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Date: Oct 30 1999 10:44:49 EDT
From: "Apolyton Announcements (Apolyton Civilization Site)"
Subject: Apolyton&Friends News 22-29/October/99


Greetings everyone,
these are the news of the week(22-29/October)

On Apolyton, the big news is our SMACX chat with Tim Train and Greg
Foertsch (), the closing of
the Firaxis Forums () and the
release by Microprose of Mike Uhl's "Time Threat Paradox" Test of Time
scenario ()
Also, this week, the results of the 2nd Scenario Design Contest were
announced on HAC

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

SMAC-X Chat Transcript
--October 29 1999-- For those of you who missed the main event, or just
want to review what was said, we present to you the official SMAC-X Chat
Transcript from Sunday, October 24th. It has been broken up into three
pages: "general" questions, user-submitted questions, and the ever
popular, free-for-all unmoderated period.
We once again thank those at Firaxis, especially Tim and Greg, and all the
others who participated in the chat for making it such a success.

"Don't Miss It"
--October 28 1999-- "Alpha Centauri players won't want to miss Alien
Crossfire", writes GameProWorld's review of SMAC-X.
Reviewer Barry Brenesal was quite pleased with what he saw in SMAC-X, and
an average of the six areas he 'graded' averages out to a glowing 4.3/5.
The only main area he felt the game could improve in was the Sound
department.
"While many companies slap a bunch of new scenarios on a CD and call it a
game extension, Alien Crossfire is something more. You won't find
scenarios here, but numerous small changes to the original Alpha Centauri
that make it a strategically more complex and exciting game.
What impresses most about these changes is their complete integration
into the strategic substrata of the game. Nothing is destabilizing...".
(Thanks to Jason Mailloux for the referral).

Daily Radar Review
--October 26 1999-- DailyRadar has posted the first known SMAC-X review on
the Net, and it's a "Hit"!
On one hand...
"... it ends up being a meaty one. There are new human factions,
significantly different from the first game's, and the alien factions
actually look, feel and sound alien".
On the other hand...
"We have only two complaints about Alien Crossfire: there aren't enough
new things... The second complaint, quite real, is that the faction editor
is neither balanced nor fully functioning... there is no way to ensure
that the new races will not waltz all over with the original factions".
There are definite up and downs here, but Reviewer Aaron John Loeb is
largely positive in his account of the game. (Thanks to Tree for letting
us know of it). Have you "found" an Alien Crossfire review, or even
completed one yourself? Let us know!

A SMACking Good Time
--October 24 1999-- Our chat with Alien Crossfire Producer Tim Train and
Artist Greg Foertsch was very successful. It lasted more than two hours,
with 30-35 users participating at its peak. Tim and Greg answered "general
questions", ranging from SMAC-X's seven new factions to future product
support, for the first hour, an additional 3/4 of an hour with user
questions submitted prior to and during the main part of the chat, and
then those still around had the opportunity to talk to Tim and Greg
directly afterwards.
For the most part everything ran smoothly, and there were even a few
surprises! For those of you who were unable to attend the chat, either in
part or in whole, a complete transcript will be posted sometime over the
next few days so you can read up on what was discussed.
Our thanks, once again, to everyone who participated, and especially to
Tim and Greg for taking time out of their weekend to talk with us about
SMAC-X.

Chat With Firaxis Reminder
--October 23 1999-- This is just a reminder of our chat with Alien
Crossfire Producer Tim Train and Artist Greg Foertsch of the SMACX team.
The chat will take place on our IRC channel on irc.dreamnet.org, which is
also accessible via our Chat Page. The date and time is Sunday, October
24, 5pm EST -- each and every SMACer is invited and expected to attend.
As the hours count down, you have T-24hrs. to submit your question to us
that you would like asked during the main, moderated portion of the chat;
this is the best way to ensure what you want asked, gets asked. To do
this, click the Chat page link above.

Firaxis Forums: RIP
--October 22 1999-- The newsweek for Firaxis fans ended on a sad note.
Days after releasing Sid Meier's Alien Crossfire, Firaxis Games' President
Jeff Briggs, in an open letter to its website visitors, announced that the
company would be shutting down their forums until further notice.
The reaction was swift, and predominately negative, from the public and
this sentiment only continues to grow. By the time next Monday rolls
around, the Firaxis Forums will be nothing more than a memory to those who
once posted there.
Here's an excerpt from the complete letter:
"Dear Firaxis Fans,
In the very near future we will be ramping up our resources and
efforts at Firaxis to create new content for Firaxis.com in several
different areas.
We will begin selling our products directly to you on Firaxis.com,
along with various other items I'm sure you'll find interesting.
We'll be providing behind-the-scenes information about our
development processes on a regular basis, an oft-requested feature that we
hope you will find interesting as we develop our new titles.
And we'll provide in-depth looks at the products we have in
development, including Civilization III, the Great Battles series, and of
course Sid's other new game… (shhhhh), which we will be announcing very
soon, promise.
By shifting our web focus to content and commerce, we hope to make
Firaxis.com a richer and more rewarding web experience.
As a result of this new focus and shifting of company resources, we
will shut down the Firaxis Forums, because we simply cannot give them the
kind of attention and support they require..."


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

FRENCH ToT PATCH v1.1
(October 29, 1999) MicroProse has released the second localized version
patch for Civilization II: Test of Time -- French patch v1.1; this can be
downloaded directly from Apolyton by clicking here (3MB). It is imparitive
that only download and install this patch if you are running the French
version of the game, and a similar word of caution goes out for the
English version. Failure to heed this warning may result in needing to
reinstall the software if problems persist after applying the patch.
The other "language" patches will be released by MPS in the coming weeks.

TIME THREAT PARADOX SCENARIO
(October 27, 1999) The wait is over. MicroProse has released their long
awaited Test of Time scenario Time Threat Paradox by reknowned graphics
king Mick Uhl. The download, 11MB, is a self-extracting EXE which makes
setup a snap. At 100MB when installed, it is quite an endeavour.
First mentioned in ToT Patch v1.1 README more than a month ago, it is the
first "creation" MPS has made available for download in several years, and
the first in another respect: in this scenario, you have to travel back in
time, hence the title.
"Develop or steal technologies that will enable you to travel to the near
or distant future to unravel this mystery", reads the scenario's
description. "The future will shock you, and as you uncover the clues you
will be confounded and consumed by this epic plot. Better yet, travel back
in time and change your present - the possibilities are spellbinding"!
From the table above, select your download location and click on the
Server name to begin. Before you do so, we first recommend installing
Go!Zilla or GetRight which will allow you to resume downloading at a later
time if need be.
ftp://ftp.microprose.com/pub/updates/civ2/CIVIITTP.exe (microprose) (apolyton)

THE COLUMN: #72 FIRST SMAC-X MULTIPLAYER GAME
One game later, XZealot is an SMAC-X multiplayer junkie.

THE COLUMN: #73 IT'S ALL A GAME
DomK wants to see Apolyton OT as more of a game, not a life.


----------------------------
**Civilization: Call to Power Section

ALL LINUX V1.1 PATCHES
(October 23) We now host all the 1.1 patches for the Linux version of CTP,
for x86, PPC(Beta version) and Alpha platforms. More on Loki's site.

6 NEW FILES IN DB
(October 22) Six new files in our Database today, specifically two maps:
"Super Europe" and Japan, and four mods: SpellWeaver's 1200AD MOD, Bronson
Mathews' MOD, Improved AI Data Files and World Report.


----------------------------
**Hodadian Award Central(hosted site)

THE RESULTS! OCT.22
The ballots have been counted, you've tantalized yourself for days -- and
now they're here! Check out the results of the Second Scenario Design
Contest right here! Congratulations to all of the winners! Thanks to the
community for their votes and participation, and let's look forward to the
next great SDC!


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

[Oct 25] Scenario Preview: "Bolivar's Dream"

----------------------------
**Civilization Scenario Collection(hosted site)

[Oct 27] New scenario in Middle Ages: The Turks, by Markus Eklund
(Scenario #22 in this section, #106 in the site)

[Oct 27] Scenario update: The Second Reich, by Michael Jeszenka

[Oct 24] New scenario in Ancient: End of the Bronze Age, by Paul Cullivan
(Scenario #15 in this section, #105 in the site)
Also, a preview page for Captain Nemo's Red Front is up.


----------------------------
**Scenario League(hosted site)

[October 26, 1999] New Content
New scenario for download on the to be reviewed page

[October 23, 1999] Contest #2 Decision Announced!
Mark Laanen, former editor of the Scenario League, was the first-place
winner of the second Scenario Design Competition. All of the entries were
excellent and we encourage visitors to try them out and to view the rest
of the standings, the awards, and the scenarios.
Check out the contest winners at HAC!

[October 26, 1999] New Reviews Editor Joins Staff
Thomas Sobieck will be joining the staff as the new Reviews Editor. His
job will be to format new reviews into HTML format. Reviews can be sent
either directly to him at Thomasee00@aol.com or to the sleague account at
sleague@apolyton.net.


=========Apolyton's Friends News=========

--------------------------
MJ's Civilization Empire

Alpha Centauri Section:
10/22/1999
- Information for the Tambra faction is online in the SMAC2 modpack
section. Chapters 3 and 4 of the Armageddon Scenario are online.
- The next big file update is coming soon with tons of scenarios, and
factions from throughout the net.
- Alien Crossfire Demo link has benn removed. It doesn't work, sorry.


==================
That was all for this week ladies and gentlemen,

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