#smac

[anheliotrope]

Chairman Sheng-Ji Yang: If you really loved me, or humanity, at all, you would nerve staple yourself and show yourself to the nearest anguish factory.

Colonel Corazón Santiago: I think we should hurt people during boot camp more. It would build character.

Provost Zakharov: I must directly cause the extinction of every mind worm species despite knowing that the planet is sentient and self-aware and will collectively like humanity less for this. I fucking love science.

Lady Diedre Skye: The mind worms will rape us less frequently if we pollute less.

CEO Nwabudike Morgan: We're managing to sell more holosims of the recent war than the war is costing us so it's impossible to say if the war is morally good or bad on net.

Commissioner Pravin Lal: I think we should improve things somewhat.

Sister Miriam Godwinson: God himself reached out to me in a vision and told me that building fully automated nanobot thought police would be bad.

[light4chiron]

Happy Birthday, Deirdre Skye!

Deirdre Skye is born on this day, the 28th of May 2025.

Deirdre is the leader one of the more popular factions, and with good reason. Gaia’s Stepdaughters are fun to play, sympathetic (bad enough that Chiron is already Planet B for humanity, they don’t want yet another planet trashed, but they also care about people), and, from the flavour text, the closest the game has to a protagonist faction.

I’ve posted a drabble to commemorate this occasion.

However, the best way to celebrate is of course to work on protecting our own planet, Earth.

[absenceofgravitas]

revisiting the old games and remembering how the SMAC expansion got kinda goofy with the factions

[cat-appreciator]

I’m thinking today about Civilization: Beyond Earth, aka “The Sid Meier’s Alpha Centauri from wish dot com”. A spiritual sequel to the beloved SMAC without any of the spirit. The way I see it, Beyond Earth’s gameplay had multiple flaws:

* The starting factions had extremely minimal gameplay influence, which one you picked didn’t really mean anything.

* What resources you started near meant everything. You were planning to go down the Unity part of the tech tree, build big stompy robots? Too bad, there’s no Levistone nearby. You’ll choke down your Xenomass and go Harmony like RNJesus intended. Or you can reroll a new planet and hope for better luck next time … after you spend 10-20 turns finding out what resources you start with this time.

But the major problem with Beyond Earth was that it had big shoes to fill and didn’t really bother to try to fill them.

I mentioned before that the starting factions meant nothing in Beyond Earth? In SMAC they meant everything, because everything was voice acted. Build a recycling vat? Shen-Ji Yang will tell you “it is every citizen’s final duty to go into the tanks …”. Research the Industrial Base tech? Nwabudike Morgan says “Resources exist to be consumed, and consumed they will be!”. The faction leaders were given such depth of character, so well voice acted, that I can still quote them extemporaneously two decades later. SMAC had soul.

Beyond Earth, on the other hand, had one voice actor, a perfectly reasonable AI (human VA playing an AI, it has to be said in these stupid, stupid times) who stripped all the character and emotion from voice quotes attributed to Beyond Earth’s faction leaders. You could not get invested in them as characters - I can’t recall any of their names.

And still, if you win a science victory in Civ 6, you launch the exoplanet expedition, you win the game, and then there is no real sequel unless you want to choke down the bitter Xenomass of disappointment that is Beyond Earth … or return once more to the rolling pink hills and frolicking mindworms of Planet.

There’s space for some sort of near-future xenocolonization 4X game, is what I’m saying. The fallen torch is still there for some game dev to pick up. And I wish they would, instead of continually trying to retread the Civilization story as Old World, Humankind et al have done. Maybe there’s some game out there I’m missing. I hope so.

[tolbachik]

"As the Americans learned so painfully in Earth's final century, free flow of information is the only safeguard against tyranny.

The once chained people whose leaders, at last, lose their grip on information flow, will soon burst with freedom and vitality.

But, the free nation gradually constricting its grip on public discourse, has begun its rapid slide into despotism.

Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart, he dreams himself your master."

-Commissioner Pravin Lal "U.N. Declaration of Rights"

[horseabortion69]

Mid development screenshots from Alpha Centauri shown at E3 '97

[droct0]

*crawls out from under a rock covered in dirt* hey guys have you ever heard of sid meyers alpha centauri yeah haha ive been playing a lot of it recently would you like to know more haha

[sapphireravenkingdom]

Poetry in a game

I sit in my cubicle, here on the motherworld. When I die, they will put my body in a box and dispose of it in the cold ground. And in the million ages to come, I will never breathe, or laugh, or twitch again. So won't you run and play with me here among the teeming mass of humanity? The universe has spared us this moment."

Anonymous; Datalinks

This gaaaaaame! It has inspired me in politics, writing, poetry, science, economics, civics, horror, and science fiction itself. This poem gives me chills even now, and calms me in a way that few things can. It's Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri. It's so old. It still sings to me.

[chirondreams]

Data Angel or Lord's Believer Probe Team coming up to your base: ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

A Gaian Mindworm coming up to you capital: ( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)( ͡° ͜ʖ ͡°)

[owlbear33]

what ttrpg do you use to run a game about one of humanities first extrasolar colonies, situation like Sid Meier's Alpha Centauri or Civ: Beyond Earth

the default assumption is that players are playing as an explorer unit, exploring precursor ruins, having encounters with alien life, and disagreements with explorers from other human colonies on the planet

so yeah any ideas?

[scary-friend]

Now Kiss

[fruityyamenrunner]

a long essay blog

[dontsweatthefresh]

BACKONFIGG Ep:88 With That Mexican OT

That Mexican OT - Barrio feat. Lefty Sm (Official Music Video)

Big L - Put It On (Official Music Video)

Hardest Ese Ever - That Mexican OT (Official Music Video) Shot by @Izzyuzi [Edited by @Dj Skelz]

That Mexican OT & Peso Peso - Chingon (Official Music Video)

[imperator-knoedel]

"As the Americans learned so painfully in Earth's final century, free flow of information is the only safeguard against tyranny...Beware of he who would deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master. Commissioner Pravin Lal, 'U.N. Declaration of Rights'"

"no don't pirate, use your local library"

*people in other countries use an online tool to access your local library*

"ew no not like that you fucking foreigners"

[thebossishere]

#Smac (Kendrick's friend) at #KendrickLamar #SZA #GrandNationalTour got this from Twitter user: @KendrickChart

[wwememes]

https://geo.dailymotion.com/player.html?video=x8vwd7q&