Alpha Centauri Let's Play! (interest check/pick a faction!)

[Zain]

Right, To anyone who is not aware of this gem of a 4x game, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri is a sort of Scifi sequel to the game of CIVI/CIVII. The game chronicles the doomed UN mission, Unity as it falls into chaos, and the crew splits into 7 factions, each vying for control of the planet.

The major Mechanics that set this game apart from the other games in the Civilization series are the following

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How research works:
We will be playing on what is called "blind research" meaning that instead of choosing a technology to research, we instead decide on a set of Goals, from the following list
Explore (makes expansion easier)
Discover (True Science)
Build (industry)
Conquer (military)

In practice, each tech advancement is given a value of 1-4 for each goal, then the game picks one at random, weighted for the value of the tech. For example, if a tech has a high Discover score, but a low Conquer Score, then your more likely to discover it if you focus on Discover.

The Planetary Consul
A interesting little add-on, once we have discovered the com-links of all the other active factions, we can call the planetary consul, and can use it to enact a bunch of stuff, such as:

Elect Planetary governor (The Governor gets a economic bonus, as well as infiltrators into every faction)
Untie behind me as supreme leader (Diplomatic victory, game ends)
Global trade Pact (Economic bonuses) (can be reversed)
Launch/increase Solar shade (Global cooling, sea levels drop)
Melt polar ice caps (Global warming, sea levels rise)
Repeal UN charter (allows for the use of Planet busters(Nukes) and Gas pods, among other things) (can be reversed)
Salvage Unity Fusion core (everyone gets +500 energy credits)


Unit design screen/Prototypes

Unlike the other Civ games, you do not research new units, rather, you research new parts for your units. units are broken into stats, each determined by it's parts, if the unit is using a part that has never been built before, the unit is considered a "Prototype" and costs 50% more, but gets a moral upgrade.

Chassi (movement, and if it's a land/air/sea unit)
Weapon (attack value/probe team/colony pod etc)
Armour (defense value, self explanatory)
Reactor (HP)

Units also get up to two special abilities, and I shall elaborate on those as we unlock them.

Social Engineering:

Probably my favorite part of the game is the social engineering window. In Alpha Centauri, as you progress through the game, you unlock new social engineering choices, that effect one or more of the following aspects of your society. I shall elaborate on the various choices as we unlock them

Economy (How fast we make money/research things, at the higher levels, the amount of energy produced is crazy)
Efficiency (How well energy is distributed, makes larger empires easier)
Support (How many units we can support, as well as the amount of bonus minerals for each base)
Moral (how good our troops are, basically)
Police (How many units we can keep at base to keep people happy)
Growth (how quickly we get new people)
Planet (how much the environment likes us, mindworm capture/fungal blooms)
Probe (how easy it is for the other factions to infiltrate us, at the highest level, we can immune)

That's where we step in. For this let's play, we are going to highjack one of the seven factions, and colonize the planet in the name of the playground! Of course, before we can begin, we need to decide on which.

The factions

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Right, so here are the seven Vanilla factions to chose from:

The Believers (orange):
+25% attack bonus (compensates for her research weakness)
+1 probe (makes becoming probe Immune easy)
-2 research (This REALLY hurts, if not just because having the nicest gun is useful)
-1 planet (not really a big deal, although the early game will be slighty harder)
If we chose this faction, we cannot start research for 10 turns. That can be a crippling weakness unless we start next to (and can conquer, the university or the peacekeepers)
Cannot make the Knowledge Social choice

The Gaians (green):
+1 planet (useful, as it gives us a 50% chance to capture mind worms, and that could give us a incredibly useful army)
+2 efficiency (quite useful for terraforming/we can manage a large empire)
-1 moral (puts our troops at a disadvantage, more reason to use mindworms)
-1 police (we get drones if we have military units away from base, but hey, MINDWORMS)
May not make the free market Social choice

The Hive (blue):
+1 growth (useful for early game expansion)
+1 industry (Free minerals, and also build stuff quickly)
-2 economy (painful, but can be managed with the right social choices)
Free perimeter defense at each base (OH GODS THIS IS HELPFUL, +50% defense for free? YES PLEASE)
May not make the Democratic Social choice

Morgan Industries (Yellow)
+1 economy (extra cash)
-1 support (painful till mid game, when we can build "clean" troops that ignore it)
Bonus Commerce (We get more benefits if we have a lot of close allies)
+100 cash at start (useful, but a bit lackluster)
Needs Hab complex at 4 instead of 6 (painful, means we need to either keep expanding, or turtle till we can make the ultra cities)
May not make the Planned Economics social choice

The Peacekeepers (mauve):
-1 efficiency (painful in early game, can limit expansion)
+1 talent for every 4 citizens (handy, and makes getting a golden age easier)
May exceed Hab complex requirements by 2 (makes getting a lot of votes for The planetary Consul easy)
Receives double votes for Planetary governor and Supreme leader (useful, also makes getting the 3/4 of the votes needed to win simple)
May not make the Police state social choice

The Spartans (black):
+2 Morale (Handy in early game, meaning our troops are just better then the other factions)
+1 Police (makes keeping the drones in check easy)
-1 industry (everything costs slightly more, mitigatable)
Prototypes are free (useful, and they still get the moral upgrade)
May not make the Wealth social choice

The University (white)
+2 Research (we will basically be the smartest faction out there)
-2 Probe (we will also be the most naive)
Free network node at every base (Plays into the smartest faction card)
One bonus tech at the start of the game (again, see above)
Extra drone for every 4 citizens (painful, but can be ignored if we build the virtual world secret project)
May not make the fundamentalist social choice.

I'm hoping to be able to make weekly updates, most likely to be updating on Saturday/Sunday evenings, PST. And with that, I leave it to you to vote on a faction. Also, the positions of advisers are well and open, with the possibilities of new units or captured bases being named after you. Votes will be tallied at some point this evening

[Mando Knight]

Spartans or Believers. Because University and Morgan are too easy.

[ShellBullet]

Spartans, because I like the war.

[Mewtarthio]

Gaians, because mindworms.

[GolemsVoice]

Gaians or Morgans. The Believers ar also interesting, if they're not played as an NPC faction, and if you write in-character pieces.

[Archonic Energy]

Pirates...

oh. no SMAX... erm... Hive.

[Rustic Dude]

This is Spartans.

[Landis963]

Morgans or University. Because SCIENCE! Or maybe Hive for the defense bonus.

[Cespenar]

Definitely earthdeirdre.

[Misery Esquire]

Definitely earthdeirdre.

Don't listen to him! The worms have already eaten his brain.

EATEN. HIS. BRAIN.

(Fer srs, though, Deirdre is cool.)

[Cikomyr]

The Hive! Let's fight for the Greater Good!

[Shpadoinkle]

MORGAN!! Run the Wealth value as much as you can (i.e. whenever you're not actively at war.) The total of +2 Econ gives him an extra unit of energy for every worked tile- once you have a decent sized empire you can easily rake in a net profit of HUNDREDS of Energy credits every turn. This allows you to expand and build faster than Yang (rush buy,) research faster than Zak, and pop boom as easily as Lal (you need less money invested into your economy so you have more to pour into research and happiness.)

EXPAND AS MUCH AS YOU POSSIBLY CAN. You need to expand like Yang expands- TONS of bases. The pop limit hurts, yeah, but the sheer number will make this less of an issue. Place them 3 or 4 tiles apart and you'll be pulling in so much energy you won't know what to do with it all. Rush The Hunter-Seeker Algorithm as soon as possible and you've practically won the game already.

The extra 100 energy on start up is a nice boon, but it pales in comparison to the benefits you can get from +1 Economy. Seriously, it's almost like playing the game in Debug Mode, you can do almost anything. Need a new base? Done. Need a new secret project? DONE. Enemy army at your doorstep? Subvert their asses and disband them to get some of your resources back, or get a new awesome unit if you don't have the tech to build them yourself yet, or just have them turn on their former allies, and STILL be rolling in money for pretty much anything else you could want to do. Hell, forge alliances with all the other factions, then turn them all against each other with probe teams, and your bankbook will STILL outweigh all of theirs combined.

So yeah, I'm strongly in favor of Morgan.

[Hiro Protagonest]

Morgan Industries, Spartans, or University.

Morgan Industries because it can expand big and gets extra benefits for having lots of allies (like, say, the Spartans). Spartans because I want to see an early game Zerg Rush type strategy. University because Research.

[GolemsVoice]

MORGAN!! Run the Wealth value as much as you can (i.e. whenever you're not actively at war.) The total of +2 Econ gives him an extra unit of energy for every worked tile- once you have a decent sized empire you can easily rake in a net profit of HUNDREDS of Energy credits every turn. This allows you to expand and build faster than Yang (rush buy,) research faster than Zak, and pop boom as easily as Lal (you need less money invested into your economy so you have more to pour into research and happiness.)

EXPAND AS MUCH AS YOU POSSIBLY CAN. You need to expand like Yang expands- TONS of bases. The pop limit hurts, yeah, but the sheer number will make this less of an issue. Place them 3 or 4 tiles apart and you'll be pulling in so much energy you won't know what to do with it all. Rush The Hunter-Seeker Algorithm as soon as possible and you've practically won the game already.

The extra 100 energy on start up is a nice boon, but it pales in comparison to the benefits you can get from +1 Economy. Seriously, it's almost like playing the game in Debug Mode, you can do almost anything. Need a new base? Done. Need a new secret project? DONE. Enemy army at your doorstep? Subvert their asses and disband them to get some of your resources back, or get a new awesome unit if you don't have the tech to build them yourself yet, or just have them turn on their former allies, and STILL be rolling in money for pretty much anything else you could want to do. Hell, forge alliances with all the other factions, then turn them all against each other with probe teams, and your bankbook will STILL outweigh all of theirs combined.

So yeah, I'm strongly in favor of Morgan.

Read this in the voice of a TV salesman. It's Morgan alright. And if you call NOW!!!, we'll throw in the Usurpers from the expansion. That's right, you get TWO FULL FACTIONS for the price of ONE!!!!

[Hiro Protagonest]

Read this in the voice of a TV salesman. It's Morgan alright. And if you call NOW!!!, we'll throw in the Usurpers from the expansion. That's right, you get TWO FULL FACTIONS for the price of ONE!!!!

All for the amazing cost of $14.99!

[Flickerdart]

How is this even a choice? Mindworms.

[Artanis]

YANG RUSH kekeke

[Grif]

I'm gonna go for the dark horse and pick Peacekeepers.

[psilontech]

Gaians, no doubt. I love me some mindworms. EarthDeirdre, running around the forest with University bro, whose name I cannot spell off of the top of my head.

[factotum]

Gaians, because mindworms.

This. Visit the alien equivalent of biological warfare upon your enemies!

[Iruka]

Gaians. Protect your environment, go Green.*







* And by "Go Green", I mean "Awaken the Nightmare"

[Shpadoinkle]

I'm gonna go for the dark horse and pick Peacekeepers.

All of the factions are pretty solid if you know how to play them right. Peacekeepers are able to trigger Golden Ages (i.e. constant base size growth and increased scientific output) easier than any other faction ( due to the one extra Talent per 4 citizens) and don't have any huge weaknesses.

But I'm still in support of Morgan.

[Grif]

All of the factions are pretty solid if you know how to play them right. Peacekeepers are able to trigger Golden Ages (i.e. constant base size growth and increased scientific output) easier than any other faction ( due to the one extra Talent per 4 citizens) and don't have any huge weaknesses.

But I'm still in support of Morgan.

Yeah, well. Many seems to hate the UN faction for no reason other that it's the goody two-shoes faction.

If you guys really want an interesting (read: not a cakewalk like Morgan would likely to be), you should go with them Christian Fundamentalists in Space Believers.

[Zain]

Alright, the votes are IN! And we are going green! (and by going green, I mean bio warfare, and by that I mean yes by brain was very tasty)

The vote tally

Believers 1
Gaians 8
Hive 3
Morgan 5
Peacepeekers 1
University 2
Sparta 4

Update shall be up next week, in the mean time, I shall be taking suggestions/advice.

[Flickerdart]

Build towards mindworms, and mindworm everyone and everything.

...I don't actually know how to play this game, but as long as you devote as much effort as possible within the game's framework towards getting mindworms, I'm happy.

[Antonok]

Beat the Spartans into submission asap (the full surrender one, not the annihilation one), that way you can have the AI build/expand for you while you focus on exploring and research.

I tend to completely annihilate the Hive first since they can just stalemate you with sheer numbers given an inch of room.

Also, I might have missed this but what planet size/geography (near full water, 50/50, near full land) did you go with?

[Zain]

My plan was to go with the huge map of planet option, although again, I am open to suggestions. And yes, the basic plan was to mindworm up everyone.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

Yea, going on as large a map as possible is always fun.

Gaia, eh? Yea, you have an enormous early-game advantage, with free mindworms all over the place. It'll be tremendously powerful in early scouting and advancing, as well as providing a solid offensive capability that you don't have to devote resources to create, just run around in fungus until you get some.

Just remember, though... mid to late game, your worms won't be as valuable, so you'll need to tech up pretty quickly.

Honestly, I like clean choppers plus clean paratroopers with minimum attack and maximum defense. Basically, the choppers take out the inhabitants, and the paratroopers take over and garrison the city until you can build some garrison units. Once you get this going, very little will stop your military conquest.

Make sure to wrap up the Believers and Morgan early, since they're both going to really hate you. Particularly Morgan... he's going to be quite dangerous later on, with all his extra energy production, so nip that problem in the bud.

If Yang or the Spartans get to be a problem, apply worms liberally until the problem is solved.

University can be a research cow. Instead of taking them over, be their best friend, then demand they hand over the techs. Failing that, take over cities to gain research, but don't take them out all the way. Let them keep building tech so you can keep stealing it.

[Antonok]

My plan was to go with the huge map of planet option, although again, I am open to suggestions. And yes, the basic plan was to mindworm up everyone.

I usually go with biggest planet with full water. Basically lets everyone get some research done and possibly a bit of building. As Gaia you'll also have the advantage due to the natives being able to swim.

University can be a research cow. Instead of taking them over, be their best friend, then demand they hand over the techs. Failing that, take over cities to gain research, but don't take them out all the way. Let them keep building tech so you can keep stealing it.

Might want to turn Win by Acension (or whatever its called) off. Lost a couple games do to getting out researched on it.

[Mando Knight]

If you do decide to keep the University on the map, make sure you are the one to get Hunter-Seeker Algorithm, since that project negates their Probe Team vulnerability.