SMAC 2!!!

[Sky]

From the firaxis site's Ask Sid section:

Question: Do you think there will be a follow up to Alpha Centauri? I just restarted playing it - after having been able to NOT play for a few years - and here we go again; all-nighters when my alarm clock tells me to go to work or get some sleep.

Sid: We get lots of requests from fans asking us to make another Alpha Centauri…and we’ve been talking about it quite a bit lately. So…it’s definitely a possibility down the road. Go get those Spartans!

I sent in one about remaking Colonization, a game that was in many, many ways superior to Civilization, yet all the innovations were left behind when they made the next Civ. Similar to SMAC, if you ask me...I'm of the mind that Civ4 will be a pit of suck and it will sell great to all the poor bastards like myself who hold out some hope Sid will actually care about his baby again some day.

Or that Reynolds will get off the goddamned RTS badwagon, fer crissakes.

Hopefully we hear some more on this one!

[Sky]

I mean, I know this isn't some japaconsole title, but I thought there'd be a bit more interest than zilch! You people are heathens, but you knew that.

Anyway, firaxis' webmin got back to me with this URL: http://www.firaxis.com/community/polls.php

Screw Hellgate (though it looks cool!), these poll results get my inner fanboi all juicy:

1. Which Sid Meier’s game/series (past or present) would you most like to see remade?
Percent       Answer
36%       Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri
2%       Sid Meier’s Sim Golf
5%       Sid Meier’s Gettysburg!
30%       Sid Meier’s Colonization
3%       Sid Meier’s Covert Action
3%       Sid Meier’s Railroad Tycoon
0%       Gunship
1%       F-19 Stealth Fighter
1%       Red Storm Rising
4%       Silent Service
15%       I don’t care about remakes, give me something new!

Win/win SMAC 2 or Col2, woohoo! C'mon, I can't be the only one excited by this prospect, can I?

[WayAbvPar]

While the gameplay was decent, I was really turned off by the sci-fi setting and the ass ugly graphics in SMAC. The diplomacy and the distinct personalities of the other factions was pretty cool.

As for Colonization, I remember playing it and wishing it was more like Civ, and that Civ was more like Colonization, if that makes any sense.

And last but not least, I would love a remake of Red Storm Rising. I loved that damned game.

[Sky]

Wish I could do the poll 3 times, I'd like a sequel to Col, SMAC, AND SimGolf.

[Furiously]

While the gameplay was decent, I was really turned off by the sci-fi setting and the ass ugly graphics in SMAC. The diplomacy and the distinct personalities of the other factions was pretty cool.

As for Colonization, I remember playing it and wishing it was more like Civ, and that Civ was more like Colonization, if that makes any sense.

And last but not least, I would love a remake of Red Storm Rising. I loved that damned game.

I always liked taking out an oil desiel sub and seeing how much havoc I could stur up. But somehow it wasn't as much fun as taking one with horizonantal launch tubes and sinking lots, popping under and evading their torpedo's and man you really had to use the keyboard overlay on that game.

[WayAbvPar]

Yeah, the Seawolf was just brutal. It was like playing the game on the n00b difficulty level. Some sort of multiplayer game with a sub or 2 vs 5-10 surface ships and planes would fucking RULE.

[Sky]

Some sort of multiplayer game with a sub or 2 vs 5-10 surface ships and planes would fucking RULE.

Too bad bf1942's implementation was so subpar (woops, punny!). The concept was incredible, the execution was a bit rough.

[Furiously]

Uhmm - you could get on a boat in WWII online.....

[Murgos]

Yeah, the Seawolf was just brutal. It was like playing the game on the n00b difficulty level.

Yeah, you could take out a whole battlefleet with a good first strike.  I remember firing just ridiculous spreads of Harpoons and torpedoes and trying to time them to all arrive at the same time.  Then creating a knuckle in the water followed by a quick change of depth and a little cruise off to the side to wait and pick off survivors.  That was a great game, so much of it took place in your imagination that there really wasn't any need for graphics which was good because it didn't really have any.

[Rodent]

Win/win SMAC 2 or Col2, woohoo! C'mon, I can't be the only one excited by this prospect, can I?

Making me choose between the two is impossible. I loved both thoose games to death, and I still re-install and play them atleast a few times a year. Only MoM 2 could possibly rival thoose two for my support.

[Stormwaltz]

Anyway, firaxis' webmin got back to me with this URL: http://www.firaxis.com/community/polls.php

Ten point penalty to Firaxis for making it impossible to submit the survey if you only game on the PC.

Yeah, I could answer randomly, but I thought the point of these was to give them honest answers?

[Sky]

Yeah, I emailed the webmin about that. I chose 'handheld' as alternate platform, because some day I'll get a PSP (when they are affordable and not bundled with crap). I'll allow that to give more voice to remaking some of those great games.

Can I give you a ten point penalty for not releasing Jade Empire on the pc? Zing! ;)

[Alkiera]

Can I give you a ten point penalty for not releasing Jade Empire on the pc? Zing! ;)

I can, and do.

Alkiera

[Stormwaltz]

Can I give you a ten point penalty for not releasing Jade Empire on the pc? Zing! ;)

It's only fair. ^_^

So far as I know the "possibility" of a PC Jade is still being "explored." But that's at a level way over me. Actually, you'll probably hear the same time I do.

[Comstar]

Well I guess not many people knew about the poll till they saw it on here....

I would like to see SMG too, but SMACsquared would be a nice game to look forward too.

59%       Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri
2%       Sid Meier’s Sim Golf
3%       Sid Meier’s Gettysburg!
19%       Sid Meier’s Colonization
2%       Sid Meier’s Covert Action
2%       Sid Meier’s Railroad Tycoon
1%       Gunship
1%       F-19 Stealth Fighter
2%       Red Storm Rising
2%       Silent Service
9%       I don’t care about remakes, give me something new!

[stray]

Am I the only one who likes Railroad Tycoon? 

Man, someone make a wild west action rpg/mmog, and put a whole train sim metagame in it as well. I'd be a happy man.

My "fantasies" are robbing a train on horseback, and shooting a punk down for drinking out of my watering hole. I'm sick and tired of elves, lightning bolts, nazis, laboratory mutants, laboratory mutants created from nazis, and intergalactic domination.

EDIT: I also like pirates.

[Trippy]

Am I the only one who likes Railroad Tycoon? 

I enjoyed the original but that game has been remade twice already (both by PopTop) and both were very good (though I liked 2 more than 3).

[Rodent]

Man, someone make a wild west action rpg/mmog, and put a whole train sim metagame in it as well. I'd be a happy man.

They need to make a sequel damnit, if only for the soundtrack.

[stray]

They canceled the Full Throttle and Sam & Max sequels. There will definitely not be another Outlaws. Nope, it's Adventures of Obi-Wan, Pod Racer, and Lego Star Wars for you.

[Rodent]

They canceled the Full Throttle and Sam & Max sequels. There will definitely not be another Outlaws. Nope, it's Adventures of Obi-Wan, Pod Racer, and Lego Star Wars for you.

I know.. Part of me died when Lucasarts became a crappy publisher.

[Yegolev]

I have a loathing of uncontrolled alien fungal growth.

[Pococurante]

While the gameplay was decent, I was really turned off by the sci-fi setting and the ass ugly graphics in SMAC. The diplomacy and the distinct personalities of the other factions was pretty cool.

I feel exactly the same way.  And won't bother with a sequel that doesn't get such a review.  SMAC terrain was just plain ugly and did nothing for my sense of immersion like the historical context of Civ.

[El Gallo]

SMAC with the Civ3 AI woud be about the best game I could imagine.

[Bunk]

SMAC with the Civ3 AI woud be about the best game I could imagine.

Uggh! Civ3 AI:

1. Put down first city
2. EXPAND
3. EXPAND
4. EXPAND
5. EXPAND
6. EXPAND
ad infinitum

I hated that. There was no strategy change from one nation to another, they all did the same thing, and it forced you to play the same game. Essentially, you could do nothing but build settlers for the first 2000 years, or you didn't get any territory.

[Pococurante]

Diplomacy was to me Civ's weakest element.  Yes I know history is chock full of treaty breaking etc but diplomacy that's nothing more then peace breaking out for two years after trading cities while opponent army pieces swarm my lands isn't diplomacy at all.  Somehow the Swiss have managed to fend off all comers for centuries without constantly invading other countries or giving away towns.

SMAC seemed a little better.  Games outside the Meirs perview have done diplomacy very well.

[El Gallo]

I liked Civ 3's AI because it wasn't nearly so easy to win as it was in Civ/CivII/AC (even avoiding cheese).  I disliked a lot of other things about the game, however.

[Soln]

I enjoyed SMAC a lot and would buy a new rev, but the only complaint (and yes, it's only one) was that the index or whatever data engine they had underneath has to be scrapped.  I would literally sit for minutes watching my pieces (?) update after my round, then all the others as welll over the game board...  The processing or data fetching was appallingly slow.  Everything else, /hi5 :)

[Yoru]

I'm hoping that whomever builds the next great 4X game will incorporate build-your-own-unit functionality; I really loved putting together the Right Design for my current situation in SMAC (and, earlier on, MOO2 and MOO1). With the traditonal Civ-style 3-stat system (atk/def/mov), it's certainly not all that hard to do. Playing Civ3 (prefab units only) after SMAC felt like a huge step backwards, gameplay-wise, with little particularly new but the graphics and much-reviled culture system. I'm hoping Civ4 will redeem the franchise next month, but I expect that those hopes will be dashed against the cold hard cliffs of reality and we'll basically get Civ3 + nicer graphics.

Man, someone make a wild west action rpg/mmog, and put a whole train sim metagame in it as well. I'd be a happy man.

My "fantasies" are robbing a train on horseback, and shooting a punk down for drinking out of my watering hole. I'm sick and tired of elves, lightning bolts, nazis, laboratory mutants, laboratory mutants created from nazis, and intergalactic domination.

I vaguely recall some small indy-shop starting rumors about doing a wild west MMOG (Frontier 1849, or something like that), but from what I recall, they do the usual bit about promising all sorts of virtual-worldy pipe dreams (permadeath, player justice, meaningful noncombat opportunities, etc.) so I'm inclined to think of it as "vaporware until proven innocent".

[WayAbvPar]

Speaking of Wild West games- did anyone ever play ?



Goddamn it was a fun game. Think X-Com in the Wild West, without all the bells and whistles (it was 1985, for Christ's sake!). Had 10 or so scenarios- some from movies (they had the climactic battle from The Magnificent Seven, which was my fav scenario), history (the Northfield massacre of the James gang, another fav), to Circle the Wagons (Indians v settlers). Different weapon types (including melee weapons like knives, sabers, and tomahawks), and the ability to customize your team members before the battle (which was the only way many of them were survivable!). Hours upon hours of entertainment. Hell, I would probably play it now with its 8-bit graphics.

[stray]

Nope, never played it. Gotta get that. 

Another good game...Well, at least fairly amusing...Is Red Dead Revolver. Probably the last Wild West game made to date. You can get it on the X-Box or PS2. Cliched storyline and characters, sure, but the gameplay is fantastic imo. Kind of like GTA, but with improved targeting. It was made (or at least published) by Rockstar. Definitely worth a rental.

[AOFanboi]

I vaguely recall some small indy-shop starting rumors about doing a wild west MMOG (Frontier 1849, or something like that), but from what I recall, they do the usual bit about promising all sorts of virtual-worldy pipe dreams (permadeath, player justice, meaningful noncombat opportunities, etc.) so I'm inclined to think of it as "vaporware until proven innocent".

They have changed the site since the last time I visited, but it still seems to be stuck in a planning stage bog.

[HaemishM]

Last I remember hearing, Frontier was still looking for financing of some kind, which may take quite a while. Maybe they should try to cozy up for the Deadwood license. 

[stray]

Last I remember hearing, Frontier was still looking for financing of some kind, which may take quite a while. Maybe they should try to cozy up for the Deadwood license. 

Yes! 

[Righ]

SMAC and the expansion are the only reason I load Classic (OS 9 emulation) on my Powerbook. The cockgobblers at Firaxis don't have Mac as a second platform choice. Ah well, I voted mobile. I'd buy a PSP if they put SMAC on it.

52%   Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri
1%   Sid Meier’s Sim Golf
2%   Sid Meier’s Gettysburg!
27%   Sid Meier’s Colonization
1%   Sid Meier’s Covert Action
5%   Sid Meier’s Railroad Tycoon
1%   Gunship
0%   F-19 Stealth Fighter
1%   Red Storm Rising
2%   Silent Service
9%   I don’t care about remakes, give me something new!

[Wasted]

I loved SMAC, played it for a long time.  I dont want a sequel, the game stood out well alone and doesnt need to be revisted. The things that made it great where the different faction characterisations and relationship with the planet.  The setting made me enjoy the game more than real world style games because I find it easier to become immersed in something completely crafted and different rather than the highschool history lessons you get in civ style games.  Adding better graphics and AI and whatever new bells would still make a revision just a dilution to that setting.

Someone make a NEW x4 game ffs.