Altera Centauri Scenario Repository

[Darsnan]

Scenario Name: Eye of the Beholder 2006
SMAC/ SMAX: SMAX
Author: Darsnan
Date of original posting: 9/8/06
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 can be cloned.
By MY 2452 the first fleet of scoutships were built and sent out with a
mandate to investigate all of the habitable planets catalogued in the
Progenitor ships start charts. The results are mixed: some scoutships
return with exciting news of “Eden-class” planets, while other scouts
tell tales of planets who have 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 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. Now,
in MY2500, all that is left are the “less than ideal” worlds. Splinter
Factions such as yourselves that wish to emigrate from their current
planets are now faced with a bleak prospect: hire a space transport to
ferry you, your followers, and whatever belongings you can afford to
carry to a planet you know nothing about, other than the guaranteed fact
that it will be less than hospitable.
But everyday that you are forced to interact with the atheistic Hive
and the self-centered Morganites, and where even in your own Parent
Faction your Splinter Group is marginalized for “the greater good”
reinforces your resolve to face the unknowns of an unexplored alien
world.


PREMISE: The transit from the planet Harmony had been uneventful. The
captain, after having his “Captain Morgan Spaced Rum” joke bomb, had
discretely avoided contact with your followers. Little was known about
the space ships itinerary other than what was obvious: this was a
low-end space transport, designed for bulk, not comfort. “Quantity, not
Quality” would be the carriers motto if the Truth Police had had their
“input” on the subject. It was also obvious that there were several
other Splinter Factions such as yourselves on board, each one
undoubtedly destined for their own worlds. All the various Splinter
Factions had their own reasons for leaving the worlds they had existed
on for an unknown destination, but other than this the Factions had
nothing in common: conversations on board had been at best coldly
polite.


The Proximity Claxon had sounded earlier in the ship-day, and now
everyone in your Splinter Faction has been sealed into the lead 3
Re-Entry Gliders, just waiting for the transport to reach the planet’s
orbital insertion point and open its bay doors. Behind you 6 more
robotically controlled Gliders are loaded with all your equipment that
your Faction will need in order to establish a new colony. To pass the
time you call up the brief file containing data on your new home:


No formal mention or description of this planet has been recovered from
the Progenitor colonization archives. The only reference to this planet
came via the Caretaker Science Institute which labeled this planet as a
“Science Research Station”.

Planet Specifications
Planet: MY2458-666
Primary: Class M (currently unnamed)
Population: uninhabited
Climate: arid
Temperature: Hot. Note that environmental suits will be needed for prolonged exposure
Gravity: 1.2 standard
Class: habitable

Notes from captain of discovering spacecraft: once it was determined
this was not an “Eden-class” planet, we decided not to bother landing.
We did a quick scan of the planet, determined the planet met the
criteria for being classed as habitable, and then moved on to the next
solar system assigned to our spacecraft. Note that I recommend naming
this planet “Eye” based on visual observation.

No further entries.


Not much to go on, you think. And no one has bothered to visit here in 42 years! Amazing!
Suddenly the spaceships Emergency Claxon begins sounding and the captain
cuts in over your private leader-link, “we have just detected a pirate
ship closing fast onto our position! My ship is not designed to maneuver
in this atmosphere, and my crew doesn’t have the time to re-secure all
of your equipment. I therefore am going to have to jettison your Gliders
even though there are Pirates present. Once I’ve outrun the Pirates
I’ll come back and ensure you’ve landed safely!”
Despair hits you like a blast furnace, and then suddenly you’re
overwhelmed by weightlessness as your Glider is released from its
moorings in the bay and follows the two lead Gliders out the back of the
space transport. The spaceship captain is still on the commlink, and
your barely able to mutter, “understood. Godspeed to you captain!”
The spaceship captain his head oddly and replies, “and may your God go with you. Out.”


MAROONED!

You’ve been waiting 26 hours now, and only the lead three Re-Entry
Gliders have arrived at the selected landing zone. 20 hours ago someone
had spotted the space transport orbiting by high above. At first there
was elation that the ship had returned, then puzzlement as three smaller
blips of light separated from the spaceship and headed down towards the
surface. Every five hours since the transport had orbited overhead,
dropping 3 Re-Entry Gliders, then disappearing again. Others in your
Faction were still puzzling at this, but some of the brighter ones had
already figured it out: there had been pirates, but not the ones you had
been led to believe. The real pirates were Captain Morgan and his crew
of the Space Transport! They were using the ruse of a pirate attack to
dump all of the Splinter Faction passengers here, while keeping all the
Factions equipment for themselves!
You wish you had time to focus on Captain Morgan, but there are more
pressing needs, namely survival! While the original scoutship had
suggested naming this planet “Eye”, you’ve already decided on a
different name: Inferno! By the Gods Prophet it was hot here! And dry!
You wonder how the other 5 Splinter Factions that have been dumped here
are faring in this weather, and if they had been at all prepared for
this.
Your first scouts had returned earlier, with mixed news: some scouts had
reported that there was a 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…..
And all the while in the back of your mind the thought keeps preying on
your psyche: it’d been 42 years since anyone has visited this planet.
You could be here awhile…



Directions:

1) In your Scenarios subdirectory create a folder called "EotB", and download and unzip the attached files into it.
2) Start up SMAC, then select "Scenario", "Play Scenario", and then
select the attached EotB file. The game will automatically load up with
the Believer Splinter Faction, "The Conclave".
3) In the Data Links I recommend looking at the basic units types, so you can plan your strategies accordingly.


Enjoy!

Download

 

[Darsnan]

Scenario Name: Adaptation 101
SMAC/ SMAX: SMAX
Author: Darsnan
Date of original posting: 10/26/08
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 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 star charts. The results were mixed: some
scoutships returned with exciting news of “Eden-class” planets, while
other scouts returned with tales of planets which had degraded over the
eons. Still other scouts failed to return at all…
By MY2475 the "Diaspora of Man" had begun in earnest, with interstellar
colony ships being sent out to the far reaches of the Milky Way as fast
as they could be built. However with this explosive growth it soon
became apparent that not all of the far-flung settlements were
completely self-sufficient, and that to prevent catastrophes from
occurring on newly founded colonies, a series of supply transports were
desperately needed to keep the remote colonies supplied with all the
essentials.
The Nirvana’s Dream was such a ship: built by Morgan Interstellar, it
was leased by the United Nations for the sole purpose of re-supplying
outposts on the fringes of the ever-expanding bubble of human-controlled
space. The ship was crewed by peoples from various factions, each
contributing his or her own expertise, and this included one Peace
Keeper by the name of Shilpa Sanservanni, whose occupation was Resupply
Specialist. In this most mundane of jobs Shilpa was very good: she
processed supply requests from various outposts, and ensured her ship
was stocked with the correct supplies, and that everything was sorted
correctly into the supply shuttles assigned for each outpost.
On this day just like every other Shilpa sat down to her terminal and
began by reviewing the requests which had come in during her
sleep-cycle. Shilpa methodically went down the list, processing some of
the requests herself, delegating others to her staff, sending replies to
others asking for clarification on certain points. Approximately
halfway through her list she came across a message from a specific
University colony which caught her eye immediately. She selected the
attached requests list and began skimming down it. Approximately halfway
through she came across an entry “Hammer, 1, Multipurpose”. Shilpa
immediately selected the embedded comlink to contact the person who had
sent her the message, and in short order the visage of a University
technician was before her. Shilpa, the personae of the Peace Keeping
bureaucrat well in place, immediately came to the point “Yes, I have
here a request for one hammer, multipurpose, but you have failed to fill
out the data fields regarding to how the device will be used, nor where
in your colony you would need such a device. These fields must be
filled out before I can process the order for you”.
The technician on the other end of the transmission began replying in
the same mundane bureaucratic language, and to all those around them on
either end of the conversation it appeared to be just another supply
request being finalized. But between Shilpa and her counterpart there
were key words being transferred back and forth, verifying both of their
authenticity of being Data Angels, and initiating a conversation
between the two. The key words they transferred back and forth became
sentences, and the sentences became a conversation:

Shilpa: DataJack Hammer here: you have need of me?
DataJack Cosmos: Yes. We have located a new Morganite colony which for
some reason doesn’t show on any official records. About all we know is
that they appear to have located some new artifacts that seem to be
economically related. Currently you are our only agent in this sector.
Shilpa: How urgent is this request?
DataJack Cosmos: very. As you are aware a lot of our infiltration and
probe actions are economically entwined. Therefore if the Morganites
have discovered some new variant in the economic alghorhythms which
control society, it behooves us to find out what they are, and the
sooner the better.
Shilpa: send me the coordinates of this unknown colony and I will see what I can do.

Shilpa leaned back in her chair and reflected for a moment: in order to
execute this mission, she was going to have to throw away this persona
she had maintained over the last few years. She smiled inwardly at
herself at the choice: continue on with the mundane existence of a
Resupply Specialist, or once again assume the job (and the risks!) of
being a Data Angel operative. There really was no choice. Shilpa keyed a
comlink to one of her operatives onboard the Nirvana’s Dream, and in
the same coded language she had used earlier set the wheels in motion:

Shilpa: Hello Rathmani, could you be a dear and get me a cup of Dalgali
Bay Special Blend [I need you to hose the Maintenance Workstation, and
force the operator to reset the console]
Rathmani: ah yes, Dalgali Bay. Would you like cream and sugar in that [do you want me to hose it real good?]
Shilpa: yes, please [yes, hose it good].

Shilpa cut the comlink and sat back, thinking about what her next moves
would be. First, she needed the Maintenance Console reset in order to
activate some replacement coding she’d put in place for just such a
situation. From there, well, things would become a little more dicey…..



Janjouri was a Maytag repairman. He didn’t know exactly where that
phrase had originated, however he did know that it applied to someone
who serviced equipment that didn’t need servicing, and that was his job
on the Nirvanna’s Dream. On a day in and day out basis Janjouri sat in
his office, doing very little if anything. Every now and again the
monotony was broken by the Maintenance Console computer telling him that
he needed to replace a widget somewhere onboard the ship. This would
take a minimum of time, and then it was back to sitting in the office,
doing nothing.
Only today was different: because that clumsy oaf Rathmani had dumped
his special blend tea into the central Maintenance Console, Janjouri was
now having to go through the console replacing it circuit by circuit.
Worse, it appeared that the extra cream and sugar which had been in the
drink had really hosed the main console good! Janjouri cursed as, step
by step, he rebuilt the entire maintenance console circuit by circuit.
Once this was finally completed, Janjouri performed a manual reboot of
the system which monitored all of the ship’s functions. Janjouri sweated
while he worked: this was much more complicated than anything he had
ever had to do before on the Nirvanna’s Dream.
After what seemed an eternity, which included several missteps by
Janjouri, the system slowly came back online. While not an overly
religious person, Janjouri prayed to what gods he knew that he had
followed the steps in the aged manual correctly, and that the system he
had rebuilt would work as expected. Janjouri watched as the Maintenance
Console ran self-diagnostics, first on itself, then on the interfaces
with the various sensor clusters throughout the ship, and finally on the
main systems which monitored the engines and life support. Janjouri
held his breath as the final sets of diagnostics ticked off the last of
the sensor reports, and then surprised himself by exhaling loudly when
the system turned green, signifying all was functioning as expected.
“All in a days work” he exclaimed to those who had clustered around to
watch the maintenance tech work, and then he headed back to his office.
A couple hours later the maintenance console reported that the B-Deck
recycling tank had a malfunction, and that the main nutrient filtration
unit would have to be replaced. Janjouri cursed: there was almost no
worse job than to muck around with than the recycling tank equipment!
Janjouri labored long and hard in the recycling tank, wading through the
half-filled tank several times with different componentry, before the
maintenance console finally told him the recycling tank was back online.
Janjouri stumbled back to his office, and still covered by the muck of
the recycling tanks, collapsed into his chair, letting the fatigue of
the days events overwhelm him. Never had he ever had a day as bad as
this one! For the briefest of moments he thought he heard giggles coming
from the Resupply Specialist’s station. Well, what would she know of a
hard days true labor? Her job was probably the most boring on this tub!
Janjouri had a pounding and throbbing sensation at the front of his
skull from all of the day’s work and frustrations. Just as he was
reaching for a sedative the maintenance console chimed again. Janjouri
cringed as he turned to view the readout, wondering what the problem was
now, and then felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand on end: the
maintenance console was reporting that one of the reactors was
overloading! Janjouri, being the good Maytag Repairman that he was, did
exactly as the Maintenance Console told him to do: he hit the emergency
evacuation button.

Shilpa smiled inwardly to herself as the emergency claxon sounded,
signaling that everyone needed to move immediately to the ship’s
emergency evacuation pods. It had been all too easy to dupe the
maintenance technician into thinking there was a critical system
overload. Now, armed with a portable console, all she had to do was wait
till everyone was in their escape pods, then she could link into the
main network, lock everyone else out of the system, and then the ship
was hers. From there it would be a simple matter of taking this ship to
the coordinates given her by Cosmos and performing her probe operation
against the Morganite colony. The captain and his crew wouldn’t like
being locked up in their escape pods for weeks while this happened, but
it couldn’t be helped. And besides, the pods were well stocked with the
supplies for the colonies they were bound to visit.
Shilpa sat down into the comm seat of her team’s escape pod and jacked
her portable console into the net. The console screen came to life, and
Shilpa entered her backdoor command in order to gain access to the
ship’s operation console. The password was accepted, and the screen
changed to that of the ship’s main operation console. However almost
immediately the screen blanked, and then was replaced by a commlink
window. Shilpa, taken aback by this unexpected turn of events, stared at
the person in the comm. window. “Captain?” was all Shilpa could manage.
The image smiled at her and pointed to his ear where there now resided a
small skull and crossbones earpiece. “Pirate”, Shilpa stated flatly, a
hollow feeling starting to grow on her insides.
The captain of the ship, Captain Rassmussen, smiled malevolently out of
the commlink “Probe Team Fail!” he exclaimed, before continuing more
matter of factly, “I’ve had my eyes on this ship for quite some time
now. And when I finally came upon a method of commandeering her by
rewriting some code, what should I find but someone else had already put
in place such software”. Captain Rassmussen smiled again, “and so not
knowing who had put that code in place, I had to wait until they made
their move. And now here we are”.
“Here we are”, Shilpa agreed, not saying anything more for the moment: what she didn’t say couldn’t be used against her.
The captain smiled again (damn that smile was getting annoying, Shilpa
thought!), “I have to admit, I never figured it was the resupply clerk.
But I guess it fits: someone who had way too much time on their hands,
and who had constant access to the ship’s computer network. Tell me
Datajack, what were you going to do with the ship once you hijacked it?”
Shilpa, seeing her opening, coiled seductively in her chair, “something
that might be worth your while, if your interested….”, she let her
words trail off.
The captain ran his eyes slowly over Shilpa, “while I find the offer
intriguing, I think I would be too worried that the environmentals to my
cabin would stop working some evening.”
Shilpa, seeing that her gambit wouldn’t be picked up on, tried a
different tack, “so what are you going to do, make us walk the plank?”
The captain laughed out loud this time, “you’ve been watching too many
Morganite recvids: we’re not the cold blooded killers they make us out
to be. And besides, your too well stocked in those escape pods for us to
wait you out”. The captain motioned to someone offscreen before
continuing, “however there is another old pirate tradition that matches
more closely with what we plan to do to you and the rest of the crew”.
“And what is that, praytell?”
“We’re going to strand you on what amounts to a 26th century desert isle”.


Shilpa looked up into the sky where the ship that had almost been hers
was departing orbit. So close, she thought, so close. And how different
the turn of events were that ended up with her and her team here on this
small planetoid! The captain hadn’t been lying when he had compared
this worldlet to a desert isle: what little water there was here all
seemed to be locked away in the strange xenoflora which grew everywhere,
and there was hardly any atmosphere at all. Shilpa could also tell the
gravity was significantly less than a standard G: this worldlet was
definitely going to take some getting used to!
Idly Shilpa wondered how the other groups who had been marooned here
were faring, and how well they would be able to adapt to this world.
Yes, Shilpa thought, Adaptation was going to be the name of the game on
this world, and if her faction were to survive, she and her people had
better learn to adapt quickly in this new environment!


Directions

1) In your alpha centauri/Scenarios subdirectory create a folder called
"Adapt", and download and unzip the attached files into it.
2) Start up SMAX, then select "Scenario", "Play Scenario", and then go
to the subdirectory "Adapt" and choose the scenario. The game will
automatically load up with the Data Angels.

Enjoy!

D

Download

 

[Darsnan]

Scenario Name: Guardian of Planet
SMAC/ SMAX: SMAX
Author: Darsnan
Date of original posting: 5/26/08
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 star charts. The results were mixed: some
scoutships returned with exciting news of “Eden-class” planets, while
other scouts return with tales of planets who have degraded over the
eons. Still other scouts fail to return at all…
By MY2475 the "Diaspora of Man" had begun in earnest, with interstellar
colony ships being sent out to the far reaches of the Milky Way as fast
as they could be built.
Some of the solar systems which were settled revealed relics from
civilizations which predated even the Progenitors, to include an array
of stargates which augmented interstellar travel to several branches of
the galaxy. One such stargate lay in the Premius star system: located
approximately one AU from its primary, it was made of an unknown
composite material which gave the stargate a reddish tinge. Coupled with
its oblique angle to the local star, the odd protrusions which randomly
protruded from its surface cast intermittent long dark shadows across
its otherwise reddish surface, and thus gave the stargate its nickname:
the Roulette Wheel.
There was another more ominous reason the stargate had picked up this
nickname: once every so often (current calculations put it at
approximately 0.000001%) the stargate misfired, and any spacecraft
involved were lost forever.
One such event has just occurred: a spacechip full of settler factions
bound for the newly discovered Corali system has just disappeared from
the stargate without a trace. Some people wondered if the spaceship had
been delivered to an undiscovered stargate somewhere else in the galaxy.
Still others thought the ancient civilization which built the gates was
still somewhere out in the galaxy, and every now and again they retuned
this gate to deliver to them a sampling of the races which were
currently using the gate system. The technicians who manned the Roulette
Wheel had drawn their own conclusion: the colony ship New Hope had
simply landed on unlucky 13. They marked it down as such in their logs,
and moved on with preparing the next spaceship for its transit.


Guardian Hm’nee settled herself into the Prayer Seat located within the
Great Communal Hall. Here, deep within the ancient chambers of the
Manifold Nexus on this planet she communed with the Planet Mind, just as
all of her forebearers had done since time immemorial. The Planet Mind
talked to her of many things, of the history of her people, of how the
Nexus had originally been an experiment, and how instead it had awakened
something deeper, more enlightened on this planet. The Planet Mind also
told Hm’nee of how her people had arrived here many eons ago, via the
“stargate” which hung like a moon in the space above, and how her
ancient ancestors, unable to reactivate the stargate to return to their
own galaxy, had descended to the planet below and built this Manifold
Nexus. Hm’nee closed her eyes and reached her mind out, expecting the
usual communing with the Planet Mind. This time however the Planet Mind
seized her awareness and transported her consciousness into space above,
to show her the stargate, and something new emerging from its
cylindrical maw. Hm’nee allowed the Planet Mind to direct her senses, to
reach out and “taste” the new vehicle, to probe and analyze what it
was. Hm’nee's senses wandered through the alien spaceship, touching
this, viewing that, and determining just what itwas. What it was not was
a Progenitor spaceship, Hm’nee very quickly discovered. Instead it was
filled with many disparate minds, all seeking their own destiny. While
some minds shared a similar attitude towards communing with planets,
many other minds could only envision a planet as a resource to be used,
and pillaged as needed. Hm’nee recoiled at these thoughts and withdrew
her probing of the alien spaceship. These minds were poison! She began
gathering the latent energy of the Nexus: it would be a simple thing to
pull this spacecraft from the sky, to bring these people down to her and
destroy the minds which spoke the blasphemy of pollution and waste. The
energy of Planet quickly filled her, and she reached out, almost as if
with her own hands, and pulled the spaceship from its orbit, drawing it
down to her and her waiting minions…….


Directions

1) In your Scenarios subdirectory create a folder called "GoP", and download and unzip the attached files into it.
2) Start up SMAX, then select "Scenario", "Play Scenario", and then go
to the subdirectory "GoP" and choose the scenario. The game will
automatically load up with the Gaians.

Enjoy!

D

Download

 

[Darsnan]

Scenario Name: Monkey in the Middle
SMAC/ SMAX: SMAX
Author: Darsnan
Date of original posting: 11/16/08
Original host site: Apolyton

Can't we all just get along?

In MY2497, after many years of warfare across countless solar systems, a
Pacifist Cabal came to power in the Galactic government. Preaching a
mantra of peace and love, they espoused that no matter how different
each Faction was, that all peoples and species could co-exist together
in harmony. To that end they established a seed colony with very
disparate peoples, and used this as their prototypical example of how
all sentients could live together, and get along, in close proximity to
one another. The Drone faction involved promised not to resent the
Hive’s domineering ways, while the Cyborgs promised not to force silicon
implants onto their neighbors. The Gaians and Cultists promised to
reign in their Planet-first diatribes, and the Progenitors promised not
to nerve gas everyone on sight. It was going to be one big group-hug
lovefest….

Yeah, right - how long do you think that’s going to last?



Directions

1) In your alpha centauri/Scenarios subdirectory create a folder called
"MitM", and download and unzip the attached files into it.
2) Start up SMAX, then select "Scenario", "Play Scenario", and then go
to the subdirectory "MitM" and choose the scenario. The game will
automatically load up with the Hive.

Enjoy!


Download

 

[Darsnan]

Scenario Name: Bonfire in the Sky
SMAC/ SMAX: SMAX
Author: Darsnan
Date of original posting: 10/4/08
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 star charts. The results were mixed: some
scoutships returned with exciting news of “Eden-class” planets, while
other scouts return with tales of planets who have degraded over the
eons. Still other scouts fail to return at all…
By MY2475 the "Diaspora of Man" had begun in earnest, with interstellar
colony ships being sent out to the far reaches of the Milky Way as fast
as they could be built.
However once at their destinations, some peoples found the life of a
colonist was a difficult and arduous task, and in some cases
overwhelming, either from poor planning, or from the planet being more
difficult than first gauged. This happened often enough that the Peace
Keepers had set up a fleet of starships specifically designed for the
transport and relocation of refugees from worlds that weren’t as
hospitable as first thought.
There were also several other starships which belonged to the
relocation fleet, however they never showed on any roster, nor did the
Peace Keepers even acknowledge their existence. Crewed by Hive personnel
trained in the methods of riot police, these ships were at the beck and
call of planetary governments, and were employed primarily in the
forcible removal of minority factions who either wouldn’t or couldn’t
take a hint that they were unwanted on their current planet. Once
removed from their planet of origin, the UN had set up a protocol
whereby these unwanted peoples were humanely moved to a new planet, and
that said peoples were allowed to pick which planet from a list of
standing fallow planets.
The Hive had come up with its own version of this: instead of allowing
the refugees to choose from the standing list, they instead used these
transports as scoutships, exploring previously unmapped regions of
space. If they found an Eden-class planet, they claimed it for
themselves. If they then found a lower class planet, they “encouraged”
the refugees to resettle to this newly discovered world, and then just
backdated the standing list with the newly discovered planet. The system
worked: the planetary governments, who footed the bill for the
relocation, didn’t care where their unwanted went, so long as they were
gone. The Peace Keepers were happy in that they didn’t have to be
involved in what amounted to an unpopular and darker side of the ongoing
galaxy-wide colonization effort. And the Hive was happy because
essentially they were getting paid to explore new environs, with the
side benefit of adding new planets to the Hive domain.

The Harbinger was a ship that belonged to the Black List. It had
recently stopped off at a planet whose world government consisted
primarily of the Conscsiousness and their close allies the University
and Morganites, and who had deemed that there was no need for the
minority factions consisting of the planet-loving Cultists and Gaians,
nor of the bible-thumping Believer colony. At the request of the
Consciousness government, in the same sweep the Hive had collected up
other undesirables who fell into two primary groups, those labeled as
Drones, and the others collectively considered brigands, or Pirates.
Once the Hive Special Operations groups had herded the refugees aboard
the Harbinger, the mindgames began: each Faction was segregated and
isolated into generic holding pens, with no communication with anyone
save their Hive Overseer. To all intents and purposes each Faction was
entirely alone, and were completely dependent on their Hive Overseer for
any additional circumstances that inevitably cropped up. In this
environment the Overseer then doled out both rewards and punishments,
all selectively tailored to condition the Factions to be responsive to
their individual Overseer: everything was geared to break down the
psyche of the refugees, so when it came time for them to be introduced
to their new world, they would view it as a Paradise and eagerly grab at
it.
The Harbinger, after exploring several dead solar systems on the
fringes of known space, had decided to explore a small cul-de-sac of
promising stars, and on their third solar system they had hit paydirt: a
nominally habitable world, it fit the criteria as a perfect dumping
ground for their cargo, and after a little “negotiating” with the
various Factional leaders, each group had been transported down to the
planet’s surface, with those Factions who had proved more tractable
being rewarded with their choice of landing locations. Those who had
been more obstinate, such as the devout Believers and rebellious Drones,
were unceremoniously dumped a safe distance away from the other
Factions.
While the process of colonization had been going on the Harbinger had
also been scouting the solar system for any anomalies that might prove
worth investigating, as artifacts of previous civilizations had been
discovered in other quadrants, both in space as well as on planetary
surfaces. In this case the search had proven fruitful, as some sort of
artifact was discovered orbiting another world in this solar system.
The Harbinger, once its cargo had unloaded, proceeded towards the world
in question: as data accumulated it appeared the world was a gas giant,
with an eccentric orbit taking it well out of the normal paths traveled
by the other worlds in this solar system. To an observer on another
world (such as the one where they had just disgorged their carago) the
gas giant would appear as a bright star, alternately brightening and
growing dimmer depending on where it was in its orbit.
As the Harbinger traveled across the solar system a strange thing
occurred: another artifact appeared on their screens! In this case it
became apparent very quickly that the artifact was another spaceship. It
also became apparent very quickly that the spaceship was not of human
origins, and that it also was headed right towards the artifact the
Harbinger was targeting. The Harbinger’s captain, taking the view that
possession is nine/tenths of the law, quickly accelerated his ship
towards the artifact, only to find the alien spaceship increasing its
speed as well. The two ships bore down on the prize, moving into orbits
on opposite sides of the gas giant, closing swiftly towards their prize.
Just as both ships were clearing the fringes of the gas giant, the
artifact, which had appeared to be a derelict single-seater spacecraft,
sent out a scanning pulse, probing the two oncoming spacecraft.
Immediately after this the small spacecraft jumped to life, and shot
down into the ever-thickening cloud layers of the gas giant. Almost
immediately a chain reaction within the gas giant began, one that the
sensors on the Harbinger determined would very quickly lead to the
gas-giant becoming a proto-star, and if the captain didn’t react
quickly, would also consume the Harbinger in its initial burst of
radiation.
The Harbinger frantically spun about, accelerating hard and attempting
to break out of the gravity well as quickly as possible. However it
became apparent very quickly that they would not be able to break clear
of the gas-giant before it erupted……

Overseer Shin sat down in the now-empty cargo hold that had served as
the housing unit for the Believer Faction they had just transported. He
and his crew had been charged with cleaning up and organizing the bay
for the next group of refugees that they would pick up. The work had
gone relatively quickly: it wasn’t just the thought of the Watcher Eyes
that dotted the walls of the bay and of who might be monitoring them,
but also of the thought that once this was done there were no other
pressing duties for the foreseeable future. Shin had been meticulously
generating a list of serviceable items the Believers had left behind
when the Harbinger’s emergency claxon had sounded. Shin and his work
detail were about to leave the bay when the bay’s cargo doors slid
closed, trapping them in the area. Shin looked around, seeing only the
empty bay, and the accessway to the launching area. Of course - they
could ride out the emergency in the planetary shuttle! Shin quickly
hustled his people down to the shuttle, herding them into what had only a
few hours previous been the last link to civilization the Believer
faction had seen before being delivered to the newly discovered planet.
No sooner had the door closed than a horrendous rending sound drowned
out everything else, and the bay of the Harbinger was ripped opened by
the first gouts of energy from the newly forming proto-star. The shuttle
tumbled free, and was quickly swept away by the huge surge of energy
erupting from the now boiling gas giant’s surface. Shin had only a
glance of this before the shuttle’s polarizing shield slammed down,
masking off both the visible and invisible radiation. What he had seen
of the Harbinger in that instant though was enough to tell him that the
ship had been completely destroyed, and that the only reason he had
survived was because the shuttle was designed to withstand the
temperatures of orbital re-entry, and thus had been impervious to the
heat and blast that had destroyed the Harbinger.
Shin took the controls of the shuttle, trying to stabilize it against
the maelstrom that howled outside. As the gas giant receded, the shuttle
became more manageable, and finally Shin was able to relax as the
initial surge of energy from the proto-star left them in its wake.
The polarizing shield, a facet of the resonance armor which had saved
their lives, automatically lifted as the levels of radiation and visible
light dropped to acceptable levels. What Shin saw as the shield lifted
filled him with a deep sense of dark irony: in the center of the viewing
field lay the planet Shin and his team had just deposited the refugees
on to. It appeared that he would again get to meet those people he had
just “assisted” in finding a new planet to call home. Only this time the
circumstances would be significantly different.
Shin, deflated with this turn of events, leaning back in his seat to
try and make sense of everything. As he did so his communicator came to
life, interrupting his reverie before he could even begin to sort out
the events of the last few hours. Idly Shin wondered which of the
Factions on the planet below were calling him, and if even an offer of
succor was too much to expect under the circumstances. Shin punched the
communicator, only to be confronted by a strange reptilian-like alien.
The visage on the screen fuzzed and wavered, and Shin could see smoke
emanating from several panels behind the lizard-like creature. Even with
the difference of alien body language Shin could tell the alien held a
malignant apathy towards him, a loathing of pure hatred emanating from
the creature as it glared back at him. The creature, a small trickle of
blood dripping from a gash on its forehead, rasped and hissed something
into its communicator, and an eerie, tinnish voice echoed out of Shin’s
communicator, “this will be settled on the planet below”. Without
another word the communication screen blanked out.


After the shuttle had landed on the planet surface, Shin sat outside on a
rocky outcropping, gazing up at the alien sky. The new pseudo-sun,
Bonfire was what Shin’s people were calling it, was rising in the east,
and Shin wondered what had really happened at Bonfire: had it been some
kind of trap designed to destroy anyone snooping around this solar
system, or was it truly a bonfire, designed to signal someone else in
the galaxy that trespassers had entered this solar system? Shin’s mind
was already numb at the turn of events, however he, as leader, didn’t
have time to dwell on how horrible their predicament was. And truly it
could have been worse, as at least they had the modicum of supplies that
his team had packed away in the shuttle: it would be enough to start a
colony, to give him and his people a glimmer of hope on this forlorn
little world…….



Directions

1) In your alpha centauri/Scenarios subdirectory create a folder called
"BitS", and download and unzip the attached files into it.
2) Start up SMAX, then select "Scenario", "Play Scenario", and then go
to the subdirectory "BitS" and choose the scenario “BitS”. The game will
automatically load up with the Hive.

Enjoy!

D

Download

 

[Darsnan]

Scenario Name: UNWanted
SMAC/ SMAX: SMAX
Author: Darsnan
Date of original posting: 6/12/08
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 star charts. The results were mixed: some
scoutships returned with exciting news of “Eden-class” planets, while
other scouts return with tales of planets who have degraded over the
eons. Still other scouts failed to return at all…
By MY2475 the "Diaspora of Man" had begun in earnest, with interstellar
colony ships being sent out to the far reaches of the Milky Way as fast
as they could be built.
Some of the solar systems which were settled revealed relics from
civilizations which predated even the Progenitors, to include an array
of stargates which augmented interstellar travel to several branches of
the galaxy. One such stargate lay in the Premius star system: located
approximately three AU from its primary, it was made of an unknown
composite material which gave the stargate a reddish tinge. Coupled with
its oblique angle to the local star and the odd protrusions that
covered its surface and cast intermittent long dark shadows across its
otherwise reddish surface, the stargate had picked up the nickname of
the Roulette Wheel.
There was another, more ominous reason the stargate had picked up this
nickname: once every so often (current calculations put it at
approximately 0.000001%) the stargate misfired, and any spacecraft
involved were lost forever.
One such event has just occurred: a UN Resettlement transport full of
refugee factions has just disappeared from the stargate without a trace.
Some people wondered if the spaceship had been delivered to an unknown
stargate somewhere else in the galaxy. Still others thought the ancient
civilization which built the gates was still somewhere out in the
galaxy, and every now and again they retuned this gate to deliver to
them a sampling of the races which were currently using the gate system.
The technicians who manned the Roulette Wheel had developed their own
system for dealing with these “events”: the resettlement ship had simply
landed on the Roulette Wheel’s unlucky 13. They marked it down as such
in their logs, and moved on with preparing the next spaceship for
transit….


The UN Resettlement ship New Hope had emerged from the unknown stargate
and now hung above an alien, previously unknown world. The world itself
was approximately 80% water, and at some time in the past an asteroid
had broken up and slammed sideways into the planet, completely
obliterating any landmasses that had existed in the equatorial region.
Worse, it appeared that a piece of the same asteroid had impacted the
stargate, as the alien monolith had obviously sustained significant
damage to its exterior.
After much debate amongst the Faction leaders the choices were narrowed
down to either trying their luck through the damaged stargate, or
proceed down to the planet surface and wait for rescue. Both choices had
their drawbacks: if they tried transitting the stargate they might end
up back at their starting point in the Premius star system, or they
might end up somewhere else in the galaxy, even more remote than where
they were now. If they stayed and waited for rescue they would
undoubtedly have to migrate to the planet below, as the New Hope was not
provisioned for an extended duration. Worse, the peoples on board were
not settlers: they were peoples plucked from planets who no longer
wanted them, unwanted refugees being resettled (some forcibly) to new
locales where it was hoped they could start anew. These downtrodden
peoples were not prepared for the rigors and hardships of attempting to
establish new colonies on an unknown alien world.
After conferring with the refuge Faction Leaders, Captain Jarretta
agreed that the best option was to take the gamble of attempting to
transit the stargate again, in the hope that it would deliver them
either back to their original starting point in the Premius system, or
to another known stargate. And if they ended up elsewhere, they could
always make the transition again until they ended up somewhere more
hospitable.
Jarretta lined the New Hope up with the stargate, and slowly entered
the outskirts of the gate’s energy nexus. However as the spaceship
entered the gate proper, huge energy plumes lashed out from the gate
itself, raking across the bow of the New Hope, and shorting out a
majority of the ship’s power systems. The spaceship, now powerless,
began to drift off course, slowly heading for the side of the looming
stargate. Jarretta checked the status of the New Hope’s engines, and
realized the engines would not be back online in time to save the
spaceship from colliding with the stargate. Realizing his spaceship was
lost, he gave the command to abandon ship.
As the escape pods began to depart for the planet surface below Jarretta
wondered what would happen to these peoples: forcibly evicted from
their original homeworlds, lost in transit via a malfunctioning
stargate, and now marooned on an uncharted alien world, it was as if the
Universe itself had turned its back on them. They were the ultimate
unwanteds – throw away peoples whom nobody would miss or bother looking
for. As Jarretta braced for the fatal impact he wished them well…..


Directions

1) In your Scenarios subdirectory create a folder called "UNW", and download and unzip the attached files into it.
2) Start up SMAX, then select "Scenario", "Play Scenario", and then go
to the subdirectory "UNW" and choose the scenario “UNWanted”. The game
will automatically load up with the PKs.

Enjoy!

D

Download

 

[Darsnan]

Scenario Name: Pick yer Poison
SMAC/ SMAX: SMAX
Author: Darsnan
Date of original posting: 5/10/08
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 were built and sent out with a
mandate to investigate all of the habitable planets catalogued in the
Progenitor ships start charts. The results are mixed: some scoutships
return with exciting news of “Eden-class” planets, while other scouts
tell tales of planets who have degraded over the eons. Still other
scouts fail to return at all…
By MY2475 the "Diaspora of Man" had begun in earnest, with interstellar
colony ships being sent out to the far reaches of the Milky Way as fast
as they could be built. However as more and more planets were explored
it became clear that another civilization had visited many of the former
Progenitor worlds in between the time of the fall of Progenitor
civilization and the Rise of Man. Traces of this now-vanished
civilization could be found in many remote corners of the galaxy, and it
appeared that they were drawn to and understood the powers of the
Manifolds. Simply called “The Sentinels” because they seemed more intent
on watching the planets they visited than in colonization, their
artifacts can be found on many of the former Progenitor worlds that
house Manifolds. Some of the Sentinel artifacts are benign, while others
retain a modicum of their ancient programming and are openly hostile
towards humans!
It is now MY2500…..


Sooner or later Humanity knew they would encounter the living
descendants of the Progenitors, for with the Diaspora of Man taking
humanity to the farthest reaches of the Milky Way it was only a matter
of time before this event occurred. However it was also unanimously
agreed by all the Factions that no one wanted to win that particular
lottery and be the first to encounter the Progs in what would probably
be their interstellar back yard, for if what had happened in the Alpha
Centauri solar system was any indication as to how the Progs would react
to the upstart humans, then whoever did stumble into the Progs was
going to be in for a bumpy ride to say the very least!
And yet here you were, not even a year after arriving on your new
homeworld of Beratan 4.0, when the skies above opened up and two
Progenitor Battlecruisers, one Caretaker and one Usurper, took up orbit
around your planet. You listened in on the Progenitor comm channels as
each Prog Faction issued ritualistic challenges and insults, each round
becoming more pointed and threatening. And then a curious thing
happened: instead of escalating to all-out warfare between the two huge
battlecruisers, each ship deposited a single drop ship onto the face of
the planet, one at each pole, and then the two Prog battlecruisers
departed as mysteriously as they had arrived.
But what would have been a xenosociologists event of a lifetime is now a
waking nightmare for you, as you realize you are going to be caught in
the crosshairs of an all out no-holds barred Progenitor Civil War!


Planet Specifications

Planet: Baraton 4.0
Primary: Class M (currently unnamed)
Population: uninhabited
Climate: temperate
Temperature: average
Gravity: 1.3 standard
Class: habitable

Baraton 4.0 is another planet belonging to the Manifold experiment, and
so there could be an operational nexus on the planet. And of course
where there is a nexus there are native lifeforms to boot. There are
also rumors of an ancient city on the planetary surface. If this is true
then it is probably a Sentinel city, and any artifacts which could be
recovered would be of significant benefit to the Faction which discovers
them!

Directions

1) In your Scenarios subdirectory create a folder called "PyP", and download and unzip the attached files into it.
2) Start up SMAX, then select "Scenario", "Play Scenario", and then go
to the subdirectory "PyP" and choose the scenario. The game will
automatically load up with the Spartans.


Observations

- If you don’t like the graphics go to the PyP subdirectory and delete
the “terr1wreck.pcx” and “texture.pcx” files (and note you need to get
out of SMAX first before deleting these files).
- There are significant changes to the alphax.txt file in this game. it
is strongly recommended that you review the Datalinks at the beginning
of the game, specifically concerning basic units, terraforming options,
and certain facilities and SPs (examples: Robotic Assembly Plant has
been moved up to Ind Auto, Mining Sats to Doc:Air, while the Empath
Guild has been moved to Eudaimonia, among others).
- The Progs really don’t like to be gassed in this game.


Acknowledgements

Many thanx to the following:

- wgabrie for the graphics: I’ve been playing using his texture.pcx file
for years now: much better than the default IMO! wgabrie also did the
other graphics changes you will encounter in this scenario.
- Maurid Adran’s idea of having terraformers immediately available for
build: no more getting 40 – 50 turns into a game and finding that the AI
hasn’t even researched Centauri Ecology yet (and hence not done any
terraforming at all!). From what I have seen so far in playtesting this
is a significant boon to the AIs! I’ve also “encouraged” the AIs to
build these terraformers by making them cheaper to produce.
- I think it was smacksim who originally proposed the idea of having
terrain improvements such as mines, solar collectors, and farms linked
to techs (instead of being available to build right away): combining
this idea with the above of having cheapened terraformers immediately
available means that the AIs do plant some forests at the outset of the
game.

Hope you enjoy!


D

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[Darsnan]

Scenario Name: Lilith - A Wolf in the Fold
SMAC/ SMAX: SMAX
Author: Darsnan
Date of original posting: 1/3/07
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 were built and sent out with a
mandate to investigate all of the habitable planets catalogued in the
Progenitor ships start charts. The results are mixed: some scoutships
return with exciting news of “Eden-class” planets, while other scouts
tell tales of planets who have degraded over the eons. Still other
scouts fail to return at all…
By MY2475 the "Diaspora of Man" had begun in earnest, with interstellar
colony ships being sent out to the far reaches of the galaxy as fast as
they could be built. While many see this as a boon to humanity, others
take a different approach to the situation, and take the opportunity to
hide themselves away.....

It is now MY 2493.

PREMISE
The holo-link came to life and, as Commander Koth had expected, the
signal was scrambled. “Please state your name and organization for
security verification” a woman’s disembodied voice reached out from the
scrambled circuit.
“Commander Heinreich Koth, Chief Executive Officer, 5302nd Composite
Unit”. The 5302nd - that was the official, and legitimate, name of the
organization Koth belonged to. However most people in the business knew
it by another name, “Merrill’s Mercenaries”. Such as Koth’s contact
here.
“Authorization verified”, the voice responded, and the holo-link
solidified into a woman seated behind an ornately carved desk.
”Greetings, Commander”, the woman offered, “I am Alyssandra Sim,
Contracts Negotiator for Inter Realms, Incorporated”.
Commander Koth suppressed a slight grimace. As he had expected, his
“customer” was Inter Realms, which in fact was a Morganite shell company
that specialized in "less than legitimate" dealings. Worse, the woman’s
last name “Sim” indicated Koth was speaking to a simulacrum, and not
even a real person: whoever was on the other side of the holo-link was
going to great lengths to cover their tracks regarding this particular
job. Koth set aside the information and pressed on, “Good day, Ms. Sim.
You have contacted my organization concerning a job that aligned with my
companies, um, specialties.”
The simulacrums lips raised in a half suppressed smile, “yes, we seem to
have encountered a situation that has eluded our abilities to date.
Essentially we would like this situation resolved, and the sooner the
better”.
Commander Koth held up a single sheaf of paper which was only half
covered in text, “then if your hoping for a quick resolution to the
situation, can you be a little more specific than what you have offered
so far?”
Again the simulacrum suppressed a half-smile, “unfortunately no.
Essentially we can tell you that there is a former Progenitor world that
is now called Lilith which is inhabited by 6 Splinter Factions, of
which none can be found in the Data Links.”
“Yes, Lilith”, Commander Koth responded, “I couldn’t find a reference
to this planet in the Data Links, either. Is this intentional?”
“We don’t know” the simulacrum responded, then waited patiently for Koth’s next question.
“The report also states that the inhabitants all seem to possess some sort of enhanced psi capability”.
“Yes, regardless of their Splinter Faction background, they all seem to sense things in an enhanced manner”.
Commander Koth considered this, then replied, “so why not send in an Empath Team instead of us?”
“It doesn’t work. For some reason the inhabitants “know” that your not one of them”.
Koth digested this, as well as what had been intimated, which was that
Inter Realms had already attempted contact once, and failed. Koth tried a
different tack, “perhaps Lerclerc’s Legion would be a good candidate
for this assignment, instead?”
“The Free Foreign Legion declined to discuss the contract we offered them”.
Now it was Koth’s turn to suppress a smile. Leclerc’s Free Foreign
Legion recruited heavily from those peoples who had felt the oppressive
yolk of Hive domination, and as such espoused “freedom” and “democracy”,
neither of which seemed to be a concern in regards to the Lilith
“situation”. Merrill’s Mercenaries on the other hand were primarily
comprised of former Spartans, Angels, and Pirates, and were more
inclined to be swayed by the call of a good payday than anything else.
Koth continued, “would we have to be concerned about the United Nations
interjecting themselves into this situation?”
The simulacrum responded, “the Peace Keepers will not be a factor in
this situation”. It was a statement made to be taken at face value.
Koth paused and considered this: either someone was paying the PKs to
look the other way concerning Lilith, or else the PKs were the actual
customer, and they were merely employing “other means” to bring another
planet under the Peace Keeper umbrella. Either way, it didn’t really
matter to Koth, “and any extra monies that we come into possession of,
we will then be able to keep at the end of the contract?”
“We will have the contract re-drawn accordingly”, the simulacrum assured, then “so, do we have a deal?”
“I think I have just the Commander for this assignment”, Koth agreed.
“Excellent!" the simulacrum responded. "And remember, the chief
objective of this mission is to convince these renegade Factions to
enter into trade agreements with Morgan Enterprises”, the simulacrum
paused, then added emphasis to her final words, “by whatever means
necessary”.
The holo-link went dead, and Commander Koth was left alone in the empty
conference room. Koth allowed himself to relax, leaning back in his
chair and smiling bemusedly as he thought about the assignment:
essentially he was going to send a troop of Merrill’s Mercenaries to a
planet that didn’t exist, to make contact with Factions that didn’t want
to be found, all for a customer that wouldn’t even show their face!
"Yup", Commander Koth said out loud, "just another typical assignment
for Merrill’s Mercenaries!"

Objective
No formal mention or description of Lilith has been recovered from the
Progenitor colonization archives. The only reference to this planet came
via the Caretaker Science Institute which labeled this planet as a
“Science Research Station”. From what was decyphered from fragmentary
records the Progenitors established an archeological dig on this planet
to investigate artifacts from a highly sophisticated precussor race that
had performed extensive terraforming to the planet's surface, possibly
for the purpose of setting up unique climates and habitation zones for
the species that lived on the planet at that time. No other records have
been recovered regarding this planet.

Planet Specifications
Planet: unknown
Primary: Class M (currently unnamed)
Population: unknown
Climate: temperate
Temperature: average
Gravity: 1.3 standard
Class: habitable

Your mission is to land on the planet Lilith, ascertain the status of
the native population, and then proceed to convince the local population
by whatever means necessary to re-join mainstream society.

Good Luck Commander!


Directions:

1) In your Scenarios subdirectory create a folder called "Lilith", and download and unzip the attached files into it.
2) Start up SMAX, then select "Scenario", "Play Scenario", and then go
to the subdirectory "Lilith" and choose the scenario. The game will
automatically load up with the Spartan Splinter Faction.
3) To ensure everything is working right hit F1 and select "Faction Profiles".
4) While your in the Data Links I recommend looking at the basic units
types as well, so you can plan your strategies accordingly.

Download

 

[Darsnan]

Scenario Name: King of the Hill 2006
SMAC/ SMAX: SMAX
Author: Darsnan
Date of original posting: 7/12/06
Original host site: Apolyton

Backdrop for the game: Hundreds of thousands of years ago 4 great
civilizations developed on Planet, and many great terraforming feats
were performed, reshaping Planet into the visage of a perfect Utopia for
its citizens. However, these same 4 civilizations had also developed
advanced weapons of destruction, and for some inexplicable reason a war
ensued, shattering Planet’s well cultivated surface and destroying the
utopian societies which populated Planet’s surface. Now, eons later,
only traces of what was once an advanced race still remain.

Premise for the game: as the Unity approached Planet, sensors started
picking up the telltale signs of the ancient, destroyed civilizations.
As more was learned about the extent of the ancient civilizations, as
well as the level of destruction to Planet’s surface, Shadow groups
within the Unity’s hierarchy began to plot how best to exploit Planet’s
resources to their own advantages. However, there is always a fly in the
ointment, this case being the destruction of the Unity. Some say it was
sabotage, others say that the Unity malfunctioned, while still others
think it was an ancient planetary defense system that fired on Unity,
destroying the spacecraft. Regardless, with the destruction of the Unity
so too went the formal governing body of the United Nations. With this
power vacuum occurring the Shadow groups realized their time had come,
and as they consolidated themselves on Planet’s surface they began to
expand their new empires, and to follow their own agendas.

You are the Peace Keepers. Your job is to re-unite the warring Factions
of humanity under the U.N. banner and proclaim Planet as the Dominion of
Man!

Directions for loading the Game: unzip the attached file and save in
your scenarios folder. Start SMAX, select Scenarios/ Play Scenario, and
then select “King of the Hill”. The game will automatically load you as
the PKs.

Observations: if any of you feel you’ve played this before, you are
right! This is a remake of my first SP Challenge back in January of
2003. Essentially what happened was that a little while ago Kirov had
asked me if I had ever made any really hard scenarios, and when I went
to point him to this game I realized the links for this game at CGN
didn’t work anymore. So I decided to update the game with all that I had
learned since I originally “cut my teeth” on Scenario Creation back in
late ’02: it is now much more entertaining, IMO!
As usual there are some new concepts here, which should be interesting to see how you guys handle/ adapt to.


Enjoy!


D

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[Darsnan]

Scenario Name: Challenge 30 smax
SMAC/ SMAX: SMAX
Author: Mart
Date of original posting: 10/8/06
Original host site: Apolyton

For some time, I thought about a challenge scenario that would be on a
small map. Huge maps are a bit difficult to handle in the late game,
especially for persons who like to manage bases with more detail. This
scenario uses custom size map - 30x60. I thought about a series of
challenges like this. SMACX one would be coded: C30x, and SMAC ones:
C30v (for vanila).
----------
This game might use a name:
Survive or Perish
game code:
C30x_01
----------

You play Spartans against 6 other factions: Hive, University, Morganities, PK, Drones and Pirates.
AI factions are significantly enhanced. There are also new units, check
datalinks, so you are less surprised. Some unit abilities, weapons are
slightly moved due to pre-defined units. Doctrine Initiative gives now
carriers and submarines.

Victory conditions:
All without cooperative. AI accomodates appropriately, and having playtested the scanario, I can tell - trust noone.

Special rules:

1) Stockpile bug is not allowed.
However, you may leave empty queue after facility or SP.

2) You have to either build SP Voice of Planet or conquer a base having it in order to win by Transcendence.

3) There is no deadline, also if you fail and want to restart, you are welcome to do so.

For ranking purposes:
AC score counts with the following addition:
- for completed game each turn before 2200 there is bonus +30 points.
- for each turn after 2200 there is a penalty -30 points.

For Alpha Centauri.ini
Faction 1=SPARTANS
Faction 2=HIVE
Faction 3=UNIV
Faction 4=MORGAN
Faction 5=PEACE
Faction 6=PIRATES
Faction 7=DRONE

Good luck and make positive scores!

Download

 

[Darsnan]

Scenario Name: Summer Solstice 2006 - Dream Twister
SMAC/ SMAX: SMAX
Author: Chaos Theory
Date of original posting: 6/21/06
Original host site: Apolyton

Link broken for download. Page 14 of General Help Strategy section.

Or, Not More Pink!

As Sister Miriam tended to our wounded after crash landing in a damaged
Unity lander, the powermongers from Earth built their empires as they
had dreamed, according to their own, true ideals. After a generation,
they stumbled across the ancient builders of Chiron - the Progenitors.
Zakharov, Morgan, and Yang met in secret to plan a swift, devastating
attack on all the Progenitor encampments Planet-wide, before they could
fully recover. Select specimens were preserved for experimentation. In
particular, Progenitor and native genetic material were discovered to be
fundamentally compatible. They bred abominations so that they might
control the native life that so plagued them - and that was their ruin.

In the years since, the abominations have themselves become ambitious,
and some survivors have sunken to worshiping Chiron itself, begging for
salvation. Now is the time for us to bring the Word of the Lord to these
downtrodden, defeated people, and undo the evils their masters wrought!


The rules:

This is a SMAX scenario. I might eventually convert it to SMAC, but not yet.

Custom factions are included with this scenario. For best results, put
the .flc and .pcx files in your main Alpha Centauri directory, and don't
look at the .txt files.

Certain basic units are defined for the benefit of the AIs, and are not
for human use. These are: AI formers, AI sea formers, and the 2-move
spore launcher. If you can mind control some, you may use them, but you
may not ever build them.

No cheats/exploits/bugs that are disallowed in PBEMs.

If another faction owns the Voice of Planet, you may not build the Ascent to
Transcendence, until you rectify this (by infantry, planet buster, or whatever).

Two subtly different scenarios are included in the .zip file. Pick whichever seems appropriate.

I may yet tweak this scenario, based on feedback.


Some changes:
Specialists changed slightly.
Tech tree rearranged slightly.
SE settings changed somewhat.
High-powered weapons increased in cost.
Pulse armor removed because it's stupid and the AIs misuse it.
Copters substantially slowed.
Ships slightly sped up.
Certain special abilities are allowed on more units.
Dissociative Wave costs 50% more. Blink Displacer costs 4 times as much.
Lowered maintenance for Subsea Trunkline, Holo Theater, and Paradise Garden.
Increased maintenance for Hab Complex, Hab Dome, and Children's Creche.
Satellite, Children's Creche, and Ascent to Transcendence build costs increased.
Children's Creche is moved far back in the tech tree.
Mining platforms give +2 minerals before Adv Ecological Engineering, and +3 after.
Mines do not lower nutrient production.
Planet rating is more important in psi combat.
Psi attack and psi defense modules available much sooner.
Trance and Empath have less effect on psi combat.


Dream Twister

 

[Darsnan]

Scenario Name: U2 - Scenario for SMAX
SMAC/ SMAX: SMAX
Author: Mart
Date of original posting: 4/18/06
Original host site: Apolyton

U2 Scenario

No, you are not going to see Bono ordering his cloaked gravships against your bases.

This scenario is to test:
1) New pre-defined units.
2) Enhancing AI by traits in their factional files.

This new units and factional bonuses do not require any changes to files
of a player, since they are recorded in a game save file.

At this moment I tested the game to 2209. AI uses well the Unity Supply
Droids - no Secret Projects cashing. Also probe teams play quite a role.
So far I lost 3 bases to AI by probing, that I neglected on one of my
borders. Although I gave +50% defense, still the fight is not that
difficult, presently it is 8 (chaos) vs. 3 (plasma).

New Units

Probes
Probe Cruiser, Cruiser, Probe Team, Scout, 11, 0, 0, DocInit, -1, 00000000000000000000000000
Hover Probe, Hovertank,Probe Team, Scout, 11, 0, 0, NanoMin, -1, 10000000000000000000000000000
HP Probe, Hovertank,Probe Team, Psi, 11, 0, 0, Eudaim, -1, 10000000000000000000000000000
Marine Probe, Speeder, Probe Team, Scout, 11, 3, 0, DocInit, -1, 00000000000000000000000001000
Probe Sub, Foil, Probe Team, Scout, 11, 0, 0, DocInit, -1, 00000000000000000000001000000
Foil Probe, Foil, Probe Team, Scout, 11, 0, 0, DocInit, -1, 00000000000000000000000000000
Synth Probe, Infantry, Probe Team, Synthmetal,11, 0, 0, IndAuto, -1, 00000000000000000000000000000

Probe Cruiser
as in many other games

Hover Probe
algorithmic enhancement

HP Probe
Psi armor
algorithmic enhancement

Marine Probe
Amphibious pods, to enable this ability for probes, although indicated
as possible, standard alphax.txt has it off. Forced cost of 3 rows, AI
enhancement, so it can build it more frequently.

Probe Sub
Submersible, this makes submersible ability available with Doctrine
Initiative. Makes naval warfare more important. It also improves AI
against human factions.

Foil Probe
As addition to Probe Cruiser.

Synth Probe
Probe team on infantry chassis with synthmetal armor. Quite new test.

Supply
Trawler, Foil, Supply, Scout, 10, 3, 0, DocInit, -1, 00000001000000000000000000000
Unity Supply Droid, Infantry, Supply, Scout, 10, 1, 0, Disable, -1, 00000101000000000000000000000
Rover Supply, Speeder, Supply, Scout, 10, 0, 0, DocInit, -1, 00000000000000000000000000000

Trawler
Foil supply,
Repair bay for making it unique and forced cost of 3 rows. Makes
crawling sea for human player much cheaper. Emphasises naval element. I
do not know how AI would deal with it yet.

Unity Supply Droid
Slow and repair bay for unique features. Repair bay makes it
distinguishable for its scarlet cross. Forced 1 row cost and available
only by scenario editor.
An interesting help for human player in early turns.
Also AI can use it, if CMN does not want to give AI too much help in
early SP building. It's only 1/3 than a standard crawler gives. Already
tested, sometimes AI use it excellently by giving them crawling orders.
Often end up for SP building. Sometimes remain idle.

Rover Supply
As an experiment, if AI would do it, cost 6 rows, not forced.

Formers
Eco-Formers, Infantry, Formers, Scout, 9, 3, 0, BioEng, -1, 00000010000010000000000000000
SE-Formers, Infantry, Formers, Scout, 9, 4, 0, EcoEng2, -1, 00000010000010000000000000001

Eco-formers
High morale for uniquenes
Clean reactor, forced cost of 3 rows. It is here to help AI build it.

SE-formers
High morale for uniquenes
Super and Clean formers. forced cost of 4 rows.

Air units
Support Copter, Copter, Missile, Scout, 0, 0, 0, MindMac, -1, 00000000000000000000000000000
Falcon, Needlejet,Missile, Scout, 4, 0, 0, DocAir, -1, 00000000000000000000000100000
QG Needle, Needlejet,Quantum, Scout, 0, 0, 0, Gravity, -1, 00000000000000000010000000000
QG Copter, Copter, Quantum, Scout, 0, 0, 0, Gravity, -1, 00000000000000000010000000000
QG Gravship, Gravship, Quantum, Scout, 0, 0, 0, Gravity, -1, 00000000000000000010000000000

Support Copter
Attack 6, ground combat. To help AI, maybe even attack bases?

Falcon
Missile attack 6 fighter. help AI

QG units
To enable grav struts in air units.

Land combat units
Police Guard, Infantry, Gun, Scout, -1, 1, 0, Integ, -1, 00000010000000100000000000000
AA Team, Infantry, Laser, Scout, 1, 0, 0, MilAlg, -1, 00000000000000000000100000000
AA Rover, Speeder, Laser, Scout, 1, 0, 0, MilAlg, -1, 00000000000000000000100000000
AA Squad, Infantry, Gun, 3-Pulse, 2, 0, 0, MilAlg, -1, 00000000000000000000100000000
SAM Rover, Speeder, Missile, Scout, 1, 0, 0, DocAir, -1, 00000000000000000000000100000
AA Hover, Hovertank,Gun, Silksteel, 2, 0, 0, NanoMin, -1, 00000000000000000000100000000
WS Hover, Hovertank,Fusion, Scout, 0, 0, 0, SentEco, -1, 00011000000000000000000000000
BW Hover, Hovertank,Shard, Scout, 0, 0, 0, Matter, -1, 00010000000100000000000000000

Police guard
High morale and non-letheal methods police. Forced cost 1 row. AI does them too.

AA Team
anti-aircraft, laser, no armor

AA Rover
anti-aircraft, laser, no armor

AA Squad
anti-aircraft, gun, 3-pulse armor. typical defensive unit good against rovers too.
These 3 units are here to encourage AI for anti-aircraft defense. need better testing

SAM Rover
Air superiority, for counterstrike against air offensive

AA Hover
anti-aircraft, gun, silksteel armor.

WS Hover
Dissociative Wave
Sporific gas pods
Offensive unit for AI

BW Hover
Blink displacer
Dissociative Wave
Offensive unit for AI

Naval units
Escort Cruiser, Cruiser, Gun, Probability,6, 0, 0, Metal, -1, 00000000000000000000100000000
Escort Foil, Foil, Missile, Scout, 6, 0, 0, DocAir, -1, 00000000000000000000000100000
Heavy Sea Transport, Cruiser, Transport, Scout, 7, 0, 0, DocInit, -1, 00000000010000000000000000000
Carrier, Cruiser, Transport, Scout, 7, 0, 0, DocInit, -1, 00000000000000000000010000000
Sub-Carrier, Cruiser, Transport, Scout, 7, 0, 0, DocInit, -1, 00000000000000000000011000000

Escort Cruiser
Anti-aircraft with Probability sheath armor. To help AI against air attacks. needs testing

Escort Foil
SAM unit to take down planes. Possibly great help for AI.

Heavy Sea transport
For AI and also enables heavy ability.

Carrier
For transport of air units. This moves the ability to Doctrine Initiative to emphasise naval warfare.

Sub-Carrier
Submersible, As above. Possibly will help AI, if cares to make them. Needs testing.

Missiles

XX Missile, Missile, Conventional, Scout, 0, 0, 0, Orbital, 8, 00000100000000000000000000

This is a chemical missile

Factional enhancements for AI

+2 Support
SOCIAL, ++SUPPORT
This is to help AI with minerals. Possibly encourage larger military.

5% Interest
INTEREST, 5
The easiest way of giving AI a lot of energy. 5% is test. 12% for
Morgan makes him attempt to corner global energy market after around
70-80 years in the game. 8% is still a lot.

Defense 150%
DEFENSE, 150
To help AI better defend itself. Assaults on AI require now much better planning.

Technology cost 50%
TECHCOST, 50
AI can now research twice as fast

Special
All AI get
- build lots of colony pods
- build lots of formers
- build lots of probe teams

Note
This is possible to do in scenarios. Tech benefits can be removed, as
you can give starting techs manually, so the limit of 8 bonuses is
allright. Only 3 first bonuses are limited, techcost is not.

Starting conditions

AI:
- established base
- colony pod
- 2 scout patrols (Spartans unity rovers instead)
- 3 formers
- 6 unity supply droids (crawling pre-formed tiles)

Human:
- established base
- 2 scout patrols
- 1 former
- 2 unity supply droids (idle in the base)

Note
Established base is required, since crawlers need to be homed.

Download

 

[Darsnan]

Scenario Name: Aquarius - Scenario for SMAX
SMAC/ SMAX: SMAX
Author: Mart
Date of original posting: 4/11/06
Original host site: Apolyton

Pirates scenario.
AI factions are boosted.

Faction 1=PIRATES
Faction 2=GAIANS
Faction 3=HIVE
Faction 4=UNIV
Faction 5=MORGAN
Faction 6=DRONE
Faction 7=ANGELS

There are also new pre-defined units, so take a look in F1 screen.
Difficulty is that AI may attempt a victory condition you usually do not expect in this game period.
It is a save file only.
Have fun!

Download

 

[Darsnan]

Scenario Name: January SMAX SP Challenge
SMAC/ SMAX: SMAX
Author: Darsnan
Date of original posting: 1/2/06
Original host site: Apolyton

The righteous need not cower before the drumbeat of human progress.
Though the song of yesterday fades into the challenge of tomorrow, God
still watches and judges us. Evil lurks in the datalinks as it lurked in
the streets of yesteryear. But it was never the streets that were evil.

-- Sister Miriam Godwinson, "The Blessed Struggle"

Sister Miriam paused to reflect upon the lifetime of events that had led
her to these convictions. In her duties as the U.N. Honorary Psych
Chaplain for Re-integration Forces sent to countries decimated in the
Crusader Wars, she had been confronted time and again by whole peoples
and societies destroyed by the fabled Four Horsemen of the Apocalypse.
In the societies ravaged by War, it had been the new weaponry, spurred
by recent technological breakthroughs, that had caused untold, and in
some cases unexpectedly prolonged, damage in the areas they were used.
In other societies it had been Diseases, in one generation so easily
contained by the “miracle drugs” of science, yet only a few generations
later wreaking an untold havoc amongst those the drugs were no longer
effective against. In still others it was the natural disasters, often
occurring because the arrogance of man had proclaimed that the “levies
were safe”, or that the “super skyscrapers were impervious to
earthquakes”, or that “drought is no longer a problem in this desert”.
Untold times the proclamations had been made, only to be proven wrong in
stark and tragic consequences for those who had believed these false
prophets. Time and again in her capacity as Psych Chaplain Miriam had
been there to assist the survivors of the worst follies of men, and to
point them down the path of the One True Way. Some saw this as preying
upon the weak and needful. Miriam knew in her heart of hearts that these
accusers had never walked down the same war-shattered streets, never
seen the starving orphans, nor comforted those ravaged by the diseases
to which science now had no answer. No, it was not she who prayed upon
the weak, but rather it had been Science that had led people astray by
promises that couldn’t be kept!
Drawing strength from these inner reflections and experiences Miriam
returned to the present and the circumstances to which she and her
followers now found themselves in: marooned on a strange alien planet
with only the barest of necessities to survive, all contact with Earth
lost, and faced with the realization that somewhere out there on this
planet there were other Factions, some who would no doubt be openly
hostile to her. However, considering how quickly the Unity had been
destroyed, it was highly likely that most everyone else was in as bad a
shape as her True Believers were. This would be to her advantage, as
there would be those who would eagerly accept salvation from her
Missionary Units that from her previous experience she planned on
employing. And if there were those that resisted converting to the One
True Way? Well, Miriam had experience in dealing with these matters as
well…..
Miriam looked over the initial reports as to her current circumstances:
her followers had successfully landed on planet 4 Unity Formers, 4
Scouts, 4 Colony Pods, and a Transport Foil, all neatly landed in a
beautiful bay that would, with a little cultivation, prove to be an Eden
to her people.
The final report though filled her with a sense of unease to which she
couldn’t quite attach a reason to: her communications group indicated
that the Unity had survived planetfall as well (or at least part of it),
as the Unity’s beacon was broadcasting its current position, and it
wasn’t far off. Finally, after much meditation and prayer on the thought
Miriam arrived at a conclusion: the Unity was just another example of
how Science had led people astray, and then let them down. Yes, Miriam
thought to herself, just another reason not to trust Science and all of
its false promises. Miriam vowed to herself she would keep this in mind
in the coming years....


Welcome to the January SMAX SP Challenge! In this edition you will be
playing as the Believers. All victory conditions have been enabled.

Setup as follows:

1. In your SMACX Scenarios folder create a subfolder labeled "January Challenge".
2. Unzip the contents of the attached zip file into this folder.
3. Start SMAX, select "Play Scenario", and select the scenario included in the folder.
4. Once the game has started and to ensure that the game is working
properly hit F1 (Datalinks) and verify that Robotic Assembly Plants are
now available with Industrial Automation. If it is, then enjoy!

Please post your results/ observations/ comments into this thread.

And remember, when all else fails, praying can’t hurt...


D

Download

 

[Darsnan]

Scenario Name: Belated Winter Solstice 2005 Challenge
SMAC/ SMAX: SMAX
Author: Chaos Theory
Date of original posting: 2/23/06
Original host site: Apolyton

(for best results, copy the .pcx and .flc files to your main Alpha Centauri directory)

The story:
In 2145, Foreman Domai led a strike at Morgan Mines. It was brutally suppressed,
but Domai and some followers escaped, helped frequently by an unknown Sinder Roze.
Morgan put increasingly large bounties on Domai's head, but was cruelly taught that
money can't buy everything when shareholders in several major corporations withdrew
their support for Morgan. Two days later, he was arrested on charges of fraud.
Damning evidence surfaced, including some tapes Morgan swore under lie detection
were not of him. He was swiftly convicted and imprisoned, but while the business
world was distracted, Sinder Roze completed her takeover, and began transforming
Morgan's faction.

Domai eventually fled across the ocean, unaware he was no longer being pursued.
There, he founded a communist society, of the worker and for the worker. He
worked singlemindedly for the prosperity of his people until his death last year
of emphysema, perhaps triggered by poor working conditions among the Morganites,
or perhaps an unforseen complication of cryogenic sleep. You were installed as
the new leader, to carry on Domai's legacy and bring true communism to all of Planet.

Unfortunately, Domai was neither educated nor intelligent. You now know that
Domai made some very poor choices, and your research program is in shambles.
Even worse, rumors of weapon-bearing aliens are circulating amidst your drones.
Perhaps your old contact Sinder Roze can help?


The rules:
DO NOT .txt files besides readme.txt yet!

No cheats/exploits/bugs that are disallowed in PBEMs.

If another faction owns the Voice of Planet, you may not build the Ascent to
Transcendence, until you rectify this (by infantry, planet buster, or whatever).

Scattered across Planet are landmarks 1-8. If you have a land or naval unit
on a landmark, you may read its associated .txt file. You may use the scenario
editor to carry out instructions listed within. Only follow the instructions in each once per game.


Some changes:
Specialists changed slightly.
Tech tree rearranged slightly.
SE settings slightly changed.
High-powered weapons increased in cost.
Pulse armor removed because it's stupid and the AIs misuse it.
Artillery damage increased.
Copters substantially slowed.
Ships slightly sped up.
Certain special abilities are allowed on more units.
Dissociative Wave costs 50% more. Blink Displacer costs 4 times as much.
Lowered maintenance for Subsea Trunkline, Holo Theater, and Paradise Garden.
Increased maintenance for Hab Complex and Hab Dome.
Satellite and Ascent to Transcendence build costs increased.
Mining platforms give +2 minerals before Adv Ecological Engineering, and +3 after.
Mines do not lower nutrient production.

Download

 

[Darsnan]

Scenario Name: Challenge Scenario: Things that go Thump in the night
SMAC/ SMAX: SMAX
Author: Blake
Date of original posting: 10/30/05
Original host site: Apolyton

It's a scary post-apocalyptic world.

Right wing fundamentalists have inherited the earth. "Wait" you say,
weren't they supposed to ascend to heaven or something? Well… you should
see the other guy!

Actually, you'll be playing the other guy...

This scenario takes place on the Map of Earth, native life and raising
land are disabled (the jungles have interiors full of fungus to make you
do some clearing). Further note that you get the AI no drones thing
allowing you to forgo police or run FM early. Don't feel bad about
exploiting this, Miriam has +8 police among other bonuses .

Miriam has 3 very strong cores, one in the USA. Another at the bottom of
South Africa. A 3rd in Australia... each core has it's own HQ.

The other factions are all playable:
(They all start with an extra Colony Pod and Former)

The Gaians start in Canada, they have no meatshield between them and the
thumpers. They have a rubbish start too, I mean, Canada? No jungle for
the Gaians!
Difficulty: Unholy Hard.

The Peace Keepers have a nice desert in North Africa, they have the honor of being an ablative meatshield for other factions.
Difficulty: Extremely Hard.

The University starts in Russia, with no special terrain but lots of it
to expand into. They wont face the full brunt of Miriam’s attacks due to
the Peacekeepers and Hive.
Difficulty: Hard.

The Hive starts in China, it's a very nice start and if you hurry you
can even choke off the African Believers with a well placed base.
Difficulty: Moderate.

The Morganites start in South America; they have jungle to expand into
and the Spartans as an ablative shield. Of course the Spartan AI can't
be relied on to hold off the Believers for long so they'll need some
serious propping up.
Difficulty: Moderate.

The Spartans start at the top of South America; they have jungle to
expand into and can choke off the USA Believers. They share the jungle
with Morgan. Difficulty: Moderate.


Just because it's so easy to kill a giant rabid Miriam it's best to play with some self-imposed rules too:
1) No abusing crawler upgrade cash-in.
2) No reverse engineering probe teams.
3) No SE quickies or other blatant exploits/cheats like multiple drops.

Kill Miriam with HONOR!

Download

 

[Darsnan]

Scenario Name: Summer Solstice 2005 AI Challenge
SMAC/ SMAX: SMAX
Author: Chaos Theory
Date of original posting: 6/21/05
Original host site: Apolyton

Basic instructions: put all the files except the .pcx files in a
scenario subdirectory; put the .pcx files in the main Alpha Centauri
directory.

The situation: You, as Morgan, gathered your coterie first, composed of
the best and brightest accountants, lawyers, merchants, brokers, and
their ilk. You found a prime location to crash land upon, and promptly
set up shop. Business is good, of course, but the addition of some dumb
money would cause it to boom! Time to rip someone off! The sweetest form
of victory would be economic, but any victory is victory.

Changes:
More potent artillery
Ships move significantly faster
3-Pulse and 8-Pulse armors cheaper (cost of 4 and 9 respectively)
Noncombat units can be AAA
Probes can be amphibious
Fundamentalist and Power boosted
AI boosted quite a bit
Mines don't lower nutrient production
And more!

Rules: No stealing the Ascent to Transcendence! That is, you may not
build it if an AI possesses the Voice of Planet. If an AI builds the
VoP, you can still conquer, gas, buster, or otherwise pry that SP out of
their grasp, and then transcend. No peeking at the faction files before
giving the scenario a few tries! Anything else legitimate in a PBEM is
fine in this scenario - no cheating, but exploits like crawlers and
crawler upgrades are fine.

Any problems with the scenario - post here and I'll look into them. Too easy? I can tweak it. Too hard? Play it again!

Download

 

[Darsnan]

Scenario Name: Summer Solstice 2004 AI Challenge
SMAC/ SMAX: SMAX
Author: Chaos Theory
Date of original posting: 6/21/04
Original host site: Apolyton

5 factions successfully landed from the Unity: Morgan and his
cronies, Yang and his trusting laborers, Aki Zeta-5 and the remnants of
the Unity research crew, Svensgaard and the remnants of the Spartans,
and against all odds, Miriam and those in the damaged 7th landing pod.

Over the first twenty years on Planet, Morgan and Yang met and formed a
business alliance, with Morgan carefully developing Yang's laborers'
initiative without inducing any desire for freedom, and with Yang
training Morgan's followers in asceticism.

Svensgaard claimed the infinite seas and started preying on Morgan's
commercial transports. In return, Morgan has sent some decoy transports,
rigged to explode when boarded.

Miriam has decided that Yang and Aki Zeta-5 are abominations for their
inhumanity and must be wiped off the face of Eden. She's not too fond of
Morgan, either, for being a demon's ally. Svensgaard has carefully
avoided attacking Miriam's transports, content to not be a target of her
fanaticism.

Aki Zeta-5 has more or less carved out a peaceful niche for herself and
her followers, but now is threatened by Miriam. In response to that, she
has allied with Yang, on the principle that her enemy's enemy is her
friend.

In the year 2120, Foreman Domai in Laborer's Throng successfully
revolted against Yang's rule and formed the Free Drone faction. Although
the base was quickly reconquered, with nerve gas, Domai and his fellow
laborers fled to a remote region of Planet to found Utopia.

Domai views Aki Zeta-5 as dangerous, with her conflicting notion of
Utopia, but has found a friend in Svensgaard, a fellow freedom-lover.

Taking advantage of the disruption caused by Domai, Asa Wright, head of
Quality Assurance in Morgan Industries, capitalized on a plan she had
been working on since Planetfall. She and some fellow hackers stole all
of Morgan's technology and incited drones throughout his empire, while
smuggling out supplies with which to found a freer, more cooperative
society.

Roze's actions of course made enemies of both Yang and Morgan, but her
love of Democracy has drawn some of Miriam's wrath, as well.


You will play Roze, with the following turn order:
Miriam
Yang
Sven
Morgan
Aki
Domai
Roze


The modes of victory will be:
Transcendence (but only if the AI does not have the Voice of Planet - no stealing the win from the AI!)
Destroying what all of the other factions hold dear (this will be apparent in the scenario)
Diplomatic
Economic (but first you must crush Morgan)
Cooperative victory is disabled


Whenever you capture an enemy HQ, you have a choice:

1. Return it to its original owner, or
2. Let your probe teams go to town with mind control probes on the
faction leader who lives there. Burn down the base to complete the
ravaging of his mind. The victim will become unable to experience that
which he loves. The faction will hate you for the rest of its life, but
will (hopefully) fight less effectively from then on.


Thanks to Dilithium Dad for the Ultimate Builder Map which I tweaked for this scenario.


Other odd features:
The power graph is broken. You do have an aversion to power...
The AIs have new abilities, some secret, some not. Find out for yourself.

Edit: Updated challenge with fix to Roze's techshare ability and faction files.

Download

 

[Darsnan]

Scenario Name: Apolyton Game of the Month! Its Back Yippee!
SMAC/ SMAX: SMAC
Author: Jamski
Date of original posting: 5/19/04
Original host site: Apolyton

Yes, its back, the Apolyton Game of the Month!

To take part simply place the attached file in the scenarios folder of
your SMAC installation, and select "Play Scenario" from the main menu.

When you're done, post up your findings and results here using the

Spoiler :

tags and any tips for people getting hammered. There will of
course be the usual bragging rights for the ones getting the highest
scores and fastest wins, as well as the right to design the next GOTM
should they so wish.

As this is the May/June game, it will run at least till the end of June. Who says we can't have longer months?

About the May-June Game

If you'd rather be surprised, stop reading now!

The Unity had enough escape pods for every faction to have two for the
emergency landing on Planet. Unfortunately the pods launched from the
starboard side of the ship had their nav-consoles scrambled, and landed
on the wrong side of Planet's central ocean, the Mittelmer Sea.

Each faction has two pods, placed opposite each other on a (very
roughly) doughnut shaped continent, sandwiched between aggressive
neighbours. In order to dominate Planet, the best action leaders will
find a way to join the two halfs of their factions as soon as possible.

All normal rules are in effect, the difficulty is Transcend, and the
starting faction is the University. Unfortunatly both of your colony
teams thought the other team had the free tech, so it got lost
somewhere.

As mentioned by Obstructor - this is a SMAC game. Playing it in SMAX
will get some strange results, which you can read about here in this
thread.

Have fun, and watch out for the mindworms!

-Jam

Spoiler :

Download

 

[Darsnan]

Scenario Name: ACDG4 Game One: The Sword of the Righteous
SMAC/ SMAX: SMAC
Author: Darsnan
Date of original posting: 10/14/06
Original host site: Apolyton

Backdrop1

In MY 2189 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 2201 the first fleet of scoutships were built and sent out with a
mandate to investigate all of the habitable planets catalogued in the
ancient Progenitor ships start charts. The results of the expeditions
were mixed: some scoutships returned with exciting news of “Eden-class”
planets, while other scouts returned telling tales of planets who had
degraded over the eons. Still other scouts failed to return at all….
By MY2223 the “Great Diaspora of Man” had begun in earnest, with
spaceships being built poste-haste by all the Factions, and sent out
with the soul purpose of colonizing far-flung worlds. It was a race to
“get there first”, and to report back that the targeted world had been
claimed for their Parent Faction.

One unintended side effect that the “Diaspora of Man” had was that this
continual manpower drainage weakened the Parent Factions that existed on
Alpha Centauri’s Planet, with the end result being that the Peace
Keepers were able to unite all of the Factions under their banner in
MY2249. But with their dream of uniting Planet fulfilled, the Peace
Keepers then almost immediately turned their ambitions to the stars, and
of uniting all the far-flung colonies of Man under the Peace Keeper
banner as well. Much thought and energy was put into this: emissaries
were sent far and wide across the realms of Man cataloguing the various
civilizations that were developing, and documenting what adversaries
might come to pass, and how it might be best to deal with each
accordingly.
The Peace Keepers, heeding the advice of their emissaries amongst the
stars, formulated a plan that was still in essence the core of their
creed, while laying the framework to advance their new ambitions of
interstellar conquest: to offer themselves on the behalf of the
downtrodden, and when necessary to “protect” these peoples from
aggressor states. Their emissaries and diplomats preached this mantra
wherever they traveled across the galaxy, allowing those who heard it to
interpret it as they might, and planting the seed of thought that the
Peace Keepers would come to their assistance if they were threatened.
The Peace Keepers waited, and watched, and prepared themselves for the day when someone would ask for help….


Backdrop 2

Planet MY2254-443 had somehow slipped through the cracks. Although it
was geographically “right around the corner” from the Alpha Centauri
solar system, it had not been one of the planets documented in the
recovered Progenitor starlogs, and so had been passed over for
colonization during the first phases of human expansion. An experimental
Gaian Terraforming starship had accidentally stumbled onto the planet
during its maiden voyage in MY2252. The crew scanned the planet and
determined that it had once been a Progenitor colony, as there were
still many Progenitor artifacts and ruined cities scattered across the
surface. After documenting the status of the planet, the Gaian
expedition continued with their original mission and began the
terraforming process by seeding the planet with kelp and trees, and
established a small colony to monitor and oversee the process.
The Gaians, always concerned about the destruction that Man always
seemed to wrought on the ecologies He encountered, tried to keep this
planet a secret from the rest of humanity, and so did not publicly
acknowledge that they had discovered a new habitable world. However the
Morganites, possibly through the use of spy software inserted into the
entertainment packages they had sold to the Gaian explorers, learned of
the planets location. The Morganites, always shrewd businessmen,
realized that a) since the planet wasn’t officially registered, that
they could claim finders fees (even though they had never stepped foot
on the planet!), and b) once the planet was registered, they could
pocket even more money by selling sections of the planet to several
different Splinter Factions, as opposed to trying to sell the whole
planet to one Splinter group. Thus it came to pass that Splinter
Factions of the Believers, University, Spartans, and Hive came to settle
various regions of the planet. In one final brutal act of legal
manipulation the Morganites, after filing claim to the planet, had the
authorities declare the original Gaian terraformers as “illegal
settlers” on the planet they had founded, and seized the Gaian’s
terraforming stations. They then expelled the Gaians from the planet.
There are rumors that a few Gaians are still on the planet, but if its
true, they are few in numbers, and keep mostly to themselves….

Premise

After settling the planet that came to be called “Sanctuary” in MY2261,
the various Splinter Factions almost immediately fell into conflict. The
University, using their superior technology and weaponry, initiated a
brutal war of conquest against their neighbors the Believers. Begun in
MY2271, the University continually used their technological edge to push
the Believers back. However in MY2285, almost in desperation, the
Believers nominated a peasant girl named Joan to lead their remaining
forces. Joan had claimed to have had a vision of defeating the
University on the field of battle and leading her people to glory and
victory in Gods name. To the surprise of many this prophecy was born
out, as Joan went against every military convention and led her force
directly between two University Armies, and, before the University
commanders could recover from this unexpected military maneuver, Joan
struck and destroyed first one Uni army, and then wheeled to face the
now much smaller remaining Uni force. The Uni’s fell back in confusion.
Joan pursued, and now aided by captured Uni equipment which put them on
an equal footing tech-wise, were able to defeat the remaining Uni field
armies at Agincourt. The University leadership, realizing their cause
was lost, surrendered the following year.
Meanwhile the Spartan Splinter Faction had fallen into conflict with
their neighbors, the Hive. A war of attrition that ended up resembling
the trench warfare of World War 1 ensued, with neither Faction making
any headway in the early years. However as time progressed the Hive,
understanding its strength was also the Spartans weakness, began to mass
produce units with the idea of simply wearing down the Spartans. The
Spartans for their part also recognized this, and in an astonishing turn
of events appealed to the Believers to intervene on their behalf. The
now defacto leader of the Believers, Joan d’Arc, agreed to assist the
Spartans against the atheistic Hive, and almost immediately began
augmenting the Spartan units with her own already battle seasoned units.
With this turn of events the Morganites, who had thus far followed the
mantra that war is bad for business and had stayed out of the conflicts
on this planet, saw the prevailing winds turn in favor of the Believers
and Spartans at this time, and closed their borders to the Hive. In what
many believe to be a contrived event, the Morganites then claimed a
border violation by the Hive, and requested Believer assistance, which
then allowed the Believers to base aggressor units in Morganite
territory along the previously neutral Hive flank. In little more than
five years the Hive Splinter Faction went from winning its war against
the Spartans, to fighting for its very survival against the rest of the
planet. In these most desperate times the Hive remembered the promise
the Peace Keepers had made some years ago that they would come to the
aid of those threatened by “aggressor states”. It is now MY2299.

The Game

The Hive Splinter Faction on Sanctuary has contacted you asking for
assistance. They have asked that you place Peace Keeper units into
“Observation Posts” along its borders, in order to establish a buffer
between themselves and the other warring Splinter Factions. In return
the Hive have offered you the services of several cities in which to
base your operations from, which they state should also be considered as
part of the buffer zone between themselves and the “aggressor states”,
meaning it is your responsibility to keep the warring factions apart.
Because of Sanctuary’s proximity to Alpha Centauri the Peace Keeper
leadership realize that this is an ideal situation in which to inject
the Peace Keepers into, with the end goal being of adding this world to
the Peace Keeper fold. And so while your “official mandate” is to keep
the peace by separating the warring factions, your unofficial goal is to
bring the various Splinter Factions under sway. To that end you have
been given units that are technologically superior to those already
existing on Sanctuary, but not overly so. You have been given standard
Peace Keeper Police Units in order to carry out your mandate. But so
what if your troop transports are overly armed and armored and resemble
tanks more than cargo carriers, and that your “counter-battery” units
are far superior to any ordinance in existence on this planet? Its not
like these few units would ever be expected to conquer a whole planet,
right?

As your units disembark from their planetary drop pods and assume their
posts on Sanctuary you chance to catch a local broadcast: the local
Believer Splinter Faction is incensed by the arrival of your Peace
Keeping units, and is accusing the Hive of “striking a deal with the
devil” by allowing Peace Keeper forces to intercede on their behalf. The
Hive response is tepid at best, and you begin to realize that this
Hiverian leader does not possess the same fortitude that Yang always had
in the face of adversity, and that this Hive leader may already be
rethinking whether it was a wise decision to involve the Peace Keepers
in this “local squabble”….


This is a SMAC game. Standard everything. AIs enhanced considerably via
factional editing, base placement, and units available via the default
available units.


Directions: download the attached file and unzip into your scenarios
folder. Start SMAC, select "Scenario/ Play Scenario", and choose the
attached game (SotR). The game will then automatically start as the
Peace Keepers.

Good luck to the ACDGers!


Note: for those who wish to download and play this game as an SP
Challenge: please feel free to do so. However please refrain from
posting any results/ observations in this thread.

Download