Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri (often abbreviated SMAC) is the critically-acclaimed science fiction 4X turn-based strategy video game sequel to the Sid Meier's Civilization series. Sid Meier, designer of Sid Meier's Civilization, and Brian Reynolds, designer of Sid Meier's Civilization II, developed Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri after they left Microprose to join the newly-created developer, Firaxis Games. Electronic Arts released both Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri and its expansion, Sid Meier's Alien Crossfire, in 1999. In 2000, Aspyr Media and Loki Software ported both titles over to Mac OS and GNU/Linux respectively.

Overview
Set in the 22nd century, the game begins as seven competing ideological factions land on the planet Chiron ("Planet") in the Alpha Centauri star system. As the game progresses, Planet's growing sentience becomes a formidable obstacle to the human colonists. Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri features improvements on the Sid Meier's Civilization II game engine, including simultaneous multi-play, social engineering, climate, customizable units, native alien life, additional diplomatic and espionage options, additional victory conditions, and greater mod-ability. Sid Meier's Alien Crossfire introduces several new human, and two non-human factions as well as additional technologies, facilities, secret projects, native life, unit abilities and a new victory condition.

The game received wide critical acclaim, being compared favourably to Sid Meier's Civilization II. Critics praised its science-fiction storyline (comparing the plot to works by Stanley Kubrick and Isaac Asimov), the in-game writing, the voice acting, the user-created custom units, and the depth of the technology tree. Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri also won several awards for best game of the year and best strategy game of the year. Despite the critical acclaim, the game had the lowest sales of the Civilization series. Features first introduced in Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri are in Sid Meier's Civilization III, Sid Meier's Civilization IV and Sid Meier's Civilization V.

Setting
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri takes place within the Sid Meier's Civilization universe, and begins in the 22nd century, following the space-race victory in Sid Meier's Civilization II. The premise is that the United Nations has sent the U.N.S. Unity colonization mission to the Alpha Centauri planet Chiron ("Planet"). Advanced aliens previously conducted an experiment in planetary-level sentience on Planet, leaving behind monoliths and artifacts. The experiment was a disaster, creating a hundred-million-year evolutionary cycle ending in the death of all animal life. After the disaster, the aliens split into the Manifold Caretakers, who opposed further experimentation, and the Manifold Usurpers, who favored further experimentation. Immediately prior to the start of the game, a reactor malfunction wakes the crew, and the colonists early and irreparably sever communications with Earth. After the captain is assassinated, the most powerful leaders on board build ideological factions with dedicated followers, conflicting agendas for the future of mankind, and "desperately serious" commitments. As the ship breaks up, Unity's pods and seven escape pods, each containing a faction, are scattered across Planet. The game takes place on Planet with its distinctive landmarks, "rolling red ochre plains", and "bands of lonely terraformed green".

Characters
The game focuses on the leaders of the seven factions, chosen by the player from the fourteen leaders in Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri and Sid Meier's Alien Crossfire , and Planet. The game develops these characters from the faction leaders' portraits, the spoken monologues accompanying scientific discovery and the "photographs in the corner of a comm-link – home towns, first steps, first loves, family, graduation, spacewalk".

Faction Leaders
The leaders in Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri are comprised of the following:


 * Lady Deirdre Skye (voiced by Carolyn Dahl) of Gaia's Stepdaughters
 * Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang (voiced by Lu Yu) of the Human Hive
 * Academician Prokhor Zakharov (voice by Yuri Nesteroff) of the University of Planet
 * CEO Nwabudike Morgan (voiced by Regi Davis) of Morgan Industries
 * Colonel Corazon Santiago (voiced by Wanda Nino) of the Spartan Federation
 * Sister Miriam Godwinson (voiced by Gretchen Weigel) of The Lord's Believers
 * Commissioner Pravin Lal (voiced by Hesh Gordon) of The Peacekeeping Forces.

The seven faction leaders in Sid Meier's Alien Crossfire are comprised of the following:


 * Prime Function Aki Zeta-Five (voiced by Allie Rivenbark) of The Cybernetic Consciousness
 * Captain Ulrik Svensgaard (voiced by James Liebman) of The Nautilus Pirates
 * Foreman Domai (voiced by Frederick Serafin) of The Free Drones
 * Datajack Sinder Roze (voiced by Christine Melton) of The Data Angels
 * Prophet Cha Dawn (voiced by Stacy Spenser) of The Cult of Planet
 * Guardian Lular H'minee (voiced by Jeff Gordon) of The Manifold Caretakers
 * Conqueror Judaa Maar (voiced by Jeff Gordon) of The Manifold Usurpers.

The player controls one of these leaders, and competes against the others to colonize and conquer Planet. The Datalinks (voiced by Robert Levy and Katherine Ferguson) are minor characters, who provide information to the player, often after a technological breakthrough or secret project has been achieved. Each faction excels at one or two important aspects of the game and follows a distinct philosophical belief, such as technological utopianism, environmentalism, capitalism, militarism, anti-authoritarianism, piracy, and classic liberalism.

Story
The story unfolds via the introduction video, explanations of new technologies, videos obtained for completing secret projects, and cut-scenes. The native life consists primarily of simple worm-like aliens and a type of red fungus. The fungus is difficult to traverse, provides invisibility for the enemy, provides little mineral or energy bonus, and spawns "mindworms boils" that attack bases and units with a Psi-based neural attack. Mindworms can be captured or bred in captivity and used as weapons. The player will discover that the fungus and mindworms can think collectively. Soon the player dreams of a voice. That voice later intrudes into waking moments, threatening more attacks if the pollution and corruption caused by humans goes unchecked. The player eventually discovers that Planet is a semi-dormant sentient hive organism that will soon experience a metamorphosis which will destroy all human life. To counter this threat, the player or a computer faction will build "The Voice of Alpha Centauri" secret project, which delays the metamorphosis and increases the intelligence of the hive organism. Finally, the player or the computer embraces the "Ascent to Transcendence" in which humans join the hive organism in "godhood". Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri closes "with a swell of hope and wonder in place of the expected triumphalism", reassuring "that the events of the game weren't the entirety of mankind’s future, but just another step".

Gameplay
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri is a turn-based strategy game with a science fiction setting and played from a third-person, isometric perspective. Many game features from Sid Meier's Civilization II are present, but renamed or slightly tweaked: players establish bases (cities), build facilities (buildings) and secret projects (Wonders of the World), explore territory, research technologies, and conquer other factions (civilizations). In addition to conquering all non-allied factions, players may also win by controlling three quarters of the total population (similar to the "Dominance" Victory Condition in Sid Meier's Civilization IV), "cornering the Global Energy Market", completing the "Ascent to Transcendence" secret project, or for alien factions only, constructing six Subspace Generators.

The main map is divided into squares, on which players can establish bases, move units and engage in combat. Through terraforming, players may modify the effects of the individual map squares on movement, combat and resources. Resources feed the population, construct units and facilities, and supply energy. Player can allocate energy between research into new technology and energy reserves. Unlike Sid Meier's Civilization II, new technology grants access to additional unit components rather than pre-designed units, allowing players to design and re-design units as their factions' priorities shift. Energy reserves allow the player to upgrade units, maintain facilities, and corner the Global Energy Market. Bases are military strong-points and objectives that are vital for all winning strategies. They produce military units, house the population, collect energy, and build secret projects and Subspace Generators. Facilities and secret projects improve the performance of individual bases and the entire faction.

In addition to terraforming, optimizing individual base performance and building secret projects, players may also benefit their factions through social engineering, probe teams, and diplomacy. Social engineering modifies the ideologically-based bonuses and penalties forced by the player's choice of faction. Probe teams steal information, units, technology, energy, and bases; sabotage enemy bases; and can reinstate defeated factions. Diplomacy creates winning coalitions and allows the trade or transfer of units, bases, technology and energy. The Planetary Council, similar to the United Nations Security Council, takes Chiron-wide actions and determines a 3/4 population victory.

In addition to futuristic technological advances and secret projects, the game includes native alien life, structures and machines. "Xenofungus" and "sea fungus" provide movement, combat, resource penalties, and concealment for "mindworms" and "spore launchers". Immobile "fungal towers" spawn native life. Native life, including the seaborne "Isles of the Deep" and "Sealurks" and airborne "Locusts of Chiron," use psionic combat, an alternate form of combat which ignores weapons and armor. Monoliths repair units and provide resources; artifacts yield new technology and hasten secret projects; landmarks provide resource bonuses; and random events add danger and opportunity. Excessive development leads to terraforming-destroying fungus blooms and new native life.

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri provides a single player mode and supports customization and multi-player. Players may customize the game by choosing options at the beginning of the game, using the built-in scenario and map editors, and modifying the game files. In addition to a choice of seven (or fourteen in Sid Meier's Alien Crossfire) factions, pre-game options include scenario game, customized random map, difficulty level, and game rules that include victory conditions, research control, and initial map knowledge. The scenario and map editors allow players to create customized scenarios and maps. The game's basic rules, diplomatic dialog, and the factions' starting abilities are in text files, which "the designers have done their best to make it reasonably easy to modify..., even for non-programmers". Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri supports play by email ("PBEM") and a TCP/IP mode featuring simultaneous movement, and introduces direct player-to-player negotiation, allowing the unconstrained trade of technology, energy, maps, and other elements.

Inspirations
MicroProse released the lauded Sid Meier's Civilization II, designed by Brian Reynolds, in 1996. The firm's management changed and moved to California by the time the game shipped. Disagreements between the new management and current employees prompted Reynolds, Jeff Briggs, and Sid Meier, designer of the original Civilization, to leave MicroProse and found Firaxis Games. Although unable to expand Sid Meier's Civilization II, the new company felt that players wanted "a new sweeping epic of a turn-based game". Having just completed a game of human history up to the present, they needed a fresh topic and chose science-fiction. With no previous experience in science-fiction games, the developers believed "future history" was a fitting first foray. For the science-fiction elements of exploring and terraforming an alien world, they chose a plausible near-future situation of a human mission to colonize the solar system's nearest neighbor with human factions. Reynolds researched science-fiction for the game's writing. His inspiration included "classic works of science fiction", including Frank Herbert's The Jesus Incident, A Fire Upon the Deep by Vernor Vinge, and The Mote in God's Eye by Larry Niven and Jerry Pournelle for alien races; Kim Stanley Robinson's Red Mars, Slant by Greg Bear, and Stephen R. Donaldson's The Real Story for future technology and science; and Dune by Herbert and Bear's Anvil of Stars for negative interactions between humans.

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri set out to capture the whole sweep of humanity's future, including technology, futuristic warfare, social and economic development, the future of the human condition, spirituality, and philosophy. "Getting philosophy into the game" was important to Reynolds. Believing good science fiction thrives on constraint, they began with technologies just over the horizon, in terms of technology near the human's races current technological prowess at time of release. As they proceed into the future, they developers tried to present a coherent, logical, and detailed picture of future developments in physics, biology, information technology, economics, society, government, and philosophy. Alien ecologies and mysterious intelligences were incorporated into Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri as external "natural forces" intended to serve as flywheels for the back-story and a catalyst for many player intelligences. Chris Pine, creator of the in-game map of Planet, strove to make Planet look like a real planet, which resulted in evidence of tectonic action. Another concern was that Planet matched the story, which resulted in the fungus being connected across continents because it is supposed to be a gigantic neural network. Terraforming is a natural outgrowth of colonizing an alien world. The first playable prototype was a map generator that featured climate changes during the game in meaningful and predictable ways. This required the designers to create a world builder program and climatic model far more powerful than anything they'd done before. Temperature, wind, and rainfall patterns were modeled in ways that allowed players to make changes; for example, creating a ridge-line and then being able to watch the effects. In addition to raising terrain, the player can also divert rivers, dig huge boreholes into the planet's mantle, and melt icecaps.

In addition to scientific advances, the designers speculated on the future development of human society. Reynolds considered philosophy elements in the game a central attraction of the science fiction nature of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. The designers allowed the player to decide on a whole series of moral and ethical choices and choose either a "ruthless," "moderate," or "idealistic" stance. Reynolds said the designers didn't promote a single "right" answer, instead giving each choice positive and negative consequences. This design was intended to force the player to "think" and make the game "addictive". He also commented that the fictional nature of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri allowed them to draw their characters "a lot more sharply and distinctly than the natural blurring and greyness of history".

Alpha Centauri
In July 1996, Firaxis began work on Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri; Reynolds headed the project. Meier and Reynolds wrote playable prototype code and Jason Coleman wrote the first lines of the development libraries. Because the development of Sid Meier's Gettysburg took up most of Firaxis' time, the designers spent the first year prototyping the basic ideas. By late 1996, the developers were playing games on the prototype, and by the middle of the next year, they were working on a multi-player engine. Reynolds' previous games omitted internet support because he believed that complex turn-based games with many player options and opportunities for player input were difficult to facilitate online. Although Firaxis intended to include multi-player support in its games, an important goal was to create games with depth and longevity in single-player mode because they believed that the majority of players spend most of their time playing this way. Reynolds felt that smart computer opponents are an integral part of a classic computer game, and considered it a challenge to make them so. He also said that the most important principle of game design is for the designer to play the game as it is developed; Reynolds claimed that this was how a good artificial intelligence was built. To this end, he would track the decisions he made and why he made them as he played the game. The designer also watched what the computer players did, noting "dumb" actions and trying to discover why the computer made them. Reynolds then taught the computer his reasoning process so the AI could find the right choice when presented with several attractive possibilities. He said the AI for diplomatic personalities was the best he had done up to that point.

Doug Kaufman, a co-designer of Sid Meier's Civilization II, was invited to join development as a game balancer. Reynolds cited the balance of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri for the greater sense of urgency and the more pressing pacing than in his earlier game, Sid Meier's Colonization. According to producer Timothy Train, in designing the strengths and weaknesses of the factions, the goal was to suggest, without requiring, certain strategies and give the player interesting and fun things to do without unbalancing the game. He didn't want a faction to be dependent on its strength or a faction's power to be dominant over the rest. Train felt that fun meant the factions always have something fun to do with their attributes. Around the summer of 1997, the staff began research on the scientific realities involved in interstellar travel. In late 1997, Bing Gordon — then Chief Creative Officer of Electronic Arts — joined the team, and was responsible for the Planetary Council, extensive diplomacy, and landmarks. A few months before the 1998 Electronic Entertainment Expo, the team incorporated the Explore/Discover/Build/Conquer marketing campaign into the game. The game was announced in May 1998 at E3.

In the latter half of 1998, the team produced a polished and integrated interface, wrote the game manual and foreign language translations, painted the faction leader portraits and terrain, built the 3D vehicles and vehicle parts, and created the music. Michael Ely directed the Secret Project movies and cast the faction leaders. Twenty-five volunteers participated in Firaxis' first public beta test. The beta tester feedback led to the Diplomatic and Economic victories, and Random Events.

The design team started with a very simple playable game. They strengthened the "fun" aspects and fixed or removed the unenjoyable ones, a process Sid Meier called "surrounding the fun". After the revision, they played it again, repeating the cycle of revision and play. Playing the game repeatedly and in-depth was a rule at Firaxis. In single-player mode, the team tried extreme strategies to find any sure-fire paths to victory and to see how often a particular computer faction ends up at the bottom. The goal was a product of unprecedented depth, scope, longevity, and addictiveness, where the player is always challenged by the game to come up with new strategies with no all-powerful factions or unstoppable tactics. According to Reynolds, the process has been around since Sid Meier's early days at Microprose. At Firaxis Games, as iterations continued, they expanded the group giving feedback, bringing in outside gamers with fresh perspectives. Alpha Centauri was the first game with public beta testers.

Finally, Brian Reynolds discussed the use of the demo in the development process. Originally a marketing tool released prior to the game's launch, they started getting feedback, and were able to incorporate many suggestions into the retail version. According to Brian Reynolds, they made improvements to the game's interface, added a couple of new features and fixed a few glitches as a result of this feedback. They also improved some rules, fine-tuned the game balance and improved the AI. Finally, he adds that they continued to add patches to enhance the game after the game was released.

In the months leading to the release of Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri, multimedia producer Michael Ely wrote the 35 weekly episodes of Journey to Centauri detailing the splintering of the U.N. mission to Alpha Centauri.

Reception
Alpha Centauri was released to wide critical acclaim, with reviewers often voicing their respect for the game's pedigree, especially that of designer Brian Reynolds, and Firaxis founder Sid Meier. The game was favorably compared to a previous Reynolds title, Civilization II. Rawn Shah of IT World Canada praised the expansion for a "believable" plot.

Despite its critical reception, it sold the least copies of all the games in the Civilization series. Released in February 1999, more than 100,000 copies were sold in the months of February and March, and an additional 50,000 copies were sold in April, May and June.

Critical reaction
In May 1998, the game showed well at E3. Walter Morbeck of GameSpot said SMAC was "more than hi-tech physics and new ways to blow each other up," and SMAC "will not have aliens that look like humans with glued-on noses and ears." Terry Coleman of Computer Gaming World said SMAC looked "like another huge hit." OGR awarded SMAC "Most Promising Strategy Game" and one of the top 25 games of E3 '98. In a vote of 27 journalists from 22 top gaming magazine, SMAC won "Best Turn Based Strategy" of E3 Show Award Aaron John Loeb, the Awards Committee Chairman, said "for those that understand the intricacies, the wonder, the glory of turn based 'culture building,' this is the game worth skipping class for."

Alpha Centauri's science fiction storyline received high praise; IGN considered the game an exception to PC sc-fi cliches, and GamePro compared the plot to the works of writers Stanley Kubrick and Isaac Asimov. The New York Times '  J.C. Herz suggested that the game was a marriage of SimCity and Frank Herbert's Dune. GamePro's Dan Morris said "As the single-player campaign builds to its final showdown, the ramifications of the final theoretical discoveries elevate Alpha Centauri from great strategy game to science-fiction epic." Game Revolution said, "The well crafted story, admirable science-fiction world, fully realized scenario, and quality core gameplay are sure to please." Edge praised the uniqueness of expression saying it was "the same kind of old-fashioned, consensual storytelling that once drew universes out of ASCII." The in-game writing and faction leaders were also well-received for their believability, especially the voice acting. The factions and their abilities were called Alpha Centauri's "most impressive aspect." Greg Tito of The Escapist said, "the genius of the game is how it flawlessly blends its great writing with strategy elements."

Alpha Centauri's turn-based gameplay, including the technology trees and factional warfare, was commonly compared to Sid Meier's Civilization and Sid Meier's Civilization II. The Adrenaline Vault's Pete Hines said, "While SMAC is the evolutionary off-spring to Civ and Civ 2, it is not Civ 2 in space. Although the comparison is inevitable because of the lineage, it is still short-sighted." Edge in 2006 praised "Alpha Centauri’s greater sophistications as a strategy game." IGN said "Alpha Centauri is a better game than Civilization II; it's deep, rich, rewarding, thought-provoking in almost every way." Game Revolution's reviewer was less magnanimous, saying "Alpha Centauri is at least as good a game as Civilization 2. But it is its great similarity that also does it the most detriment. Alpha Centauri simply does not do enough that is new; it just doesn't innovate enough to earn a higher grade." The ability to create custom units was praised, as was the depth of the tech tree. The artificial intelligence of computer-controlled factions, which featured adaptability and behavioral subtlety, was given mixed comments; some reviewers thought it was efficient and logical, while others found it confusing or erratic. Edge was disappointed in the game's diplomacy, finding "no more and no less than is expected from the genre" and unhappy with "the inability to sound out any real sense of relationship or rational discourse."

"left"

- If you're looking for gratuitous eye candy, then you're obviously in the wrong place. Alpha Centauri's graphics are quite good, but they're not going to make anyone sit up and take notice.

The game's graphics were widely acknowledged to be above average at the time of its release, but not revolutionary. Its maps and interface were considered detailed and in accordance with a space theme, but the game was released with a limited color palette. The in-game cutscenes, particularly the full motion video that accompanied technological advances, were praised for their quality and innovation. Alpha Centauri's sound and music received similar comments; FiringSquad said " [The sound effect quality] sort of follows the same line as the unit graphics - not too splashy but enough to get the job done."

Awards
Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri has won several Game of the Year awards, including those from the Denver Post and the Toronto Sun. It won the "Turn-based Strategy Game of the Year" award from GameSpot as well. The Academy of Interactive Arts & Sciences named Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri the best strategy game of the year, and in 2000, Alpha Centauri won the Origins Award for Best Strategy Computer Game of 1999. AlphaCentuari was nominated by both CGW and GameSpy as "Strategy Game of the Year", and was also an honorable mention for GamePower's "Game of the Year" award.

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri has the distinction of receiving gaming magazine PC Gamer's highest score (98%), bumping Civilization II (97%) from the top. The magazine also gave Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri the "Editor's choice" and "Turn-based strategy game of the year" awards in 1999.

The video game review aggregator websites Game Rankings and Metacritic, which collect data from numerous review websites, gave it scores of 92% and 89%, respectively.

Legacy
While not a direct sequel of Sid Meier's Civilization II, Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri is considered a spiritual successor because it shares the same general principles and was made by many of the original developers. There have been no sequels beyond SMAX, which writer Greg Tito attributed to Reynolds leaving Firaxis in 2000 to form Big Huge Games. SMAX producer and lead designer Timothy Train also left Firaxis along with Reynolds.

Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri was built on the Sid Meier's Civilization II engine modified for voxel graphics. Animatek produced the 3d graphics used in Alpha Centuari under contract with Firaxis. Animatek's most noteworthy achievement was the Caviar 3d graphics format. Originally, they made the format, viewer, and converter as a way for businesses and artists to share 3d objects. The idea was that one would convert the object to the compact and efficient Caviar format, send it by disk or internet to another to view with the simple Caviar Player program. It eliminated the need to have the original 3d program (3ds Max, Maya, Lightwave, etc.) that created the object in order to simply view the model. The format was so lightweight and system friendly that Firaxis seems to have made the "revolutionary" choice to use it to include real 3d models rather than sprites in their next "Sci-Fi" Civilization title Alpha Centuari. Among other things, it made deformable terrain possible and the unit workshop possible and practical. SMAC was a gamble that was ahead of its time. (It is interesting to note that Civ3 did not use 3d models but a refinement of the "old" method of 2d images/sprites.)

After the release of the expansion, multimedia producer Michael Ely wrote a trilogy of novels, Centauri Dawn, Dragon Sun and Twilight of the Mind, and illustrator Rafael Kayanan wrote the graphic novel Alpha Centauri: Power of the Mindworms. Features introduced in Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri were carried over into subsequent Sid Meier's Civilization titles. Each civilization's characteristics in Civilization III are reminiscent of faction bonuses and penalties. The government system in Civilization IV closely resembles Alpha Centauri's, with five different sliders that focus on different aspects of government, like labor and economy. Civilization V will include a new win condition, the completion of the Utopia project, which is reminiscent of the Ascent to Transcendence secret project. Other gameplay features include enhanced diplomatic options and an election-based UN-like system for enacting laws affecting all players.

Upon its 2005 release, Sid Meier's Civilization III was compared negatively to Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. Edge magazine noted that it remained "highly regarded" by 2006. Steve Jackson Games published GURPS Alpha Centauri, a sourcebook for the GURPS role-playing game set in the Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri universe. On May 7, 2010, Brendan Casey released an unofficial patch, which fixes bugs in Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. His project began in February 2009 at Apolyton's Alpha Centauri site and moved in June 2009 to the Civilization Gaming Network, where he plans to continue developing further patch versions. Sold-Out Software re-released the game in 2009.