What would you want to see in a hypothetical Alpha Centauri II?

[Truronian]

Personally, I'm hoping that they retain the same atmosphere (eg. having a backstory), and possibly retain the same leaders. I'd like to see some more modern graphics (preferably not a cartoony as CivIV) and a less purple Alpha Centauri. The elimination of infinite city sprawl would also be nice.

 

[vyeh]

A way of assigning units to a stack and stack movement.

 

[Midwinter]

The ability to have more than 7 factions on the map, perhaps more SE options, better AI, less powerful copters. Something as well thought out and with as much depth as the original.

The things I'd really like to see are a confirmation then a release date...

 

[Proletariat]

Better AI, definitely.

I'm actually hoping they keep the graphics more or less in line with the old SMAC, preferably with a higher resolution. I hate when games render everything in 3d just for the hell of it. It almost always fails.

Other than that? I don't know. Glitches and maybe a few balancing issues aside, I'm fairly happy with SMAC the way it is. Maybe more game options for replayability (King of the Manifold Nexus?) and a larger map (with more factions.)

 

[Truronian]

The things I'd really like to see are a confirmation then a release date...

Yeah. I have to say I am expecting it to be released in the near future, just because Civ4 did so well.

 

[Frostyboy]

I really like to see some discussion on AC!
So, don't consider this bumping I think there will be no AC-II, but there should be great opportunities for making a perfect CIV4 mod for AC if somone with the right abition level and 3D-animation skills could lead on!

 

[Midwinter]

It's in progress. Or it was, it may have died off...

 

[Truronian]

It's in progress. Or it was, it may have died off...

I have heard things to that effect, plus Firaxis released a poll a while ago in which you could vote for your most wanted remake. Alpha Centauri won (beating Colonization).

A mod could work, if only I had the time and skills...

 

[Ultima Dragoon]

More terrain. I love all the different terrain in SMAC, would love to see more.

 

[Uniqueuponhim]

The AI definitely needs a lot of improvement - the highest level (transcend?) is still way too easy And this is coming from a guy that has a hard time on monarch in Civ IV.
I'd like to see a move toward Civ style negotiations, and have culture added in as well (I know there's a rudimentary form of it in SMAC, but it is very simplified, and tends to favour whomever placed a city the most recently, which is kind of backwards.)
Also, I'd personally get rid of the whole sea-colonization route. It's superfluous, not needed, and a pain in the ass when the AI builds a crapload of completely useless cities in the middle of the water (especially Miriam, she loves the ocean cities for some reason)

 

[Ultima Dragoon]

Huh, funny. The only persons i've seen building seabases are myself, morgan, lal and deidre. Miriam sticks to the high ground.

 

[croxis]

The city borders in SMAC is the start of what became culture.

Also the units are rendered in 3D, they were just pre-rendered instead of real time.

I would love to see more interaction with Planet. A somewhat more complex climate system for one as modern cpus could handle a bit more than a westerly wind . As planet matures through the game I would love to see it behave more as a player than the seemingly random mind worms and even ally to those that nurish native Planet Life - so while there isn't direct diplomacy there is indirect interactions with this 8th player.

 

[Aabraxan]

I'd like to see the unit upgrade system revamped. It's OK as it is, but I always liked the MOO 2 system where I could individually refit a ship, even with custom designs or downgrades, if that was what I needed.

 

[Proletariat]

Also the units are rendered in 3D, they were just pre-rendered instead of real time.

Yes, and frankly they look like crap, but they pretty much had to be rendered to fit in with the unit customization scheme, so I didn't really mind. If you really want to see how bad a turn-based game can look with fully rendered graphics, take a look at GalCiv 2. To put it briefly: Lifeless as hell - and ugly to boot.

I really don't see how the sea-bases are "superfluous". Some of the AI and game mechanics dealing with them were kinda broken, sure, but removing them would just be throwing out the baby with the bath water. I could make the same argument about culture (a fun, but ultimately flawed concept, at least as far Civ3 was concerned) , but then I haven't had a chance to play Civ4 to see how it works there. How is the diplomacy there anyways?

 

[croxis]

In short (because I am in a hurry), much stronger than Civ 3, on par with SMAC (but not the same)

 

[Maniacal]

Better waterbases for sure, better AI, more random events, some could be funny to!

 

[Mellian]

I have heard things to that effect, plus Firaxis released a poll a while ago in which you could vote for your most wanted remake. Alpha Centauri won (beating Colonization).

A mod could work, if only I had the time and skills...

Where and when did this poll happen?

-mellian

 

[Truronian]

Where and when did this poll happen?

The Firaxis website, a few months ago. Sorry I don't have specifics, I just took it and then it sank to the back of my mind.

 

[TheBoatman]

A mod could be done, but there is no way how to implement altitude and climate (the flat ground is hardcoded, so you can only make many terrains like 0m ground, 500m ground, etc) and I also think that only way how to implement my favourite unit designing is to give units free promotions for money, not speaking about selecting only research flavour not techs directly.

 

[Horizon]

Better AI for what is touching strategic moves and bases development/spreading, as the AI is very bad at it in SMAC/SMAX.

For the diplomacy AI, for me, it is already perfect as it is in SMAC/SMAX, as unlike every other Civ-like, i feel my AI opponents to have really their own character and agenda, and usually their decisions are very logic and human-like. I always, and continue to enjoy diplomacy exchanges with the AI in SMAX.

Graphics are very secondary for me, as i enjoy them in their currently 2D with few colors format in SMAC/SMAX, so as long as the certain graphic upgrade does not force a NASA computer upgrade, no need to change drastically what is working very well, i don't need civ4-like 3D while the game plays perfectly in 2D.

I would appreciate even more factions (despite there are already lots of them in the game+expansion), but only under the conditions they are all as well wrote as the ones found in the original game, with their interesting character ingame and their backstory. And no limit to only 7 factions in the same game, i would really like to play with the 14 factions in a same game.

More random events should be a must, as it is a very nice features of those kind of games, making each time you play a bit different, on top of the "just one more turn.." style of gameplay.

More different choices in the workshop affecting the gameplay by offering different style of play, as basically i always feel forced to just use all the best components i have to build my current units if i want to resist/crush the neighbourgh, the workshop while being a nice touch could have been much more in the current game in my opinion. By having not just better, but differently working component, it should introduce more gameplay variation.

More customisation options for generating the rule/game/Planet/factions, should give even more replayability to the user. When it comes to customisation "more is always better".