SMAC prerelease story vs this

[Fabio1701]

Waaaay back when in 1998-1999, I remember being heavily active on a forum, I think run by Firaxis, in the run up to SMAC's release. I remember reading the chapters of an ebook which were released every few months or so leading up to the disaster on the spaceship as the captain was murdered and the ship broke apart into factions. Following that virtual story was awesome. In fact, in the first tow or three chapters, when the skeleton crew of the ship was brought out of hybernations to check things, a few of the crew had died in their sleep, and their names were reported in the log. Firaxis held a little competition amongst the forum for volunteers to have their IRL names as the dead. 13 names if I recall. And I was one of those dead! Fabio Luelmo. My 18 year old brain was so blown!!! I was a famous dead guy!!! I printed out the ebook when it was finished (I think there were 18 chapters), but since lost it. I have recently tried in vain to find it online, and I can't. numerous SMAC stories but not that one with all the names. Does any one remember this?

Anyway, to get the CBE, I understand that Firaxis is still in love with making a spaceship launch story, and are giving more power to us to influence that launch story. Only this time instead of one spaceship "Unity" it looks like multiple countries spaceships and you are just playing the first one (the apparent winner of civ5). I think it is cool that Firaxis are taking a new direction on the story (many multinational space missions instead of one international space mission) and not just remaking SMAC, but I have this terribly nostalgic feeling for ISS Unity now. I hope we can name our spaceships....

 

[Chapel]

That is awesome. I also remember reading the story. BTW there is a copy of the story with names at http://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/96102-sid-meiers-alpha-centauri/faqs/7985

 

[Fabio1701]

That is awesome. I also remember reading the story. BTW there is a copy of the story with names at http://www.gamefaqs.com/pc/96102-sid-meiers-alpha-centauri/faqs/7985

OMG thanks! This totally made my day!

(Cryocell No Response)
Takala T
Vence H
Miller A
Stobie T
Luelmo F
Morin S
Lindahl P
Pettersson D
Landon K
Mannetje C
Coble R
[continued Medical Log
57562A-7B7]

Are any of you guys still here? Do you remember the good times?

 

[AriochIV]

The interstellar mission in Beyond Earth isn't the winner of the Civilization space race (which happens prior to 2050 AD). Beyond Earth takes place around 2200 AD, after a worldwide catastrophe has decimated Earth.

 

[Fabio1701]

The interstellar mission in Beyond Earth isn't the winner of the Civilization space race (which happens prior to 2050 AD). Beyond Earth takes place around 2200 AD, after a worldwide catastrophe has decimated Earth.

To be fair, the space race victory in 2050 is a little unrealistic. I don't see this happening in the next 35 years, we don't even have people on Mars yet! We haven't had people on the moon since forever. I always thought it was a bit far fetched as a victory condition in civ (but a fun one). The reason I say you play the winner, is because numerous interviews have stated that you play the first colonists to arrive on the planet and the next bunch come after 20-30 turns of isolation, also they arrive with some more resources so I assume the left earth after you did and had some more prep time. Ergo, you were the first to leave earth, ergo you won civ5 (assuming you had the time victory condition switched off in the options ). The only problem here is that civ5 doesnt have global warming so the worldwide catastrophy probably came from a climate change mod...

 

[Chapel]

Glad I could help. I loved all the SMAC story. I even read the graphic novel. Although the story in that did not mesh up as well with the the rest of the story I felt. And also have they said 2200 for the year? I remember something about "the great mistake" but not anything about the year. And yeah the mechanic for people showing up later with more resources sounds potentially very cool.

 

[stealth_nsk]

SMAC had very personal feel, each leader had strong character. There were books written by them, quotes and so on. The sound of "Those who join us need to give up only half of their humanity..." still makes me hold my breath.

I wouldn't expect something like this in CBE, though. It's more global story - of dying Earth and the new life. Hope it will be as good as SMAC.

 

[Fabio1701]

"Those who join us need to give up only half of their humanity..." still makes me hold my breath.

Totally. that was freaking creepy. I hope there are more quotes like that with a cool voice actor. Maybe a known sci-fi actor. Leonard Nemoy has throat cancer, so that is out. Edward James Olmos from Battlestar Galactica? Sigourney Weaver? Linda Hamilton? She had some pretty hard sounding monologues in T2. Laurence Fishburne from Matrix? oh oh Michael Dorn!? He did some cool voice acting for a old Vikings game I have fond memories of

However "Behind atoms we find electrons, and behind electrons, quarks." makes my brain cry. Electrons are not hadrons, Zakharov! You quack! I seriously hope someone does some science review of this game, like Bill Nye. Granted sci-fi stuff needs to be made up, but get the basics right! When it comes out she should make a discussion thread to bug report science errors .

 

[stealth_nsk]

However "Behind atoms we find electrons, and behind electrons, quarks." makes my brain cry. Electrons are not hadrons, Zakharov! You quack! I seriously hope someone does some science review of this game, like Bill Nye. Granted sci-fi stuff needs to be made up, but get the basics right! When it comes out she should make a discussion thread to bug report science errors .

Maybe Zakharov made some stunning discoveries we're not aware of yet. The New Physics is coming!

 

[Lord Tirian]

However "Behind atoms we find electrons, and behind electrons, quarks." makes my brain cry. Electrons are not hadrons, Zakharov! You quack!

I always thought he was speaking metaphorically. First: we realised we have atoms as a whole (i.e. different elements), then we found electrons and managed to do a lot with it (i.e. chemistry and all modern technology) and then we moved on to the subatomic level of quarks. And so forth. That's why he said "behind" and not "inside".

 

[Fabio1701]

I always thought he was speaking metaphorically. First: we realised we have atoms as a whole (i.e. different elements), then we found electrons and managed to do a lot with it (i.e. chemistry and all modern technology) and then we moved on to the subatomic level of quarks. And so forth. That's why he said "behind" and not "inside".

Even that would not makes sense. Firstly, it would be "after", although since he is Russian maybe his English is not that good. I doubt Firaxis went that far in his personality design. plus, the full quote is:

"The substructure of the universe regresses infinitely towards smaller and smaller components. Behind atoms we find electrons, and behind electrons quarks. Each layer unraveled reveals new secrets, but also new mysteries."
-- Prokhor Zakharov, "For I Have Tasted The Fruit"

electrons are in the substructure of an atom, but quarks are not in the substructure of electrons. Even if you interpret his quote in terms of level of subatomic size it is wrong. Electrons are much smaller that quarks! .511 MeV/c^2 whereas quarks can be anywhere between 2.3 MeV/c^2 all the way up to a massive 173 GeV/c^2. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Standard_Model_of_Elementary_Particles.svg

( 1 eV/c^2 = 1.782662×10^−36 kg, so that is super small. Protons have a mass of 0.938 GeV/c^2 , so not all quarks are even in protons.)

but I am being a jerk here. It's only because I love Zakharov so much! He was my fav.

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[Vohbo]

Why not ask Patrick Stewart.

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[Snownova]

Why not ask Patrick Stewart.

Oh man, that would be epic beyond proportions. Or Neil Degrasse Tyson, he's do just fine to.

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[GeoModder]

..., also they arrive with some more resources so I assume the left earth after you did and had some more prep time. Ergo, you were the first to leave earth, ergo you won civ5 (assuming you had the time victory condition switched off in the options ).

Or you simply left around the same time but with more of the available space given to cargo over fuel. Lower velocity means later arrival time.

 

[KevinLancaster]

It would be funny to have a friendly face in the science community like Bill Nye or Neil deGrasse Tyson reading off lines about unethical science experiments that the University in original SMAC was said to have performed. It would fit a science based faction though, since they want to sound nice even if they are evil geniuses. Only thing is then the quotes from the game might become some sort of meme, like Nimoy's Sputnik "Beep" from Civ 4 though that was more of a Civ community meme at the time, which was smaller then.