Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri
Developed by Firaxis Games in 1999, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri (SMAC) is a turn-based strategy game notable for its depth of gameplay, narrative quality and employment of game mechanics that were influenced by subject matter explored in hard science fiction novels, such as technology, terraforming, idealogical factions, social engineering and ecology.
While knowledge of Foundation, Dune and A Fire Upon the Deep is not a prerequisite to enjoying SMAC, it enriches the experience to have read such seminal sci-fi novels.
SMAC can be thought of as a much more complex Civilization 2, which was much more complex than Civilization 1. But while Civ2 plays much better than Civ1, SMAC doesn't play better than Civ2.
In SMAC, by reason of dying Earth humanity embarks on a mission to colonize the earth-like planet of Chiron of the Alpha Centauri star system. But during the 40-year voyage on Starship Unity the leaders divide into separate factions each of which has its own utopian vision for the future of humanity.
The player assumes the role of leader for one of seven SMAC Factions that have emerged from the destruction of Unity. Each faction receives properties and stat bonuses and penalties that are reflective of their leader's vision and determine faction effectiveness under certain playstyles and within randomly rolled planetary parameters and emergent scenarios.
SMAC faction choice dictates strategic playstyle potentiality through the unique stats and properties of the faction. And while it is a good idea to focus on a faction's strengths like a laser-beam, it is possible to employ hybrid approaches due to SMAC's vast array of strategic options.
Planetfall
Upon Unity's destruction the seven factions escaped in colony pods which ended up scattered over the surface of Chiron. From the outset each faction has assembled its own headquarters from the stores of their pods, setting themselves up for initial exploration and expansion.
Not only are they in contention with each other, the seven factions must also deal with hostile psi-capable, Chiron-native lifeforms (SMAC Aliens) which can be a mere nuisance or become a massive problem. However, factions can also capture, breed and employ indigenous lifeforms as combat units.
Emergent planetary scenarios can also pose immense problems. Rising sea levels, for example, can turn our Bases into islands and eventually submerge and destroy them unless the Base has a Pressure Dome.
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri System Requirements
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri requires at minimum an Intel Pentium 133 MHz CPU, 16 megs of RAM and 2 megs vRAM on PCI or AGP video card, but a 200 MHz CPU and 32 megs of RAM is recommended.
Alpha Centauri was coded to run in Windows 95/98 under the DirectX 6.0 API, but it also runs in XP and 7 to 11 as well as Windows NT 4.0 with SP3/DirectX 3.0.
Coded to display in square-pixel SVGA 1024x768 4:3 resolution, Alpha Centauri can run in as low as 800x600 while maintaining full UI functionality.
SMAC Control & Viewport
SMAC control system, viewport design and tile-rigged geoscapes are not king-tier, they are god-tier. The main viewport consists of a zoomable and 8-way scrolling isometric, tiled grid representing the spherical, wrap-around surface of Chiron [1].
Impressively, the grid is contoured in order to indicate undulating terrain or topography, which can be toggled when interactables are obstructed by terrain height. By way of hotkey, the four graphical layers of the viewport can be incrementally peeled off for viewability purposes.
In addition, elevation of land and depth of sea impact the effectiveness of certain units and installations. As well, elevation and depth can be modified via terraforming or earthquakes (which can raise a plain into a mountain 3.5 km high).
Indicating a faction's lack of intelligence as it pertains to terrain, fog of war is represented as black square tiles which are revealed as mobile units explore uncharted territory.
Already-mapped tiles are dimmed when not being occupied, viewed or scanned. Terrain can also be explored or revealed by obtaining world map data from rival leaders, being swept away by tsunamis, being teleported by dimensional gates, and by discovering sonar pods.
Landmarks, pods and moveable units are rendered in voxel graphics, and the boundaries of rival faction territories are indicated by dotted, faction-colored lines.
Subject to movement points per turn and terrain-type, ground, naval, amphibious and airborne units can be directed, tile-by-tile, across or over the map with mouse selections, arrow keys, numeric keypad or via up to three waypoints. Such is SMAC's versatility of control.
Terrain-type can either block movement entirely or decrease movement rate through xenofungus blooms, which are both terrestrial and aquatic. Conversely, roads increase movement rates but cannot be built on xenofungus, which must first be removed via terraforming, pre-Centauri Empathy.
Moreover, with The Xenoempathy Dome base facility of the Centauri Meditation Explore technology, fungus tiles are treated as road tiles, even for non-indigenous units lacking antigrav struts.
SMAC Combat System
SMAC is a turn-based game. That is, actions by both player and AI are taken in discrete turns each of which corresponds to one year on the planet, Chiron. Before ending their turn through the Turn Complete button, players take (usually a complex series of) actions such as moving, attacking and building among myriad Base adjustments, which can be termed upkeep. The six rival factions then take their turn.
During the AI turn, players may only interact with Battle Pause menus which granularize the series of events while sometimes giving an option to avoid battle or end battle midway (such as through Truce) though battle will continue post-Truce if other factions are involved.
Otherwise, players may not intervene in any way, shape or form until their next turn, at which point viewport control is returned to them. On their next turn, players take their next set of actions and adjust their strategies based on the preceding AI turn, as is often required.
Unlike SimTex TBS games such as Master of Magic, there is no separate tactical combat mode or dedicated battlescape because SMAC is a pure strategy game that presents its action in one viewport.
Combat Roll SMAC
An option to commence battle is given when SMAC Units are directed to a tile that is occupied by an opposing faction's unit -- whether the faction is currently hostile or not. Preceded (optionally) by a combat odds readout, battle between units consists of an automated offense-defense combat roll that continues until one combat unit's reactor has been depleted (its "hit points"), at which point it explodes and is destroyed.
When battle ends victorious combat units may upgrade through several tiers, ranging from Very Green or Hatchling to Elite or Demon Boil (conventional unit / indigenous unit).
Note the modifiers to combat units which (in this example) are based on tier, terrain currently occupied, proximity to installations and factional bonuses (fanaticism):
Combat units possessed of superior speed may auto-disengage after incurring 50% damage to their reactors unless they are prevented from doing so by comm jammers aka electronic countermeasures (ECM).
Modifiers to Combat
Combat units also receive bonuses and penalties depending on terrain-type. For example, rocky terrain grants +50% defense, smooth or rolling terrain grants +25% defense and garrisoned units stationed at bases or bunkers receive strong perimeter defense bonuses, tripling unit defense in best case scenarios.
In addition, artillery is granted +25% attack per level of altitude and xenofungus squares grant concealment versus non-adjacents (unless the square is scanned by sensor array), +50% defense vs. non-indigenous units and +50% attack to indigenous units.
Artillery fire is for softening up or decimating forces. Non-garrisoned targets can be put on their last legs and garrisoned targets can be reduced to 50% reactor via bombardments, but artillery fire cannot outright destroy targets. For example, Cruisers of an armada may conduct broadsides along a coastline in preparation for a ground invasion.
Unweaponized units incur a 50% attack penalty in combat. Thus, a seasoned Former can conceivably prevail against an armed unit.
Zone of Control SMAC
With exceptions such as cloaking, under the rule of Zone of Control (ZoC) most units cannot move into squares that are squarely- or diagonally-adjacent to rivals if the unit is already rival-adjacent.
Key to unit strategy and annexation of cities, the object of ZoC is to simulate the difficulty of moving on battlefields among opposing forces. Once the player understands ZoC in and out, their combat gameplay reaches a whole other level of strategy. For example, they may employ vise-grip naval blockades.
Unit Stacks SMAC
Multiple combat units can be stacked upon the same tile. Any combat unit in the stack can be designated as stack defender, but by default the defender is the unit with the highest defense score. If the defender loses the battle, each and every combat unit in the stack incurs collateral damage based on the attacker's reactor. As well, any non-combat units in the stack are auto-destroyed. Note that garrisoned units (based or bunkered) do not incur collateral damage.
cf. Criticisms [1]
For more info on combat, please refer to SMAC Units.
SMAC Beginner's Guide
This is a basic point-form beginner's guide to help new players get going with SMAC. The game can be played in myriad ways; this is just an example that introduces some key concepts based on default settings.
- In Customize Game Rules, you can check Do or Die to On and uncheck Blind Research. However, this makes the game too easy.
- Choose any SMAC Faction that tickles your fancy, but Spartan Federation, Human Hive and Gaia's Stepdaughters are probably the best factions for blind, maiden playthroughs.
- If you roll with Gaia's Stepdaughters, employ SMAC Aliens + SMAC lifecycle instead of tech forces. If you roll with Spartan Federation, Recon Rover spam can devastate early on as well. If you roll with Human Hive, you won't need any tips beyond choosing Police State and Planned Economics.
- Map Size and starting position dictates strategy. Spartan Federation and The Lord's Believers can dominate on small terrestrial maps due to their mobility and attack bonus. On the other hand, wealth-accumulating factions such as Morgan Industries prefer large maps and resource-rich locations that are not in close proximity to rivals. On small maps, Needlejets are much more powerful whereas large, oceanic maps demand Naval Power.
- Go to Menu - Game - Preferences and set the game to stop (pause) when anything happens. In addition, switch on Pause at End of Turn or the game will move to the next turn even if you aren't ready to do so (e.g., you haven't made your moves).
- In Advanced Preferences, check Confirm Odds Before Attacking to On.
- Turn Governor off and don't Automate any units. You can't learn how SMAC works with the Governor automating Base management or with the AI moving your units about. The key to learning SMAC is micromanagment of its every aspect until you get a grip on things. The learning curve of SMAC is not as steep as it is made out to be by those lacking gaming aptitude: tackle SMAC head-on, don't be weak.
- Assuming you have Blind Research checked (by default BR is On), go to Menu - H.Q. - Research Priorities and set research priority to Explore.
- SAVE THE GAME (which also saves your Preferences).
- Get your Scout Patrol exploring around your Base. Where possible, avoid moving on red, movement-hindering aka xenofungus squares. If your tech unit doesn't seem to be moving on its turn, that's probably because it got bogged down in fungus.
- You are looking for Landmarks, Unity Pods (black disc icons), rival Bases to annex and good places to start a second and third Base. Read the terrain. Look for green, rolling squares and rocky squares as well as Nutrients, Minerals and Energy resource bonuses, which are the green, blue and orange icons. Minerals are the most important resource in the early game, make no mistake. You can't build or assemble anything without minerals. To accumulate minerals build mines on rocky squares and then build roads on those squares as well to receive a mineral bonus (+3 minerals from one mined square).
- Unity Pod "loot" is somewhat randomized at the point of acquisition. What you want are data pods that grant free and instant SMAC Technology, and Alien Artifacts that grant the same once a Network Node is built.
- In addition to up to 200 credits, Unity Pods can yield Unity Rovers and Unity Foils, which increase your exploration efficiency on land and sea.
- Build a Colony Pod if you have no annexation opportunities, but keep an eye on your Base resources. You don't want to run out of resources or that shiny new Colony Pod is going to get scrapped as soon as it comes off the assembly line.
- Once the scout has found a good location for your second Base, send out the Colony Pod and establish the new Base. Check the catchment area aka production radius of the Base to make sure it's getting the good stuff (nutrients, minerals, energy).
- Ideal Base placement is a rolling and rainy or rolling and moist square with a nutrient resource bonus, which would give the Base 6-turn SMAC Growth. At that point, the Level 1 Base can build a Colony Pod in 10 turns. However, after 6 turns have elapsed the Level 2 Base can build a Colony Pod in 7 turns. Level 3 Base? 5 turns. Each level of Base growth allows us to work an additional square within our Base production radius aka catchment.
- For more info on Base placement, consult SMAC Terraforming.
- As a rule, SMAC building priorities are (in order of priority), Scout Patrol (garrison), Former, Colony Pod, Recycling Tanks, Children's Creche.
- Try to get your next base on the coastline in order to ready yourself for naval conquest and sea bases, too. On the other hand, don't waste years trying to find perfect Base locations. The important thing is to establish several Bases early.
- Let me emphasize this point: without multiple Base establishment your colony is going to get left in the dust by rival factions. You MUST expand in order to exponentially grow your colony.
- If you encounter the scouts of rival faction leaders, try trading tech with them or just slay them to train up your units from Green to Elite tier. Likewise, slay SMAC Aliens remembering that your effectiveness versus SMAC Psi is not based on your armor but on your morale, which comes from unit tier.
- When units get damaged, send them back to Base and cycle out new ones. Rinse repeat. Monoliths can also be used to upgrade and repair units so guard monoliths as if they are extensions of your colony.
- For your Bases (both built and annexed), what you want are Formers that let you terraform the land and build things. Depending on terrain-type, you need to construct roads, farms, forests and mines with your Formers. Do NOT let the AI handle Formers unless you don't mind grossly suboptimal terraforming (which can cost you dearly in the early game).
- Formers are unlocked by Centauri Ecology tech which can be researched, traded for or found in data pods.
- Note how Centauri Ecology unlocked The Weather Paradigm secret project. You want TWP for its increased terraforming rate. Get TWP and no other faction can get it unless they conquer the base that researched it. If another faction acquired TWP before you, work to take it from them.
- You have now established a firm foothold. Keep building tightly-knit, road-linked Bases as you expand. Keep finding Unity Pods. Build an army, annex the enemy.
- The first danger you will face is probably going to be posed by Probe Teams. To remove them as threats, get The Hunter-Seeker Algorithm secret project from Pre-Sentient Algorithms Discover tech. Depending on a number of factors, AI Probe Team infiltration can be of minor or major concern.
- Note those two Secret Projects: TWP and TH-SA. If you automated base management, terraforming and unit exploration, it is quite possible that the AI beat you to them. Which is why I said: micromanage the game in all its aspects until you understand it.
- Next, you are going to want to look into Supply Crawlers.
Led by Col. Corazon Santiago, the Spartan Federation started out on the mainland contending with five of the six other factions. With their superior mobility, Spartan Rovers annexed Uni, Peace and Gaia bases in quick succession, forcing those factions to escape the mainland in colony pods and retreat to small, outlying islands that ruined their territorial ambitions. The Hive was pinned down on a peninsula, and the Believers were trapped in a Crater. The Spartans, in sole control of the largest landmass, assembled their first Rover Formers in 2118. The Weather Paradigm was acquired by 2163.
By threatening to "crush" boxed-in rivals like "bugs", much technology was conceded to the Spartans out of fear. When the Spartan navy arrived at Morgan's island in 2287, five techs were acquired via trade in a single turn due to Morgan's desire for Doctrine Air Power, which tech was denied him in each trade. Since the Spartans dominated Secret Project acquisition as well, there was no comeback from the Own Zone in which their rivals found themselves.
Led by Deirdre Skye, Gaia's Stepdaughters started out on one of two large landmasses that dominated Chiron's surface. To the north was a barren xenofungus wasteland, but a fertile monsoon jungle was located in the south. The Gaias pulled out all stops to colonize the jungle early, wiping out Peace and pushing the Hive back onto their starting peninsula, boxing them in for decades with Demon Boil Mind Worms augmented with lifecycle. While the rest of the factions withered in wastelands or struggled to navigate an awkward archipelago (also engaging in bitter wars against each other), the Gaias generously forested their territory in preparation for Tree Farm and Hybrid Forest. And on a lofty, rocky ridge to the east of their lush green paradise, the Gaias exploited mineral resources with a dozen Supply Crawlers, which allowed them to build facilities and amass wealth.
Unplagued by Drones or SMAC Aliens for three centuries, the Gaias powered on with Ecological Wisdom due to Planet and a Paradigm economy due to Efficiency. As such, there seemed to be no end of prosperity in sight...
In this test-game with The Lord's Believers, I mostly just turtled for 400 years while employing auto-terraforming in order to see what would happen:
SMAC Change Resolution
To play SMAC in native desktop resolution (e.g., 1080p widescreen), simply add "DirectDraw=0" (no quotes) to Alpha Centauri.ini, which is located in the SMAC install folder. However, the UI does not scale to higher resolutions.
Disabling DirectDraw disables window auto-resizing when SMAC is launched.
SMAC is designed to run in 1024x768 resolution at an aspect ratio of 4:3. By adding UI panel switches SMAC supports 800x600 resolution as well.
[1]
SMAC Criticism
As with most TBS games on the PC platform SMAC screen-scrolling is not smooth like in Amiga games of the 80s or early Blizzard RTS games.
Those who have read my History of Shoot 'em ups will know that I'm big on framerates and smooth hardware scrolling, whether it be mouse-look or avatar-anchored.
Now, the reason 90s PC strategy game coders often omitted such is anyone's guess, but perhaps they didn't think it was important, perhaps it wasn't technically possible in their engine, or perhaps they were unaware of the capabilities of graphics chipsets. Who knows, really.
That said, if there is any genre that can get away with kludgy screen-scrolling, it is TBS -- but smooth scrolling is always preferred.
By default, the UI features Sliding Panels and Sliding Scrollbars. For faster UI panel switching, I would suggest disabling both in Audio/Visual Preferences.
A criticism I have of viewport control is that selected units and buildings do not have bounding boxes that clearly indicate their selection, meaning players have to either check readouts to see which combat unit is selected or wait for the combat unit to start blinking on the playing field.
When you move a Former but still have an action to take (such as terraforming), the game nevertheless switches to the next unit. Dumb as rocks game design. If a unit has any kind of move remaining, the game should not switch to the next unit.
The soundscape is harsh on the ears, and there are no memorable music tracks or sound effects. Artillery, hand weapons, missiles and psi-attacks have different sound effects (as they damn well should), but all other weapons technologies (and there are 11 unique weapon techs) have the exact same firing sound effect as every other, and it doesn't matter if weapons are fired by destroyers or infantry, they all sound exactly the same.
Jagged Alliance 2 came out in 1999 as well, yet its soundscape is superb. And its graphics leave SMAC in the dust.
SMAC voice-acting and cinematization are overrated by the mainstream, as is the game's unoriginal narrative in general. Though to be fair, SMAC does a masterful job of translating its themes into mechanics.
Thankfully, most of SMAC's non-core "presentation" can be disabled in order to gain a free-flowing gameplay experience: it is SMAC's game mechanics that are most important, afterall.
SMAC Verdict
SMAC is undeniably a great game with top-tier systems design, but it is overshadowed in raw gameplay by the likes of X-COM UFO Defense and Master of Magic, both of which came out half a decade before SMAC, in the pre-API, MS-DOS era.
Imagine how good X-COM and MoM would have been if they came out Advent of the API.
It doesn't matter that narrative and lore is more fleshed out in SMAC than it is in X-COM or MoM because if I want souped-up narrative and lore I'll read hard science fiction novels, not play computer games. And in computer-gaming the best narratives are player-generated through gameplay, anyway.
SMAC has more macro-mechanics than, say, MoM, but such additions (and all the menus that come with them) didn't make the game more fun for me to play. And SMAC's terraforming micro eventually gets old, becoming a chore, though in retrospect it kept me interested for a few dozen hours, which outstrips many games when taken in their entirety. And there are ways to minimize terraforming micromanagement that don't rely on auto-TF.
Still, I think Master of Magic is better than any Civ-game, including SMAC. Which in my estimation means MoM is the best TBS game ever made.
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