Alpha Centauri For GC2: TA

Great stuff, indeed!

Believe me, i understand the whole undertaking(s) when somebody WANTS to be fair to a game franchise; ever since i started the X-Com mod, i've been discovering new elements to add or adapt, graphics to enhance, planets to create, technologies to integrate, scenarios & campaigns to design, customized ship/styles to workshop patiently (if ever!) and what else - almost daily.

I'm a one-man-army, also.
Still, the activity is quite demanding and can prove to be daunting if one doesn't have the resources (namely, a genuine SD modding guide with MUCH more info than is currently available in numerous different places!) nor the creativity drive it really requires.

Noting your TA screen from the above snapshot, tells me that this will (and certainly should) be directly compatible with the upcoming expansion. Nevertheless, the editing tools predicted could become quite helpful, mod-wise. And, since the official release date has been pushed to March-end, i will keep on developing X-Worlds the hard-way too.

Good luck with AC, it really is an appropriate Sci-Fi setting and already has excellent default elements which perfectly fits a GC2 modding context.

- Zyxpsilon.

if you need any help with your mod let me now im a fan of Alpha Centauri and if you need any help with making models sofar Ive gottin very good at converting ships making them from scratch takes longer so if you need any help with event movies music things like that contact me here or by email [email protected].

None, really. Economics is the closest you are going get in that regard. I suppose Range/Logistics might work in some cases too, though... *shrugs

Good luck on the project though, the factions in Alpha Centauri were always very interesting to me.

Also, you can still have the other two factions available via the Custom Race by making Custom Race config files for them. Custom Races aren't enabled yet in the beta, but the idea is there.

Looks great. Thinking about SMAC give me an idea -- we need an equivalent of the Clean Reactor from SMAC to reduce ship maintenance. Wouldn't that be sweet . . .

Looks great! SMAC was my fav game for a very long time.

The Data Angels & The Cult of Planet. you can still make them a playble race or have youve forgot DA create a race feature.

An interesting project: SMAC in space!

The key question is how to integrate it into GalCiv2. Here are a few ideas:

• The Progenitors return and evict Humans from Manifold 6. They seed the major factions on other planets for reasons they don’t tell us about. The factions discover FTL travel at about the same time (a Progenitor-engineered coincidence? Or some loose lips by a Zakharov researcher? Artifacts with the secrets of FTL on the planets?) and then the race is on.

• Humanity on Planet transcends, but some humans decide to don’t want to be absorbed by a planetary consciousness. PlanetMind helps them, seeding them across the galaxy. Now these humans pursue an entirely new goal – conquering the stars!

• A grand alliance is formed on Planet and the factions take below light speed colonies to the stars. Once established on the planets FTL is discovered and quickly spreads to all the factions. Manifold 6 ‘stays out of it’ while the new faces of humanity compete with each other to finish unresolved conflicts from the initial colonization of Planet.

What is neat is that the artifacts etc of SMAC work very well in the GalCiv2 universe, which has its own Progenitors. Designing the factions to work within the GalCiv2 framework is kind of an interesting challenge, but eminently do-able. Some things like SE don’t translate, of course, but philosophies (good/neutral/evil) and overall dispositions certainly do.

I’ll follow the GalCiv2 SMAC Mod to see how it comes along.

Hydro

Thanks for all the positive response! In a way I actually kinda regret to announce it so early before I even have gotten started on the heavy stuff, on the other hand I have gotten a lot of great feedback. I have been working on some ideas for the techs and improvements. Each faction will get a unique soldiering branch for example "Military Tradition" for the Spartans while the Gaians get the less powerful tech "Non-lethal Methods" due to their pacifistic nature. I will probably also expand the biology branch of the tree by adding familiar techs like "Biomachinery" and "Ecological Engineering".

Even though a direct conversion from AC to GC is possible by using the exactly same techs and base facilities that would not necessarily make it more fun to play. Therefore I rather try to create a mod where each faction stands apart from the others by more than just the starting bonuses similar to what Stardock have been doing with TA. Therefore there will be many improvements that wasn't in AC such as the "High risk research facility" for the University which gives a big research bonus but also reduce the morale on the planet due to the dangerous research made there. Even though it wasn't in AC it still stays true to the powerful but unethical research the University is known for. Most of the secret projects will make it though with exceptions such as "The universal translator" and "The interplanetary transit system" for obvious reasons.



I've been thinking the same thing, economics for efficiency as its probably the closest you get. Having logistics for support is a good idea. Perhaps if combined with military production?





I feel so stupid. I totally forgot about that.



Thats a lot of good ideas but it still doesn't explain the progenitors part of all this. Perhaps the non Planet Progenitors managed to destroy each other in the civil war and only the Caretakers and Usurpers on planet remains together with some refugees from the war and tries to rebuild their civilization again. One way to do the social engineering could be to make techs for them but that would also allow you to research all of them so its perhaps not such a good idea.



The new interest rate ability is probably the closest it gets but it still wouldn't be the same thing. But it sure would be cool though.

Oh, and another thing. Dont expect this to be released anytime soon since TA is two months away and im still waiting for the editors. Sure I could do it the hard way but im kinda lazy so I will probably just continue to come up with ideas for techs and improvements until they get released.

wow! this is great. I've just got back to gc2 from a golden oldies-fest Xcom ufo defence, alpha centauri and moo2. and you've started work on this. Look forward to seeing your mod once its fully realised.

Wow.

SMAC was the best game ever. Seriously. Brilliant - we so need a sequel. Brad - fancy buying the rights? LOL.

Im really lookin forward to this mod - is there anyway to animate the leaderheads?


My ideas for a flight from Chiron are that any flight should occur before the destruction of the first Faction (the Gaians I think) but after the creation of the new SMAX factions in Canon.

Basically I think that the Caretakers (the ones wanting to prevent the use of planet as a weapon) should get the upper hand in their conflict with the Usurpers.
The Usurpers realise they are losing build an interstellar ship and prepare to return to their homeworld; during the ships construction the Human Factions manage to obtain the technology for the interstellar ships realising that should either progenitor faction win it will result in the end of humanity.
The Usurpers are the first to run from Chiron to return to their home planet - the find the Progenitor home planet in ruins - the wider galactic conflict between both factions having destroyed their race outside of Chiron. The re-establish themselves on the ruined home world, leaving the Caretakers and humans on Manifold 6.

The Caretakers turn their attentions to the primitive humans and the Human factions are forced to flee from Chiron also, with only Planet Cult and the Data Angels unable to escape before the Caretakers destroy them.
Fleeing into the Cosmos the factions settle on a number of worlds out in the galaxy - leaving the Caretakers on Chiron.

The Caretakers also discover the fate of the wider Progenitor race and decide to proclaim Manifold 6 as their new homeworld.

Just some notes on this that suddenly occurred to me:

The Maintenance costs of buildings could also be a way to represent efficiency. Civs with low efficiency could have buildings with higher maintenance than others, and vice versa. If we could only have multiple tech requirements for buildings, you would be able to more accurately represent this without having to create a line of buildings for each and every Civ... ah well.

Research, Military, and Social bonuses might be a way too (the getting more out of the same buildings angle). I think you end up paying less for bonus Production/Research too.

Economics is used by the Yor Tech Tree as "Efficiency", though.



It's been a while since I played SMAC, so correct me if I'm wrong here.... but since Support helped with the maintenance costs of units (by having a certain number of units have no maintenance cost?), Economics could be a replacement too. That's actually what I meant, too.

Range might be a better replacement for Support (it ain't called Life Support for nothin' ) than Logistics... but both definitely could work in different cases.



Another thing I thought of here:

Wasn't there a Society Model/Government part that dealt with the Civilization's plans for the Future? You might be able to rework alignment into a choice regarding that matter. One of the other Society Model parts could work here too, but I don't remember what the rest of them were. But plans for the Future are something that are very long term enough to logically be something you wouldn't be able to change ever again after you make your decision.

Hrm... in all honestly, that idea might work if Xeno Ethics is available earlier, but it probably wouldn't make much sense in the context of the Ethical Events...

Anyway, all this talk about SMAC is making me want to play again.

Good luck on your mod!

First of all - I really liked SMAC and expansion and I had the same thought (building AC in Galciv2), but i simply dont have the time, so ... great initiative i look forward to it!



It depends a little on how 'canon' you want it, but here a suggestion:
Planet transcends and the non-transcendants receives FTL-technology from Planet. Progenitors are desperate to take control and tries to warp in their fleet prematurily; opening warprifts (see intro to SMAX) in space. The battle turns on them and the mobile non-trancendent faction leads armies into through the warprifts and onto the progenitor planets (explaining the wast space between the planets). Progenitors closes the warprifts and the factions are isolated on their planets (explaining why the factions doesnt communicate anymore).
(you could implement Chiron as a very powerful minor race, with a very lucrative planet to invade but a very strong military to defend it)
The connection to the datalinks are severed (explaining why you need to tech). Progenitors have suffered great losses and their great council insist on 'planet jumping' instead of warprifting (explaining why they dont have their whole fleet).

Ps. does anyone know if someone has done something to change the fact that SMAC doesnt work on new CPUs? (I cant install/play SMAC or SMACX on my current computer )

Hi Steelmeister, I would propose to join I-Mod and build up a team there. It doesn't matter how long it takes. you will get Gigs of filespace and own ftp access. You will have your own forum with enough subforums to discuss private and public and you get an own gallery for Screenshots. By the way we will support you with our huge knowledge about Galciv 2, as our close relationship to Stardock, probably the biggest knowledge next to the Developers themselve

It would really help you.

This offer is for free, several GC2 - mod Teams like our support and have a good chance to finish there mod now.


Please contact me (Stefan) at I-Mod Productions (www.i-mod-productions.com)




-Stefan

A few more thoughts.

It may be easier to treat the Progenitors as they are in GC2: mostly long gone, but still somewhere behind the scenes. Frankly, you could have them have almost the same back history as the Ancients in GC2. We know the AC Progenitors are an impossibly old race (billions of years), that they are in a ideological and fratricidal war, and that elements of their billion year old works (such as Manifold 6, which they’ve managed to ‘forget’ about!) are just lying about the universe. Sound familiar?

Such a back story present opportunities, since the Progenitor factions could be used as lost splinters, an exiled faction, or degenerate elements of the larger society, which (for some reason) is now gone.

• Ethos: for me there are clear visions of ethos in AC, so this won’t be hard to adapt.
• Expansion: planets with improvements take the place of cities with improvements
• SE: can be abstracted into GC2 governments, although the transition here is a bit thin. Of course, the slider bars and Focus allow you to do much of what the SE would do with respect to growth, money generation, industrial production, and science. Then there are political parties, but since all are available to all the factions/races this is pretty meaningless.
• Ideology: converting the SMAC ideologies will take a bit more creativity, but I think it is do-able. The faction ideologies can be defined by the race setup to show priorities and proclivities. You could leave it at that, or you can give them unique tech and/or buildings as will be done in GC2:ToA.
• Some of the Super Abilities may be harder to adapt to SMAC factions. Some are low hanging fruit, such as:
 Gaians getting Super Adapter since they have empathy with ecosystems.
 Super Attack (Arceans) is for the Spartans.
 Super Spy is Data Angels.
 Super Diplomat is the PKs.
 Super Merchant is Morgan
 Isolation may be for Believers
 Hive is for Hive or maybe Drones
 I’m not sure what to do with Uni, Cyborgs, Cult or Pirates.
 The alien factions would likely get Dominator (Caretakers) or spoor launcher (Usurpers).

So there are lots of options!

I think rather than trying to directly convert the advantages and disadvatages of the SMAC factions, instead remake them completely in GC2 terms. For evamply, you know the philosophy of the Hive, so what bonuses should they get based on that, rather than the bonues they got in SMAC.

I've read somewhere (*can't recall exactly) that Virtual_PC is the most common response to such issues if you, of course, can spare the drive-multi-megabytes to install an alternate "older" OS - reconfigured to adapt at anything thrown towards it.

- Zyxpsilon.

This looks like a really great mod . I really loved SMAC, I must dig out my old install disc and see if it will work on my new PC.

There is a patch that will let you play with XP (I play occasionally on my P-4) You get a crash warning message but it works perfectly. Google it

BTW, SMAC is still my all time favorite game. GCII is the only game that has challenged it

Once again thank you for your support and good ideas! It really helps me to come up with new ideas. I have realized that giving the factions some bonuses and a few extra techs and improvements isn't enough to make them interesting so therefore I have tried to come up with some ideas for them.

The Hive: The Hive have an almost nonexistent culture and is hardly especially tempting to join with. Therefore they should have really weak influence but to prevent their planets from rebelling they have huge Loyalty bonuses (possibly even more than the Yor) from the start and by both tech and improvements. That makes sense since Yang have almost total control over his followers and most of them probably doesn't even know anything about whats happening outside their underground bunkers. This also forces the hive to be really aggressive. But they still need something more than strong loyalty to compensate for their lack of influence since its so important in GC.

Data Angels: In GC you use your spies to gather information about the enemy and cripple their production while in SMAC you could cause revolts, steal tech, make the enemy defect to your faction and so much more. The Angels were all about probe teams (spies) but in GC its a bit harder to make an all espionage faction unless we are talking about a huge espionage bonus. And thats the second problem, everyone who likes micro management raise a hand! Its simply isn't funny to micro manage all the spies. However it could be an interesting faction in the hands of the AI. Imagine an army of spies crippling your industry ruining your ship production and then suddenly the Angel fleet arrive...

Drones: The idea for their military remains the same: lots of low tech units. Domai really cares about his people unlike Yang and has a strong morale bonus. They have the best factories and good influence due to their support for the working class which is the majority of the factions population.

Morgan: Have a penalty in morale due to discontent with the poor because of the large gap between the rich and the poor. Strong trade ability, extra trade route and good economy.

Pirates: Can fully colonize water planets from the start since they are adapted to that environment. Possibly have a slight bonus in planet quality since they can use more of the planet surface (oceans) than the others. They are good shipwrights so they receive a bonus in Military production. However they lack organization and gets a penalty in Economy. I really wish that you could board ships in GC since it really suits the pirates. :NOTSURE:

Spartans: They are all about the military: Soldiering, weapons, defense and Hp. Ultimately they are supposed to have a fleet consisting of few but very powerful ships. Have the best military in the game but lacks bonuses in the other areas.

University: Research, Research and Research. Well ok, not really but its mostly true for the university. Bonuses in research, creativity and sensors. However because of the lack of ethics they get a morale penalty.

Gaians: Bonus in PQ and cheaper colonization techs. weak soldiering because of their pacifistic tendencies.

Peacekeepers: Strong diplomacy and good morale.

Cyborgs: Strong research although a bit weaker than the University. Low maintenance buildings and weak growth.

Believers: Have good loyalty and morale because of their faith. Good Soldiering because of their fanatic soldiers. Bad research though since they are suspicious to science.

Cult: Really unsure about these guys since they are so tied to the sixth manifold and the whole mind worm mechanism from SMAC

Usurpers: Warriors at heart they get a soldiering bonus and has a bonus in weapons.

Caretakers: Bonus in defense.

Progenitors: +Sensors because of resonance sensitivity. Starts with more techs than the humans. No trade ability instead they rely on a strong economy. A monstrous large loyalty bonus. Why? Because Humans and Progenitors culture, society, technology is too far apart to work for the other. Plus because of the bitter rivalry between the progenitor factions its hardly likely for them to defect to the other. There is a problem however, this doesn't stop them from taking over human planets (perhaps by taking away influence starbases from them?).

I know a lot of the ideas are boring and obvious and even incomplete but most of the "uniqueness" will come from the techs, improvements and components.

Is it possible to alter the starting relations between different civilizations? This way you could simulate the rivalry between the factions.

I'm really tired right now and have to sleep but I promise to post some more tomorrow.

if you do want to start a team sign me up trust me you find that you get things done faster when you work together.

Please don't go. The drones need you. They look up to you.

Well it certainly looks like we have a Main Menu now.


There is some stuff I whould like to add to it though. Like an animated version of the Unity, the one seen at the menu where you choose wheter to play the original or Alien Crossfire and the logo off course.

Indirectly, yes!

Here's how i managed to implement this in X-Worlds;

1) Customize (and load at run-time for current in-game use) the opponents from the appropriate setup screen.
2) Define the relation boxes for each against the main player-race (previously selected)
3) S-A-V-E once again that specific opposing race at this stage
4) Play and perform a quick game-saving for later use
5) Quit the interface

--) Go have a look at the root_file prefs.ini (which is presently valid) in the [opponentsetup] section; all the relations towards race #12 are now preset for any opponents selected.

a) Re-load... but this time start anew while selecting other (or the same as above) opponents and a different player-race
What this does is change the previously available *structure & datasets*... BUT, if common values remain - the actual relationships for a typical race would still be "active" as long as the prefs.ini isn't altered via further game settings.

6) Repeat all steps mentioned, as often as necessary, if & when new conditions between races must be different (Close/AtWar/Warm... etc).

In general, the pattern will (somehow) be maintained from game-to-game FOR the similar opponents.

Now, if the process applies to fixed total conversion races (12+1 custom)... it's even more obvious because the saved "config files" (incl/prefs.ini) account for pre-determined relationships between (re)+LOADED races at run-time.

On the opposite side, when you have a mod which makes a triple access possible based on themes (like what's in X-Worlds) the activity becomes waaaaaaaayyyy more complex since any prefs.ini resetting (by multiple game sessions) alters any previous data.

All i know is that my X-Com begins *At WAR* with Sectoids and *Friendly* with Interceptors unless i re-load a different schema later. Same situations for APOC & TFTD!

Yup, sums it up.
Test this solution, i found it's really worth the hassles or the constant adjustments. Might be a good idea to keep a personalized group of many different *prefs.ini* handy if (of course) no alterations occur other than into the [opponentsetup].
Although, true scenarios ARE much more direct for the above needs.

- Zyxpsilon.

In exchange for the above theory, all i want is YOUR menu-editing exact tricks & skills for dxpack(s) alteration!

- Zyxpsilon.

To be perfectly honest its not really that hard and the credit should go to Macmatt for his UI tutoral found here. WWW Link I used DesktopX for editing the UI and Photoshop to edit and/or create the pictures used in the menu. All pictures was taken directly from SMAC where they can be found in .pcx files that I used Ifranview to convert to .jpg. In these files you can find every single picture from the game including the UI. While the movies are in .flc or .wve format. When changing the UI make sure to not delete any objects, I made that misstake and had to start over from the beginning since I didn't save a backup. However you can make objects dissapear by replacing their picture with a transparent one. The .bik movie was removed by copying it to the Modname\Movies folder and then open it up in notepad and delete everything. This way the game will simply ignore it. Once again the credit goes to Macmatt for this idea.