Alpha Centauri was one of the best games I've ever played. They managed something that almost no 4X or Civ game ever did for me: when I was playing, the factions felt like actual factions. Not just neat little bonus points and the odd extra unit skin. You actually felt like the leaders of the various factions were people with their own ideology, deeply held beliefs and convictions. None of them felt phoned in. All of them felt like compelling, intelligent leaders - if, of course, channeling that intelligence into various radically different interests and ideologies.
For me one of the most horrifying things in the game is Telepathic Matrix -- "Drones never riot" (and nobody sees it as an atrocity). Works great with Cloning Vats. Also Self-Aware Colony -- because it makes me side with Sister Miriam Godwinson.
I roleplayed the shit out of 4x games, especially sci-fi or fantasy ones and this is by far my favorite. There is so much well written world building that it's top notch escapism for me.
59:41 Peacekeepers also have another very strong bonus -- 1 happy citizen for every 4, as well as increased population limits. Both of which helps in making them a beginner faction.
I was just about to point that out, too. Lal's cities can get pretty scary mid to late in the game and he has a distinct advantage when other factions are limited by hab complex or hab dome and the additional talents keep his cities the biggest and most prosperous when you extend towards infinite pop after hab dome. As a result Lal doesn't have as much need of the Aesthetic Virtues (although it is nice to have) and Self-aware colony wonders. Very much in keeping with his ideology. I don't think I have ever suffered such a crushing defeat as a Lal AI that was able to get Cloning Vats. Instant growth, increased base size and happy bases due to talents can go out of hand in just a few turns.
Lal is still the weakest faction in the game aside from maybe the Data Angels. I have had numerous cases where I achieved the conditions for a diplomatic victory but lost the resulting war when literally all of the remaining AI factions declared war on me.
Not just one happy citizen-one Talent for every four citizens. A type of specialist so happy they actually make others happy just by living in the same city. Imagine how happy tech bros are who live in the same community as Elon. Now imagine one out of every four citizens is Elon level. And you don’t even have to bribe them to move to your city. That. Is the bonus of Lal’s faction.
If I recall correctly in the event that another faction besides you get the transcendence ending in the monolog that follows it is mentioned that everyone gets a choice to stay human and those that transcend can go back to being human so I don't see the downside but that's just me
I'm not that big of a fan of strategy / civilization building games, but the species and lore of this game were fleshed out well-enough that I ended up absolutely loving this title.
Alpha Centauri is definitely one of the best games of all time. It’s certainly dystopian, and the point you make about all factions essentially being extremists is well made.
I think the reason using the mindworm swarms against enemies isn't a war crime is honestly probably an issue of plausible deniability. It's not like the little guys are wearing uniforms while attacking your enemies. I'm playing Morgan right now and interestingly enough wound up going with a green democracy early (random tech is active, Morgan tech seems well adapted to that actually - the bonus resources just kind of speed things along). At any rate I'm now, increasingly, using mind worm units but I think of it as the most ruthless predatory form of capitalism. Think of it - mind worms roll in, annihilate your military leaving a terrified populace frightened at their leadership's inability to protect them. In rolls Morganite forces, heroically chasing away the mind worm swarms, re-establishing order and bringing new prosperity. You've seized assets, energy, and human capital right out from anyone you decide - and they'll thank you for it. I'm approaching end game on a playthrough (Huge map of Planet) right now and it's just me on my continent, the Spartans on theirs and the Believers have one. They are firmly entrenched and currently it's just not economically feasible to go over there and conquer them - meanwhile I have a massive tech and economy lead. I'm basically building a fortress of solitude now and working towards either enough population that their votes are irrelevant in the supreme leader ship vie, or straight up transcend them. At any rate it has been a fascinating thing to watch develop. Already looking forward to another playthrough only this time I'll try another faction. I have owned this game since the year it released (I think it was the only game in history at that point to get a 100% rating from PC Gamer) and I've just never really sat down and played it properly. It really is one of the most entertaining things I have ever done in front of a computer.
Decent people shouldn't think about the ecological armageddon that immediately follows construction of the Singularity Inductor, and/or the Bulk Matter Transmitter
Dude what the fuck, I've been trying to track down your channel for years to rewatch the Ruminations on Final Fantasy that I first watched when I was slacking off from a job I HATED with a passion. And your video played as an autoplay after a Aplha Centari vid I was watching, so random, but glad to get to see what you've been up to on the channel for the past well, must be 5 or 6 years. INSTANT SUB.
I don't see Yang as being hypocritical. His ideology is "nobody is more important than yourself" and he acts as such. He's the one in power and is willing to use others as he sees fit. I don't find that hypocritical, it makes sense.
Something else occurred to me about Morgan: if he is as intelligent as you say, he wouldn't be opposed to Green Economics. For the very practical reason of increased mind-worm attacks. He ought to recognize it's better business sense to work with Planet instead of fighting it.
"he wouldn't be opposed to Green Economics" It must be worth noting that Morgan can actually use Green Economics in game (it's Planned that's an absolute no-no for him).
He isn't; he's opposed to Planned Economics. I've had lovely games as Morgan with a carpet of self-expanding forests reducing ecological damage despite pumping industry, all while pouring food even from the deserts. PINK economics, on the other hand...
@@mikelake1306 Oh he's definitely opposed to Green Economics. I've had games where he's warned me that "I'm causing irreparable harm to legitimate business interests", then later declared vendetta on me "as a matter of good business sense." I've never seen his warning quote if you use Planned Economics, but I can't imagine it's pleasant.
Ohhh a SMAC rumination? Where's my beer and wings?! You said in-lore, Morgan is one of the smartest people in the group. Pity that isn't reflected in the gameplay. I remember this one game, the Morgans were getting absolutely smashed by the Believers. They were down to a handful of bases, and appealed for my help. I intervened, pushed back the Believers, and freely gave the Morgans back their captured bases. I literally pulled their faction back from the brink of annihilation... and a few turns later they declared Vendetta on me, as a matter of "good business sense". I was the Gaians, and naturally they didn't like my Green Economics policy. That's what happens when you put a CEO in charge of the military!
AI Morgan struggles a lot with the 4 pop cap of its bases, coupled with the general AI propensity for lots of units (again, Morgan's Support handicap). But he can totally boom with his energy bonuses, even out-researching Zakharov, all other things being equal
In the Alien Crossfire version, they could have had it such that the factions end up taking sides with one of the Manifold factions. You can see pretty well how they would match up too.
It is interesting to note how each of the faction leaders (at least int he base game), maps relatively well to one or more real life philosopher/thinkers: Morgan -> Ayn Rand, perhaps Max Stirner, generalyl egoistic libertarianism witha pinch of realpolitk a la Kissinger. Deirdre Skye -> Thinkers on the tradition of Jacques Rosseau, also deep ecology people liek Anne Naess Sheng-ji Yang -> Most post-hegelian authoritharianism, for example, Giovanni Gentile or Georg Luckacs (both fascism and communism undeniably share a hegelian origin) Santiago -> She is undeniably a representative of stoicism, however I wouldn't be able to map her to any specific author in that tradition, but I could just cite the most famous ones: Marcus Aurelius, Tacitus and so on. Zakharov -> That one is easy, and even has direct mapping on DOn Ross and James Ladyman, authors of "Everything Must Go: Metaphysics Naturalize" is a very recent attempt at revival of neo-positivism. Generally speaking scientificism as a political ideology. Miriam Godwinson (my eprosnal favorite): I would suggest she maps onto thinker of the christian conservatism tradition like Eric Voegelin or C.S. Lewis. Pravin Lal -> He representats kantian universalist optimism, real-life examples would include Woodrow Wilson.
What are your guys thoughs on Civilization: Beyond Earth? Surely I am not the only one that looked for the alpha centauri nostalgia in it? :) Tbh. for me it fell a bit short, didn't feel the depth I remembered, but I might be wrong since I'm older now...
One of my favourite games with rising tide, but you can't play it like its a civ game, it's something slightly different that doesn't translate well. That's why alot of people think it's juts a bad civ 5 reskin
5:00 Interesting, I would usually do the opposite: You naval power does not affect me, because I will just terraform across the ocean and crush you with my landforces who now have a path created.
My favorite terraforming maneuver was to use "terraform down" to actually sink enemy cities -- as many as possible in one turn, and then watch them frantically switch production to submersion domes everywhere :)
I recently came across a review for this game and decided to buy it off gog. I had played it as a kid back in the day, but only had the demo. It's funny how I as an academic decided to role play as university of planet but customised it a bit to become the university of California (my employer), named all settlements as various UCs (with UCSF being my capital) and jealousy guarded my research (IP in my head canon) and terafomed the vicinities of my various settlements. It's very silly
lal is actually arguably the strongest and most flexible faction leader when controlled by a skilled human player. his relaxed hab limits and extra talent per 4 citizens allows him to boom early in population with democratic/planned policies without being hampered by drone problems. and extra population can be leveraged towards any goal.
I think Zakharov could be called the ideal beginner faction due to the automatic network node at every base along with the rest. That extra bit is CRUCIAL! Putting that alone on any faction gives an early edge that compounds as the game progresses which also requires luck to take full advantage of. Lal on the other hand I can see being the first initial challenge faction, where you don't have real advantages to work with and have to depend on the rest to get anywhere. It is the one faction that really depends on the rest to get anywhere. This also makes it a rare faction in games. We typically see some polarized fare like the other 6 factions.
Yea, University and Gaians are good starter options because they are extra strong vs the Ai The Ai has no probe team game or worm defense on any difficulty So Gaian worm hordes can steam roll most enemies and the University doesn't get gang probed by every faction when they're all Ai.... We usually play with aggressive Ai and only domination victory switched on, so Lal isn't a top choice! :D
I feel like Yang is the easiest to start with because you can just set everything to automate and watch the AI expand the entire contenant and steamroll any opposition with armies so big it would make the US blush.
The new factions, to sum up, are the Consortium from Empire at War. They damage both story and balance for the sake of 'they bigg and strongg' in exactly the way a poorly-designed 'kitchen sink' mod will do, and for roughly similar reasons.
I don't think that's fair. Cybernetic Consciousness might be very strong, but not being able to trade technologies is a huge penalty for the aliens, and Cult of Planet is more of a toned down version of the Gaians (-1 Econ being a huge disadvantage, whereas Gaians have practically none).
@@westkanye4005 Those are the only good factions from the expac though It'd be weird for a game about ideology to not have a socialist option, pirates are silly but cool, and data angels make every other faction look viable in comparison.
48:33 Interesting take on Yang! I never saw his authoritarian philosophy as hypocritical, personally. He believes in mind over body through sheer force of will, and this isn't at odds with the ideology of his faction because his people ARE the body to his mind. The Human Hive is simply an extension of their leader, as many despots probably view their society.
My conception of the Hive shifted a lot after reading Frank Herbert's 'Hellstrom's Hive'. That story involves a human collective that have purposely geared their society and even morphology to being parts of a collective organism. Leaders in the hive view themselves as merely the strategic brain for the organism that is the hive. I mention this because if Brian Reynolds was a fan of that story, much of Yang's methods are steps to create a society capable of that kind of evolution. He believes that the humans on the unity are not yet ready but maybe several generations down the line the can be. Sharing Genejacks, as indicated in his quote, are a means to transmit this philosophy through other societies that utilize them.
26:22 I would argue that the implication is less "Earth became a wreck, so everyone must have been extremists! Because that's the only way things could get that bad!", and more that the kind of do-nothing-compromise we're used to seeing in regards to things like, say, climate change from current first world countries was not cutting it. In the long term, only taking idle half-measures as things steadily get worse leads - is leading! - to Earth becoming uninhabitable. And post-collapse, the respective leaders aren't as willing to make concessions to other ideologies that - to them - are THE REASON EARTH DIED.
I find SMAC best with the SMAC-in-SMAX mod because the expansion engine was improved, but largely the content detracts from the game's balance as well as harms the excellent atmosphere/characterization.
Maybe someone already commented this: on Deirdre's voice acting, so, the character is canonically from Scotland like you said, the accent sounds more like, a little bit Irish? Make of that what you will.
My main page is named after an SMAC secret project. That is how much I enjoyed playing the game. It is the first civ type I was able to play well, and I tried many interesting versions, like c-evo and others. Masters of Orion I am interested in thanks to the recent remake. I saw LP footage that kept me thinking of this game. It looks well done! What do you think of the series?
Morgan is imo a great faction for new player(assuming default factions) , he has such a wide array of options to expand in different ways and is by far the most neutral towards other factions which means you can be friendly and as hostile as you want easily , even the gaian's who are his opposite will not be as hostile to him as some faction are to others starting out especially if you give them a pittance as "green tax". His growth penalty isn't one if you look at is as a method of encouraging you to spread out. Yeah you might see ppl complain about his military but even if his units are weak starting out you need a good economy to support a big army to tech up faster to better stuff which he usually has. His diplomacy also helps him against Yang, my favorite thing to do in games is to get spartans and/or uni whenever Yang starts eying me and then just steamrolling him before he knows what hit him.
I love playing games that are on such large maps and without any victories enabled. So basicaly the game can't end lol untill I do everything and I'm done :p
I always viewed the transcend ending as more along the lines of turning humanity into a psychic and/or empathic species (think newtypes from the original mobile suit gundam and zeta)
Is there a reliable source of canon other than the game and Journey to Centaury by Michael Ely?? Im writing a paper about current events thru the lenses of these seven ideologies, and Id love to be able to ascertain some personality and background facts.
I played as Previn Lal of the Peacekeepers usually. I also enjoyed the Pirates and University. I gave never played as the Lords Believers, Data Angels, or the Cult of Planet.
Believers can be fun to play, their extra combat bonus on top of an elite troop is nasty! :) They are a popular faction in human vs human games, along with Spartans and Yang. Some factions that are strong vs Ai aren't so hot vs humans unfortunately.... I like the pirate sea bases, but the lack of minerals in the early game can stress me out.
Other than the Alien factions, the new factions are most definitely NOT overpowered. Aki Zeta is great, for example, but the University is top tier and better. I actually really like the expansion and all of the new technologies, systems, and factions it adds. As long as you accept that the Aliens are OP (And therefore ban any players from using them in multiplayer), then SMACX is fantastic. Also, Lal is one of the best factions because of how easily he can pop boom.
Very good video! The transcendence ending to this game is very much the realization of many old and tired tropes which stem from schools like gnosticism and reincarnation religions: that mankind can achieve godhood and solve all problems. It seems to me the natural end result of all fantasy, since fantasy deliberately rejects reality in favor of an idealized world. Even dystopian fantasy, like this, will grapple with this concept eventually or it will continue being imperfect, just like the real world.
Greatest of games! :) Interestingly, how the factions fare vs the Ai is pretty different to their strength against human players! In pvp you want a military faction with a military bonus, because everyone will have roughly similar tech and economic power, it comes down to who has the best troops and most elite troops. Most new players like University and Gaians, because they are strong against Ai. Even on Transcend difficulty the Ai has no probe game or nuke/worm defense, so those two dominate. In multiplayer the University should expect probes from every direction, land and sea! And the Gaian worm hordes will be shut down by cheap, zero upkeep trance probe teams. Lal's diplomacy can be a bit average vs human controlled factions. Believers, Spartans and Yang are popular choices for pvp I like to play the original release version of SMAC as well.... Before the patches you could nerve staple and nerve gas without doing any eco-damage!! :D You just got sanctions. It becomes an insane game of base spamming and genocidally gassing bases out existence with needlejets! If you love Master of Orion 2 and SMAC then you're a legend in my book! :)
Earlier fiction, actually! An episodic web serial detailing the dramatic last days of Captain Garland aboard the Unity was periodically published up until the game's release date. It's called Journey to Centauri and is still found around the web.
Agreed about the expansion and transcendence. I always try to get my standard of living as high as possible in these kinds of games so I gravitated towards Morgan. Then again I see government as something that should exist to benefit the people and not in pursuit of some abstract higher goal - it's the pursuit of abstracts that generally screw things up. Lal, "Everyone needs to do what I say because the UN said so. Guys? Come'on guys, you have to do what I say because the UN said so!" Least favorite faction. At least the Hive has a relevant ideology, horrifying as it is.
Lal does have an ideology, it's just the one the original UN mission was built upon. It's very clear he believes in free flow of information and that he's a firm supporter of liberal democracy. His view of the tragedy of Earth is that too many governments fell back into the old ways of despotism and despair, leading to global war, strife, and eventual collapse. I know it's an 8 months old comment, but I wanted to share my two cents.
My experience with this game is as follows. Had it when it was rare. Tried and didn't care for it. Traded it for someones copy of KOTOR. Happy with trade.
I think Brian Reynolds even admits this himself in a recent-ish podcast, though he doesn't specify exactly which characters he thought were "too caricature-y" and needed to be written better, though it seems pretty obvious that Yang's one of 'em. Hell, if you've ever read the "Paean to SMAC" Wordpress site, even the author, who's got some cool observations about tech/secret projects, tends to drift into rather fanciful descriptions about Yang ("rooted firmly in Eastern thought", his society mostly working "in its alien way"). That being said I think the game largely avoids a lot of racist traps--even if Yang seems like he leads a jacked up orientalist PRC caricature, the game at least takes pains to emphasize that the factions aren't exactly categorized by their skin colour or ethnicity (or "culture" god fucking forbid), and like you say in the the other comment you wrote here, tackles the diverse cast extremely well overall. Going back to Paean to SMAC though, his article on Genejack Factory and the comments in it (especially from Anh Nguyen and the author himself) are really interesting and give a lot of nuance to Yang's faction/characterization. paeantosmac.wordpress.com/2016/02/02/base-facility-genejack-factory/
I always thought that the direct model was Frank Herbert's character Nils Hellström, with some light Confucianism sprinkled on top. Anyway, I honestly see Sister Miriam as a caricature too, but I guess that's more excusable?
@@ErikHolten Exactly. That lightbulb went off when I first read Hellstrom's Hive ten years after first playing SMAC. If they did a remake where each faction had additional unique victory conditions the Hive would have be the full transformation into post-humans. I agree that Sister Miriam was a bit of a caricature on the evangelist ding-dongs running around in the 90s and today. This actually kept me from appreciating her surprising depth in the later stages of the game. While conservative her concerns about transhumanism are worth considering. They almost suggest a philosophy that considers the possible consequences of progress in a way that is more deliberate then humans on Earth or Zhakarov. A strange commonality with Deidre and Lal.
All the factions are extremists. If you are looking for a society that sacrificed their own people to gain something and feels zero remorse in doing so no place comes close to China. When you make a man made famine that kills more of your people then WW2 you are on another level of disregard of human life.
University are not powerful. Gaians and especially the Hive are much more powerful. And AI weilds the Believers and Peacekeepers well too. Only the Spartans and Morgans are weakly played by AI. But University was a strange choice as his most powerful. Ive played the game obsessivly on transcend level for nearly 25 years. And University are almost never strong. I like playing as them sometimes though. But usually Deidre or Yang.
Yea, weird observation to make, they are decent to play as, but not in Ai hands... I find most new players like University and Gaians because the Ai on any difficulty has no probe game or worm defense.... So they can spank the Ai easily enough, maybe he mistook that for raw power. :D
Ah yes, 4x games, the bade of my existence. If the likes of Jack Thompson and Anita Sarkesian would have decided to go after 4x games we wouldn't still have games today.
What the hell would Anita Sarkesian have to complain about in this game? All the women in it are written very well as fully formed characters with their own motivations. Get over it, people have criticisms about games. Stop inventing boogeymen just so you can jump at shadows.
![Chris Langan - The Interview THEY Didn't Want You To See - CTMU [Full Version; Timestamps]](/img/n.gif)
Alpha Centauri was one of the best games I've ever played. They managed something that almost no 4X or Civ game ever did for me: when I was playing, the factions felt like actual factions.
Not just neat little bonus points and the odd extra unit skin.
You actually felt like the leaders of the various factions were people with their own ideology, deeply held beliefs and convictions.
None of them felt phoned in. All of them felt like compelling, intelligent leaders - if, of course, channeling that intelligence into various radically different interests and ideologies.
A rumination about the best civilization game? This is going to be good.
civ 4 was pretty good aswell, at least the modded version i have
@@nostrum6410 agreed. Rise of mankind or RFC Dawn of Civilization
For me one of the most horrifying things in the game is Telepathic Matrix -- "Drones never riot" (and nobody sees it as an atrocity). Works great with Cloning Vats. Also Self-Aware Colony -- because it makes me side with Sister Miriam Godwinson.
We must dissent.
@@ineednochannelyoutube5384 We must dissent
We must dissent.
We must dissent.
We must.. Dissent..
I roleplayed the shit out of 4x games, especially sci-fi or fantasy ones and this is by far my favorite. There is so much well written world building that it's top notch escapism for me.
59:41 Peacekeepers also have another very strong bonus -- 1 happy citizen for every 4, as well as increased population limits. Both of which helps in making them a beginner faction.
I was just about to point that out, too. Lal's cities can get pretty scary mid to late in the game and he has a distinct advantage when other factions are limited by hab complex or hab dome and the additional talents keep his cities the biggest and most prosperous when you extend towards infinite pop after hab dome.
As a result Lal doesn't have as much need of the Aesthetic Virtues (although it is nice to have) and Self-aware colony wonders. Very much in keeping with his ideology.
I don't think I have ever suffered such a crushing defeat as a Lal AI that was able to get Cloning Vats. Instant growth, increased base size and happy bases due to talents can go out of hand in just a few turns.
Lal is still the weakest faction in the game aside from maybe the Data Angels. I have had numerous cases where I achieved the conditions for a diplomatic victory but lost the resulting war when literally all of the remaining AI factions declared war on me.
Not just one happy citizen-one Talent for every four citizens. A type of specialist so happy they actually make others happy just by living in the same city.
Imagine how happy tech bros are who live in the same community as Elon. Now imagine one out of every four citizens is Elon level. And you don’t even have to bribe them to move to your city.
That.
Is the bonus of Lal’s faction.
If I recall correctly in the event that another faction besides you get the transcendence ending in the monolog that follows it is mentioned that everyone gets a choice to stay human and those that transcend can go back to being human so I don't see the downside but that's just me
If you win via transcendence, there is an aside about small pockets of humanity that chose not to merge with Planet.
I'm not that big of a fan of strategy / civilization building games, but the species and lore of this game were fleshed out well-enough that I ended up absolutely loving this title.
The game went on sale on GOG the day after this was uploaded.
Never paid for this masterpiece. Buying it tonight, thank you
19:46 "[...] divided not by nationality, but ideology, and their vision for the new world". I always remember that quote from the intro.
Alpha Centauri is definitely one of the best games of all time. It’s certainly dystopian, and the point you make about all factions essentially being extremists is well made.
Commissioner Lal did nothing wrong!
I think the reason using the mindworm swarms against enemies isn't a war crime is honestly probably an issue of plausible deniability. It's not like the little guys are wearing uniforms while attacking your enemies. I'm playing Morgan right now and interestingly enough wound up going with a green democracy early (random tech is active, Morgan tech seems well adapted to that actually - the bonus resources just kind of speed things along). At any rate I'm now, increasingly, using mind worm units but I think of it as the most ruthless predatory form of capitalism. Think of it - mind worms roll in, annihilate your military leaving a terrified populace frightened at their leadership's inability to protect them. In rolls Morganite forces, heroically chasing away the mind worm swarms, re-establishing order and bringing new prosperity. You've seized assets, energy, and human capital right out from anyone you decide - and they'll thank you for it.
I'm approaching end game on a playthrough (Huge map of Planet) right now and it's just me on my continent, the Spartans on theirs and the Believers have one. They are firmly entrenched and currently it's just not economically feasible to go over there and conquer them - meanwhile I have a massive tech and economy lead. I'm basically building a fortress of solitude now and working towards either enough population that their votes are irrelevant in the supreme leader ship vie, or straight up transcend them. At any rate it has been a fascinating thing to watch develop. Already looking forward to another playthrough only this time I'll try another faction.
I have owned this game since the year it released (I think it was the only game in history at that point to get a 100% rating from PC Gamer) and I've just never really sat down and played it properly. It really is one of the most entertaining things I have ever done in front of a computer.
42:33 reminds me "no decent mind should even think" about building singularity inductor, directly after I just completed it.
Decent people shouldn't think about the ecological armageddon that immediately follows construction of the Singularity Inductor, and/or the Bulk Matter Transmitter
Dude what the fuck, I've been trying to track down your channel for years to rewatch the Ruminations on Final Fantasy that I first watched when I was slacking off from a job I HATED with a passion. And your video played as an autoplay after a Aplha Centari vid I was watching, so random, but glad to get to see what you've been up to on the channel for the past well, must be 5 or 6 years. INSTANT SUB.
Religion is introduced in Civ 4. I appear to have been in a minority in enjoying that mechanic and finding it interesting.
I don't see Yang as being hypocritical. His ideology is "nobody is more important than yourself" and he acts as such. He's the one in power and is willing to use others as he sees fit. I don't find that hypocritical, it makes sense.
Something else occurred to me about Morgan: if he is as intelligent as you say, he wouldn't be opposed to Green Economics. For the very practical reason of increased mind-worm attacks. He ought to recognize it's better business sense to work with Planet instead of fighting it.
"he wouldn't be opposed to Green Economics"
It must be worth noting that Morgan can actually use Green Economics in game (it's Planned that's an absolute no-no for him).
He isn't; he's opposed to Planned Economics. I've had lovely games as Morgan with a carpet of self-expanding forests reducing ecological damage despite pumping industry, all while pouring food even from the deserts.
PINK economics, on the other hand...
@@mikelake1306 Oh he's definitely opposed to Green Economics. I've had games where he's warned me that "I'm causing irreparable harm to legitimate business interests", then later declared vendetta on me "as a matter of good business sense." I've never seen his warning quote if you use Planned Economics, but I can't imagine it's pleasant.
Listened to the entire thing at work, actually had a look at the gog page and saw it was sale too, £2 is pretty cheap.
ive never gotten it to work multiplayer on modern machines
Ohhh a SMAC rumination? Where's my beer and wings?!
You said in-lore, Morgan is one of the smartest people in the group. Pity that isn't reflected in the gameplay. I remember this one game, the Morgans were getting absolutely smashed by the Believers. They were down to a handful of bases, and appealed for my help. I intervened, pushed back the Believers, and freely gave the Morgans back their captured bases. I literally pulled their faction back from the brink of annihilation... and a few turns later they declared Vendetta on me, as a matter of "good business sense". I was the Gaians, and naturally they didn't like my Green Economics policy. That's what happens when you put a CEO in charge of the military!
AI Morgan struggles a lot with the 4 pop cap of its bases, coupled with the general AI propensity for lots of units (again, Morgan's Support handicap). But he can totally boom with his energy bonuses, even out-researching Zakharov, all other things being equal
In the Alien Crossfire version, they could have had it such that the factions end up taking sides with one of the Manifold factions. You can see pretty well how they would match up too.
It is interesting to note how each of the faction leaders (at least int he base game), maps relatively well to one or more real life philosopher/thinkers:
Morgan -> Ayn Rand, perhaps Max Stirner, generalyl egoistic libertarianism witha pinch of realpolitk a la Kissinger.
Deirdre Skye -> Thinkers on the tradition of Jacques Rosseau, also deep ecology people liek Anne Naess
Sheng-ji Yang -> Most post-hegelian authoritharianism, for example, Giovanni Gentile or Georg Luckacs (both fascism and communism undeniably share a hegelian origin)
Santiago -> She is undeniably a representative of stoicism, however I wouldn't be able to map her to any specific author in that tradition, but I could just cite the most famous ones: Marcus Aurelius, Tacitus and so on.
Zakharov -> That one is easy, and even has direct mapping on DOn Ross and James Ladyman, authors of "Everything Must Go: Metaphysics Naturalize" is a very recent attempt at revival of neo-positivism. Generally speaking scientificism as a political ideology.
Miriam Godwinson (my eprosnal favorite): I would suggest she maps onto thinker of the christian conservatism tradition like Eric Voegelin or C.S. Lewis.
Pravin Lal -> He representats kantian universalist optimism, real-life examples would include Woodrow Wilson.
Max Stirner knower here? What a man of culture! My more sincere respects!
What are your guys thoughs on Civilization: Beyond Earth?
Surely I am not the only one that looked for the alpha centauri nostalgia in it? :)
Tbh. for me it fell a bit short, didn't feel the depth I remembered, but I might be wrong since I'm older now...
One of my favourite games with rising tide, but you can't play it like its a civ game, it's something slightly different that doesn't translate well. That's why alot of people think it's juts a bad civ 5 reskin
5:00 Interesting, I would usually do the opposite: You naval power does not affect me, because I will just terraform across the ocean and crush you with my landforces who now have a path created.
My favorite terraforming maneuver was to use "terraform down" to actually sink enemy cities -- as many as possible in one turn, and then watch them frantically switch production to submersion domes everywhere :)
I recently came across a review for this game and decided to buy it off gog. I had played it as a kid back in the day, but only had the demo.
It's funny how I as an academic decided to role play as university of planet but customised it a bit to become the university of California (my employer), named all settlements as various UCs (with UCSF being my capital) and jealousy guarded my research (IP in my head canon) and terafomed the vicinities of my various settlements. It's very silly
lal is actually arguably the strongest and most flexible faction leader when controlled by a skilled human player. his relaxed hab limits and extra talent per 4 citizens allows him to boom early in population with democratic/planned policies without being hampered by drone problems. and extra population can be leveraged towards any goal.
I think Zakharov could be called the ideal beginner faction due to the automatic network node at every base along with the rest. That extra bit is CRUCIAL! Putting that alone on any faction gives an early edge that compounds as the game progresses which also requires luck to take full advantage of.
Lal on the other hand I can see being the first initial challenge faction, where you don't have real advantages to work with and have to depend on the rest to get anywhere. It is the one faction that really depends on the rest to get anywhere. This also makes it a rare faction in games. We typically see some polarized fare like the other 6 factions.
Yea, University and Gaians are good starter options because they are extra strong vs the Ai
The Ai has no probe team game or worm defense on any difficulty
So Gaian worm hordes can steam roll most enemies and the University doesn't get gang probed by every faction when they're all Ai....
We usually play with aggressive Ai and only domination victory switched on, so Lal isn't a top choice! :D
I feel like Yang is the easiest to start with because you can just set everything to automate and watch the AI expand the entire contenant and steamroll any opposition with armies so big it would make the US blush.
The new factions, to sum up, are the Consortium from Empire at War. They damage both story and balance for the sake of 'they bigg and strongg' in exactly the way a poorly-designed 'kitchen sink' mod will do, and for roughly similar reasons.
The way the consortium works should have been how the rebels did in the og.
I don't think that's fair. Cybernetic Consciousness might be very strong, but not being able to trade technologies is a huge penalty for the aliens, and Cult of Planet is more of a toned down version of the Gaians (-1 Econ being a huge disadvantage, whereas Gaians have practically none).
The Cybernetics Girl Is Cute
Pirates Free Drones And Data Angel's Are All Forgetable Though
@@westkanye4005 Those are the only good factions from the expac though
It'd be weird for a game about ideology to not have a socialist option, pirates are silly but cool, and data angels make every other faction look viable in comparison.
48:33 Interesting take on Yang! I never saw his authoritarian philosophy as hypocritical, personally. He believes in mind over body through sheer force of will, and this isn't at odds with the ideology of his faction because his people ARE the body to his mind. The Human Hive is simply an extension of their leader, as many despots probably view their society.
My conception of the Hive shifted a lot after reading Frank Herbert's 'Hellstrom's Hive'. That story involves a human collective that have purposely geared their society and even morphology to being parts of a collective organism. Leaders in the hive view themselves as merely the strategic brain for the organism that is the hive.
I mention this because if Brian Reynolds was a fan of that story, much of Yang's methods are steps to create a society capable of that kind of evolution. He believes that the humans on the unity are not yet ready but maybe several generations down the line the can be. Sharing Genejacks, as indicated in his quote, are a means to transmit this philosophy through other societies that utilize them.
26:22 I would argue that the implication is less "Earth became a wreck, so everyone must have been extremists! Because that's the only way things could get that bad!", and more that the kind of do-nothing-compromise we're used to seeing in regards to things like, say, climate change from current first world countries was not cutting it. In the long term, only taking idle half-measures as things steadily get worse leads - is leading! - to Earth becoming uninhabitable.
And post-collapse, the respective leaders aren't as willing to make concessions to other ideologies that - to them - are THE REASON EARTH DIED.
Still the best X4 game today ;)
I find SMAC best with the SMAC-in-SMAX mod because the expansion engine was improved, but largely the content detracts from the game's balance as well as harms the excellent atmosphere/characterization.
My Dad has a original copy of Gettysburg. :)
Yes, this is one of my favorite strategy games of all time! 🙌🙌🙌✨
Maybe someone already commented this: on Deirdre's voice acting, so, the character is canonically from Scotland like you said, the accent sounds more like, a little bit Irish? Make of that what you will.
Deirdre Skye, the ultimate "Pict me" girl!
56:19 Good point, maybe they should have made mind worms work like privateers in Colonization (hidden allegiance).
Still love this game
What an interesting game and rumination. Really feels like this is your type of game to cover. Bought just now on gog for 1.4 euro lol
What is up with the video? It looks like some really bad compression full of artifacts. Or is that just me? Oh, it clears up 6 minutes in.
yeah same for me stops after 6 minutes
Maybe something related to the background? It clears in 6:21.
I busted out some popcorn for this.
My main page is named after an SMAC secret project. That is how much I enjoyed playing the game. It is the first civ type I was able to play well, and I tried many interesting versions, like c-evo and others. Masters of Orion I am interested in thanks to the recent remake. I saw LP footage that kept me thinking of this game. It looks well done! What do you think of the series?
Morgan is imo a great faction for new player(assuming default factions) , he has such a wide array of options to expand in different ways and is by far the most neutral towards other factions which means you can be friendly and as hostile as you want easily , even the gaian's who are his opposite will not be as hostile to him as some faction are to others starting out especially if you give them a pittance as "green tax". His growth penalty isn't one if you look at is as a method of encouraging you to spread out. Yeah you might see ppl complain about his military but even if his units are weak starting out you need a good economy to support a big army to tech up faster to better stuff which he usually has. His diplomacy also helps him against Yang, my favorite thing to do in games is to get spartans and/or uni whenever Yang starts eying me and then just steamrolling him before he knows what hit him.
Hey i just wanna thank you for doing the game i suggested, one of my all time strategy games :)
Ok now I'm goona play it again untill the pandemic is over
I loved this game and Homeworks.
I love playing games that are on such large maps and without any victories enabled. So basicaly the game can't end lol untill I do everything and I'm done :p
Thank you so much. My fav game of all time definitely top 3.
First off I need to say you are very VERBOSE my friend! second of all I Loved this review!
I always viewed the transcend ending as more along the lines of turning humanity into a psychic and/or empathic species (think newtypes from the original mobile suit gundam and zeta)
Is there a reliable source of canon other than the game and Journey to Centaury by Michael Ely?? Im writing a paper about current events thru the lenses of these seven ideologies, and Id love to be able to ascertain some personality and background facts.
I played as Previn Lal of the Peacekeepers usually. I also enjoyed the Pirates and University. I gave never played as the Lords Believers, Data Angels, or the Cult of Planet.
Thank you! The U.N. Peacekeepers are the only moral choice really
Believers can be fun to play, their extra combat bonus on top of an elite troop is nasty! :)
They are a popular faction in human vs human games, along with Spartans and Yang.
Some factions that are strong vs Ai aren't so hot vs humans unfortunately....
I like the pirate sea bases, but the lack of minerals in the early game can stress me out.
The game has a 3 book series, spoiler all the poor people of Planet join the World's Believers and they nuke Planet to victory.
NOOOOOOObody expects the Planet Inquisition!
Bro what
We gotta go to Alpha Centurai for real
So...why exactly is the accented ending bad? What is so wrong with becoming BETTER than a human?
Because I'm a human.
There's really only one 4X game I care about, and this isn't it. But I'm finding myself very tempted based on all this lore.
Other than the Alien factions, the new factions are most definitely NOT overpowered. Aki Zeta is great, for example, but the University is top tier and better. I actually really like the expansion and all of the new technologies, systems, and factions it adds. As long as you accept that the Aliens are OP (And therefore ban any players from using them in multiplayer), then SMACX is fantastic.
Also, Lal is one of the best factions because of how easily he can pop boom.
I wouldn't say SMACX factions are OP
Just out of balance and suffering from monomania! ;)
SMACX without the SMACX factions is a joy...
Very good video! The transcendence ending to this game is very much the realization of many old and tired tropes which stem from schools like gnosticism and reincarnation religions: that mankind can achieve godhood and solve all problems. It seems to me the natural end result of all fantasy, since fantasy deliberately rejects reality in favor of an idealized world. Even dystopian fantasy, like this, will grapple with this concept eventually or it will continue being imperfect, just like the real world.
Greatest of games! :)
Interestingly, how the factions fare vs the Ai is pretty different to their strength against human players!
In pvp you want a military faction with a military bonus, because everyone will have roughly similar tech and economic power, it comes down to who has the best troops and most elite troops.
Most new players like University and Gaians, because they are strong against Ai.
Even on Transcend difficulty the Ai has no probe game or nuke/worm defense, so those two dominate.
In multiplayer the University should expect probes from every direction, land and sea!
And the Gaian worm hordes will be shut down by cheap, zero upkeep trance probe teams.
Lal's diplomacy can be a bit average vs human controlled factions.
Believers, Spartans and Yang are popular choices for pvp
I like to play the original release version of SMAC as well....
Before the patches you could nerve staple and nerve gas without doing any eco-damage!! :D
You just got sanctions.
It becomes an insane game of base spamming and genocidally gassing bases out existence with needlejets!
If you love Master of Orion 2 and SMAC then you're a legend in my book! :)
Hey I didn't know James Spader played SMAC...
enjoyed!
Hello... Will.
Human Hive was always my favorite faction. Where did you get that Yang lied his way onto the ship? Later fiction?
Earlier fiction, actually! An episodic web serial detailing the dramatic last days of Captain Garland aboard the Unity was periodically published up until the game's release date. It's called Journey to Centauri and is still found around the web.
2:00 OMG, i'd rather play Colonization than the Maxis games post Sim2000...
Here the factions ISIS, Amazon, PETA, CCP, Alt Right, UN, skeptics community.
The Anthony Fantano of gaming. Seriously though, awesome game and awesome video.
Better than Anthony
wow im watching something that you didnt do 5 years ago, still going thru the b5 stuff. honestly the AI was better than civ 5 or 6.
Now the OTHER good game is Old World. Ruminations?
Agreed about the expansion and transcendence.
I always try to get my standard of living as high as possible in these kinds of games so I gravitated towards Morgan. Then again I see government as something that should exist to benefit the people and not in pursuit of some abstract higher goal - it's the pursuit of abstracts that generally screw things up.
Lal, "Everyone needs to do what I say because the UN said so. Guys? Come'on guys, you have to do what I say because the UN said so!" Least favorite faction. At least the Hive has a relevant ideology, horrifying as it is.
Lal does have an ideology, it's just the one the original UN mission was built upon.
It's very clear he believes in free flow of information and that he's a firm supporter of liberal democracy. His view of the tragedy of Earth is that too many governments fell back into the old ways of despotism and despair, leading to global war, strife, and eventual collapse.
I know it's an 8 months old comment, but I wanted to share my two cents.
@@sig5750 you right you right
20:37 ever heard of Xenogears?
No Lore,no! You will not tempt me to play this game again. I have a wife and a cat now. ^^/;;;;
Well, unload your wife and it'll be ok
why is the quality so terrible?
oh it got better at 7:00
👍
My experience with this game is as follows. Had it when it was rare. Tried and didn't care for it. Traded it for someones copy of KOTOR. Happy with trade.
Honestly the Human Hive and Yang are a pretty gross, racist caricature of the Chinese. It's one of the worst parts of the game and pretty inexcusable.
I think Brian Reynolds even admits this himself in a recent-ish podcast, though he doesn't specify exactly which characters he thought were "too caricature-y" and needed to be written better, though it seems pretty obvious that Yang's one of 'em. Hell, if you've ever read the "Paean to SMAC" Wordpress site, even the author, who's got some cool observations about tech/secret projects, tends to drift into rather fanciful descriptions about Yang ("rooted firmly in Eastern thought", his society mostly working "in its alien way").
That being said I think the game largely avoids a lot of racist traps--even if Yang seems like he leads a jacked up orientalist PRC caricature, the game at least takes pains to emphasize that the factions aren't exactly categorized by their skin colour or ethnicity (or "culture" god fucking forbid), and like you say in the the other comment you wrote here, tackles the diverse cast extremely well overall.
Going back to Paean to SMAC though, his article on Genejack Factory and the comments in it (especially from Anh Nguyen and the author himself) are really interesting and give a lot of nuance to Yang's faction/characterization.
paeantosmac.wordpress.com/2016/02/02/base-facility-genejack-factory/
I always thought that the direct model was Frank Herbert's character Nils Hellström, with some light Confucianism sprinkled on top. Anyway, I honestly see Sister Miriam as a caricature too, but I guess that's more excusable?
At a surface level Yang seems like the western preception of China and its leaders
@@ErikHolten Exactly. That lightbulb went off when I first read Hellstrom's Hive ten years after first playing SMAC. If they did a remake where each faction had additional unique victory conditions the Hive would have be the full transformation into post-humans.
I agree that Sister Miriam was a bit of a caricature on the evangelist ding-dongs running around in the 90s and today. This actually kept me from appreciating her surprising depth in the later stages of the game. While conservative her concerns about transhumanism are worth considering. They almost suggest a philosophy that considers the possible consequences of progress in a way that is more deliberate then humans on Earth or Zhakarov. A strange commonality with Deidre and Lal.
All the factions are extremists. If you are looking for a society that sacrificed their own people to gain something and feels zero remorse in doing so no place comes close to China. When you make a man made famine that kills more of your people then WW2 you are on another level of disregard of human life.
University are not powerful. Gaians and especially the Hive are much more powerful. And AI weilds the Believers and Peacekeepers well too. Only the Spartans and Morgans are weakly played by AI. But University was a strange choice as his most powerful. Ive played the game obsessivly on transcend level for nearly 25 years. And University are almost never strong. I like playing as them sometimes though. But usually Deidre or Yang.
Yea, weird observation to make, they are decent to play as, but not in Ai hands...
I find most new players like University and Gaians because the Ai on any difficulty has no probe game or worm defense....
So they can spank the Ai easily enough, maybe he mistook that for raw power. :D
Ah yes, 4x games, the bade of my existence. If the likes of Jack Thompson and Anita Sarkesian would have decided to go after 4x games we wouldn't still have games today.
What the hell would Anita Sarkesian have to complain about in this game? All the women in it are written very well as fully formed characters with their own motivations. Get over it, people have criticisms about games. Stop inventing boogeymen just so you can jump at shadows.