new to the game

[tuga2112]

hello all. i just bought alpha centauri with crossfire on the soldout series.

i would like to have the experts to lead me on the basic yet not very obvious things of the game.

just like in civ1 when you start to play you think "shields all the way" and onse you learn to play you get the idea "arrows all the way" i never played this game before but i have been playing civ since 1993 (i was 5 back then lol) soo... im familiar with the kind. soo any tips ? i know this factions do affect the gameplay unlike on civ any recomendations ?

 

[bdanv]

the class started here, but i run out of students.
would you care to join?

 

[tuga2112]

i dont think i need such a "noobish" tuturial, i mean i have played civ 1, 2 ,3 (and i got 4 in ther box but cant be bothered to install since 3 was such a disapointment.) so i get the main idea of the game but i will post questions there for sure

thing is. dont expect me to ask questions like "how to play in window" your answer there was not good enough actually, since you can add to the targuet the command "- window" and im pretty sure it will work, you can also resise that i use it for warcraft 3 and works smooth XD

 

[bdanv]

ok. sorry for assuming you're a "noob". it seems you're actually looking for something like Vel's Guide.
i hope you'll find this link useful, as this is the fourth version of the guide and you can find it only there.

i will post questions there for sure

you can do that here

...since you can add to the targuet the command "- window" and im pretty sure it will work, you can also resise that i use it for warcraft 3 and works smooth XD

please try it and let us know if it works for you. i'm still learning new things about this game (after all those years).

 

[Buster's Uncle]

Well, I'm sure you've done the in-game tutorial, and you probably thought to do a lot of reading in the datalinks... I played AC for quite a while before I got a copy of Civ II; I found the gameplay quite simular.

However, you might want to try the easy beginner's faction here http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=8111695&postcount=14


...Or not. It's difficult to answer such an open-ended question, especially when being beginners at SMAC is so far in the past for some of us. More specific questions should yeild more answers.

The first thing I do is start exploring (pop pods, especially), build a former (road/forest: forest slowly spread on their own, saving you a lot of work later) and work on establishing new bases. Basic Civ stuff.

Hope that helps.

 

[tuga2112]

well you see the game is still in the box im gonna install it now. i just got back from a business trip and i posted that on the company pc, im finally at home but for a start that detail about florests growing on theyr own is something i wouldnt expect.

i will put out more questions as they arrise. i understand its hard to answer my base question since there is so much in the game. i am teachig a friend how to play colonizqation and i find it that everytime i think i have explained everything there was to explain on the bases he sends me his save file and i see another series of details that i have forgotten to tell him.

as i said the game is still in the box. but i got the idea that former is the same as a settle XD maybe making some "direct" comparisons with civ would be helpfull to me.

 

[Buster's Uncle]

Well, the terrain improvement and new base functions of the CivII settler got separated into (terra)formers and colony pods for AC...

 

[GooglyBoogly]

I recommend you apply my datalinks patch before you begin, since the SMAC(X) datalinks are flat-out wrong in some cases

 

[tuga2112]

thx for the tip. im currently struggling to get the expancion to work properly but i have played a game without the expantion, i didnt even finished it but i was tecnologically more advanced than everyone else, had the biggest landmass and things look good, although the terraforming "tactic" is still i struggle with a bit, i made a city in a crater cus i read on wikipedia it said craters were good for cityes but i dont think the diference is that big.

i found out that the suply cars are really usefull to boost up a targuet city prodution,grow or energy but i havent found out how to deactivate the suply chain they give.

very interesting tactic im planning to put on practice is a city in the sea just getting food and energy and a city in the ground focosed on mining with enough suply pods i might be able to create a city of maxsize without even need for farms on the area.

just as a side observation to end the post. i LOVE the creation of the new units. i can customise then in a way to make then cheaper and still with the strong points im looking for. the same way in civ1 i used to have 2 catapuls on a city and 1 phalanch i can create units to suit my stile of playing. it gets cheaper to have defences without movement rate and atk units without defence rate. there is loads of diferent combinations to make on that, and i love it XD