Scenario Name: Eye of the Beholder 2009
SMAC/ SMAX: SMAX
Author: Darsnan
Date of original posting: 4/9/09
Original host site: Apolyton
BACKDROP: In MY 2433 several factions discovered the wreckage of a
Progenitor interstellar spaceship on the farside of Nessus. After much
investigation it was determined that the ships star charts were intact,
and that the hyperdrive engine could be cloned.
By MY 2452 the first fleet of scoutships had been built and sent out
with a mandate to investigate all of the habitable planets catalogued in
the ancient Progenitor ships start charts. The results were mixed: some
scoutships return with exciting news of “Eden-class” planets, while
other scouts tell tales of planets which had degraded over the eons.
Still other scouts fail to return at all….
By MY2475 all of the ideal “Eden-class” worlds have been either
colonized, or claimed by the various Factions of Man. This had then led
to what was called “The Great Planet Rush” where over the next 25 years
everyone who had a spaceship or could afford transit on one rushed to
colonize the “moderately habitable” worlds before someone else did.
Great fleets of colony ships moved from solar system to solar system via
the transit points, or “wormholes”, documented in the Progenitor star
charts. For those interested in commerce, the web of transit points
whose nexus would be heavily traveled were ideal locations to set up
businesses. For those whose endeavors fell outside of the law, wormholes
made it very easy for them to target their prey: all they had to do was
wait at the outskirts of a wormhole, and sooner or later a ship would
fall unsuspecting out of the wormhole and into their grasp…..
PREMISE: The pirate captain leaned back in his command chair,
disappointed. Today’s catch had been less than stellar: the Peace Keeper
ship Wanderlust had turned out to be little more than a tramp steamer
full of refugees bound for relocation settlements on the fringes of
human space. Having experienced that life first-hand he knew the peoples
in that ship would be living in cramped squalor, and would only have
enough supplies to establish a rudimentary existence on their new
homeworlds. Now the pirate was faced with what to do with the
Wanderlust. He couldn’t just let them go, as they’d immediately report
his activities to the authorities. He also wasn’t a bloodthirsty pirate,
so blasting the ship out of space wasn’t an option, either. But there
were a multitude of “marginally habitable” planets only a few jumps
away, places where the environments probably wouldn’t be that much worse
off than the resettlement worlds these people were originally destined
for. He could simply dump them onto one of these worlds and walk away
with a clean conscience, knowing these peoples wouldn’t be found
immediately, if anyone bothered to look for them at all….
Sister Prudence looked up into the alien sky as the pirate ship departed
orbit. This was a turn of events which had not been anticipated: out on
her first foray as a Mission Lead, her directive had been to sheppard a
cargo of Progenitor artifacts back to her covenant in order that they
could be studied further. That these artifacts were considered
contraband by the authorities was beside the point: God had placed them
in this universe, so it was deemed by her Mother Superior that no mortal
law applied to them. It was simply Sister Prudence’s job to find a way
of getting these artifacts back home under the noses of the authorities,
and so she had chosen an unassuming Peace Keeper resettlement ship as a
means of circumnavigating the authorities. And by relabeling the
artifact containers as “religious materials”, she had probably saved
them not only from the authorities, but from the clutches of the pirate
captain as well. Now it was in these artifacts that she and her Mission
may find salvation on this inhospitable world called "Eye of the
Beholder".
Sister Prudence’s first scouts had returned earlier, with mixed news:
some scouts had reported that there was an enhanced Progenitor Upgrade
Station nearby, which would undoubtedly come in handy. However, there
were also disturbing reports from other scouts that there were traces of
Planet Fungus here. And where there was fungus, there were worms…..
Directions:
1) In your Scenarios subdirectory create a folder called "EotB_2009", and download and unzip the attached files into it.
4/13/09 update: Buster's Uncle updated Datalinks and factional files for
me (thanx Buster's Uncle!). Also made the opening game a little easier
(hint: review your initial build options for details).
2) Start up SMAX, then select "Scenario", "Play Scenario", and then
select the attached EotB file. You will be prompted to choose the
difficulty level. Once chosen, the game will automatically load up with
Sister Prudence and the Believers.
3) In the Data Links I recommend looking at the basic units types, so you can plan your strategies accordingly.
Alternate Graphics
Buster's Uncle has done some very good work with some new Faction pics.
The attached faction_1 thru faction_3 files contain the updated faction
graphics. If you would like to use them, then do the following:
1) In your "Sid Meiers Alpha Centauri" directory back up the following
files: believe.pcx, caretake.pcx, cyborg.pcx, hive.pcx, morgan.pcx,
univ.pcx, and drone.pcx
2) download and unzip the faction_1 thru faction_3 files into your "Sid
Meiers Alpha Centauri" directory. Note that these will now be your
default factional graphics for the above named faction until you replace
them again. Well worth it though, IMO.
Enjoy!
D
SMAC/ SMAX: SMAX
Author: Darsnan
Date of original posting: 4/9/09
Original host site: Apolyton
BACKDROP: In MY 2433 several factions discovered the wreckage of a
Progenitor interstellar spaceship on the farside of Nessus. After much
investigation it was determined that the ships star charts were intact,
and that the hyperdrive engine could be cloned.
By MY 2452 the first fleet of scoutships had been built and sent out
with a mandate to investigate all of the habitable planets catalogued in
the ancient Progenitor ships start charts. The results were mixed: some
scoutships return with exciting news of “Eden-class” planets, while
other scouts tell tales of planets which had degraded over the eons.
Still other scouts fail to return at all….
By MY2475 all of the ideal “Eden-class” worlds have been either
colonized, or claimed by the various Factions of Man. This had then led
to what was called “The Great Planet Rush” where over the next 25 years
everyone who had a spaceship or could afford transit on one rushed to
colonize the “moderately habitable” worlds before someone else did.
Great fleets of colony ships moved from solar system to solar system via
the transit points, or “wormholes”, documented in the Progenitor star
charts. For those interested in commerce, the web of transit points
whose nexus would be heavily traveled were ideal locations to set up
businesses. For those whose endeavors fell outside of the law, wormholes
made it very easy for them to target their prey: all they had to do was
wait at the outskirts of a wormhole, and sooner or later a ship would
fall unsuspecting out of the wormhole and into their grasp…..
PREMISE: The pirate captain leaned back in his command chair,
disappointed. Today’s catch had been less than stellar: the Peace Keeper
ship Wanderlust had turned out to be little more than a tramp steamer
full of refugees bound for relocation settlements on the fringes of
human space. Having experienced that life first-hand he knew the peoples
in that ship would be living in cramped squalor, and would only have
enough supplies to establish a rudimentary existence on their new
homeworlds. Now the pirate was faced with what to do with the
Wanderlust. He couldn’t just let them go, as they’d immediately report
his activities to the authorities. He also wasn’t a bloodthirsty pirate,
so blasting the ship out of space wasn’t an option, either. But there
were a multitude of “marginally habitable” planets only a few jumps
away, places where the environments probably wouldn’t be that much worse
off than the resettlement worlds these people were originally destined
for. He could simply dump them onto one of these worlds and walk away
with a clean conscience, knowing these peoples wouldn’t be found
immediately, if anyone bothered to look for them at all….
Sister Prudence looked up into the alien sky as the pirate ship departed
orbit. This was a turn of events which had not been anticipated: out on
her first foray as a Mission Lead, her directive had been to sheppard a
cargo of Progenitor artifacts back to her covenant in order that they
could be studied further. That these artifacts were considered
contraband by the authorities was beside the point: God had placed them
in this universe, so it was deemed by her Mother Superior that no mortal
law applied to them. It was simply Sister Prudence’s job to find a way
of getting these artifacts back home under the noses of the authorities,
and so she had chosen an unassuming Peace Keeper resettlement ship as a
means of circumnavigating the authorities. And by relabeling the
artifact containers as “religious materials”, she had probably saved
them not only from the authorities, but from the clutches of the pirate
captain as well. Now it was in these artifacts that she and her Mission
may find salvation on this inhospitable world called "Eye of the
Beholder".
Sister Prudence’s first scouts had returned earlier, with mixed news:
some scouts had reported that there was an enhanced Progenitor Upgrade
Station nearby, which would undoubtedly come in handy. However, there
were also disturbing reports from other scouts that there were traces of
Planet Fungus here. And where there was fungus, there were worms…..
Directions:
1) In your Scenarios subdirectory create a folder called "EotB_2009", and download and unzip the attached files into it.
4/13/09 update: Buster's Uncle updated Datalinks and factional files for
me (thanx Buster's Uncle!). Also made the opening game a little easier
(hint: review your initial build options for details).
2) Start up SMAX, then select "Scenario", "Play Scenario", and then
select the attached EotB file. You will be prompted to choose the
difficulty level. Once chosen, the game will automatically load up with
Sister Prudence and the Believers.
3) In the Data Links I recommend looking at the basic units types, so you can plan your strategies accordingly.
Alternate Graphics
Buster's Uncle has done some very good work with some new Faction pics.
The attached faction_1 thru faction_3 files contain the updated faction
graphics. If you would like to use them, then do the following:
1) In your "Sid Meiers Alpha Centauri" directory back up the following
files: believe.pcx, caretake.pcx, cyborg.pcx, hive.pcx, morgan.pcx,
univ.pcx, and drone.pcx
2) download and unzip the faction_1 thru faction_3 files into your "Sid
Meiers Alpha Centauri" directory. Note that these will now be your
default factional graphics for the above named faction until you replace
them again. Well worth it though, IMO.
Enjoy!
D