SMAC better than Civ3?

[pim9555]

No flame or nothing guys, just an oppinion


Anyone else still play SMAC?


I just installed it yesterday and let me tell ya....... WOW

This has got to be the greatest game i have ever played. But can it compare to civ 3? What do you guys think? In my oppinion SMAC is difinatly deeper than civ3 and i think its just a bit better. but im glad i have both

 

[Sargon of Akkad]

It's definitly deeper. And yes! It is much better in terms of playability in my opinion.

 

[shogoh]

I played Civ II, SMAC, then CIV III and in my opinion SMAC is the best of the three.

First, I like the setting. There's an awesome feeling in the game. I love the alien setting, futuristic technologies and ideas. I absolutely love the quotes when they present the technologies you acquire. "Eternity lies ahead of and behind, have you drunk your fill?"...
SMAC also had movies which are missing in CIV III.

The music is awesome and the graphics are quite good (it even has a 3d map that CIV III doesn't). Some people don't like the sci-fi setting. But then, a strategy game isn't really all about the setting, it's much deeper than that.

SMAC has everything CIV I, CIV II, and CIV III have although CIV III has some new stuff like culture and map resources.

I feel that CIV III is a "dumbed down" version of SMAC in terms of gameplay. First, the tech tree has really been simplified. In SMAC, you have about 80 technologies advances which are interrelated. In CIV III, it's more like 4 tech trees of about 20 technologies. You also have more buildings and wonders (called secret projects). You can also design your own units. Tired of getting your workers (terraforms in SMAC) killed? Build some with the best armor available (for the right price of course).

You can do almost anything to the terrain with your terraforms (workers). You can level it, add ore remove fungus, etc.

In SMAC, you also have society models, which act a bit like governments but they are much more complex than that.

You also have a story with unique factions. Each faction has it's own personality. There's the faction that researches technologies, the faction that likes to build military units, etc. You can randomize the personalities among the factions if you want (so you don't know how they will act). Also, like in CIV III, each faction has it's own bonuses.

CIV III does not offer any improvement in terms of inteface or strategy elements. It's a dumbed down version of SMAC with a historic setting!


SMAC forever!

 

[swooper]

whats SMAC it rings a bell

 

[The Last Conformist]

The only things from SMAC I really miss in Civ III are Social Engineering and the 3D terrain. And the Planet Busters of course, but we couldn't have that in a historical setting. (For the the unSMACked of you, Planet Busters are a kind of uber-nukes that doesn't merely destroy the city they hit, but the ground below too. The most powerful variant leaves a 9x9 tiles lare crater.)

The custom unit design was a great idea, but the implementation was pretty bad IMO. The only land units you ever really built was the speeder/hovertank with max weapon and no armor and the infantry with hand weapons and max armour, plus the nastiest special abilities available. Sure, there were some interesting possibilities (aircraft with the psi attack, cruisers with espionage abilities, flying colony pods, f'rinstance) but these seldom had much impact, and the AI was too dumb even to copy your own successful designs.

Unless Culture doesn't figure in your Civ III strategies, surely Civ III does add strategy elements that SMAC lacked. And surely any game in which global warming cannot cause the sea level to rise by several thousand meters have something goin for it (and just why did the SMAC AI love the raise the sea level on purpose?).

All that said, I do love SMAC. I only find Civ III even better.

 

[Lefty Scaevola]

smacx is my favorite.
Civ3 is somewhat more realistic than civ2 for the reasons many people dislike it: The corruption, city flipping etc, make it impossible to build world wid empires.

 

[kundor]

Originally posted by swooper
whats SMAC it rings a bell

Ermm...look at the name of the forum you're in, and add Sid Meier

Anyway, I really like Civ3, especially the resources. But I still play smac mp a lot, because civ3 doesn't have it...and smac mp is the best around! I also really like the feel of the game, the story, and all the customizability in terms of governments, units, etc, and the pretty good ai.

 

[Talar]

Don't be so harsh on civ3. There's a new patch coming out on friday, and when at last we get the multiplayer patch I think it will be able to compete with ??? years old games like SMAC and civ2

 

[VitalyB]

Don't be so harsh on civ3.

Whew, you stopped me from being one.

Alright, w/o being harash, Firaxis lost my affection to them for SMAC with this horrible Civ3 product. Civ1 was innovative, Civ2 was cool, SMAC/X was amazing, Civ3 makes you boggle about what ya missed.

And I waited for Civ3 so long .

 

[Ogie Oglethorpe]

SMAC light years in front of CIV3. (OK only about 1.6 light years but still)

SMAC is a game for those interested in a complex yet rich gaming experience

CIV3 is a game IMHO done to rope in a new generation of players. Agressive AI but not so complex.

For long term replayability SMAC by far. For initial appeal and turn onto TBS gaming style CIV3.

My preference SMAC!!!!!!

 

[bvd]

I could name dozens of worthwhile features in SMAC not present in Civ III. The developers of SMAC did not want to add so much "unneeded" depth not only due to the unavoidable micromanagement issues, but also because Civilization takes a starkly different approach; terms like "design workshop", "base operation status" and "social engineering" do not smack of things that should be included in something that plays out history, starting in primeval times, in game-form.

Though based on a storyline, it is so much more open-ended. And there is a least an attempt at a scenario editor and multiplayer support (which is now defunct). Civilization III, on the other hand, is beta-quality trash that will soon be relegated from the shelves to the dusty bargain-bins (and deservedly so).

AI'm righting this, Spartans, laden with their photon walls and chaos guns, have declared war and landed on my main continent, destroying one of my supply crawlers. I'll show them! I already have ten hover-tanks deployed along with twenty-or-so needlejets in a nearby carrier - and a planet-buster on standby...

 

[Terje]

I totally agree with VitlityB. Civ3 was a GREAT disappointment to me, I was hoping for it to be much more like SMAC, but no, it was even worse than Civ1 (which was probably a good game when it was new, but not in comparzation with Civ2). I may not like Civ3 because I always lose, but I didn't like it when it worked out for me either. So, in my opinion, SMAC is much, much, much, much better!

 

[Chairman Yang]

There should be a poll about this.

SMAC rules! Civ3 sucks! (in comparison)

 

[smalltalk]

Well, ahem, you wouldn't expect a lot of CivIII defenders in a SMAC forum, would you?

It's kind of a biased sample.

EDIT: forgot to say, SMAC is awesome.

 

[spycatcher34]

LoL true but you cant get a very fair opnion anywhere.

 

[YNCS]

Originally posted by The Last Conformist
The custom unit design was a great idea, but the implementation was pretty bad IMO. The only land units you ever really built was the speeder/hovertank with max weapon and no armor and the infantry with hand weapons and max armour, plus the nastiest special abilities available. Sure, there were some interesting possibilities (aircraft with the psi attack, cruisers with espionage abilities, flying colony pods, f'rinstance) but these seldom had much impact, and the AI was too dumb even to copy your own successful designs.

One custom design I always use is Speeder Formers. They cost most than regular formers, but the ability to move and terraform in the same turn is worth it. When I get hovertanks, I quit making Speeder Formers and start making Hover Formers. They can move onto rough terrain and terraform in the same turn.

 

[Shirastro]

You still build teraformes when you get the hover tanks ?!

 

[YNCS]

Yes.

I continue expanding until the end of the game or until I hit the 256 city limit. New cities mean terraformers. Besides, after I get maglev I connect all my cities on the same land mass with maglevs. Each line requires several formers doing nothing but building maglevs.

 

[The Last Conformist]

Originally posted by Ogie Oglethorpe
SMAC light years in front of CIV3. (OK only about 1.6 light years but still)

Alpha Centauri is ~4.3 light years away.

That's about 1.32 parsecs - could that be the figure you were thinking of?

 

[SideshowBob]

This thread made me realize how much I miss SMAC. I have to see if I can get it to work on my new computer. SMAC was a long lasting experience. CIVIII was an experience too - the first time - but oh what a disappointment it was in the long run.