Crimson Sunrise said: 15.) Alpha Centauri has a story which made it more interesting than 'lol rewrite simulated history'.
Psyonif said: 16.) It's in the future. 19.) The ability to build on the ocean and use all of its abundant resources rather than just using it to travel between landmasses. 18.) Civ4 took a huge step backward in removing zero-move cost roads (railroads, maglevs). 19.) Civ4 doesn't have Chairman Yang. 20.) Ideological struggles, as opposed to jingoistic national identity rubbish. 21.) Alien artefacts. (Avelon adds: Unity pods in general; there are a variety of effects these can have, some good, some bad, that goes above and beyond 'the villagers tell you how to bury stuff' or 'an axe-wielding barbarian joins us!') 22.) Cloning Vats. SMAC/X actually supplies a valid reason for your leader to live forever. 23.) A fourth worker enhancement - seed forest - which will provide you with enough of everything should you choose to not micromanage.
Naiden said: 24.) Many more, and more useful, terraforming abilities. 25.) Probe teams can accomplish many things that spies cannot. 26.) Native life that you can coexist with or subjugate, as opposed to mindless barbarian destruction. 27.) Convoys. The AI doesn't have much use for them, but being without convoys severely lessens the game for human players wishing to play with no war. 28.) Voice clips to go with all new techs and buildings.
Avelon says: 29.) SMAC/X looks nicer than Civ4. So much attention to detail on special tiles (forest, swamp, etc.) and the cities make it look like a badly drawn cartoon. The cities are...fat. And the special tiles have a bloated look to them, too. Everything is just too big for the terrain it's on. SMAC/X has very nice-looking sprites. They're clean, proportionate, and fit the factions they belong to nicely. The animations are great, too - they leave the actual battle for me to picture in my head, and those battles are pretty epic.
The above is subjective, I suppose, for the most part. But Civ4 does look 'fat' and 'cartoony'.
30.) The many quotes in the game are very philosophical and thought provoking. There's something for everyone there.
31.) Someone already mentioned the inclusion of the alien races and their wildly different goals from those of the humans, I think; so, I will say: The explanations behind the alien factions: Their language, background, the way things found in SMAC tie into their existence perfectly, and their awesome, awesome dialogue options. Understanding: progenitor: nil. Therefore: destruction: Aki Zeta-5! You can't beat that. You can't beat it with a stick with a knife on the end of it.
32.) It was mentioned above but not counted: Individual personalities for the leaders. What is the difference between Catherine the Great and Shaka Zulu? No, not gender. Not skin colour. Not language. Two numbers. 1 vs. -1 and 1 vs. 0. There is much more depth to the calculations that go toward whether or not an AI faction in SMAC is angry at you for entering his/her territory, or to agreeing with whatever it is you're asking. I've gotten factions in SMAC who were -seething- at me to hand over a city in exchange for something they needed.
These reasons should be listed off in the first post so that we have a one-stop reference to what has and has not been posted. Duplicate entries should be removed.
Psyonif said: 16.) It's in the future. 19.) The ability to build on the ocean and use all of its abundant resources rather than just using it to travel between landmasses. 18.) Civ4 took a huge step backward in removing zero-move cost roads (railroads, maglevs). 19.) Civ4 doesn't have Chairman Yang. 20.) Ideological struggles, as opposed to jingoistic national identity rubbish. 21.) Alien artefacts. (Avelon adds: Unity pods in general; there are a variety of effects these can have, some good, some bad, that goes above and beyond 'the villagers tell you how to bury stuff' or 'an axe-wielding barbarian joins us!') 22.) Cloning Vats. SMAC/X actually supplies a valid reason for your leader to live forever. 23.) A fourth worker enhancement - seed forest - which will provide you with enough of everything should you choose to not micromanage.
Naiden said: 24.) Many more, and more useful, terraforming abilities. 25.) Probe teams can accomplish many things that spies cannot. 26.) Native life that you can coexist with or subjugate, as opposed to mindless barbarian destruction. 27.) Convoys. The AI doesn't have much use for them, but being without convoys severely lessens the game for human players wishing to play with no war. 28.) Voice clips to go with all new techs and buildings.
Avelon says: 29.) SMAC/X looks nicer than Civ4. So much attention to detail on special tiles (forest, swamp, etc.) and the cities make it look like a badly drawn cartoon. The cities are...fat. And the special tiles have a bloated look to them, too. Everything is just too big for the terrain it's on. SMAC/X has very nice-looking sprites. They're clean, proportionate, and fit the factions they belong to nicely. The animations are great, too - they leave the actual battle for me to picture in my head, and those battles are pretty epic.
The above is subjective, I suppose, for the most part. But Civ4 does look 'fat' and 'cartoony'.
30.) The many quotes in the game are very philosophical and thought provoking. There's something for everyone there.
31.) Someone already mentioned the inclusion of the alien races and their wildly different goals from those of the humans, I think; so, I will say: The explanations behind the alien factions: Their language, background, the way things found in SMAC tie into their existence perfectly, and their awesome, awesome dialogue options. Understanding: progenitor: nil. Therefore: destruction: Aki Zeta-5! You can't beat that. You can't beat it with a stick with a knife on the end of it.
32.) It was mentioned above but not counted: Individual personalities for the leaders. What is the difference between Catherine the Great and Shaka Zulu? No, not gender. Not skin colour. Not language. Two numbers. 1 vs. -1 and 1 vs. 0. There is much more depth to the calculations that go toward whether or not an AI faction in SMAC is angry at you for entering his/her territory, or to agreeing with whatever it is you're asking. I've gotten factions in SMAC who were -seething- at me to hand over a city in exchange for something they needed.
These reasons should be listed off in the first post so that we have a one-stop reference to what has and has not been posted. Duplicate entries should be removed.
