Alpha Centauri 2

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri & Alien Crossfire => The Theory of Everything => Topic started by: Alfapiomega on November 04, 2012, 08:33:56 AM

Title: The new Let's play
Post by: Alfapiomega on November 04, 2012, 08:33:56 AM

Hello everyone!

As I received (more than) enough help on the forums regarding the technical aspects of the game I will soon start an LP of the game on Youtube. I was thinking I'd give you guys a voice in this regarding the setting and/or other aspects of the game I will do. Especially as I watched some LPs that are on Youtube and I do not consider them really good (however there is a couple of new ones that I haven't seen).

Now with that said there are couple of things we have to keep in mind before we discuss this:
a) doing a good LP is really hard. Experienced players want you to move fast, newbies want you to explain everything in slow order. I tend to try to balance this out by moving forward and explaining everything as I go to the newbies encouraging them to discover most of the details themselves.
b) I tend to roleplay things in my LPs so there won't be any game exploitations in the LP even if it hurts me and leads to a downfall and eventual death. Now I consider myself very experienced (not an expert as you guys) but I win 9/10 games (sometimes you just land on a one tile desert plot in the middle of the ocean).

The proposed settings (which I always almost play on and that I consider the hardest) is:
a) Transcend difficulty
b) 50-70% of land
c) abundant natural life
d) sparse rainfall
e) no tech picking
f) no restarts for destroyed factions

Now the questions for you guys are: is the above suitable or would you change something? What faction would you like me to play? I saw that University and Hive in almost all the LPs so it might be fun to pick Deidre or Morgan. I might go with random (except believers. I will NEVER play Believers) but that might end up with another game to the choir.
Blind research - yes/no? It will make the game slightly harder but might take out some of the charm for inexperienced viewers I think.
Yes, I will only LP original SMAC, I plan to do one with SMAX after that because the game is quite old and most of my viewers don't even know it exists and I consider the basic game complicated enough for the new players :)
Also would you use tech stealing during wars? That one really puts a lot of power to the Spartans and Believers but also to the player.
I checked the mods and stuff in here but none seems really that good so would you install anything from the database before the game starts? I believe the GOG version has the latest patch in it (correct?)

Thanks for all tips in advance! :) I hope I'll manage to flock people here and to play SMAC. I spend a lot of time building a community on my channel and I dare to say I have at least 400 of the 1600 subs are really dedicated viewers who will at least try the game out.

Title: Re: The new Let's play
Post by: sisko on November 04, 2012, 10:21:34 AM

Quote

a) doing a good LP is really hard. Experienced players want you to move fast, newbies want you to explain everything in slow order. I tend to try to balance this out by moving forward and explaining everything as I go to the newbies encouraging them to discover most of the details themselves.

;b;

Quote

What faction would you like me to play? I saw that University and Hive in almost all the LPs so it might be fun to pick Deidre or Morgan.

i vote for  ;deidre; as Morgan needs a different approach from all the other factions.

Quote

Blind research - yes/no?

blind research gives a touch of realism and is the favourite of single-players (also it eases the learning curve for those new to the game) but if you aim also for a MP adience, then directed research is a must.

Quote

Also would you use tech stealing during wars?

spoils of war means less covert ops and the players must see the probe units at work. you can always play CyCons in a future SMAX let's play if you like that option.

Quote

I believe the GOG version has the latest patch in it (correct?)

yep. GOG vesion has all the official patches, but i think you should play with kyrub's patch on since it gives a small boost to the AI. that's if you feel up to the challenge..  ::) we don't have it in our downloads section, but it's about time to do something about it.

Quote

I spend a lot of time building a community on my channel and I dare to say I have at least 400 of the 1600 subs are really dedicated viewers who will at least try the game out.

..and we're looking forward to helping them in any way that we can :D

Title: Re: The new Let's play
Post by: Alfapiomega on November 04, 2012, 10:26:39 AM

Thank you for your opinion (captain) Sisko :)

I will definitely give the patch a try. Does it give the AI an advantage or does it boosts the AI quality?

Title: Re: The new Let's play
Post by: sisko on November 04, 2012, 10:36:52 AM

Quote from: Alfapiomega on November 04, 2012, 10:26:39 AM

I will definitely give the patch a try. Does it give the AI an advantage or does it boosts the AI quality?

the most important improvement is the terraforming approach of the AI, but there are also tweaks regarding the production choices. i think there's a readme for that. let me post the files..

Title: Re: The new Let's play
Post by: Alfapiomega on November 04, 2012, 10:50:02 AM

Quote from: sisko on November 04, 2012, 10:36:52 AM

Quote from: Alfapiomega on November 04, 2012, 10:26:39 AM

I will definitely give the patch a try. Does it give the AI an advantage or does it boosts the AI quality?

the most important improvement is the terraforming approach of the AI, but there are also tweaks regarding the production choices. i think there's a readme for that. let me post the files..

Thank you very much! I did a quick check and found the original forum where he discussed it. It looks great, should boost the AI fairly :)

BTW any of you guys have an idea how to record the original intro? Ideally if you had it as a separate file that I could run first, record and upload previously to the LP.

Title: Re: The new Let's play
Post by: sisko on November 04, 2012, 11:07:45 AM

opening.wve should be the smac intro movie.
you play and rip it using this: http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?action=downloads;sa=view;down=90 (http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?action=downloads;sa=view;down=90)
here is the discussion thread for your reference: http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=938 (http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=938)

Title: Re: The new Let's play
Post by: Alfapiomega on November 04, 2012, 11:18:42 AM

Quote from: sisko on November 04, 2012, 11:07:45 AM

opening.wve should be the smac intro movie.
you play and rip it using this: http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?action=downloads;sa=view;down=90 (http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?action=downloads;sa=view;down=90)
here is the discussion thread for your reference: http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=938 (http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=938)

Awesome, that should really help :) Any other points you'd like to make? Did you watch the other LPs? Your opinion?

Also anyone else? ;)

Title: Re: The new Let's play
Post by: JarlWolf on November 04, 2012, 11:48:17 AM

If you are playing the expansion in the future, my suggestion is  ;domai;.

For now, I vote either  ;santi; or  ;deidre;


As for the settings, put blind research on, and don't have tech stealing when conquering a base. Not only does it nullify the use of probe teams somewhat, its also unrealistic to extents. A faction would cut off the network nodes/ communications of that base from their network almost immediately.

Title: Re: The new Let's play
Post by: sisko on November 04, 2012, 11:49:39 AM

Quote from: Alfapiomega on November 04, 2012, 11:18:42 AM

Did you watch the other LPs? Your opinion?

i tend to agree with you on the other LPs:

Quote

..I watched some LPs that are on Youtube and I do not consider them really good

so, i'm looking forward to your "finished product"

Title: Re: The new Let's play
Post by: Alfapiomega on November 05, 2012, 11:07:40 PM

The LP has started! :)

The playlist is availible here: http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpVUxdiS7yw8Rvb_nlQLdn02n7VFYRm33&feature=view_all (http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLpVUxdiS7yw8Rvb_nlQLdn02n7VFYRm33&feature=view_all)

Title: Re: The new Let's play
Post by: Alfapiomega on December 31, 2012, 05:09:19 PM

...and it is over! :) It was sure a fun playthrough.

I was really shocked how well the AI fares with the unofficial AI patch. Thanks for much for suggesting it (not sure whether it was Buncle or sisko but thank you both anyways! :) ).

Title: Re: The new Let's play
Post by: Kilkakon on January 02, 2013, 01:59:56 AM

Well done! :D You have a nice amount of views on there too which is pretty sweet.

Might I ask what program you used to record it with? I use FRAPS for my normal YT videos but not sure if that works with this or not.

Title: Re: The new Let's play
Post by: Alfapiomega on January 02, 2013, 01:25:07 PM

Quote from: Kilkakon on January 02, 2013, 01:59:56 AM

Well done! :D You have a nice amount of views on there too which is pretty sweet.

Might I ask what program you used to record it with? I use FRAPS for my normal YT videos but not sure if that works with this or not.

To my knowledge you can not use FRAPs at all. I use Camtasia Studio 7 but it does not work in the normal setup as well, you have to do a certain trick to make it work - you have to start one game of SMAC, then alt+tab out of it and start another one. Then shut down the new one and the old one will be recordable.
It sounds silly but trust me, it works. I was sceptic before as well. Mind you I tried everything (every type of recording software and whathave you) but this is the only (quite simple) thing that works :)

Are you planning an LP?

Title: Re: The new Let's play
Post by: Kilkakon on January 02, 2013, 03:20:47 PM

Well it's an idea. My mod is largely unpopular (with a few expressions of interest) but an LP could work to attract people to the game.

Title: Re: The new Let's play
Post by: Alfapiomega on January 02, 2013, 03:24:02 PM

Quote from: Kilkakon on January 02, 2013, 03:20:47 PM

Well it's an idea. My mod is largely unpopular (with a few expressions of interest) but an LP could work to attract people to the game.

What mod are you talking about?

Title: Re: The new Let's play
Post by: Kilkakon on January 02, 2013, 03:35:25 PM

I have a Lost Eden mod, which replaces the tech tree, adds new leaders and all sorts of things. It's Pokemon/fantasy themed.

http://kilkakon.com/projects/losteden.php (http://kilkakon.com/projects/losteden.php)

Title: Re: The new Let's play
Post by: Alfapiomega on January 02, 2013, 04:08:27 PM

Quote from: Kilkakon on January 02, 2013, 03:35:25 PM

I have a Lost Eden mod, which replaces the tech tree, adds new leaders and all sorts of things. It's Pokemon/fantasy themed.

http://kilkakon.com/projects/losteden.php (http://kilkakon.com/projects/losteden.php)

I have to admit that Pokemon and SMAC is a ... well... weird combination :D But why not. Are the pokemons incorporated as units also?

Also is it serious or just for lulz? :)

Title: Re: The new Let's play
Post by: Buster's Uncle on January 02, 2013, 04:12:24 PM

Oh, he's serious.

Title: Re: The new Let's play
Post by: Kilkakon on January 03, 2013, 12:07:05 AM

They are! And yes it's serious, although I don't mind if some see the funny side of it either, haha.