Alpha Centauri 2

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri & Alien Crossfire => The Theory of Everything => Topic started by: bigjoec on November 06, 2021, 10:19:36 PM

Title: Recommended setup for improved but vanilla SMAC?
Post by: bigjoec on November 06, 2021, 10:19:36 PM

Just recently got back into SMAC after over a decade away. It's still one of my favorite* pieces of science fiction, across all time and all media.

Anyway, it's cool that there's this fairly thriving community here around this old game. I see there are mods and patches and the like, and I'm not quite sure what the difference is, and am not too interested in digging into the details. But I'd like to have an "improved" SMAC experience, to the extent such thing exists. So I'm here asking for recommendations.

I'd particularly like game's AI to be better. I'd also like to play with any existing bugs fixed. Less important but nice would be if anyone has fixed the really fiddly/terrible design workshop system, or improved the game controls overall. What I'd like to avoid is stuff like changes to the factions, changes to the actual game content, etc. I strongly prefer vanilla SMAC to SMACX.

So given all that, any recommendations would be appreciated. Particularly, what version of SMAC I should start from (the GOG version?) and what "patch" or whatever I should apply to it, and any tips on what it takes to apply that patch.

Thanks!

*For anyone who loves SMAC's storyline the way I do, try reading some of Reynolds's acknowledged influences -- you won't be disappointed. I've only read the Mars trilogy and A Fire Upon the Deep so far, but recommend them highly. (Actually, the Mars trilogy is diminishing returns -- you can stop after Red Mars.)

Title: Re: Recommended setup for improved but vanilla SMAC?
Post by: bvanevery on November 07, 2021, 03:10:52 AM

Quote from: bigjoec on November 06, 2021, 10:19:36 PM

I'd particularly like game's AI to be better.

All 3 of us major modders went different directions with that.  As well as different game design directions, with different philosophies on how to simultaneously address the AI and game design problems.  All I can say about that is, "Pick one".  They're all going to beat you up more than you were previously beaten up.  The rate at which you adapt to new conditions depends on both you and the mod, and there's no telling what your strengths or weaknesses are.

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I'd also like to play with any existing bugs fixed.

You can't have that.  You can have a lot of bugs fixed with Scient's patch, but he didn't fix everything.  I play with the GOG stock binary only.  My only recurrent expected crash, is not fixed by Scient's patch.  Fortunately I know what causes it and how to work around it using the Scenario Editor.  I made a thread about that in the Bugs subforum.  Otherwise, I really don't have any problem playing with the stock binary.  There might be a minor annoyance here and there that I'm forgetting, but the fact that I'm forgetting, says about how frequently or severely it bothers me.  The GOG stock binary is pretty stable, in single player at least.  And I don't do multiplayer.

Yitzi went after some different bugs than Scient, but didn't leave his work in good shape for anyone to build on it, or copy his results and integrate them into anything else.  Unfortunately IMO, Yitzi's patch is sort of a dead end in that regard.

I would suggest you use Scient's patch.  Thinker mod and Will To Power mod already have it included.  My mod is compatible with it.  You can also just slap it on top of plain vanilla if you like, there's really no downside lately that I'm aware of.

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Less important but nice would be if anyone has fixed the really fiddly/terrible design workshop system, or improved the game controls overall.

That is beyond the scope of what anyone has been willing to contend with, at the disassembly and machine code level.  There is no source code for this game.  Nobody just reworks stuff like that, it would be seriously major pouring of blood on the table.  For that kind of effort, I personally will make a brand new 4X TBS game from scratch and charge you money for it.  Someday.   ;lol

You have to accept certain limitations of what you're going to get out mods for a very, very old game.

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What I'd like to avoid is stuff like changes to the factions,

I think that's completely foolish, as the original factions were very badly balanced.  I recommend you either change your point of view to match gaming reality, or else certainly avoid my SMACX AI Growth mod.  Rebalancing the factions to be fairly equal to each other, has been a major focus of my work over the past 3.5 years.

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changes to the actual game content, etc.

I didn't change lots of things that way, but the original authors didn't get everything right, and it is modding.  So again, either change your point of view of this as an ironclad requirement, or avoid my mod like the plague.  It's not for purists who insist that nothing be changed in this regard.

The major thing I did that pisses some people off, is I toned down the anti-Christian rhetoric.  Well, too bad.  It matches the thoughtful Miriam we actually see in the Secret Project videos.

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I strongly prefer vanilla SMAC to SMACX.

All 3 of us major modders require the SMACX executable to work.  However I think Thinker mod does have a "SMAC in SMACX" modality?  I don't know much about it because I don't care about it.  Although some parts of the SMACX game mechanics are a bit goofy and overpowered, I rebalanced and dealt with all of that.  My main technique was "soft retiring" certain things, putting them late enough in the game that you're unlikely to care to use them.  Will To Power mod took the more direct approach of simply eliminating certain things.

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what version of SMAC I should start from (the GOG version?)

Yep.

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any tips on what it takes to apply that patch.

All of the 3 major mods have directions.  If you can't follow them, you need to complain to the mod authors about the quality of the directions they're giving you.  I don't expect you to have any complaints about the directions for my mod, but who knows, maybe something I think is dead easy, actually isn't.

Similarly, I would expect Scient's patch to be easy to apply if you need to do so.  Read directions.  Complain if they're bad.  They probably aren't, seeing as how I've never had any problem with it, but who knows.

Title: Re: Recommended setup for improved but vanilla SMAC?
Post by: bigjoec on November 07, 2021, 03:41:23 AM

Thanks.

Title: Re: Recommended setup for improved but vanilla SMAC?
Post by: BFG on November 09, 2021, 06:19:38 AM

The only thing I'll add is that, if you DON'T apply scient's patch or one of the mods that incorporates it, you may at least want to get the reencoded FX files.  (The final official patch breaks compatibility with the five stereo FX files, of which I believe only two are actually used anywhere in-game.  Scient's patch includes files reencoded to mono which restores compatibility, but reencoded files are also available separate from the scient patch in the downloads section.)

I'm also a fan of re-enabling the two dummied out techs (Inertial Damping, Global Energy Theory) and one dummied out unit ability (Heavy Transport), which is doable with very little effort in the stock config files.  But this qualifies as changing game content so may not be of interest to you.  Plus, at least a couple - perhaps all - of the major mods already do this, and frankly the dummied out items don't add much to the game without additional changes, anyway.  (There's a reason they're dummied out...)

Title: Re: Recommended setup for improved but vanilla SMAC?
Post by: Aureustgo on November 09, 2021, 08:33:29 PM

It comes down to what you like about SMAC.

If one likes the exploration aspect, the diplomacy dynamic, and the interaction with Planet, then the mods that are out probably won't improve the game - actually, they may make it worse.

If you like SMAC for the tactical challenge, then I don't think you can go wrong with any of the mods, especially those that seek to improve the AI.

Alternatively, playing vanilla SMAC with the Believers or Spartans on standard Planet and small land mass can be a worthy handicap on Transcend.

Title: Re: Recommended setup for improved but vanilla SMAC?
Post by: BFG on November 09, 2021, 09:07:15 PM

Quote from: Aureustgo on November 09, 2021, 08:33:29 PM

Alternatively, playing vanilla SMAC with the Believers or Spartans on standard Planet and small land mass can be a worthy handicap on Transcend.

You sound like you enjoy pain.  ;lol

Title: Re: Recommended setup for improved but vanilla SMAC?
Post by: bvanevery on November 10, 2021, 09:02:12 AM

Quote from: Aureustgo on November 09, 2021, 08:33:29 PM

and the interaction with Planet, then the mods that are out probably won't improve the game - actually, they may make it worse.

A big difference between my SMACX AI Growth mod and Thinker mod, is I kept the original game's very harsh global warming, planet flooding, and Planet attacking you for atrocities.  Will To Power mod used Thinker as a base, but I think it may have recently gone back to original game behavior on global warming?  I haven't checked.

I also improved the continent generation, and I think other mods did as well.  Playing on a bunch of indistinguishable archipelagos is not very interesting.

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Alternatively, playing vanilla SMAC with the Believers or Spartans on standard Planet and small land mass can be a worthy handicap on Transcend.

That would be all about not getting Transports quickly.  I will say, having to strain for that, is not what I'd consider an improvement.  It also cripples the AIs.  So, in my mod, ships are available from the beginning of the game.  I intend that people play on Huge maps, so I can't be guilty of anti-exploration.  Actually I sped up ships and planes to make Huge maps more reasonable to traverse.  It still takes plenty of time, and sweeping Planet of supply pods is usually how I play.