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Date: Nov 20 1999 09:37:07 EST
From: "Apolyton Announcements (Apolyton Civilization Site)"
Subject: Apolyton&Friends News 13-19/November/99


Greetings everyone,
these are the news of the week(13-19/November)

On Apolyton, the news run a bit slow, with SMAC-X reviews, new Civ2/Mac
patch, Civilization I honoured for one more time, and Tim Train announcing
"fixed" and "to be fixed" lists for the first smac-x patch.
Submited Columns run slow too, which makes us return to one article/week
until we have more submissions. Care to express yourself on civ-related
matters??? Please? :)

In the "Friends" part of the newsletter, news from MJ's Civilization
Empire. If you have a civ2, ctp or smac site and want your news included
here, mail Dustin Dunn at dustind@home.com


And now, in detail
=========The news from Apolyton=========
----------------------------
**Civilization I Section

GAMESPY HoF INDUCTEE
(November 15, 1999) It is not everyday we have the honour of discussing
news in relation to the original Civilization, the title which started a
gaming revolution eight years ago which forever changed the face at how we
look at computer gaming.
GameSpy, primarily known for its position as a powerhouse in the online
multiplayer gaming community, inductes a new game into its prestigeous
Hall of Fame every Monday. This week's inductee is none other than Sid
Meier's Civilization, and a very deserving one at that most anyone would
agree. Writes Tim "Juan Golbez" McConnaughy of GS, who puts it so well:
"Civilization made the empire-building genre really come to life, and get
the attention it deserved. It also proved that fancy graphics and 3d sound
were not needed for an immersive and enjoyable game.
Civilization pioneered many elements that we take for granted now, most
notably the tech tree... In so many different ways to configure the game
before it even began, and with so many ways to play the game, you were
almost guaranteed that no two games would be alike. That made an already
enjoyable game worth keeping on the hard drive.
Civilization is an immersive game, with so many variables and ways to win
that even years down the road, people can still get an enjoyable
experience from something that has no 3d acceleration or stunning audio
capability. The goal of Civilization is to, "build a civilization to stand
the test of time". How ironic it is, that the game itself accomplished
just that".
Congratulations to Sid, Brian, and the rest of the historic Civilization
team! May its legacy only continue to grow as time goes on.


----------------------------
**Civilization II Section

New MGE Patch v1.1b4

THE COLUMN: #78 MILLENIUM GAMING FRONTIERS
DanQ passes his predictions for gaming in the years to come.

SUBMIT A COLUMN


----------------------------
**Civilization III Section

RELIGION IN CIV3?
(November 16th, 1999) Our "Religions in Civ3?" poll ended with 505 votes.
The first choice got the majority of the votes, the full results are the
following
Use name associated with civ or player chooses name, with their own SE
effects or effects based on religion type (poly/monotheism, etc.) -- 262 /
51%
Use name associated with civ or player chooses name, as game progresses
SE values change -- 154 / 30%
Use name associated with civ or player chooses name, with no SE effects
-- 22 / 4%
No names used, with their own SE effects or effects based on religion
type -- 17 / 3%
No names used, as game progresses SE values change -- 17 / 3%
No names used, no SE effects -- 33 / 6%
In our 8th poll, we ask about ctp's stacked combat model. Thanks to M@ni@c
for the idea. Feel free to post your ideas for new poll to this thread.

SLICK-6 BACK TO LIFE
(Nov. 18) Jason Kozak, Project Lead in the development of Slick 6,
formerly known as Stellar Civilizations, has informed us that the game is
back on track thanks to a renewed interest in its development.
"First the bad news. As some might know, Stellar Civ. was thrown into
the trash a few months ago. A project gone awry, left with one person
working on it, it was decided no longer worth it to pursue unless
additional help could be aquired. The code was stripped for anything
useful and was sent, never to return from the infernal recycling bin.
Now for the good news. Help has been aquired in the form of two
programmers and an artist. The game has been started from ground zero, but
unlike its predecessor is progressing at a good rate. Announcements and
updates to the webpage will be irregular until we have reached a
significant stage in development, but we will try to release bits of
information along the way".
-- Slick-6 Development Team (Jason Kozak., Waleed Ayoub, PaulSemec,
and Gerald Chua)
More information on the development of Slick 6 will be posted as it made
available.


----------------------------
**Alpha Centauri Section

SMACX V2 Patch Lists
--November 17 1999-- Tim Train made two important announcements on our
forums today, concerning SMACX V2, or better the first Alien Crossfire
patch. One was about what has been fixed so far, a rather long list. The
other was about things that have been reported, but Firaxis hasn't been
able to reproduce, so more info and saved games are requested. According
to Tim, SMACX V2 "is still a few weeks away due to testing but should be
available before the holidays"...

CDMag Gives The Go
--November 16 1999-- Computer Games Magazine's Lee Johnson has reviewed
Sid Meier's Alien Crossfire, and has given it a decent 4/5 star rating.
Here are some notable excerpts from the full account, both postive and
negative:
"Some of the new secret projects are destined for popularity, like the
Cloudbase Academy, which counts as an Aerospace Complex in every base, or
the Manifold Harmonics project, which confers rich production bonuses upon
fungus and monolith squares. The alien factions are fresh and fun to play.
They have their own unit graphics and experience the game's fictional
interludes from a completely different perspective.
...an apparent bug allows games to be started with only one alien
faction. The game's AI seems to struggle even more with the human factions
than it did pre-Crossfire, though they can still do well with a good
starting position. Graphics performance is still lacking, if not worse ---
even on fast systems. Unfortunately, Alien Crossfire does not include
low-resolution versions of its 3-D unit files to improve performance, as
Alpha Centauri did.
Alien Crossfire is a jam-packed expansion that seamlessly blends many new
and interesting features into an already great game". ?article=/articles/024/067/alienc_review.html">

B. Benesal on SMAC-X, Supplementary
--November 16 1999-- A few weeks ago we reported on Barry Benesal's review
of SMAC-X on GameProWorld, one of the first known to be published online.
He contacted us a little over a week ago, and mentioned one additional
point that he didn't have space to include his review:
"I still wish Brian, Sid and Company would stick in some algorithyms for
computerized factions to expand their land mass via formers. If you play
sensibly, it's still nearly impossible to lose in a waterworld game
against the computer. Admittedly, the new seabase facilities that increase
resource harvesting level the playing field a bit; and I have a sneaking
suspicion that the piratical faction was added to counter just the win
situation I refer to. Still, it's a kludge; I'd love the thrill of seeing
Deidre expanding her island into a continent, covered with native
lifeforms.
The choice of new factions was very canny, and seems to provide counters
for many fave factions in the old regime. If you like Zakharov (I do), the
data folks with their annoying probes offer a genuine challenge. And the
two alien factions, able to choice their research paths, are a challenge
to *any* faction when you leave the random research option turned on".

CD Anxiety
--November 14 1999-- Tom Chick, reviewer at GameCenter, has a bone of
contention to pick with Firaxis and Electronic Arts over their Alpha
Centauri expansion pack Alien Crossfire. This issue cost the game 10% in
his overall rating of the game, dropping its final score to a 7. In his
article, Chick sights what he sees as poor game balance and a buggy
faction editor for partially swerving SMAC-X off course of acheiving a
higher mark. But, it was the fact that he now needs the CD in his drive to
play it that proved to be the straw that broke the camel's back. His final
paragraph states it quite bluntly:
"Some genius at Firaxis or Electronic Arts has decided that you can't
play the game unless the CD is in the drive. This was not the case with
Alpha Centauri; it was a perfect laptop game and was no trouble to load
for a few quick turns. It was even pretty easy to play by email. Not only
can you not play Alien Crossfire without the CD, but also the installation
process "retro-engineers" your original Alpha Centauri installation so you
can't even play that without the CD in the drive.
In the future, I will kindly thank the folks at EA or Firaxis to keep
their fingers out of my hard drive and away from the games I've already
paid for". ?st.gc.fd.gca

SMAC-X: Ace From ESCMag
--November 13 1999-- Don't you just love it when things are perfect? There
are not many things in this world that have been brewed to perfection,
goes an old saying, but as far as ESCape Magazine is concerned, Sid
Meier's Alien Crossfire is one of them. Reviewer Andy Grieser gave it 10
out a possible 10 keys. This is the same score as ESCMag gave its parent
Alpha Centauri over six months ago. Given that it is an expansion pack,
and such a score only goes to the cream of the crop in the industry, it
makes you wonder if Firaxis can outdo themselves with future projects.
"The aliens are marvelous, with totally new technology, units and victory
conditions. That’s all to be expected from an add-on, but Alien Crossfire
handles it exceptionally well. Even more so because humans and aliens
share technology, allowing either side to use the other’s units and often
resulting in intriguing hybrids.
Add another feather to the caps of Meier and Reynolds; they haven’t lost
the magic that makes their strategy games top-notch.".


----------------------------
**Spanish Civ II Site(hosted site)

Nov.17 -- Links page updated


----------------------------
**GameLeague(hosted site)

A Little More Info 11.16
There was a little confusion so I have added a little more info to the
tourney page for the Thanks For Nothing tourney.

Apollo??? 11.15
The Thanks For Nothing tourney is a no wonders tourney. However, many
people play no wonders games where Apollo is allowed and would like it to
be allowed in this tourney. So don't ever say we didn't ask you. We will
hold a vote among those who show up to determine if Apollo will be
allowed.

Thanks For Nothing 11.13
We will be holding a "No Wonders" tourney over Thanksgiving(US) weekend.
Go to the tourneys page for more information. You must signup in advance.


=========Apolyton's Friends News=========
--------------------------
MJ's Civilization Empire

11/13/1999
- SMAC2 MODPACK READY FOR DOWNLOAD!!!!!!!!!!!!
Thats right it's finally done, all the hard work. This is a beta version
sort of, because there always still could be mistakes in it. If I find
any errors, or if you find any errors and report them to me, I will post
an updated version. But for now enjoy the mod, ten new factions, new
techs, and terrain enhancements, and two new social engineering choices.
Download the mod here.

11/07/1999
- The SMAC2 modpack is almost finished.
- Limited info for the Hagen faction is online in the SMAC2 modpack
section.
- Also more info added for the other SMAC2 factions.
- You can now access the Civilization Empire with this address:
a bit easier to remember than the old address.
- Those files I promised last week will be up soon.
- That update to the site design will come eventually. I'm still deciding
what that redesign will be.



That was all for this week ladies and gentlemen,

Until next time
Markos Giannopoulos - markg@apolyton.net
Apolyton Civilization Site -