Altera Centauri Scenario Repository

Scenario Name: Operation Cntl-Esc-F8
SMAC/ SMAX: SMAX
Author: Darsnan
Date of original posting: 4/13/17
Original host site: CFC

The Short Version
Sister Miriam has captured Aki Zeta 5, and is conducting a digital detox on our favorite cyborg on a secluded asteroid (read: low gravity environment). Provost Zakarov has hired you, a Data Angel specializing in locating and retrieving missing artifacts, to rescue Aki Zeta from her prison on this asteroid.

The Long Version
"Have you ever lost someone you loved?".

You know better than to reveal personal information to a client, so you lie, "no".

The Provost nods, accepting your answer at face value, before continuing, "she is the culmination of everything I have strived for, a composite creation embodying all of the superior attributes of our species". Zhakarov pauses, as if wanting to say more, before finally simply saying, "and now she is gone".

"You said that there were previous iterations of this cyborg entity - why not just continue your work on one of these?".

Zhakarov appears distressed for a moment before waving a hand dismissively, "they weren't.... viable".

You decide not to inquire further as to the fate of the Aki Zetas 1 through 4. Instead, you bring the conversation back to the matter at hand, "how did this cyborg escape your facility in the first place?".

Zhakarov brightens at this, "Because she is an adept with digital interfaces!". He holds up one hand for emphasis, "if you or I were to lose our hand, we would have a prosthetic grafted on, and we would then need to learn how to use this new appendage".

You nod in response, "seems logical".

"Ah, but with Aki Zeta there is no learning curve - the appendages we grafted onto her were seamlessly accepted by her, and she immediately optimized them for her own personal use. It was during one of these trials we believe she was able to use her cybernetic enhancements to interface with the host computer system, and was able to make good her escape".

You could tell Zhakarov was proud of what his child prodigy had been able to accomplish against his computer network's firewalls, however having been able to easily bypass the Provost's security measures yourself you decide not to pass judgment too quickly, "and you want me to locate her and return her to you".

The Provost nods, "she is out there somewhere all by herself, an innocent amongst the wolves of our species".

"Right", you reply flatly. Privately you know that this cyborg creature is almost certainly getting help from someone, and even though the galaxy is big, the number of places she could be hiding are limited, "give me a standard month to locate her, and then I will contact you with what I need".

Zhakarov is effuse with his gratitude, "of course - my resources are at your disposal!".

The universe is immense, but you have to hand it to the humans communications net in that it is exceptionally good at putting this universe at your fingertips. You send out your stealth scents into the net and sit back and wait, working on other projects while you let the net and your bots do the heavy lifting. Within a standard week you've caught the scent via some innocuous Believers communications. Your blood quickens - whenever the Believers are involved it is always a dicey affair, however theirs is more a defensive posturing when it comes to the net, and you have a full suite of tools honed over the generations to gently pry the information from them. Soon you've got an auto-entity positioned within the Believer hierarchy who is able to elicit the necessary information from a rejoiceful celebrant: your quarry is a guest at a new Believer colony on an inhabitable asteroid.

You don't bother consulting the Provost regarding supplies - you just use some of your tools to "acquire" the necessary resources from a University account. You crack your knuckles and bend over your keyboard - it is time to go to work: you have one job, and that is to capture the errant cyborg, and if necessary drag her kicking and screaming back to Provost Zhakarov.

Directions
1) In your "scenarios" subdirectory create a folder called "Cntl Esc F8", and download and unzip the attached files into it.
2) Start up Alien Crossfire, then select "Scenario", "Play Scenario", and then
select the scenario "Cnt Esc F8". The game is set up to allow you to choose your own difficulty level, and will automatically load the Data Angels first turn.

Enjoy!

D

Changelog

This alphax.txt file is designed to represent a low gravity environment. Note that it is a work in progress - stayed tuned!

#RULES

- Movement rate along roads changed from 3 to 4. Rationale: lower gravity increases movement. Also this assists the AI in that they can more quickly congregate units at threatened points in their empire.

- Max artillery range changed from 2 to 4. Rationale: lower gravity increases artillery distance. The AI will use this on occasion. Forewarned is forearmed in this case!

- Max airdrop decreased from 8 to 6. Rationale: gameplay decision in that humans can abuse drops much better than the AIs can accommodate.

- Intrinsic base defense increased from 25 to 40. Rationale: benefits the AIs as they are typically on the defensive.

- Global warming changed from 1/1 to 1/12. Rationale: don’t want global warming present in this game (still a possibility, however I haven’t run into it during playtesting.


#RESOURCE INFO

- Boreholes changed to have a -2 nutrient intake. Rationale: simulates the horrid conditions workers face while slaving away in the boreholes.


#CHASSIS

- Infantry movement changed to 2, Speeder changed to 3, and Hovertanks changed to 4. Rationale: lower gravity increases movement.

- Needlejets and copter chassis disabled. Rationale: the thin atmosphere does not support roto nor winged aircraft.

- Missile chassis movement decreased to 8. Rationale: you’ll thank me for this…..


#WEAPONS

- Conventional Payload available at DocAir. Rationale: with the decreased gravity rockets become available more quickly.

#ABILITIES

- Air Superiority disabled. Rationale: not needed since there are no aircraft in this game.

- AAA Tracking: moved to DocAir. Rationale: need to start building units ASAP that can defend against missiles!

#UNITS

- Crawler has been removed from this section – you will have to prototype your first crawler yourself. Rationale: crawlers are overpowered human exploits, so this is in a small way benefiting the AIs.

- There are 13 new units available to build. I’d suggest reviewing them to get a feel for what you will be facing in this game. Of note are the following:

A) Missile Frigate available at DocAir

B) Drop Trooper Mk1 available at DocAir

C) Chaos Battletank available at Fusion

D) Seawolf Attack Submarine available at Superconductor

E) Missile Mk1 available at DocAir

F) Resonance Probe available at Field Modulation

#FACILITIES

- Nessus Mining Station available at DocAir. Rationale: lower gravity allows for orbital launches much sooner.

- Virtual World moved to Social Psycholoy. Rationale: watering down the beeline to Industrial Autmation.

- Cloudbase Academy: moved to Monopole Magnets. Rationale: watering down the beeline to MMI.

 

Scenario Name: The Tenth Manifold
SMAC/ SMAX: SMAX
Author: Darsnan
Date of original posting: 12/21/18
Original host site: CFC

In honor of Chaos Theory: RIP my old friend - you are not forgotten! I hope you look down upon this, and that it makes you smile.



In Defense of All that is Holy!
In response to Devine direction from the Protector High Priest, the Progenitor Faithful activated Manifold Ten, and then awaited word from their brethren across the cosmos and how their corresponding Manifolds had fared in their attempt to contact the Devine Creator. However days then dragged into weeks, weeks into months, and months into years, and still no contact from their far-flung Progenitor brethren. Finally the Protector ordered the People into stasis, to await the day of the reawakening of the Progenitor people. The Protector himself would assume the throne of the Manifold Ten and stand guard over the people while they slept the eons away.

Protector Jaa'hroooon settled himself into the Prayer Seat located within the Great Communal Hall and sent a command to Manifold Ten to envelope the throne room in a partial stasis field. Within the bubble of slowed time Jaa'hroooon used the powers of the Manifold to project his senses out amongst the stars, searching for any sign of his People's return. Ages swept by in the blink of an eye, and as the slowed time continued to progress Jaa'hroooon watched branch after branch of the galactic arms slowly march across the sky, while individual stars dramatically flared and died, their lives spent . And still Jaa'hroooon sat upon the throne, communing with the Manifold while he patiently waited for word from his People.

And suddenly it was real-time again! Jaa'hroooon had given the Manifold orders to immediately stop the stasis if it detected an imminent threat, and it appeared that threshold had been met. Jaa'hroooon allowed his senses to be directed by the Manifold to several tiny specks of light descending through the planetoids thin atmosphere. The Manifold began correlating data and projecting images directly into Jaa'hroooon's mind, and from their descent Jaa'hroooon could tell the specks were artificial in nature. Using the Manifold's probing abilities Jaa'hroooon reached within each of the vessels to probe the minds of those that would dare intrude upon the holy ground that was Manifold Ten, and as Jaa'hroooon sifted the uncomplex minds of the heathen aliens he sensed simple, barbaric drives of greed and unfettered hatred towards his species. And Jaa'hroooon realized with a start that they knew of other Progenitors! Jaa'hroooon looked forward to extracting knowledge from these creatures regarding the fate of his People amongst the stars, and why these primitive creatures hated Progenitor so deeply! Jaa'hroooon had sensed enough and broke contact. It was time to wake the people and prepare them for battle...



Objectives: destroy all of the alien (read: Human) invaders of Manifold 10! And extra special bonus points if Manifold 10 is still operational at the end of the game.

Many thanx for wgabrie for the artwork!

Directions:

1. In your scenarios subdirectory create a new subdirectory called "X", and download and unzip the attached files into it.

2. Start Alien Crossfire, then select Scenario, Play Scenario, and load "X". The game will then let you choose the difficulty level you wish to play.

Enjoy!

D

Low-Grav alphax.txt Change Log


The way I've organized this is by the sections of the alphax.txt, so if you open the file (I use Word Pad) you can search on the key word and follow along.

#RULES
- Movement rate along roads changed from 3 to 4. Rationale: lower gravity increases movement. Also this assists the AI in that they can more quickly congregate units at threatened points in their empire.

- Max artillery range changed from 2 to 4. Rationale: lower gravity increases artillery distance. The AI will use this on occasion. Forewarned is forearmed in this case! (Note: you will need Scient's patch or better, as this does not work in the base game).

- Max airdrop decreased from 8 to 6. Rationale: flying around a battlefield is exponentially more dangerous than for planet or sea-bound military units, as drop units are exposed to a larger field of enemy units while airborne. In a low grav environment these dangers are compounded even moreso: from battle damage, malfunction, or just plain inexperience while airborne, a drop trooper can literally reach escape velocity much more easily and be lost forever in the depths of space. Thus the decision has been made to lessen the strength and duration of a drop pod's thrusters in low grav environments.

- Intrinsic base defense increased from 25 to 40. Rationale: benefits the AIs as they are typically on the defensive.

#RESOURCE INFO
- Boreholes changed to have a -2 nutrient intake. Rationale: simulates the horrid conditions workers face while slaving away in the boreholes (i.e. this "fits" with the darker theme present throughout Alpha Centauri).

#CHASSIS
- Infantry movement changed from 1 to 2, Speeder changed from 2 to 3, and Hovertanks changed from 3 to 4. Rationale: lower gravity increases movement.
- Hovertank chassis now available at Monopole Magnets. Rationale: with the decreased gravity hovertanks become available more quickly.

- Needlejets and copter chassis disabled. Rationale: the thin atmosphere of a moon or small planetoid is not dense enough to support roto nor winged aircraft.

- Missile chassis movement decreased to 8. Rationale: similar to drop pods, missiles face a greater visibility and threat matrix while flying through the air, especially with continually being confronted with the dangers that lie just over the near-horizon as the missiles transit towards their targets. Thus the decision has been made to decrease their distance, effectively telling commanders "use missiles wisely".
- Missile chassis is now available at Doctrine: Air Power. Rationale: with the decreased gravity rockets become available more quickly.

#WEAPONS
- Conventional Payload available at DocAir. Rationale: with the decreased gravity rockets become available more quickly.

- Planet Buster has been disabled. Rationale: on smaller moons or planetoids the detonation(s) of planet busters are actually significant enough to change the trajectory/ orbits of these bodies, and so are strictly prohibited from use.

#ABILITIES
- Air Superiority disabled. Rationale: not needed since there are no aircraft in this game.

- AAA Tracking: moved to DocAir. Rationale: need to start building units ASAP that can defend against missiles!

#UNITS
- Crawler has been removed from this section – you will have to prototype your first crawler yourself. Rationale: crawlers are overpowered human exploits, so this is in a small way benefiting the AIs.

- There are several new units available to build. I’d suggest reviewing them to get a feel for what you will be facing in this game. Of note are the following:

A) Missile Frigate available at DocAir

B) Drop Trooper Mk1 available at DocAir

C) Chaos Battletank available at Fusion

D) The Battle Ogre Mk3 has been replaced by a "Drop Re-entry Assault Carrier - armored" (or "DRACa Mk3"), which is a missile troop transport. Still haven't figured out where to place this, but right now I'm thinking it is going to replace the Planet Buster.

E) Seawolf Attack Submarine available at Superconductor

F) Missile Mk1 available at DocAir

G) Resonance Probe available at Field Modulation

#FACILITIES

- Virtual World moved to Social Psycholoy. Rationale: watering down the beeline to Industrial Autmation.

- Cloudbase Academy: moved to Monopole Magnets. Rationale: watering down the beeline to MMI.

 

Scenario Name: Sid-n-Me
SMAC/ SMAX: SMAX
Author: Darsnan
Date of original posting: 7/10/20
Original host site: CFC



"Hello there, would you like to colonize a world with me?".

You can't believe your eyes -The Sid Meier is asking you to colonize a world with him! You stand there dumbfounded looking at the vidscreen for a second before responding, "yes, yes, absolutely yes!".

Sid smiles, nods, then says "The shuttle leaves docking bay 9 in an hour. Be on it". The line goes dead.

You immediately send out a communique to your underlings outlining the plan, then jump on packing. Twice you trip over half-packed suitcases, but you make it out the door and to the holding pen just in the nick of time. In the few spare seconds you have you check your pockets to ensure you didn't forget anything: yup, the datapad with Sid's comlink is secure in your front pocket, along with an EC chip with enough credits to buy an additional supply unit for your Faction. You start to run down the pre-boarding checklist when the bay's loading lights flash from green to red indicating the gates will open any second now, and suddenly for some reason you get a dark epiphany in the bottom of your stomach: Sid is a consummate gamer, so why in the universe would he invite you of all people? Was it because he'd seen your exceptional schooling marks as well as what you'd accomplished since entering the workforce, or what if the real reason he invited you was because he sees you as an easy mark?

The loading siren blares and immediately the gates swing open. The crush of humanity, eager for a better life on one of the colony worlds, surges forward, and your carried along like a stick in the current. There is no turning back now, the die is cast, and your fate awaits you on some planet you'd never even heard of just an hour before....

Directions:

1. In your scenarios subdirectory create a new subdirectory called "Sid_n_Me", and download and unzip the attached files into it.

2. Start Alien Crossfire, then select Scenario, Play Scenario, and load "Sid_n_Me". The game will load with you as the Peace Keepers, and then will let you choose the difficulty level you wish to play.

Note that you start the game with Sid's comlink, and while he will talk to you, be forewarned he is a wily gaming veteran, so buyer beware!

Enjoy!

Note that because this game occurs on a different world, then the rules for this game are different. There are many different units in this game, and many different tweaks to the Technology Tree: it is highly advisable you consult the Datalinks once in game so as to ensure you understand the Technology Tree and associated beelines!

 

Scenario Name: Heah You Kids Get Off My Planet!
SMAC/ SMAX: SMAX
Author: Darsnan
Date of original posting: 4/13/19
Original host site: CFC

Foreword: Alpha Centauri was never meant to be played as the 8th Faction. As such I've had to make a lot of allowances in this game, as well issue a lot of warnings to the player: these are documented below and should be reviewed before starting the game.


Premise

A planet drifts through the void, endlessly circling its primary. Sometimes a companion star encroaches, adding its light to the circling worlds, only to slowly drift deeper into space once more. Millennia turn to eons, and eons to epochs, and still the planet continues its endless journey. Until one day one of the lesser creatures of this world encounters something that is different. The creature stalks the strange craft, and as its kind had been primordially taught to do, it attacked and captured the strange craft. Having accomplished the task its primeval drive had been programmed to do, the creature wasn’t sure how to proceed, until a voice it had never heard before but instantly recognized spoke, “bring it to Me”.


You are Eywa, all knowing, all seeing, and master of this world. As the lesser creature you had created eons ago escorted the strange craft back to you, you reach out to probe the strange minds within: at first you thought it was the return of the false prophets who had long ago claimed to be your creators, but upon closer examination these beings are different, and if anything even more primitive. As the craft nears you notice a lot of the creatures on the strange craft have succumbed to the fungus your minion used to commandeer their minds with: some you can barely recognize the outlines of their former bodies, the fungus having completely absorbed them. However one of the strange creatures seems less effected by the fungus than the others, so you sift through the creatures memories, and find they are from a world ruined by its kind’s greed and recklessness towards the cradle of their birth. You query the creature, “you would do the same to this world?”.

“Yes”, the creature’s fungus-addled brain answers honestly.

“No”, you reply, “this will not happen on My world”.


Objective: you are Eywa, and your mission is to rid Planet of the blight that is Humanity.

Game Settings

- Small Map.

- Abundant Native Lifeforms selected.

- Difficulty Level: Librarian.

- Planetary Council has been disabled due to a bug causing crashes.

- No Colony Pods or Seabases can be built.

- Intense Rivalry selected.

- Blind Research selected.

- Tech Stagnation is on.

- Game is played in Editor mode due to a graphics bug in regular mode.


Other Observations

- Cities belonging to the 8th Faction can only produce one unit, called a Wraith. Trying to change production in cities belonging to the 8th Faction crashes the game.

- Cities belonging to the 8th Faction do accrue ECs: these cannot be used to rush units, but can be used for probe actions.

- The Headquarters building will need to be disabled in your alphax.txt file, otherwise you cannot kill the defenders within cities containing Headquarters buildings (the game won't allow units to be killed). Directions on how to do this are listed below.

- A player playing as the 8th Faction cannot conquer other player's cities, and once a unit from the 8th Faction enters another player's city all adjacent 8th Faction units disappear. Workaround directions on how to a) kill other players cities, and b) how to replace your vanished units are listed below.

- Sealurks and Isles of the Deep are equipped with the Marine Detachment, meaning they can commandeer units from other Factions.

- Wraith units are amphibious, meaning they can attack from the sea.

- You can negotiate peace with the other players, for what its worth.

- Do not select the F1 - FX buttons, as this will crash the game.



Directions on how to "conquer" a city and replace units which disappeared

1. After destroying the last defender in a city take inventory of the units you have around the city, including morale level of each unit. Then invade the city with one of your units. Immediately all of your adjacent within two tiles will disappear from the map.

2. Right-click on the map and place the cursor next to the city.

3. Press Shift-F1, select "Player", then "Aliens", and choose "OK".

4. Locate the Wraith in the menu and click on that entry: a Wraith unit will appear in the cursor-marked square.

5. Invade the city with it, knocking the population down by one.

6. Repeat steps 3-5 until the city disappears.

7. Using the inventory you did in step 1, right-click on the map to place the cursor where needed to replace the first disappeared units.

8. Press Shift-F1 and place the desired unit onto the selected tile.

9. Referring to the morale of the unit as noted in step 1, right-click on the unit and select "Morale": choose the corresponding morale level from the value noted in step 1.

10. Repeat steps 7-9 for all additional units which had disappeared.


Directions on how to disable the Headquarters building

1. Open a folder window, and go to the Firaxis Games/ Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri subdirectory.

2. Open the alphax.txt file using Notepad.

3. Locate the Headquarters entry, and update as follows:

Headquarters, 5, 0, Disable, Disable, Efficiency

4. Save the update.

5. Once done playing this game, to re-enable the Headquarters building make the following change:

Headquarters, 5, 0, None, Disable, Efficiency

Directions on playing the game
1. Download the attached file, unzip, and place into your .../Firaxis Games/Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri/ saves subdirectory.
2. Start Alien Crossfire, select "Load", and load HYKGOMP.SAV.
3. Game will automatically start up with the 8th Faction, and in Scenario Editor mode.