Alpha Centauri 2

Community => Chiron News Network => Topic started by: Lord Avalon on December 20, 2012, 09:34:07 PM

Title: GOG.com Now with Alien Crossfire! $2.99 for SMAC & SMAX
Post by: Lord Avalon on December 20, 2012, 09:34:07 PM
According to this post at CivFanatics (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showthread.php?t=483460), GOG.com now has the Alien Crossfire expansion on sale with Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri for $2.99 through Jan 3.

The GOG.com page (http://www.gog.com/gamecard/sid_meiers_alpha_centauri) currently only has the original SMAC box pictured, but it says below:

Quote
Includes the Sid Meier's Alien Crossfire expansion.


Petek says there (http://forums.civfanatics.com/showpost.php?p=12087298&postcount=2) if you already have SMAC from GOG, you can redownload the installer to get SMAX.

 :danc:
Title: Re: GOG.com Now with Alien Crossfire! $2.99 for SMAC & SMAX
Post by: Green1 on December 20, 2012, 10:15:07 PM
About time.

I guess everyone raising heck over 3 or four different forums got GOG to take note. Crossfire should come with SMAC at this point. In my mind, they both are one product and how the designers intended. Just like you really do not do vanilla Civ 4, you need Beyond the Sword as that is how Civ 4 is meant to be. Or- you do not do Civ 5, you do Gods and Kings. If you want just the 7 factions, you can use just those. This time, though, with fungal towers!
Title: Re: GOG.com Now with Alien Crossfire! $2.99 for SMAC & SMAX
Post by: Kirov on December 22, 2012, 05:54:27 PM
Just bought it!  ;b; Good to have an online no-CD copy.  :)
Title: Re: GOG.com Now with Alien Crossfire! $2.99 for SMAC & SMAX
Post by: woengel on December 26, 2012, 04:46:08 AM
Thanks for posting this... I had never seen SMAX for < about $70, so it was really easy to talk myself into this purchase  :)

(started playing SMAC around 2002 or so)
Title: Re: GOG.com Now with Alien Crossfire! $2.99 for SMAC & SMAX
Post by: Green1 on December 26, 2012, 02:19:23 PM
Thanks for posting this... I had never seen SMAX for < about $70, so it was really easy to talk myself into this purchase  :)

(started playing SMAC around 2002 or so)

Yeah... before the age of GOG, you had to purchase an original copy at collector's prices off of ebay. Other classic games had that issue, too. For instance, a copy of Age of Wonders went for a hundred. Piracy was the "unspoken" word because many had no choice. I am glad there is a legal option now that does not involve paying big money to someone and praying you do not end up with a scratched, worthless disc with no recourse for getting money back.
Title: Re: GOG.com Now with Alien Crossfire! $2.99 for SMAC & SMAX
Post by: Lord Avalon on December 26, 2012, 03:08:25 PM
Most times I checked, SMAX on eBay was pretty expensive, but then I was lucky enough to find the Planetary Pack for $40, and I jumped on that.  (Woo full-size tech tree!)  But it is great that GOG finally got it.
Title: Re: GOG.com Now with Alien Crossfire! $2.99 for SMAC & SMAX
Post by: Zoid on December 27, 2012, 05:43:53 PM
I bought it! $2.99 is a steal... Played for 4 hours straight after I dl'ed it. Happy days, party like it's 1999! :D
Title: Re: GOG.com Now with Alien Crossfire! $2.99 for SMAC & SMAX
Post by: Kirov on December 27, 2012, 05:47:32 PM
I bought it! $2.99 is a steal... Played for 4 hours straight after I dl'ed it. Happy days, party like it's 1999! :D

Great, because my copy doesn't work after I patched it to 2.0 (using the patch from this forum). The game starts and I can choose my options, but when it comes to Planetfall, terranx crashes. Has anyone experienced anything similar?

Just when I finally got my hands on a brand new copy...
Title: Re: GOG.com Now with Alien Crossfire! $2.99 for SMAC & SMAX
Post by: Zoid on December 27, 2012, 07:39:03 PM
The one you dl'ed? I assumed that was already patched?
Title: Re: GOG.com Now with Alien Crossfire! $2.99 for SMAC & SMAX
Post by: Kirov on December 27, 2012, 08:50:53 PM
Could you check that, please? Just hit Ctrl+F4 when playing. I'm quite sure mine said "1.0" and we need 2.0 (for SMAX; SMAC should be 4.0). Also, what resolution do you have? Mine is default 800x600 and I think we need the unofficial patch by scient to correct that.

And how do you get rid of that 'welcome to smac' first window?
Title: Re: GOG.com Now with Alien Crossfire! $2.99 for SMAC & SMAX
Post by: Buster's Uncle on December 27, 2012, 10:35:37 PM
You need Petek.  He is the King of install troubleshooting.
Title: Re: GOG.com Now with Alien Crossfire! $2.99 for SMAC & SMAX
Post by: Petek on December 28, 2012, 03:13:55 AM
Kirov,

You're correct that GOG-SMAX displays version 1.0 when the most recent version should be 2.0. I don't know why. (GOG-SMAC shows version 5.0, which is correct. 5.0 was the Win2k/XP update.)

The current GOG versions of the games have been modified from the originals. Both exe files (terran.exe and terranx.exe) are larger than the originals. The main game folder also contains two new dll files (goggame.dll and goggame_add.dll). I think this implies that GOG has the source code for the games and has recompiled it, but I'm not certain.

To correct your problem, I suggest uninstalling and re-downloading the games from GOG. You then could try installing scient's unofficial patches. However, these patches were not tested with the current GOG version of the games. If you choose to do this, I suggest renaming the GOG exe files (terran.exe and terranx.exe) so that you can easily restore them if something goes south.

To suppress the "Welcome to Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri" message, open the file jackal.txt (in the main SMAC folder) and delete the section

#FILEFIND_NOCD
#xs   320
#caption Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri
Welcome to Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri.

(This section previously generated a warning that the game might not work correctly if the CD wasn't in the drive.) First make a copy of jackal.txt if you're paranoid, like me.
Title: Re: GOG.com Now with Alien Crossfire! $2.99 for SMAC & SMAX
Post by: Lord Avalon on December 28, 2012, 07:02:56 AM
The current GOG versions of the games have been modified from the originals. Both exe files (terran.exe and terranx.exe) are larger than the originals. The main game folder also contains two new dll files (goggame.dll and goggame_add.dll). I think this implies that GOG has the source code for the games and has recompiled it, but I'm not certain.

Hmmm, I wonder what they've done.

Quote
To suppress the "Welcome to Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri" message, open the file jackal.txt (in the main SMAC folder) and delete the section

#FILEFIND_NOCD
#xs   320
#caption Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri
Welcome to Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri.

(This section previously generated a warning that the game might not work correctly if the CD wasn't in the drive.) First make a copy of jackal.txt if you're paranoid, like me.

Why not just comment out those lines?  (Put ; in front of them.)
Title: Re: GOG.com Now with Alien Crossfire! $2.99 for SMAC & SMAX
Post by: Zoid on December 28, 2012, 07:28:01 AM
Do we miss anything important if we don't have 2.0? I've forgotten if there was any major bug fixes in this...
Title: Re: GOG.com Now with Alien Crossfire! $2.99 for SMAC & SMAX
Post by: Petek on December 28, 2012, 10:24:11 AM
The current GOG versions of the games have been modified from the originals. Both exe files (terran.exe and terranx.exe) are larger than the originals. The main game folder also contains two new dll files (goggame.dll and goggame_add.dll). I think this implies that GOG has the source code for the games and has recompiled it, but I'm not certain.

Hmmm, I wonder what they've done.

One change that I noticed is that Alt-Tab has been disabled from within the game.

Quote
To suppress the "Welcome to Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri" message, open the file jackal.txt (in the main SMAC folder) and delete the section

#FILEFIND_NOCD
#xs   320
#caption Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri
Welcome to Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri.

(This section previously generated a warning that the game might not work correctly if the CD wasn't in the drive.) First make a copy of jackal.txt if you're paranoid, like me.

Quote
Why not just comment out those lines?  (Put ; in front of them.)

That would work. Deleting the section was the first thing I thought of.
Title: Re: GOG.com Now with Alien Crossfire! $2.99 for SMAC & SMAX
Post by: Petek on December 28, 2012, 10:25:26 AM
Do we miss anything important if we don't have 2.0? I've forgotten if there was any major bug fixes in this...

From the readme file:

Quote
-----------------------------------------------
CHANGES IN ALIEN CROSSFIRE VERSION 2.0
-----------------------------------------------

FIXES:

· You can now airdrop units into your own bases.
· The correct voiceovers for Alien Crossfire base facilities now play the
first time you build them.
· Pirates can no longer capture units that are defending a base.
· Alien probe teams now use the correct art.
· The Cyborg faction now correctly has the Technology Steal ability.
· It is now possible to rescue a captured faction leader.
· Base facilities no longer cost less than they should at Thinker and
Transcend difficulty levels.
· In some instances a Golden Age would not produce a population boom. It now
does.
· AXStart.exe will now switch to a resolution it supports.
· The Sid and Brian factions can now be loaded in the Faction Editor.
· Occasionally refugees from a captured base would appear at coordinates
0,0. This is fixed.
· The Maritime Control Center now grants a defensive bonus against naval
units for player controlled factions.
· Psi Artillery combat strength is now calculated correctly.
· Some special abilities were not reflected correctly in automatically
designed units.
· The Right-click menu's version of airdrop now correctly uses movement
points.
· You can no longer have a pact brother support one of your factions units.
· The 'Aliens capture your base' interlude now correctly displays, even if
the base captured was obliterated.
· All satellites can now be added to the build queue, even if currently in
production.
· Miscellaneous text fixes.
· Base population no longer 'rolls over' when it reaches 127.
· Native artillery units no longer get a 'hasty' penalty when attacking.
· Drone revolts no longer can select aliens as new masters.
· The Faction Editor now correctly updates bonuses on the Faction page.
· The Faction Editor now correctly loads free units and free abilities.
· The Faction Editor now correctly saves bonus technologies.
· The Drone faction now correctly includes the Base Revolt ability of 75%
· During a random game, if an Alien faction is selected, and there is
another random slot, there will be two Alien factions in the game.
Title: Re: GOG.com Now with Alien Crossfire! $2.99 for SMAC & SMAX
Post by: Kirov on December 28, 2012, 05:21:43 PM
Petek, thanks for your reply. I'm not sure if I follow you correctly, but you imply that the 2.0 changes have been implemented in the GOG version, but it's not shown on the version screen, right? Because I checked the page with fixes (http://alphacentauri.us/SMACX_Patch_2.html (http://alphacentauri.us/SMACX_Patch_2.html) and it turns out at least most things are unchanged. To name a few:

- spore launchers still get a 'haste' penalty
- cyborg file doesn't have the 'techsteal' line
- drones file don't have the 'revolt 75' line
- in the data links entry for Battle Ogre MK1,"Resonance Laser" is still misspelled "Resonace Laser".

However, there is another misspelling:

In the datalinks entry for Energy Grid, part of one sentence reads, "Every two generate five energy..."

And this is corrected in my GOG!  ??? So what is going on? Do you think I'll get the answer if I contact GOG directly?

So as far I understand, I can't/shouldn't apply the scient patch before upgrading to 2.0, am I right?

SMAC reads 5.0 as per the XP patch, so I guess it's fine.
Title: Re: GOG.com Now with Alien Crossfire! $2.99 for SMAC & SMAX
Post by: Kirov on December 28, 2012, 05:23:12 PM
I didn't notice your last post, sorry. But the bottom line still is that GOG SMAX is not really patched.
Title: Re: GOG.com Now with Alien Crossfire! $2.99 for SMAC & SMAX
Post by: Lord Avalon on December 28, 2012, 05:49:27 PM
Since some of the discussion is getting away from news, I made this thread in Modding asking about differences between scient, kyrub and GOG versions (http://alphacentauri2.info/index.php?topic=2849.0).
Title: Re: GOG.com Now with Alien Crossfire! $2.99 for SMAC & SMAX
Post by: Zoid on December 28, 2012, 11:02:04 PM
Do we miss anything important if we don't have 2.0? I've forgotten if there was any major bug fixes in this...

From the readme file:

Quote
-----------------------------------------------
CHANGES IN ALIEN CROSSFIRE VERSION 2.0
-----------------------------------------------

FIXES:

· You can now airdrop units into your own bases.
· The correct voiceovers for Alien Crossfire base facilities now play the
first time you build them.
· Pirates can no longer capture units that are defending a base.
· Alien probe teams now use the correct art.
· The Cyborg faction now correctly has the Technology Steal ability.
· It is now possible to rescue a captured faction leader.
· Base facilities no longer cost less than they should at Thinker and
Transcend difficulty levels.
· In some instances a Golden Age would not produce a population boom. It now
does.
· AXStart.exe will now switch to a resolution it supports.
· The Sid and Brian factions can now be loaded in the Faction Editor.
· Occasionally refugees from a captured base would appear at coordinates
0,0. This is fixed.
· The Maritime Control Center now grants a defensive bonus against naval
units for player controlled factions.
· Psi Artillery combat strength is now calculated correctly.
· Some special abilities were not reflected correctly in automatically
designed units.
· The Right-click menu's version of airdrop now correctly uses movement
points.
· You can no longer have a pact brother support one of your factions units.
· The 'Aliens capture your base' interlude now correctly displays, even if
the base captured was obliterated.
· All satellites can now be added to the build queue, even if currently in
production.
· Miscellaneous text fixes.
· Base population no longer 'rolls over' when it reaches 127.
· Native artillery units no longer get a 'hasty' penalty when attacking.
· Drone revolts no longer can select aliens as new masters.
· The Faction Editor now correctly updates bonuses on the Faction page.
· The Faction Editor now correctly loads free units and free abilities.
· The Faction Editor now correctly saves bonus technologies.
· The Drone faction now correctly includes the Base Revolt ability of 75%
· During a random game, if an Alien faction is selected, and there is
another random slot, there will be two Alien factions in the game.

Ok, that's quite a few things...
Title: Re: GOG.com Now with Alien Crossfire! $2.99 for SMAC & SMAX
Post by: Petek on January 03, 2013, 05:15:07 PM
For those of you purchased the GOG release of SMAC + SMAX, a patch is available to fix some problems with the original release. Go to this page (https://secure.gog.com/account/games#open=sid+meiers+alpha+centauri) and click on the Alpha Centauri icon. Select the Universal Update link and save the file to some convenient location. Run the update. The patch fixes some problems related to the SMAX version number.
Title: Re: GOG.com Now with Alien Crossfire! $2.99 for SMAC & SMAX
Post by: Kirov on January 03, 2013, 06:28:19 PM
Thanks for taking care of that, Petek! I see that the main installer file is updated as well, right? You see, I downloaded the big file (just to have a clean copy as I already applied some patches) and it says it's updated, 2.0 and all, but the problem is - cyborg.txt and drone.txt are not updated, i.e. they don't have the TECHSTEAL and BASE REVOLT lines respectively. Also, typographic errors in datalinks persist, but the spore launcher haste penalty is fixed. I'm quite sure the problem is that only terranx.exe is modified and not the other files.

Yes, I downloaded the universal update and it says my copy is already updated.
Title: Re: GOG.com Now with Alien Crossfire! $2.99 for SMAC & SMAX
Post by: Yitzi on January 03, 2013, 07:20:50 PM
Thanks for taking care of that, Petek! I see that the main installer file is updated as well, right? You see, I downloaded the big file (just to have a clean copy as I already applied some patches) and it says it's updated, 2.0 and all, but the problem is - cyborg.txt and drone.txt are not updated, i.e. they don't have the TECHSTEAL and BASE REVOLT lines respectively. Also, typographic errors in datalinks persist, but the spore launcher haste penalty is fixed. I'm quite sure the problem is that only terranx.exe is modified and not the other files.

Well, at least the other files can be modified manually.
Title: Re: GOG.com Now with Alien Crossfire! $2.99 for SMAC & SMAX
Post by: Kirov on January 03, 2013, 08:33:23 PM
The official 2.0 patch unzips to your folder the new terranx.exe along with 30 other files, so better to apply it en masse.
Title: Re: GOG.com Now with Alien Crossfire! $2.99 for SMAC & SMAX
Post by: Petek on January 04, 2013, 12:37:12 AM
I'll post in the Modding forum about the problems with GOG's most recent patch.
Title: Re: GOG.com Now with Alien Crossfire! $2.99 for SMAC & SMAX
Post by: Petek on January 14, 2013, 07:51:29 PM
GOG has now modified their release of SMACX to fix the problems noted above (along with other problems). See my post in the modding forum for more information.
Title: Re: GOG.com Now with Alien Crossfire! $2.99 for SMAC & SMAX
Post by: Buster's Uncle on December 08, 2014, 03:52:47 AM
I notice that GOG is once again selling AC for $2.99...
Title: Re: GOG.com Now with Alien Crossfire! $2.99 for SMAC & SMAX
Post by: ete on December 08, 2014, 04:32:43 AM
That's probably worth another news item and facebook post.
Title: Re: GOG.com Now with Alien Crossfire! $2.99 for SMAC & SMAX
Post by: Buster's Uncle on December 08, 2014, 04:34:00 AM
;nod

When you're right, you're right.
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