How is this game? I see it's on sale and was thinking

>>3843386
Better Civilization than any Civilization. Play it

its very good

>>3843389
This. Be sure to read the story in the manual too. It's a good setup for the game.

20/10 story and voicelines
5/10 gameplay

>>3843471
is there a better civ?

>>3843471
pleb

>>3843502
Ignore that guy. The game is awesome. A rather similar game worth consideration is Master of Orion 2.

FREE DRONES OR (PLANET) BUST

>>3843507
I like the fact that you can be as cheap as you want in this game with nukes, unlike in the other civlization games after this one where nukes are nerfed almost to the point of being useless.

I consider it to be the best game ever made to this day
Nothing has topped it gameplay wise or writing wise

>>3843397
>200 pages
hory shet

It's definitely worth checking out.

I suggest you play it without the Alien Crossfire expansion pack, at least until you get bored of the vanilla game. The expansion adds a bunch of stuff, but none of it feels as polished as the base game.

>>3844240
I think the extra techs, units, and secret projects are good, and the ayylmaos are fun to have around. The other factions do seem really lazy though, I usually play without them.

>>3843386
better than even Civ IV in every fucking way. Management is simpler but much more accessible than how IV does it. turns complete faster and you can even design your own units, tailor them to however you want them to be.

and whatever you do, never trust anyone, even allies. They might try to get rid of you after they're done with a primary threat and would probably see you as easy pickings after their campaign and you've exhausted your resources helping them, unless you're militarily more powerful than them.


The closest game that tries to recreate this at a larger scale is Galactic Civilizations II which is much more complex but I found it to be less interesting compared to how more focused in scope SMAC is in comparison

>>3844618
Yeah, but they're not really necessary. And the ayylmao techs don't make much sense if you don't have the ayylmaos in the game. Overall I think the "storyline" stays more coherent if you stick with the original 7 factions and original techs.

How does everyone usually play this game? I've sunk many days into it, but I feel no matter who I play the game always devolves into "reach bombers, then pump them out non-stop and swarm over the map in a few years". I feel like the diplomacy is not worth attempting to deal with unless you are already capable of annihilating everyone else militarily anyway.

Never tried using missiles, planet busters, or hovercrafts. Just seems like it would take forever. Am I missing a fun strategy / idea?

Also, anyone else have experience with the Yitzi / SMANIAC mods? I feel like they helped with the balance somewhat, but my overall strategy never changed.

Also, am I the only one that plays with research goals not manually chosen? It seems it would really disadvantage the AI if I could just bee-line to whatever.

>>3844672
well i just play Pirates and practically crippled everyone's naval power even with all their tanks and bombers within their borders. while i expand to the seas non-stop. Nobody's allowed to have sea cities without me having it.

>>3844672
If you feel that you take over the world too easily you probably could play with a larger map, but that doesn't really make air power any less effective. The AI is too aggressive on higher difficulty levels, so it feels like long term diplomacy is rarely an option. I often play with blind research on too. I like Gaians, but worms stop being effective after the early game, so even they aren't too different when it comes to how effective bombers and copters are.

I haven't tried to play with any mods though.

>>3843389
>Better Civilization than any Civilization. Play it

qft

>>3844686
That sounds like a fun change of pace. The advantages always sounded too extreme with some of the expansion factions, like the Pirates, but it's better than doing the same thing over and over. Thanks for the idea!

>>3844696
Yeah I've tried larger maps, but it really does make air power better if anything. The move rates of land units is just so abysmally low. I wish you could balance the aggression by playing Morgan or Zakharov and having a close ally, but that won't work at all. I could try going biological units and just refusing to advance into vehicles... thanks for the input!

>>3844704
Well, you need some sea power on larger maps, and if you get the Maritime Control Center your ships are quite fast too. But frankly larger maps just make it that taking over the world takes too much time so I never bother doing it.

Have you tried probe teams? They're really powerful if you have tons of cash to burn.

>>3844704
yeah Pirates are broken solely for their Marine Attachments and the ability to expand on seas on the fly right at the start. what you'll end up playing is a broken as fuck faction which is surprisingly a ton of fun to play as well considering how much you can fuck with other civilizations while they aren't able to lay a finger on you until they discover how to make boats. even then, they can't really do much with you having a superior navy. you can even counter them with air superiority upgrades on your boats for that sweet AA too

File: 1487795528632.gif (4MB, 605x600px) Image search: [Google]

4MB, 605x600px

>>3843386
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iY57ErBkFFE

>>3844718
>>3844726
I'll definitely do a naval run, sounds like a fun monopoly to hold.

I actually haven't used probe teams that much... I don't usually stack up that much money, and hate trying to manuever them past enemy units and into their cities. To make faction-wide settings such that my probe bonus is higher, it usually makes my military weaker, and I'd rather have plenty of soldiers and few probes than the other way around. Maybe with Morgan I'll give that a shot, but the couple times I tried before I always just got immediately invaded by whoever was closest to me as soon as I fell behind them militarily.


Is there a way to leverage diplomacy to try and go for a democratic win with Pravin Lal? I feel like I can usually only secure votes (maybe it's easier on lower difficulties?) from factions that I've trashed 75% of the way with my bombers. Niceness doesn't seem to go very far, but maybe I've been doing it wrong...

>>3844778
You can steal units too, as long as they're not stacked. One thing the AI loves to do is using probe teams to mind control your cities, stealing them and every unit nearby. It's really frustrating when that happens, but somehow it's not as fun to do it yourself. You don't really need a huge positive probe modifier in order to use probe teams though, you can level them up by using them to do all sorts of smaller missions like stealing their energy reserves and inciting drone riots before moving on to mind controlling units and cities. Rioting cities are cheaper to mind control too. This tactic will never work on Miriam though, since her insane probe modifier makes her units immune to mind control. But I think it works for Morgan since they're not really good with big armies.

I think the most feasible way to win a diplomatic victory on the highest difficulty levels is to play Lal and build the Empath Guild and then bloat your cities, so you can vote yourself the Supreme Leader since you need population votes and not faction votes to win. You might need an ally though, and the only way anyone will like you is that if you're on the same side against the other factions. Still, having one ally and five enemies is better than having six enemies. In any case, it's not going to be very peaceful.

>>3843386
Jesus Anon, it's $1.50. It's $5 normally. Just buy it

>>3844672
I go for clean reactor than MMI as fast as possible, then shit out clean chaos copters with the occasional infantry squad so I can actually take bases over. If yang starts trying to rape me with unending cruise missiles I start bringing in needlejet interceptors.

>>3844672
>Just seems like it would take forever. Am I missing a fun strategy / idea?

If you've built up your cities correctly, you can pump them out in a few turns.