SMAC Espionage.

[Tzar]

One thing I find particularly mind blowing is; - If SMAC was made before CivIII, than who's the misery guts who apparently failed to notice the painfully protrusive difference in the espionage between those 2 games? -- Why, why had he/she to much up a comfotrably good part of CivIII by not choosing to make a wider Espionage missions' options?

Going ape****, calming down... sorry guys, I had to make that point!

 

[The_Doughboy]

SMAC has espionage similar to Civ II, but in CIV III they limited Espionage a lot by making it only affect cities, no more Unit subversion which was a huge AI stumble block (Well for everyone else maybe)

I feel SMAC has a great espionage system, its fun and a lot of advances and options and improvements, Civ III is just more balanced and easier for the AI to handle.

 

[CrackedCrystal]

Yeah, I agree the unit subversion is too powerful for a human player vs. computer. I also think they simplified the espionage to make it easier for causal players. Lots of people were turned off by SMAC's complexity. The Civ series is much more sraight forward.

 

[spycatcher34]

Espinoage/Diplomacy is 10 times greater than that in Civ3. They goofed big time by leaving out the simplest of ideas more like being able to intervene in a war between two AIs...

 

[Eklektikos]

Originally posted by spycatcher34
Espinoage/Diplomacy is 10 times greater than that in Civ3. They goofed big time by leaving out the simplest of ideas more like being able to intervene in a war between two AIs...

IIRC did the AI not almost always accede to requests to stop beating up on your buddies? It would have worked better if the SMAC AI wasn't so darn gullible...

 

[spycatcher34]

I would occasionaly have to offer somthing on the harder levels, and depending on how P.O.ed the AI was at the other, but yeah for the most part they were easy to manipulate. One really great thing about SMAC that honestly should have been given to civ3 was the option to give control of one of your bases to another player.

 

[Eklektikos]

Originally posted by spycatcher34
I would occasionaly have to offer somthing on the harder levels, and depending on how P.O.ed the AI was at the other, but yeah for the most part they were easy to manipulate. One really great thing about SMAC that honestly should have been given to civ3 was the option to give control of one of your bases to another player.

I do agree with that... I can understand why they put a stop to city "trading", but just giving a city away doesn't seem like something that would lead to exploits. I loved being able to give crap, out of the way bases to my allies - although perhaps that's a semi-exploit in itself, since if the AI had any sense it wouldn't accept dire little defense nightmare cities so readily.

 

[Tzar]

I had no doubt I wouldn't be the only one thinking its a major setback for CivIII, especially when you move from one game to another, you expect the latter to be better than the first; otherwise what's the point?

It's not that CivIII doesn't worth scrap anymore because of this, and was I less of an espionage-phile it would've been much more addictive than it is. But that still remains one of the first questions I would've asked Sid were I given the chance!

 

[Panda]

Originally posted by Tzar
I had no doubt I wouldn't be the only one thinking its a major setback for CivIII, especially when you move from one game to another, you expect the latter to be better than the first; otherwise what's the point?

Which is why I like going back to older games - you need different strategies for different games, so after a while it feels 'fresh' again.

Originally posted by Tzar
It's not that CivIII doesn't worth scrap anymore because of this, and was I less of an espionage-phile it would've been much more addictive than it is. But that still remains one of the first questions I would've asked Sid were I given the chance!

Sid's contribution to both SMAC and Civ III was minimal. Brian Reynolds was the head designer of SMAC, and Jeff Briggs the head designer of Civ III. But a game sells a lot better if it has 'Sid Meier' on it's cover.