CENTAURIAN THOUGHTS II
By Markos Giannopoulos
January 16, 1999
note: This is The Column, a part of Apolyton where primarily Markos and Dan write whatever we want :). Well, not just the two of us. The Column is open to everyone. If you feel like writing submit your article to
civ2@gamestats.com
INTRO
As promised, here is the second part of my thoughts on SMAC, discussing things I liked and disliked...
I DIDN'T LIKE....
... the graphics, of course. You kind of get used to them by time, but not supporting 16bit color depth was almost a shock to me. The combat units, especially on a 1024x768 resolution in 14" monitor as in my case, were a bit hard to differentiate, but that was also due to the fact that they are customizable. Hopefully an update to the demo(and of course in the full game) will bring alternate color pallete files(you can try to alter them yourself if you have the skills) and a gamma corrector, which might make things better.
Other than that, I disliked the fact that there isn't much(if not none) trade in the game. Yes, there are some trade agreements but I missed the caravans :) Finally, I disliked the idea of the xenofungus. Perhaps it is because I haven't played a full 400-500 turns game, but it's doesn't seem very important in the game, and it was just annoying to see the alien units attack me(and loose 90% of the time)...
I LOVED....
... the incredibly improved diplomacy, especially the fact that you can demand enemy bases(and this way end sooner a practically finished game). Also, the fact that the AI has different opinions about you according to your social engineering methods, the way you can frame another faction for something your probe team did... :) The endless strategies based on the
faction you play that people are just starting to discover. The customisability of the units, which adds a new kind of
complexity to that game(I'm sure more advanced players will base their strategies on that).
But these are not all. Lots of things which everyone who has played CivII wondered "why on earth isn't it this way" are there... so many things, that I'm currently bored by CivII(excuse the blasphemy!!) and the only thing that interests me is finding out how multiplayer games are...
| SIDE NOTE |
5 MONTHS OF APOLYTON
It's been 5 months. and 9 days since we started Apolyton and we would like to thank our visitors for their support. The following numbers (unique visitors to the first page) only begin to tell us what a great idea Apolyton was...
Aug.: 9148
Sep.: 13776
Oct.: 15979
Nov.: 16143
Dec.: 20797
MarkG & DanQ
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ONE MONTH TO GO...
Early to mid-February is still the time period when we'll get SMAC. I haven't exactly understood the reasons why it is taking them so long(who cares about the manual? Give me the game and send me the manual when you're done! :))... Anyway, EA, Firaxis, hurry up!!
P.S. TURN LIMIT HACK. WHY NOT?
I followed the discussion on whether or not hacking the save games is right or wrong. I don't see why it could be wrong. The turn limit is not the only thing that is missing from the demo, in fact it is the least important thing. Therefore, there is no way someone can say that by removing the turn limit you get the final game, and thus opens the door for pirates. And for those who say that the demo was a very generous move by Firaxis and due to the hack gamers will never see again such a generous
demo, again I miss the point. SMAC's demo was as generous(and as limited) as any other game demo I've seen... in the end, as Brian Reynolds himself posted on Usenet, if someone is crazy enough to hexedit saved games to play more than 100 turns, he will certainly buy the final game...
The opinions expressed on this page do not necessarily reflect those of Apolyton CS or GameStats. They are just the personal opinions of the writer.
