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#57 A BUBBA'S EYE VIEW: INTRODUCTION Roger Oepkes introduces a series of articles for the Column #58 WAR AND CIVILIZATION David Emery is looking to strike a chord between reality and simplicity in gaming. COLUMN ARCHIVE

For those of you new to the "civilization" community, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri (SMAC) is the first Civilization successor to hit the hard drives in 1999. On the other hand, those of you who have been civing for along will see it as a long awaited sequel to a great game that is still enjoyed by many. Released at the end of March, this game starts where the original Civ II left off. A colony ship heading for Alpha Centauri with all of the hopes of the human race. Needless, to say, things go terribly, terribly wrong and this sets up an attractive and creative story line to create the backdrop for the game.

Unfortunately, the creativity applied to the story line was not equally implemented in all areas of the game. This results in a game that in many instances looks like a fresh coat of paint on the same old house. Yet in other areas, game concepts and features are beautifully conceived and applied providing a glimpse at the underlying genius of Brian Reynolds and his team. Let me demonstrate these views by listing the relative successes and failures in the game.

Successes:

1) As previously stated, the story line of the game is superb. The characters are well defined, and the underlying nature of the planet Chiron adds an additional level of conflict to challenge even the most experienced civer. As a result, a player will have to keep a keen eye on mindworms and other hardships thrown at you by the planet as well as the opposing factions.

2) The social engineering model is a truly revolutionary approach to governmental and societal development. Although each faction starts at a specific point, it is up to the player to advance their form of government and society as they see fit. This allows each player to build their version of the future and adds to the replayability of the game is they try to optimize each faction.

3) Terraforming is another success. Although veteran civers are familiar with building improvements on the specific tiles, this concept adds a new aspect to the game by allowing the player to manipulate the surface features of the planet. Ideally, this allows a player to do four major things. First, a player can raise elevations and drill aquifers to increase energy production. Second, players can raise and lower elevations to create and remove land bridges that increase or decrease access to other factions. Third, elevations can be raised to keep coastal cities from being swamped by global warming. Fourth, a player terraforms as an economic/military weapon by reducing rainfall and swamping cities. However, the first three are the more likely uses, as the fourth will undoubtedly solicit an unfriendly response like a planet buster.

4) The depth and breadth of the diplomacy system is another major improvement. Players can exchange technologies, exchange bases, loan or borrow energy credits, buy council votes, transfer units and a number of other things. This presents tremendous opportunities as a player can play both the good guy as well as the street bully in dealing with the other factions. Watch out though, because the AI opponents can and will do the same to you!

5) The in game artwork, special project movies and voice-overs can only be described with one word. Super! Although most players will only view the movies 2 or 3 times, they are well done and add a lot of character and flavor to the game. In addition, the voice-overs are equally compelling and I particularly liked Yang's narrative as to how it was our "duty" to go into the tanks. Needless to say, I checked behind me the first time I heard this just to make sure it wasn't my time to go.

6) The AI makes a number of significant improvements over the Civ II chassis. I found the AI to be remarkably loyal when allied and the AI also shows a good deal of restraint in the use of planet busters (nuclear weapons). However, a player needs to be equally aware of this as well. The commission of certain "atrocities" will result in all of the factions declaring war on you. Also, the AI remembers past dealings and backstabbing, so you won't be able to go to this well too many times.

7) The user interfaces are above average. Although a little cumbersome in some cases, they do contain a lot of good information and options and will greatly benefit the player who takes the time to read them. Also, players have the choice of using hot keys or pull down menus for most actions.

8) Tutorials for civ games are a must and SMAC's is equally up to the industry standard. I suggest even veteran civers will benefit from the tutorial as the game is a little difficult to get into for the first couple of tries.

9) Read your manual! It contains a tremendous amount of valuable information and will save you from learning more than a few lessons the hard way.

10) Institution of borders was another successful idea. Not only do they play well within the diplomatic confines of the game, but they also eliminate that fury that we all felt when another civ dropped a city right in the middle of our best-laid plans.

11) Probe teams are the singularly best use of a "special unit" that I have seen in any civ game. Not only do they provide the usual intelligence, but they also add a lot of flavor by adding the abilities of bribing units and bases. Bravo!

12) Players are no longer limited to the usual victory conditions of total annihilation or projects building that require a long and tedious end game. Additional conditions to corner energy markets and election, as the supreme leader are interesting and allow the game to be won quite early. In addition, factions will surrender if necessary and joint victories are possible as well. The bottom line is that the AI is smart enough to know when it has been beaten.

PART II: SMAC'S FAILURES, CONCLUSION

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