If Alpha Centauri 2 would ever Release

[Darsnan]

What happened to the space strategy genre? Alpha Centauri and Imperium Galactica II were my two favorite ever games

The "Deadlock" and "Cyberstorm" series were pretty good games in this genre as well. But you are right - there has been nothing in this niche for quite some time now. Absoultely amazing that no gaming marketeer has picked up on this!

I seriously hate EA for stealing the rights to Alpha Centauri, why cant they just release them back to Sid and Firaxis now?

Its all about money. And since it doesn't look like Firaxis is getting the rights anytime soon, then a different approach for an AC2-like game might be to exclude the Alpha Centauri solar system and its IP-connected theme altogether. Say around 2150 (i.e. well after the Unity has left our solar system) an ancient derelict spaceship is discovered out on the fringes of our solar system. While heavily damaged (in fact it is still glowing with radiation, even after an estimated 20,000 years adrift), the ships navigational charts are salvagable. It is also discovered that the ship utilized wormholes in order to traverse between solar systems, and that this technology can be reverse-engineered into our spacecraft.
Since it is now Corporations that in effect run daily life on Earth, it is the Corporations that spearhead the drive to the stars, and push for contact with the various star systems catalogued in the derelict spaceships databanks. Caution is thrown aside as the various Corporations compete to "get there first" to the various star systems, and be the first to claim whatever prizes await them. However in all the catalogued star systems they then visit, all they find are the remnants of civilizations long gone: something very bad obviously happened circa 20,000 years ago.
The Corporations, seeing Earth's ecology collapsing due to overpopulation and its effects, then turn to colonization, and start shipping (at a profit) as much of the populace as possible to other solar systems, where they go about setting up the equivalence of 22nd century fiefdoms.
As the newly colonized planets are explored artifacts start turning up shedding more light on whatever happened to the civilizations that lived on these planets 20,000 years ago. And then a strange thing starts to happen: people start disappearing on the various newly colonized planets. And then the spaceships stop coming to your planet, and your hyperlink to Earth goes dead. You and the other Corporation fiefdoms that have set up shop on this world are now on your own. You will have to re-establish your technology, deal with the other Corporations (sometimes openly hostile towards you because of corporate ideological differences), and figure out what is happening to your colonists that keep disappearing.

So, to summarize:

1. Alpha Centauri completely cut out of the picture (in fact there are no wormholes that connect to Alpha Centauri, so they are on their own): no Factions, no PlanetMind, no NL, no IP conflict.

2. Corporations (which have fundamental differences) spearhead the colonization of various habitable worlds. Players would assume the leadership of one such corporate head to start the game.

3. Communications with Earth and everyone else is lost. No explaination is given as to what caused this, but it is linked to item 4.

4. Something is preying on your colonists. As the game progresses it becomes apparent that 20,000 years ago there was a huge war engulfing this section of the galaxy, and at that time someone came up with a nannite-based weapon to mindcontrol enemy soldiers. Something then went wrong with these nannites, and they started preying on everyone at the time, destroying civilizations on every planet that they spread to, and in the end overwhelming and destroying all civilizations in this quadrant. Once your colonists started exploring the ruins on your planet, they became infected with these nannites, and the cycle starts again......

So it ain't Alpha Centauri 2, but heah, its an idea that nicely gets around the IP-conflict issue.


P

 

[Cmcastl]

Problem with GalCiv 2 which puts me off is that, unlike MOO3, there isn't automatic search by colony ships for colonisable planets. A Galactic Emperor can't devote himself to searching for colonisable planets along with all his other concerns!

MOO3 is still the greatest space strategy game ever devised, along with SMAC. I do hope there will be an MOO4 and a new SMAC but I doubt it. Films and games these days are made for those who do not have the attention span to play strategy, unlike the esteemed gamesters who subscribe to this forum!

Live long and prosper.

 

[DJ Bonebraker]

Actually, the second closest star system to Earth is Sirius (~7 LY distant), so perhaps a "Sirius Project" for the sequel maybe?

....Especially considering that the Sirius system is a medium-large white star with only a white dwarf (which, IIRC is about as far from the main star as Neptune) secondary, which would make it more likely to have earth-like planets.... I've actually been working on a Sci-Fi story of my own where just that scenario is an actuality (although the earth-like double-planet system of Jarofu and Karofu is already inhabited by a highly advanced inter-steller civilization and is also the capitol of an inter-steller federal republic)....

 

[Lord Kid]

I think a good continuation of the story should play out from the Transcendence victory. Obviously not everyone on the planet is going to want to become a part of a planetary lifeform, so realizing they were not going to be able to stop it, they left before it happened. The Gaians would be the most likely faction to go for the Transcendence, so they could be the new planet/human hybrid faction, and they branch out from Planet, possibly using more organic methods. In the end, you have another planet being settled by humans, perhaps another in the AC system, and then the "Gaians" show up as well to expand theire influence. The humans already there no doubt would have seperated into different factions due to differing idealogies, so there would be a multitude of playable races. With updated graphics and all the wonder from the original, this could be a major winner.

 

[Raven Destroyer]

maybe a multi layered system you start on the planet then when space travel is able you build ships and slowly you get more range and being more able to work outside of the planet i know it will take much to be worked from but it makes a briliant game you could ease the space part with orbital spaceship building satellites and that you only can plot a course

 

[Cmcastl]

How about three habitable plants in the system, including asteroids? You could have all the dense texture of coloney building with proper space battles with the other factions.

Live long and prosper.

 

[truth is life]

Actually, the second closest star system to Earth is Sirius (~7 LY distant), so perhaps a "Sirius Project" for the sequel maybe?

....Especially considering that the Sirius system is a medium-large white star with only a white dwarf (which, IIRC is about as far from the main star as Neptune) secondary, which would make it more likely to have earth-like planets.... I've actually been working on a Sci-Fi story of my own where just that scenario is an actuality (although the earth-like double-planet system of Jarofu and Karofu is already inhabited by a highly advanced inter-steller civilization and is also the capitol of an inter-steller federal republic)....

Difficulty is a white dwarf in the system means that either there were massive gravitational perturbations a while ago when it got captured (so any then-habitable planets probably aren't), or that one of the stars turned into a red giant, which is even worse as far as any habitable planets go.

A more likely choice would be the next-nearest Sun-like stars, Epsilon Eridani or 61 Cygni.

 

[Cmcastl]

The original AI of SMAC-X is still excellent, though Planetfall has done a very good job of translation into the terms of Civ IV. But what I would like to see, ideally, is a grafting of the excellant graphics of Civ IV onto the original SMAC-X AI. Feasible?

Live long and prosper.

 

[Matt the Czar]

The thing about a linear sequel is that almost nobody would know what's it about. My plan:
Get it from EA (nearly impossible), make updated rerelease (smac+smax), come out with true sequel.

 

[MilesBeyond]

Two big things that I'd like to see:

1. Graphical improvements. I'm not saying make the game look as pretty as possible, but it would be nice for us to be able to check out our bases with every new facility. Might take a fair bit of artwork as I assume many would look different for every faction, but it would be cool at least.

2. Culture mechanic. It doesn't have to be like in Civ, but I when I set out to create a futuristic utopia, I want that to be represented in the game, darn it! I'd like to be able to have a faction that ensures that beauty and the human creative spirit is not lost in the harsh new world, a faction that creates art and revels in freedom and vitality and in doing so causes other factions to slowly lose populace to defection. Especially if I can reach the point where my faction is so enlightened that everyone on Planet defects en masse, leaving the other factions with no choice but to surrender (i.e. a Cultural victory).

To me, that would be the icing on the cake. Right now I fluctuate back and forth between Civ IV and SMAC, but those two, especially the second, would make SMAC far and away the best.

The other thing that I personally would like to see is Civ IV style maintenance. I know this might be controversial, but to be honest I just find ICS so... tedious. Especially later in the game, when you're just mindlessly clicking through build queues.

 

[BFG]

4. Something is preying on your colonists. As the game progresses it becomes apparent that 20,000 years ago there was a huge war engulfing this section of the galaxy, and at that time someone came up with a nannite-based weapon to mindcontrol enemy soldiers. Something then went wrong with these nannites, and they started preying on everyone at the time, destroying civilizations on every planet that they spread to, and in the end overwhelming and destroying all civilizations in this quadrant. Once your colonists started exploring the ruins on your planet, they became infected with these nannites, and the cycle starts again......P

That sounds remarkably like the Replicators from Stargate:SG1.

Which reminds me...I never did check to see how the Stargate conversion of Alpha Centauri came out.

 

[poom3619]

I for one who will love to see Civ-style game playing on more than a map in same game (A la Civ II Fantasy campaign which I never played) Like going to Planet B and C (if the planet everyone landed first is called Planet A) by creating a spaceship to Planet B and C.

and it would be very interesting if anyone can start on ANY planet, thereby colonist on B will have different tech tree from A, and if a colonist from A settled on B. They will have to research Planet B's tech to grow. There should be also different "native" for each planet. Which would greatly enhance replayabillity.

Well, I think I envisioned something that suppose to be in expansion of a game that I don't sure that will exist, and it is my opinion. So I don't mind if anyone is against it.

 

[AdamCrock]

I have once stumbled on a game of such complex ! Sadly I do not remember the name. But let me tell You ! Planetary management will blow Your management skills to high heaven and beyond ! All I need is a spaceship with the abillity to invade without penalty (I would sure show those puny earthlings what I mean ! xD)