Before-I-Play questions

[rkade8583]

1. Do I need to play SMAC or can I play SMAX with SMAC races? What I mean is without the aliens in play, does the game break?
2. Are there any major bugs/exploits/what have you for me to avoid?
2b. What patches should I download? I have both SMAC and SMAX
3. How's the AI? What should I expect from them? Spazzy Civ2? Snazzy Better BTS AI? GalCiv2 OMG?

Thanks a ton in advance.

 

[Ari Rahikkala]

1. I actually prefer SMAX with SMAC factions, and it works perfectly well. It's sort of weird to have some techs like progenitor psych and all the resonance stuff in the game when the aliens aren't around, but nothing will actually break.

2. Well, it is an old and somewhat buggy game. Crashes maybe once per ten hours or play or so for me (I'm using the Linux version though), so don't use the ironman game option and just let the game autosave for you. I don't know about exploits, Vel's guide broke the game so hard that you can soundly beat the AI down using just developer-intended game mechanics.

3. Pretty much Civ2-level. In particular, don't look to the AI for advice about terraforming.

 

[rkade8583]

Civ2 level? That's... depressing, actually.

 

[Petek]

Regarding patches, you should download the Alien Crossfire v2.0 update and the SMAC Win 2000/XP update from this site. Install the Crossfire update first, then the Win 2k/XP update. You should install the Win 2k/XP update even if you're running some other version of Windows.

As Ari said, the AI is pretty lame once you learn the game. Players get around these limitations by role-playing, modding the AI to make it stronger, playing other mods or going to multiplayer games against human opponents. If you get to the point where the AI no longer challenges you, please post again and we can make specific suggestions about these options. Or just post again if you have any other questions.

 

[rkade8583]

Will do. It'll probably take me a long time to beat the computer, even if it is Civ2 quality. You gotta learn the game, you know?

 

[vyeh]

When the game gets too easy, there are the enhanced factions for AI's in SMAniaC.