Alpha Centauri for the first time - Alien Crossfire or not?

[junovalkyrie]

Sorry if this is a repeat thread; I browsed the first couple of pages and didn't see anything, but I might have missed it.

After playing and greatly enjoying Civ2, I've been looking forward to playing Alpha Centauri, and my copy arrived today. But what I'm not sure of is whether I should start by playing just the original AC or play with Alien Crossfire from the beginning. So, two questions.

First, is it possible to play Alpha Centauri in its original form if you have Alien Crossfire installed? For an example of what I mean, the RTS Majesty has an expansion that allows you to play in additional scenarios with new features but leaves the original scenarios untouched. For an example of the opposite, the ARPG Gothic 2 has an expansion that not only adds new areas and content, but also completely changes the balance of the existing areas.

Second, I've only read positive things about Alien Crossfire, but are there any changes it makes to the game that are of questionable value? For example, Civ2's Multiplayer Gold Edition makes some adjustments to the hostility level of rival civilizations that IMO takes some of the fun out of negotiations and alliances (fortunately Skyer1, a member of these very forums, posted a mod that brings it back in line with the original game). It's not an expansion, of course, but if it had been, I would have been disappointed at that change. So I'd like to know if there are any potential downsides to Alien Crossfire before installing it.

 

[vyeh]

First, is it possible to play Alpha Centauri in its original form if you have Alien Crossfire installed?

Unlike other games, Alpha Centauri and Alien Crossfire are separate applications. Just run the Alpha Centauri application and you play the original game.

Second, I've only read positive things about Alien Crossfire, but are there any changes it makes to the game that are of questionable value?

Some people find the ALIENS and to some extent other factions, e.g. Pirates, to be unbalanced in human hands, but the solution is not to play them.

 

[Horizon]

When you start a game in SMAX , you have several choices :
-playing with the SMAX factions
-playing with random factions
-playing with your selected factions between the SMAX and SMAC ones, allowing you to only have the factions you want ingame.

This remove the problems people may have with some specific SMAX factions if you have problems with them too.

But you will use every SMAX additions to the game, so if you want to play without those additions, use the SMAC executable to launch the game (though you will have then no access to the SMAX factions for you or the AI) as vyeh said

 

[IdaGno]

When you start a game in SMAX , you have several choices :
-playing with the SMAX factions
-playing with random factions
-playing with your selected factions between the SMAX and SMAC ones, allowing you to only have the factions you want ingame.

This remove the problems people may have with some specific SMAX factions if you have problems with them too.

But you will use every SMAX additions to the game, so if you want to play without those additions, use the SMAC executable to launch the game (though you will have then no access to the SMAX factions for you or the AI) as vyeh said

additionally, tho it said otherwise in the SMAX manual, you can play w/only one alien faction in the game

 

[voltar]

SMAX for sure it did nothing but improve/fix and enhance the game. To bad however it is still pretty broken due to the AI being , but it's better then Civ2.

I never had an issue with MGE just for the record