Alpha Centauri 2: Seeking Development Team and Players

Alpha Centauri 2 is a 4X strategic simulation in the grand style of the "sprawling wargame" popularized by late military historian Paddy Griffith. Set in the world of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, the simulation explores the political, economic, social, and military aspects of settlement on an alien world.

Together, we will re-imagine the high drama of mankind’s exodus from Earth and his journey to the planet called Chiron. This is the story of two expeditions. Two visions of a brighter tomorrow. Two odysseys, similar in purpose, yet different in almost every other way. The first was a mission of discovery, launched at the height of our pride. The second was an act of desperation, undertaken because we had run out of time. And options. We fled the world we had seemingly destroyed for one that might yet destroy us.

Players assume the roles of faction leaders, one of the various military officers and civilian administrators tasked with ensuring the success of either of the two expeditions. Naturally, each faction's convictions about what is required to ensure human survival at Chiron are mutually exclusive.

Sounds cool! But what kind of game is this, again?

Think of it as Dungeons & Dragons meets free kriegsspiel meets Europa Universalis. I combine the source material of Alpha Centauri with a set of home-grown rules based largely on the "matrix games" designed by Chris Engle. Aside from the shared win condition (survival), each player receives a set of optional objectives specific to their faction. A referee provides a narrative to set the stage for action and supplements this narrative with play aids (such as faction profiles) that describe the resources available to each player at any given point in time. Players issue orders for their personnel to execute a set of tasks and provide a given number of rationales explaining why they ought to be successful. The referee then considers the logic of those rationales, places them in dialogue with the choices made by other players, and takes into account certain other dynamic factors (e.g., weather) to determine results.

Those eager to learn more about Matrix Games can do so here. To learn about the practical value of matrix gaming, check out this application in the context of the current Iraq-Syria quagmire. Download free matrix games here

Okay. Tell me more about the backstory.

Still under construction. The basic gist is that the Unity mission was actually preceded by a "pathfinder" mission, called the Chiron Probe, that attempted to demonstrate the viability of human colonization of Chiron. Communication was lost two years after the colonists' arrival.

I plan to spend a great deal of time on the backstory, if for no other reason than the importance of context. In a previous iteration of the game, players struggled to develop distinctive faction identities, a problem that I think resulted from the lack of any meaningful past to mine for clues about both the sources of their leaders’ personal convictions and the reputations of others.

Right now, the backstory focuses heavily on the challenges to individual identity, traditionalism, and free will posed by technological change during the twenty-first and twenty-second centuries.

So which factions will be represented?

All of your old favorites are liable to be seen again, along with a host of new factions carefully designed to fit the tone of the source material. Each faction is intended to occupy exclusive intellectual space. Ideologies should be traceable to compelling first principles that point to at least an implicit answer for every problem. Each faction must propose a different answer to the following three questions: (1) Why did human civilization on Earth fail? (2) Are there any fundamental truths in the universe? If so, what are they? (3) What is necessary to ensure the survival of human settlers on Chiron, called Planet?

For example, Nwabudike Morgan was basically making an argument that all human interaction could be understood in purely transactional terms. Likewise, Zakharov's obsession with knowledge reflected his belief that the universe was a fundamentally knowable place and that every problem could be solved through reductive study and the creation of some kind of artificial tool from materials at hand. What can be known, can be controlled.

I will be unveiling the new factions gradually. The first of these, the Hunters of Chiron, can be found here.

Other factions in the pipeline explore themes only passingly touched upon by the original factions of Alpha Centauri, including state corporatism, absolutism, multi-culturalism, and shared dreaming.

Neat-o! So what else can you tell me?

We plan to introduce a dynamic technology tree that incorporates all of the technologies from SMAC/SMAX, along with new additions based on a detailed study of futurism.

Alpha Centauri 2 will incorporate two different types of technological progress: research, referring to practical advances made mostly in the laboratory; and doctrine, which relates to sets of beliefs or teachings that link theory, history, experimentation, and practice. Research usually enables a faction to craft new things. Doctrine enables the execution of specific tasks with superior efficiency.

There are eight different disciplines to consider:

Build, referring to materials science and engineering.
Discover, referring to the physical and life sciences.
Explore, referring to the practical experience of human life on Chiron.
Conquer, referring to technology with distinctively military applications.
Expand, referring to technology with a focus on settlement growth and terraformation.
Command, referring to technology with applications for social control.
Choose, referring to the evolutionary and behavioral trajectory of the human race.
Restore, referring to "future" technology salvaged from home.


So what do you need from me?

Your help!

I need people to volunteer their creative services so that we can finish the backstory, flesh out the factions, complete the Player's Guide, and identify a player base.

You mentioned a previous version of the game. Where can I see it?

The first simulation was hosted over on The Frontier, a website dedicated to games like this one. It's in the communal archives now, pending deletion during the next efficiency sweep. You can join the community to take a gander, or else to participate in one of the on-going games there.

My intention is to bring together players from multiple communities, including this one, and post general updates simultaneously so that we can attract the greatest amount of participation while allowing people to participate from the comfort of their "native" online settings.

This is a most ambitious proposal, however, everything you are asking for in a follow-up to Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri has already been approached inside the original title's Datalinks or in Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth and Rising Tide.

If your intention is to, indeed, bring players together that are fans of this lovely series to attract even more players, then I'm in!

So, I have no idea who adamjohnson is. My suspicion is that he’s a bot that’s reposting an old pitch for a game that I first made more than a year ago. Still, the spark of inspiration that birthed the idea for the game has not been extinguished. I fully expect to return to it someday when my muse is reawakened. For now, I welcome open discussion with folks interested in joining the design team, which meets intermittently (and that’s being generous). I’m always up to chat about this subject.

The story of this simulation posits that there were three expeditions to Chiron. The first was an unmanned mission that confirmed the planet’s capacity to support human life. The second was a manned mission, called the Chiron Probe, that was supposed to establish a forward base for subsequent settlement. To speed progress, the United Nations accepted private donations in cash and kind. The biggest donors were actually able to secure births on the starship for themselves and their immediate followers, with the understanding that they would found charter settlements after a period of cooperation with (and subordination to) Mission Command. The final mission was the one we encountered in the original computer game.

I’ve never believed that the factions contained in Beyond Earth or Rising Tide rise to the level of complexity that we first saw in Alpha Centauri back in 1999. I’ve tried to do my best to slightly modify the original faction sets and then add additional factions that all have a unique approach to rebuilding human civilization and surviving on Planet.

I'll start posting some of the faction ideas tomorrow evening when I've got more time.

Most of our efforts are now focused on the community residing here.

Here's the page the OP mentioned w/o linking, for The Hunters of Chiron: http://alphacentauri2.info/official/AC2 - JT Marsh.html

Axis Kast said:

I’ve never believed that the factions contained in Beyond Earth or Rising Tide rise to the level of complexity that we first saw in Alpha Centauri back in 1999. I’ve tried to do my best to slightly modify the original faction sets and then add additional factions that all have a unique approach to rebuilding human civilization and surviving on Planet.

Click to expand...

I don't believe any strategy game of its class (Civilization series) ever rose to the level of complexity of the original Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri...

---but Sid Meier's Civilization: Beyond Earth and Rising Tide is certainly a nice effort.

Can't wait to finally try the game out! Kinda short on the energy credits right now!

I agree with you about the complexity of Alpha Centauri versus other titles in the series. The game is one of those interesting curiosities that did extremely well with critics but undersold despite leaving behind a loyal fanbase. Of course, Civilization was far more accessible. Most people know a thing or two about history. Science fiction has a stigma, and it was far worse in 1999, when Alpha Centauri came out, than it is today. Alpha Centauri's color palatte and mood were also substantially dark, which, combined with its failure to innovate graphically, probably goes a long way toward explaining why it faltered in sales.

Anyway, if you're interested in joining the creative team, just let me know in PMs how I can contact you.

Thread closed. Some commercial advertising links (now deleted) were added to the original post.