you the rest of the game. I wish the AI in Civ3/IV would do that. :(

Just been thinking maybe part 2 will never show but that doesn't stop us from thinking up a good story :D what i got thus far wich would work for a sequel i believe.

After loosing contact with the spaceship the people at Earth were forced to believe that their finale project had been a failure. In a joint operation of many countries a new ship was created, but because of the small building time humanity had to find a planet closer by earth wich would be able to substain humanoid life forms. Just after this ship had been constructed such a planet was found thus course is set to this planet just before the destruction of the earth (would make for a nice intro movie :D )

In the meantime on Alpha Centauri conflict between the Progenitors and the Usurpers was reaching a climax. Many human factions were already chosing sides to try and survive the hard times. After a discovery made by the University and the Gaians it seemed the planet it selve was suffering the most under this conflict and the idea started for a swift evacuation.

At one point Alpha Centauri started to lose its vertility and all that was left were the wars being waged on it. And still the planet was going worse the given factions didnt have enough time to evacutate everyone and so a hand full of people per faction escaped before the planet died off. (this way not every faction comes back in the sequel :) ) Course was set for a distant planet wich substained humanoid lifeforms yet they didnt know the given ship from Earth was going to this exact planet.

In the meantime the ship coming from Earth was having some internal conflicts and even though the people worked togheter factions were already forming.

The planet these two were going to wasnt empty for an alien race had crash landed there 2 years before starting a small and peacefull society within the planet. Little did they know their peacefull and enlightend society was about to be rudely interupted.
Upon arrival the factions from Alpha Centauri and Earth started to spread out as soon as they could claiming as much land as they could and thus the story starts.

Alot of interesting ideas here..I wonder if Firaxis are quietly taking notes?? :)

I was suprised when firaxis realised Civ3 and it didn't get a 3d landscape like AC.. I saw a large faction lose almost half of its bases when the icecaps rose! The 3d lanscape was a great touch. And the talking Datalinks...the atmosphere created was "See the future now!"
It was great seeing your faction spreading across, barren mesas, lush valleys and into the oceans.

The AC concept of a human future in space is awe inspiring...Almost on par with the Red Mars series..great stuff.

Firaxis has said before that it would never happen. I don't think they were too pleased with that game, though I have no idea why. Maybe something to do with parting programmers....

Originally posted by Amesjustin
Firaxis has said before that it would never happen. I don't think they were too pleased with that game, though I have no idea why. Maybe something to do with parting programmers....

Sadly thats looks like the case...with Reynolds going :( . Hmm Its funny how RoN used a 3D landscape and Civ3 didn't.. I wonder if thats Reynolds influence?

I'd love to see SMAC 2. I don't mind them making it - even if it's bad, I can still play SMAC. Civ3 is out, but I still play Civ2... it's hard to improve on perfection.

here is what i would like of AC-2

A- you can view your citys

B- graphics are better

C- new way to win build a Mother ship and travel back to earth

D- new factions new building new wonders

dream on guys.

There may not be a SMAC 2 but I don't feel it's too difficult to imagine something similar being released sometime in the future. I mean, colonizing a planet in the not too distant future is an appealing idea and whilst a civ type game set in this scenario would have a limited market that's not to say that it wouldn't be worth someone making. At the end of the day you're serving the strategy gamer market and the sci fi fans, not just civ and SMAC fans.

What about AC2 as a map of Civ4?

I want more aspects of unit design.
And the game itself damnit! :mad: Why cannot tmey make AC2?

Yeah, let's insist on AC2...

Petition? :(

Demand! :bounce:

Yeah, let's insist on AC2...

Petition? :(

Demand! :bounce:

I would suggest you instead find a spare million or so and give it to them... thats what would get it made, not petitions or demands. The realities of game development mean nothing can get made unless a publisher or somebody is willing to put up a large amount of money and its not easy to convince anyone to do that. Maybe one day an AC2 will be made, but it seems unlikely in the near future.

I would suggest you instead find a spare million or so and give it to them... thats what would get it made, not petitions or demands. The realities of game development mean nothing can get made unless a publisher or somebody is willing to put up a large amount of money and its not easy to convince anyone to do that. Maybe one day an AC2 will be made, but it seems unlikely in the near future.

Not to mention the sad reality that although fans of these types of Strategy Fans tend to be rather hardcore (myself included), we are a fairly rare breed. The real money is to be had in other types of games like MMORPGs that not only have a larger fan base but also a monthly continuity income.

If you are serious about trying to get AC2 or something similar going, try and convince Firaxis to sponsor a donation drive to help fund it. To further reduce costs, they could ask for some fan-based open-source programming. I would be more than willing to donate 5 to 10 hours a week programming free of charge and about $100 to Firaxis for this. I am sure several other people are willing to donate whatever they can as well.

Guys... do not get serious, this is the only way to channel my energy and ask for things that I know are very very unlikely to happen.

On the other hand the little guy inside my head tells me that I do not need to donate $1.000.000 but to find 100.000 people willing to purchase the game. I know I will not find any of the two, but... I feel it is worth trying. I think you do as well.

We can do a petition named "we'll buy the game if you relese it" :).
I'm on!

We can do a petition named "we'll buy the game if you relese it" :).
I'm on!

Sign me in!!!

I've decided the only course of action to resolve this dispute is to kidnap Brian Reynolds and force him to create SMAC2 :goodjob:

All jokes aside, A dedicated SMAC community could probably make a worth sequel. If a leader arose with a clear vision who could unite talented SMAC IT personnel to each offer some of their time to working on this great project. But in reality these sorts of ambitious projects seem never to reach completion and members seem to leave the projects regularly.

You need not be an IT expert to work on these projects, keen people can learn through the development process. And others such as myself, who have difficulty programming can always help with ideas, concepts, fiction and most importantly testing.

Your best bet for some fresh SMAC action is probably the Alderbaran2 mod in the SMAC creation forum at Apolyton.

With said petition above... I wouldn't sign unless we demanded compatability with Windows 9x, ME, NT, XP and so on.... heck, throw in linux for some more happy people :)

I have to agree with kaboth, there are lots of devoted fans out there with superb programming and graphics skills (I sadly lack those skills though). With the right leader, and the right people a really good sequal could be made.

Though to be released as anything but cool Freeware on the net it would likely have to be submitted to Fraxis for the SMAC Title and distrobution. Fraxis might have to do some minor editing... but at least they'd know that there is a demand... and most of the work is already done for them.

Though looking at Freeciv it could take devoted fans quite a while to "finish" such a project completely. Concidering that devoted fans rarely have the resources and time (the biggest factor) to produce a high quality product in a reasonable amount of time. As Amesjustin said he'd be happy to devote 5-10 hours a week, but that pales in comparison to the 40+ hours a week employees of Fraxis would put into a program.

We need to start organizing of stuff never gets ready. What are your ideas on how we should go about it and what are your personal strengths?

http://www.stellapolaris.info/

I can't programme at all, I can do all the rest! think, test, throw ideas, etc. :coffee:

Well if you want a new twist to the game, the Aldebaran mod over at the Apolyton.net forums is quite different and a significant bit tougher... :)

If we made all the people we know who liked SMAC sand an e-mail to Firaxis, asking for SMAC2, maybe they'd understand that there is a market for this game....

I agree about trying mods. Or make your mod addressing your pet issues.

Not that I neccisarily think that the world needs a ACII but it definitely needs a game that uses all its qualitys in a modern game because all the other games suck in comparison especialy the new ones they thever seem to have any depth as if the people that made the game werent very inspired by the storyline

... Anyways where can I sign up for the petition!

I had a few thoughts about this one ACII would be cool. An alternative could be if there was 2 Starships launched from earth and the secound landed on Beta Centauri instead of Alpha Centauri.

Since theres going to be a SMAC Civ4 mod it is always possible to improve it further. Visit http://www.apolyton.net/forums/forumdisplay.php?s=&forumid=24 for further details. All ideas or help is appreciated. :)

All the posts at the start of this thread about SMAC2 WILL BE CRAP COZ CIV3 HAS CRAP GRAPHICS is now invalidated. It's the time of Civ4 now. If they plan on releasing SMAC2 it will look awesome.

I agree with Robo Mike. I wish a good sequel to SMAC (which I haven't played in years) would come out.

Did any of you play 'Outpost' from Sierra (came out in about 1994?) it was a great concept, but a crappy game. Basically, they released it without it being finished.

read about it here: http://www.ibiblio.org/GameBytes/issue20/greviews/outpost2.html

and here: http://www.vintage-sierra.com/other/outpost.html

I agree with Robo Mike. I wish a good sequel to SMAC (which I haven't played in years) would come out.

Did any of you play 'Outpost' from Sierra (came out in about 1994?) it was a great concept, but a crappy game. Basically, they released it without it being finished.

read about it here: http://www.ibiblio.org/GameBytes/issue20/greviews/outpost2.html

and here: http://www.vintage-sierra.com/other/outpost.html

I remember Outpost. Never really dug into it. I might still have it kicking around somewhere.

I've been going through my old/older games, hence the SMAC thing... and found a few that I want to light up again. Independence War is another. On the tripleX front, I used to play a bunch of PBEM VGA planets. Lots of fun.

man they should make a AC2, AC was a great game it could use some fix ups and call it AC2 then every one would be good to go I am hoping that they make a Ac2 so that I could upgrade it from AC :cry: come on some one tell fraxis to make Ac2 :cry:

OH yeah i think it is a bit bettter than CIv 3

Sh!t, in my opinion, Pac-Man is better than Civ 3. ;)

Lets face it folks...

AC is great and you can replay it any number of times.:D

So it really doesnt matter if an AC-2 is released, just keep on playing AC-1 , theres so much to this game.

And...

Theres a LOT of other games too.

Though AC2 would be nice...

Though AC2 would be nice...
As long as Firaxis doesn't screw it up royally. But knowing their reputation I doubt they will as long as Take2 doesn't get too greedy.

Instead of AC II y really prefer another expansión. I really couldn´t care less about the graphics, I just want a better AI, tech, buildings, I do think an aerial view of the cities is needed, and keep working on units and the ability to have formations, apply combined arms strategies, and more interactions with the other factions. What I mean is more of what we love of this game, the graphics can be the way it is because it isn´t important, or we are still playing civ II or colonization because of its beautifull 2d landscapes?

I've read this thread with much interest. I have to agree with most of the comments posted on the declining quality of the Civ franchise. I bought Civ 3 with much anticipation (with SMAC in mind) only to be bitterly disappointed. With no unit modification, economic/political options severly limited and a host of other issues I returned the game within 2 days bitter and angry. Afterall my hopes were set incredibly high by Brian Reynolds magnum opus, SMAC. I haven't dared touch CIV 4, although it looks much improved over Civ 3, it's still just a pale shade compared to SMAC from what I can tell. Anyway I'm not bringing up anything which hasn't been hashed over countless times by SMAC fans.

I wanted to share some details of what I've heard over the last few years regarding SMAC and why there will probably not be a sequel. First off I believe SMAC was a commercial failure, it never gained wide acceptence perhaps because of the theme. This remains the biggest mystery too me especially after the stunning success of the ground breaking Civ franchise up to that point. Forgive me for being dramatic, but that such genius go unrecognized by the gaming market was the biggest tragedy of the situation. Not only that the marketing that went into this game was enourmous as well with several novels being published to help reinforce the story line. How many games come out with novels as part of marketing before they are successful.

Clearly Fraxis knew they had a genius concept, but it seems the market wasn't ready. If I were to speculate, I would say the commercial failure of the game was a big component in the blood letting that ensued at Fraxis. And is a big reason why the company has stayed the course with the current Civ series, sadly mostly issuing minor tweaks and upgraded graphics.

I agree that Alpha Centauri 2 will probably not come out. Although Firaxis recently had poll on which product people would like to see remade and SMAC has a comanding lead, so don't lose hope yet. In reality why would they risk it, especially if it's not nessary.

I think the crux of the issue is use of the game mechanics and design concepts and their transfer to other TBS games. The game design is what made the game shine, the theme is disposable. The licensing must be at the core of the issue, if licensing could be resolved the a whole new generation of TBS games could finally be released based on the SMAC model which is really what we were all hoping for in Civ 3 (and Civ 4).

I'm assuming a whole lot here and an alternate senario could be that both Reynolds and Meiers are so pissed off at the whole SMAC ordeal that they want nothing to do with it. It's time they get into therapy and get over it! An improved SMAC engine dressed in Civ clothing is the path to glory!

The Civ franchise could once again hold it's head high.

I'm reading this thread and it's very interesting. The history of the demand for SMAC is quite fun :)

I too would throw my hat into the ring for a SMAC2. The biggest reason is because I'm a mac user. The original SMAC was done for classic and it's hard to get classic games to work sometimes in Mac OS X. Updating the game means updating the code.

As a side note, There are more Civ3 haters in this forum methinks than in the civ2 forum :P I think all three games have their strengths and weaknesses. Ironically it wasn't until Civ3 that I really got out of the "chieftain" basement of playing the game. Civ3 actually gave me things and motivation to improve my play, finally.

A SMAC conversion of Civ4 would be great, and in fact I urge Firaxis to do it. They have the most skill and resources to do it. Yes they could sell it, but it would be ideal. Use an existing engine which has a lot of the SMAC features, but builds on and improves and is already highly extensible.

Some issues I had with SMAC:

1) Too many buildings, reduce the number of buildings just a bit. One of the advantages of Civ3 (yes I like Civ3, it's not perfect but hey Civ1 had it's share of imbalance issues and problems) was that the game complexity was reduced a bit. The smaller micromanaging concepts were replaced by some easier civ wide concepts (such as upkeep) making overall management a little simplier.

2) Better graphics. Much better graphics. At that point the graphics looked sickly. The game play more than made up for it, but it would be nice if it was more eye-candy-like and didn't make me want to wretch once in a while.

3) Never did like the 7 faction limit, but that can easily be handled now that Civ3 and 4 have higher limits as well.

4) Balance the factions a bit so that Prokir (sp?) isn't always the first to genetic engineering. Hell it's such a forgone conclusion it's in the damn manual!

5) Allow me to create gravship needlejet carriers. Always wanted one of them, but they never let me make that in the shop! :D

6) Allow for more options than the OZ effect (i.e. emerald forest everywhere). Some people liked the boreholes and the advanced stuff, but the ideal city had a hybrid farm/tree farm with trees everywhere. That was the city 90% of the people made.

And stop heaping so much hate onto the other games. Spread the love, hug the trees, kiss the worms!.... err wait a minute... :D

Odd, how did I double post? Sorry for that.

Just who is Prokir?

There will never be a SMAC2. Firaxis doesn't own the rights to SMAC, Electronic Arts does. Since Firaxis is part of Take 2 now, that means SMAC2 will never exist.

AC is the best game of this type and Firaxis would be making a dire mistake not pursuing it further

No, they would be making a mistake to pursue it. Alpha Centauri isn't a very highly marketable game. It did poorly in sales, and nondiehard gamers complained (stupidly) that the tech tree is meaningless, and the colors look bad.

So Alpha Centauri is simply not the best game from a sales point of view.

It might be yours and my favorite turn based civ-style game, but people like us are the minority.

nondiehard gamers complained (stupidly) that the tech tree is meaningless, and the colors look bad.


I consider myself a hardcore TBS gamer and I found and still find the colours of SMAC awful. I love the game but cannot possibly play it without a patch for the colours which some fan did (drabsmac IIRC).

The problem is that when this game came out, the RTS genre started to pick up. We must admit that only a minority of players are willing to play braintaxing games. The majority of the flow rather play along the lines of candy-eyed RTS games but which lack strategy or a challenging AI. So from a commercial standpoint I find it difficult to make a profit on such a complex game (you can always try out new crazy strategies and somehow they seem to work out !).

Well. If I understand correctly what Dale, a Civ IV Beta-tester and scenario maker, says in this post, it seems that they are working on SMAC2.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=3993826&postcount=44


Come on guys! Be reasonable. Firaxis is a company there to make money. T2 is a company there to make money. We're the consumers.

They know they can get us to buy 2 products: game + xp. So what? What do you think will fund SMAC2? Or CivCity? Or any other project they undertake? PROFIT!

So the bottom line is, if they can't make profit they can't make games. If we don't buy games, they don't make profit. The consumer circle.

So Firaxis releasing an xp with what you're saying is "intentially left out items" is perfect business sense. They know SMAC2 will sell big-time. But they need money to make it. Civ4 + xp = money for SMAC2.

Dale

Well. If I understand correctly what Dale, a Civ IV Beta-tester and scenario maker, says in this post, it seems that they are working on SMAC2.

http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=3993826&postcount=44

Wow! I hope your right. Now what are the chances they won't f*** it up. :crazyeye:

Then again they've choosen to remake a rail road game instead.
Hmmm... perhaps Dale is wrong.

What's all this about colours? I never had a problem with vanilla AC/AX, in fact I prefer the graphics to half the games released today, gives it a chess board feel, imo too many strategy games are focusing on graphics which is a bit disappointing, you'd think developers would have more faith. (e.g. if Rome Total War had the generic Total War set up for the world map, would it have really made a difference?)

While I'd love a SMAC sequel I doubt anything can really top it, chances are they'd dumb it down to the level of CivIV and pretty much just have 'civ in space' which is nowhere near deserving of the original's greatness.

I would love to see a SMAC2 - SMAC was the first Civ game I played, but Civ4 (which I really looked forward to) was a huge letdown.

I think it's the mechanics of SMAC, rather than the setting (although I love that, too), that make it so great. IMO, Civ4's mechanics weren't so good in comparison (especially Civics and leader traits, which IMO paled when compared with SMAC's Social Engineering and Social Factors).

Though looking at Freeciv it could take devoted fans quite a while to "finish" such a project completely. Concidering that devoted fans rarely have the resources and time (the biggest factor) to produce a high quality product in a reasonable amount of time. As Amesjustin said he'd be happy to devote 5-10 hours a week, but that pales in comparison to the 40+ hours a week employees of Fraxis would put into a program.

Actually that´s one thing we do have: Time. There´s no ultimate deadline for Freeciv so you can work on it for a month, drop out for a while and continue where you left off. If your early work was succesful and was taken up by others you might be surprised.

I never liked Civ III or IV near as much as Alpha Centauri. I still have SMAC loaded on an older machine at home and will never remove it till the machine dies a horrible death. The music still marches on in my head. There was nothing more exciting than discovering a tech, then you got to watch a cool movie/video. Twas awesome.

I've given up on a SMAC II, its been too long and I'm sure it would be much different then what I would envision if it were done today. But the memories will linger on for the rest of my lifetime.....

Never played Civ4 but I definitly favor AC over Civ3.

The tech tree is much more interesing in AC. And through I've played it a lot, I'm still much more improvising at every point, what of the available technologies and it's next followers I could use in a situation, instead of really calculating the possibliities through. And still, there are so huge impacts on the way the faction develops. Look at Civ once and you see the one and only way through the tree (with minor variations).

And the combat system, what is the one thing, that I would put most improvements into for a theoretically Alpha Centauri 2, this is even much weaker in Civ.

Another great point is the world: Earth, how boring is this? A world that ages and nothing happens. Compare this to an awaikening planet. Spreading Xenofungus and Psychoworms!

And from what I read, Civ 4 made some bad tactical errors, too. I think it's not far from a correct quote, one developer said something like: "We want to force out players to build single centers for cultural, industrial and scintific affaris, only a few cities, as opposed to previous Civilisation titles, where the best tactic was to spread out into many small cities." I don't understand it? Why do they want to force players to play the game like they want. They could have looked at AC, where diffrent styles of the game compleatly free to choose stand next to each other.



Well, if someone asked me, however (obviously noone does, but imagine), I would not recoment an Alpha Centauri 2 in the first place. New concepts is what wins the market. Therefor I'd like a 4th setting after Civ, Col and AC. Something with fantasy elements. Imagine "Civilisation meats Arcanum" (an older RPG, you should know). You start with a tribal culture and develop a martial, magic or technologic empire, or a mixture thereof. Diffrent paths lead to diffrent future civilisations (Hey, don't stop at a present time, include lot's of Sci-Fi stuff in it).

I think the two points of AC over Civ are: More options, more flavor. And I want even more of that.

*arise from the dead!*

Brian Reynolds comments here (http://www.quartertothree.com/game-talk/showthread.php?t=32819) on the possibility of a SMAC 2.

Ha ha! Alpha Centauri has I suspect been kind of trapped in "Triple IP Voodoo Purgatory". I think the IP itself probably still belongs to Electronic Arts; the right-to-develop probably still belongs to Firaxis where most of the artists still work plus the current "Civ team" and Civ4 engine; and substantially all of the original designers/programmers/writers who created the "world" now work at Big Huge. So it would be kind of like trying to put the Beatles back together (though at least no one's dead), and THEN you could deal with the question of whether there'd be a big enough market for it to make it worthwhile.

I suppose if the powers-that-be perceived enough of a market for it, then Firaxis (i.e. Take Two) and EA could unwind the IP rights and do some kind of follow-on with the Civ4 engine. My guess is don't hold your breath. It would be interesting to see though... if they go for it my advice to them is hire a designer/writer with a philosophy degree!

Brian

p.s. Thanks for reminding me about the Network Node song... I really should go dig up the WAV files from that and make myself some Windows theme sounds or something.

I guess we wont be seeing AC 2 in a while. I'm not sure there is a market for intelligent games. At least not one strong enough to get them all three work together. Too bad. SMAC is still the best game ever(shared with civ2) :(

I would be very very interested in playing SMAC2. Come on Firaxis!