>Play SMAC at /tg/'s advice
>Choose Deidre because she's the hottest
>Destroy everyone on the continent, get into a protracted war with Morgan that over decades I manage to just barely win
>Realize Morgan was a buffer zone between the southern part of the continent where i was and a giant island to the north
>Yang is there, and the entire island is nothing but cities
>Even if I could invade, attacking each city's defenses one by one would take longer than everything else combined
This game is driving me insane.
>>48201920
Welcome to SMAC.
Good choice, by the way. Deidre's awesome, because Mind Worm Murder is great.
This is where you use planet busters.
>>48201920
If you have the expansion pack, consider spamming fungal missiles. They're pretty much perfect for when you need to fuck up a tight cluster of bases without using planet busters.
Or yeah, planet busters.
>>48202007
>>48202036
>planet busters
Not OP, but I avoided using planet busters out of principle.Until I started one game situated between Miriam and Yang. That changed my opinion very quickly.
If you go by the books, Miriam is the canon best leader to be a citizen under.
>>48202069
Nothing compares to the ecstasy of blowing 4x4 holes of pure devastation into Planet's crust.
>>48201920
>Not realizing Deidre forcefully impregnated people with Mind Worms
>Not knowing she was every bit extremist and fundementalist as Miriam
>Not knowing she was the true Fundementalist and not Miriam
>>48202126
>Not Deidre
The Gaians are the best to the little man.
>>48202760
You did not read past the surface narrative and missed the point completely.
>>48202789
Even then, Lal would be better than Miriam. Miriam only beats Santiago, Yang, and maybe the Russian guy.
>>48202809
We must dissent.
>>48202809
Lal was essentially a sham democracy with him living the megalomaniac life of cloning his dead wife and forcing her to love him.
It was no more than a Democracy than North Korea or the darker side of the EU. Secret elections, cronyism and complete and utter corruption hidden entirely by the Byzantine bureaucracy of his faction.
It discouraged all the advantages that gave the other factions some form of advancement. The Peacekeepers have none, you are either born in to the ruling caste or you are not. It is the worst faction to be under as every other one is in some way a meritocracy in some of the following ways, Science, Religion, Fitness, Business, there is a way however disagreeable to advance, Lal there is not. There exists the party and everybody out of it.
His darkest quote is the free flow of information meaning what exactly? I watch you. Big brother everywhere.
>>48201920
Yang is always a bitch to deal with. He converts whatever territory he has into something straight out of a Forge World and makes fighting him like invading Armageddon.
No thanks.
>>48202878
>cloning his dead wife
Is the only true thing in there. It isn't followed up on at all. You can have whatever headcanon you want, but don't pretend its anything else.
>His darkest quote
Was about allowing free speech to enable democracy. The polar opposite of the Big Brother faction leader: Yang.
>>48202908
Its okay once you out tech him. Just pay him off until mid\late game. His border cities are the only ones with stacks of mega doom, airdropped troops can take his central cities easily. You probably won't hold them for long but it disrupts the troop movements so you don't get endless human waves coming at you.
>>48203017
There is one version of the game in which everything is clearly labled so you are told to think, this is the face value of the game. It is a great experience in of itself.
There is another version in which almost every single quote and dialogue, script and technology has a hidden, darker meaning that ties directly to their factions mindset, it is always darker and sinister and in many cases nightmare fuel.
The dialogue of the tech-tree rivals, if not exceeds, Planescape and any other game. Yes, their is a mind-numbingly obvious meaning in the words but explore them, read a few of them together and visualize what has happened, what the technology you researched means to the people.
Think of Mind-Stapling, does not sound too bad but then recall one of the books you can be awarded at the end is "How to raise a Mind Stapled child" a horrific thing that we are distanced from by two clicks of a mouse, you have just irrepairably damaged an entire cities worth of minds, never to be the same again.
>>48203017
>The polar opposite of the Big Brother faction leader: Yang.
Yang does not care what his people think, what traitorous thoughts they may have as he has the means to deal with them, their is massive hints that the fences his faction gets for free are not to keep people out but to keep his people in.
Yang himself was a wonderkin. In his eyes Yang views himself as a god while at the same time understands that such a thing does not exist or if it did, does not matter. Ying and Yang, duality.
>>48203125
Sure, and you can play a Peacekeeper game where you mind staple as often as you can, but that's not really playing to their strengths (bonus Talent) or Lal's character as shown by the tech dialogues.
On the other hand it makes more sense, mechanically and thematically, for Yang to mind-staple his booming Drone populations.
It's definitely implied Deidre, Zakharov and Morgan are doing horrific things to their people.
>>48201920
Smart thing to do is slip some stealth-formers in, dig a Borehole, then surround it with fungus, and wait. Spread as much fungus as you can. Let the wild-occurring worms grind down the Hive.
>>48203125
>"How to raise a Mind Stapled Child"
That... hmm... you have a point anon, that is actually really disturbing. It's quite interesting to think that in the average playthrough of SMAC you the player will do things that would make Hitler uncomfortable.
>>48202126
Except for the fact that she's the second worst of all leaders, a religious fanatics who doesn't give a crap about her followers and actively opposes literally *every* measure that improves the lives of anyone on the planet. Screw Miriam. Terrorists burned Earth, on Planet they should be burned.
>>48203192
Hovertank formers can drown continents without making Planet go berserk. A fair bit slower though.
My favourite endgames are when the other factions aren't even a threat anymore and I need to gear my entire economy into producing anti-mind worm units.
>>48203220
Zakharov pls
Point of order, Miriam was literally only included because the Neo Baptists thumped their Bibles and protested
>>48203186
I do not mean the way you, the player, plays the game. I refer to the background lore of what each of the factions do.
The Recycling Tanks that all of us rush to build early on to generate extra recources... we do not care if the people wish it or want it but we don't think of it, it's cheap to build and pays for itself after a couple of turns, ensuring we have better food for our citizens. You are practicing nation-wide Cannibalism regardless if they want it or not.
Every faction is horrific.
>>48203273
I never heard of that. Source?
>>48203283
Technically we do that anyway. Human bodies in the ground decompose and the ecosystem recycles those nutrients to make more plants grow. The Recycling Tanks just speed it up and use a more efficient process that doesn't happen in nature.
>>48203338
>more efficient process that doesn't happen in nature
It kind of does, we call it cannibalism.
>>48203338
Not nearly the same, anon. In this, you entire body is rendered down to be used as materials to feed the remaining population, who will then do the same. It is left up to your mind to ponder if they have just been formed in to a protein bar for direct consuming or rendered further as fertilizer.
Regardless it means there are no burial rights, no cemeteries an utter lack of sentimentality and emotional attachment to the corpse. Upon death your body becomes property of the State.
>>48202069
>TFW I play as pirate-boy, and my first actions are to repeal weapons laws, maximize pollution, and use planet busters against completely pointless targets, and abuse the council to constantly vote to melt the ice caps
>Then I laugh and laugh as the water level rises and never stops, Planet gets fucking pissed, my enemies are losing cities left and right, and my navy takes whatever is left
I love being the Preacher.
>>48203382
>no burial rites
That's literally unknown.
>no cemeteries
There are often cemeteries or graves dug with no body to actually deposit in them.
>an utter lack of sentimentality and emotional attachment to the corpse.
This again is not strictly true at all. Among certain societies in the Himalayas, where there is very little soft ground in which to be buried, it often falls to the friends, family, or otherwise important people in the deceased's life to divvy up the body into tiny pieces which the carnivores and scavengers of the mountain can consume. This has been described as seeming cathartic to some, reverent to others, but is nevertheless an honoring of the dead via rites. Just because your crude sense of sentimentality can't shape itself around whatever another culture does with its dead, does not mean it wholly lacks sentimental or emotional power.
>upon death your body becomes property of the State.
This is pretty much true.
>>48203284
Official Firaxis profile
http://alphacentauri2.info/official/Profile%20Sister%20Miriam%20Godwinson.htm
Service Record:
Born 2014, Athens, Georgia, father a high-ranking member of the Evangelical Fire. Baptized in River of Fire at age 7; attended series of religious schools, including College of the Covenant. Received Ph.D. in psychology from Yale University.
Abundant charisma led her to position as ranking Psych Priest of Heavenly Diocese; later appointed U.N. Honorary Psych Chaplain for Re-integration Forces sent to countries decimated in Crusader Wars. Reassigned stateside when native populations elevated her to a cultlike religious figure (the 'Prophet Phenomenon' often coinciding with post-nuclear madness).
Political pressure for the reconciling of the secular and the spiritual led to her appointment as Psych Chaplain, U.N. Alpha Centauri Mission
>>48203382
>an utter lack of sentimentality and emotional attachment to the corpse
I don't see a problem with this.
>>48203382
>Upon death your body becomes property of the State.
I mean, if you want to be pedantic, even today, on death your corpse becomes property of your family, or the state if you're a John Doe or have literally no one who would be interested in burying you. There's technically nothing stopping a nation today saying "We have decided to nationalize the funeral industry. All corpses will be handed over to the state and buried in approved national cemeteries." I mean, aside from massive public backlash.
>>48203436
Again, none of this can be proved but it is left to the player to draw and extrapolate their own conclusions. Some of them are dark indeed. It is not at all the only way of looking at it, but a deeper and more realistic viewing of a much loved game.
>This again is not strictly true at all. Among certain societies in the Himalayas, where there is very little soft ground in which to be buried, it often falls to the friends, family, or otherwise important people in the deceased's life to divvy up the body into tiny pieces which the carnivores and scavengers of the mountain can consume. This has been described as seeming cathartic to some, reverent to others, but is nevertheless an honoring of the dead via rites. Just because your crude sense of sentimentality can't shape itself around whatever another culture does with its dead, does not mean it wholly lacks sentimental or emotional power.
We are told time and time again Planet is far more fertile than Earth ever was (Not all), the only reason it is practiced is that the Factions have a recource (The Dead) that are not being used to their fullest potential. It is Greed, by the State to gain more recources to further their efforts.
>>48203478
Also this, desu. When you get right down to it, burial is ultimately an elaborate and ritualized form of garbage disposal. The person, whether you want to call it the ego, the mind, the soul, whatever, is gone, the corpse is now stinking up the joint and a disease risk. Even if you're of a sect that believes in a bodily resurrection of the dead in the End Days or whatever, the immediate corpse still needs to be dealt with somehow.
>>48203186
What I really want to know is how the Punishment Sphere and the Nerve-Stapling torture actually works. Like, the names are ominous, but what do they mean?
>>48203478
Me neither, but virtually every culture on present day Earth does.
>>48203515
Those are intentionally left vauge but I suspect nerve stapling puts a limit on how much or what your nerves can process or transmit, effectively numbing you or allowing whomever controls the system to control what you feel - pleasure, pain, etc.
>>48203515
IIRC, according to the Gurps supplement, the Punishment Sphere applies direct nerve stimulation to create agonizing pain without physically hurting them, which can be applied endlessly if desired, or just a five-minute stir-fry.
Nerve stapling does something to the brain and nervous system to suppress independent thought and intelligence. It's basically a very high-tech lobotomy.
>>48202688
Yeah, but, not only are we aping the waning days of Golden Age sci-fi (where everything was transhumanist claptrap and that was supposed to be a good thing), but it's also the late 90s, so we're supposed to treat Deirdre's zealotry as the moral high ground because one day the Planet and the Humans will be the same and obviously that's a good ending, I mean that's really what I had in mind when I first researched The Wheel all those centuries ago.
>>48203515
>Nerve-Stapling torture
Think Pain Glove in old 40k lore. Or that box Bene Gesserit hags had in Dune.
>>48203515
Nerve Stapling appears to be a purposeful attacking of a part of the brain, or at least abuse that can result in the destruction of it to render the people uncapable of protesting and resisting any chances imposed on them for the immediate future, but can have lasting effects.
The Punishment sphere is a public facility that destroys higher brain function that prevents higher learning (By preventing Talents from being found) and enforces rigid compliance to the Faction (As it also prevents Drones/Rebels from forming).
Look beyond the immediate and search for the hidden!
>>48203576
*Incapable, not uncapable
>tfw I was nerve-stapled as a child
>>48202878
>His darkest quote is the free flow of information
That's probably my favorite quote from the game, as it's just so applicable to real life. "Beware he who seeks to deny you access to information, for in his heart he dreams himself your master".
>>48202908
I find that againt the AI, spamming missiles to kill defenders in soem cities and establishing beacheads into them usually produces good results. They keep sending troops at you, but usually they eventually just stop trying, and then you can can advance. Might take a while, though. Also, AI can't into boats, so if there's an ocean between you, you can usually leave them mostly alone.
>>48203515
The SMAC tabletop game described Nerve Stapling as the process in which the victim is made to experience every emotion and sensation, to the fullest, and at the same time as a method of torture.
Think of it like waterboarding for the mind.
Then again, i don't know how canon this is to the series and i am paraphrasing, so take it with a grain of salt.
The Punishment sphere was a continous form of the same thing.
nice traditional game
>>48203594
>That's probably my favorite quote from the game, as it's just so applicable to real life
Little did we realize at the time, actually restricting information from people who want it is really fucking hard. Poisoning the well so that they only consume the information you want them to, on the other hand? So much easier.
>>48203594
>That's probably my favorite quote from the game, as it's just so applicable to real life
This is the greatest untruth of our times, the information is there, very little is hidden from us it is simply we do not care enough to ask.. It is simply we are apathetic to it all. And would rather protest the lawful defense of a police officer over our Elected Officials not being bound by the rule of law.
>>48203618
This guy gets it, though it is not poisoning the well so much as removing the well and replacing it with a fresh water lake.
>>48203629
>This guy gets it, though it is not poisoning the well so much as removing the well and replacing it with a fresh water lake.
By poisoning the well, I mean "Don't listen to [opposing group], they're [bad people] who only want [bad thing] because [reasons], listen to [our group], we're [good people] trying to achieve [great things] because we're [good qualities]." The exact form will vary wildly, but the end result is what we're seeing now, the death of open discourse, the splintering of political narrative, and increasing radicalization because political opponents are literally no longer perceiving the same reality.
>>48203665
That's true. We might be corrupt, but THEY are so much more corrupt.
We have always been at war with East-Asia, don't you support our troops?
>>48202878
>It is the worst faction to be under as every other one is in some way a meritocracy
Why is being a meritocracy necessarily good. Denying access to power is not the same as denying access to quality of life, in-fact the quickest way to pacify the plebs is through bread and circuses... and bread and circuses are quite nice. How is being born not a member of the ruling party any different from being born without the predisposition to excel at whatever singular skill that a given faction choses to base its meritocracy off of. At-least if you're born disadvantaged in Lal's world, the party has the decency to take care of you.
Access to power =/= access to quality of life.
>>48203940
>At-least if you're born disadvantaged in Lal's world, the party has the decency to take care of you.
Where does it say that? Nowhere does it say that Lal's Peacekeeping forces respect human rights, he grossly violates them personally several times in the background.
>>48202809
Santiago is love. Santiago is life.
>>48202878
>implying USA is any different
Keep dreaming
>>48204051
You have the chance to fix it, you still could. But instead you voted for an, socialist Jew and now for a woman above the law, immune it the rule of it and guilty of war crimes by proxy.
>>48203515
“It is not uncommon to see patients undergo permanent psychological trauma in the presence of the Sphere, before the nerve stapler has even been strapped into position. Its effect on the general consciousness of the culture is profound: husbands have seen wives go inside, and mothers their children. Dr. Xynan left the surface of the sphere semitranslucent for a reason. You can hear them in there; you can see them. It is a thing of terrible beauty.”
— Baron Klim, “The Music of the Spheres”
Whatever the punishment sphere is it involves nerve-stapling.
It'd guess that nerve-stabling is probably fixing certain patterns of obedience into the brain. Something like Room 101 in convenient cranial probe form. A process where whatever it is that makes you who you are is found, isolated, and cauterized.
>>48203976
>Mechanically incapable of using Police State Civic
>"The Warrior's bland acronym, MMI, obscures the true horror of this monstrosity. Its inventors promise a new era of genius, but meanwhile unscrupulous power brokers use its forcible installation to violate the sanctity of unwilling human minds. They are creating their own private army of demons."
>"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."
>"The entire character of a base and its inhabitants can be absorbed in a quick trip to the Rec Commons. The sweaty arenas of Fort Legion, the glittering gambling halls of Morgan Bank, the sunny lovers' trysts in Gaia's High Garden, or the somber reading rooms of U.N. Headquarters. Even the feeding bay at the Hive gives stark insight into the sleeping demons of Yang's communal utopia."
>Extra talents is cited as being a result of attracting the "liberal elite" to his cadre.
All of this indicates that life in the peacekeeping forces, even if it is truly without power, is not without comfort.
Who has the best post-human singularity ending? Which one would you consider the most Utopian?
>>48204098
>implying implications
Doesn't matter who gets elected. Could be Sanders, could be Trump, could be Godzilla. The country is led by a powerful oligarchy that doesn't get elected nor obeys elections.
If Trump wins, it's gonna be the biggest disappointment - you will learn he can't do anything, just as Obama couldn't even close Guantanamo.
>>48204106
>Extra talents is cited as being a result of attracting the "liberal elite" to his cadre.
Talents are the elite and the highest educated of the population, they are not the working class/drones.
>"The entire character of a base and its inhabitants can be absorbed in a quick trip to the Rec Commons. The sweaty arenas of Fort Legion, the glittering gambling halls of Morgan Bank, the sunny lovers' trysts in Gaia's High Garden, or the somber reading rooms of U.N. Headquarters. Even the feeding bay at the Hive gives stark insight into the sleeping demons of Yang's communal utopia.
It stands to reason that those mentioned above are the most noteworthy and well known, but again the reading rooms are somber and serious, not the care free comfy places we envision.
>"The Warrior's bland acronym, MMI, obscures the true horror of this monstrosity. Its inventors promise a new era of genius, but meanwhile unscrupulous power brokers use its forcible installation to violate the sanctity of unwilling human minds. They are creating their own private army of demons."
Lal does the same, bringing a dead wife back from cloning with the hopes of seducing and loving her once more.
>>48204143
Either way, national voting patterns (Of any western nation) show they would rather trust somebody they know is corrupt, liar and working against their interests than risk change.
>>48204182
>Lal does the same, bringing a dead wife back from cloning with the hopes of seducing and loving her once more.
Cloning dead girlfriend=extensive military nerve stapling
k
>>48204109
Ironically, Yang is one of the best ones.
>>48201920
I was thinking to give this game a try.
How is the "science" element ?
Something like technobabble or hard science or well thought one or mix of either 3?
I have heard that it's pretty good in that compared to most of sci-fi games.`
\
>>48204579
It's somewhere between Mass Effect 1 and Avatar.
Actually it's very similar to Avatar, except instead of blue catgirl waifus there's swarms of worms that eat people alive
>>48204638
And the science aspect in terms of worldbuilding,lore and techtree?"
>>48204678
>Everyone is a dick so they use science to outdick each other
>>48204685
ok.
So, what about the claims that the creators did research and put plausible aspects and concepts as much as they can?
Is it on par with hard sci-fi stuff or plausible yet speculative sci-fi?
>>48204705
Most of it is pretty hard, based on extrapolations and projections of current theoretical science. The main exception is the presence psychic powers (which may or not be based on the characteristics of the planet).
>>48204579
>>48204638
>>48204678
I would say it is one of the hardest sci-fi tech trees ever. It avoids Star Trek speak.
>>48204739
>>48204758
Other anon chiming in. Has anything has been written on the internet (blogs, articles) that details and co-relates to real life stuff? I might need it to convinces some of my friends since they always excuse by saying it's an old game.
This is where I first came to know about the term "singularity".
>>48204796
Not that I know of. But I will offer that if your friends use its age an excuse not to play a game you recommend, do not bother, your doing research to convince them will not alter their opinion anon.
>>48203125
Mary had a little lambJack and Jill went up the hill
Can't hear those old songs anymore without seeing the dispassionate face of Yang.
>>48204866
You are right.
Instead I will gather material related to Alpha Centauri for my reading.
Could you tell me stuff I should get in order to know more about it, like tech tree and lore?
>>48204887
>Mary had a little lamb,
>Little lamb little lamb,
>Mary had a little lamb,
>whose fleece was white as snow.
>—Assassins’ Redoubt,
>Final Transmission
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Lva8L-J8x04
This is what happens upon completion of the secret project, The Dream Twister. It's name alone is sinister enough, implying that not even in your most intimate dreams are you safe from the probing fingers of the future. Your inner most thoughts and memories will be twisted and torn asunder to offer protecting against PSI attack, it is not shown how it does so but judging from the above it looks tramatic in the extreme.
My thoughts on the video is that just as the body is conditioned through extreme punishing exercise regimes in the army so too is the mind toughened and strengthed by the implanting or the twisting of horrific dreams and thoughts to prevent paralysis during Mind-Worm attack.
My theory is further strengthed by what technology you must research to unlock this project, it is the following.
The Will to Power
This also allows you to use Social choice - Thought Control, further strengthenig my reasoning. The two techs required to research this are Centauri-Psi which deals directly with learning more about Mind-Worms and their telepathic means of communcation and Homo Superior which deals with the peak of humanity combined with the peak of emerging technology both things you would need if you were to marching through the most intimate part of a mans being, is mind.
Man is a rope, tied between beast and overman—a rope
over an abyss. A dangerous across, a dangerous on-the-way,
a dangerous looking-back, a dangerous shuddering and
stopping. What is great in man is that he is a bridge and
not an end: what can be loved in man is that he is an overture
and a going under. I love those who do not know how to
live, for they are those who cross over.
—Friedrich Nietzsche,
“Thus Spoke Zarathustra
>>48204933
http://alphacentauri2.info/wiki/Main_Page
This is pretty cool, I got my above post about the Dream Twister here. It's all legit;
>>48204981
Thank you, anon.
>>48202126
That would be because the books are fucking shit.
>ugh we had our thumbs up our asses this entire time, I guess we'll spin out our remaining time in a computer simulation before Planet eats us all.
>>48205043
Remember anon, make connections. They will not jump out at you and you will have to look for them, read everything, think on what it means from an in-character perspective or from that as a ruler.
>>48203238
>entire economy geared towards fending off end-game mindworms
Tell us more about your endgame mindworm tactics.
One of my favorite bits of lore you can learn through the tech tree is how Deidre won her war against Santiago.
The culture of peace loving hippies taking down the warrior culture via psychic mind rape. Good times.
>>48205084
>Tell us more about your endgame mindworm tactics.
HERBICIDE FUNGAL REMOVERS, KNOWN AS PLANET-SCOURERS, THEY SHALL REAP A BLOODY TOOL ON PLANET'S NETWORK.
I do love you can name your units and create custom ones.
>>48204973
I like that theory. Makes me feel like less of a bastard for perusing that project.
>>48205119
>Mary had a little lamb,
>Little lamb little lamb,
>Mary had a little lamb,
>whose fleece was white as snow.
>—Assassins’ Redoubt,
>Final Transmission
The reason this is sang is that this was Deadrie was the one behind the Mind Worm attacks. Why else would they sing that nursery rhyme? Deadrie is the nature lover and what is more innocent and loving than Mary's little lamb? It was a psy-op, designed to break the iron-nerve of the Spartan Soldiery, one that may well of worked.
What is also implied is that each and every Spartan was put to death in the most agonizing way possible, Mind-Worm Rape.
Again, a theory, like my Dream Twister one. But it is all there.
>>48205140
>Deadrie was the one behind the Mind Worm attacks. Why else would they sing that nursery rhyme? Deadrie is the nature lover and what is more innocent and loving than Mary's little lamb? It was a psy-op, designed to break the iron-nerve of the Spartan Soldiery, one that may well of worked.
That's some Lost tier ass-pulling there.
In my opinion, the nursery rhyme just implies that the Dream Twister mind-fucks people badly enough to have them numbly typing out a nursery rhyme--some kind of PTSD infantile regression--on some blood-spattered console before keeling over and dying.
>>48205120
I always end up making outrageously expensive Singularity Deathspheres and calling them something melodramatic, like Annihilators or something.
>>48205173
It could of been any nursery rhyme.
>One two buckle my shoe
>Three four open at the door
Is far more sinister and darker. As well as countless other short phrases. Another point is the Dream Twister grants 50% PSI Attack, not Defense, so whomever gained it in the lore was not Spartans as they were the one attacked by it. Deadrie is already established in lore as having viciously attacked the Spartans at one point.
It is not a Lost Tier Ass pull, it is thought out with all the points actually established but finally able to assemble them. Yours is nothing but a bland and boring edgy-shit completely unconnected with any narrative and just... exists.
>>48205173
There is the "Our Secret War" lore tidbits as well, how Deidre talks about how her lovely beach was turned into a naval yard.
>>48205214
>Deadrie
Spell.
>It's not the spoopiest nursery rhyme, why'd they use that
The tonal dissonance is part of the point. It makes it creepier.
>Deirdre attacked
I'm not disagreeing here.
I'm just saying that suggesting that the choice of rhyme specifically implies the Gaians is the sort of storytelling that agonises about tying every plot point to as many other plot points as possible, like having Anakin build C3PO.
>>48205301
>>Deadrie
>Spell.
Ad hominen, omit from next discussion.
>It's not the spoopiest nursery rhyme, why'd they use that
The tonal dissonance is part of the point. It makes it creepier.
This means nothing, there is nothing that can not be done with one of the old nursery rhymes that can not be done with the other. The only difference is the lyrical matter, that being the inclusion of the Mary's Little Lamb, an obvious metaphor for the Gaians Lady.
> is the sort of storytelling that agonises about tying every plot point to as many other plot points as possible, like having Anakin build C3PO.
In most games I would agree with you, but in a one where the dialogue and text for the research is so deep, complex and has surprising depth and moral inplications I find it hard to believe there is not more subtly hidden in it.
>>48202126
Miriams faction commits collective suicide canonically. Check the entry for psi gate in the tech tree, they kill themselves with it.
>>48205323
I'm obviously not going to convince you, Shyamalan, so I guess I'll withdraw from shitposting so as not to clutter up the thread with unproductive bickering.
>>48205329
That's some fucking wild-ass speculation, considering that technology is literally about matter transmission. Extensive and elaborate metaphor is kind of just how Miriam talks, there's no reason to assume it's somehow more sinister that she does so here.
>>48205337
As i've said all along there are many ways to play the game and read in to the background lore. Personally I see it a lot deeper and connected than you.
I posted some simple conjecture for other anons to muse over, you saw fit to shoot it down as a Lost Tier ass-pull, you began the bickering drone.
>Conjecture
>noun
>an opinion or conclusion formed on the basis of incomplete information.
I ask you to try and forumulate good and pleasant discourse here. It is hard enough to find.
>>48203182
It's Yin and Yang.
>>48205301
Spartans tankrushed the Peacekeepers and then Gaians got nervous and took the Spartans out with mindworms.
What is the game that comes closest in spirit to SMAC? You see several attempts at gameplay during the years, but seldom the lore gets more than hinted at, even if the tech trees contain many common elements they never go out of their way to show the implications of what you're reseraching, leaving you the choice to ponder about it and come to your own conclusion. Is it because in SMAC leaders weren't just nameless proxies of the player, and on top of that represented a deeper ideology too?
>>48205323
>>48205337
Isn't the point of using Mary had a little lamb to imply it is Deidre's (Mary's) Mind Worms (Little Lambs)?
this autistic schizo dude who keeps talking about his fan theories is pretty embarrassing lol
Btw, does anyone have good-quality GURPS sourcebook of Alpha Centauri?
>>48205442
As we approached we were confronted by the ruined splendor of
Sparta Command. The true immensity of the place became instantly
apparent as our Quantum Tank crunched over the rubble and parked next
to a shattered bunker, but the extent of the destruction
took weeks to assess. The shielded datacore had sustained several
massive breaches and smoke still billowed from the numerous cannon
ports. There were few signs of human life.
—Lady Deirdre Skye,
“Our Secret War”
>>48203273
>>48203456
>Baptists
>Diocese
>>48205567
"Heavenly Diocese" is probably just the name of Miriam's megachurch.
SMAC got me into the poetry of Li Po.
Here's one translation of the full version of the excerpt they used:
The birds have vanished down the sky.
Now the last cloud drains away.
We sit together, the mountain and I,
until only the mountain remains.
>>48205358
Not really, you need 2 gates for a psi gate transmission. Miriam is clearly saying it will take them to God, i.e there is likely no second gate. The quote it comes from is also called last testament which has at least some pretty fucking heavy subtext as to what is happening there. Plus it's Miriams last quote afaik it's no more speculation than the inferences from the other quotes people make like Deidre winning etc.
>>48203456
Still more legitimate means of appointment than Morgan who just bought his way on.
>>48205802
He actually funded it, did he not? With a private/secret compartment for himself.
>>48205192
I think 'Singularity Deathpshere' is pretty fucking melodramatic myself.
>>48203456
>Abundant charisma
Where the FUCK is that in the game? "SUCK GOD'S DICK OR I'LL KILL YOU!" Shit, she should have been muslim.
>>48205857
Still slightly more charismatic than the alternatives.
>>48205857
All successful preachers are very charismatic in some way. Because you are heaving, screaming edge-lords does not discount the fact.
>>48205911
> pointing out that the religious warmonger is a religious warmonger is edgelord territory now
lolk
>>48205857
I imagine it's because she's talking to another faction leader, combined with the fact that diplomatic negotiations are a hell of a lot simpler than in real life. Instead of getting all the meaningless pleasantries and linguistic gymnastics, you get the short, almost-no-bullshit version.
It is represented by inspiring her followers so much they get +25% to attacking the infidels.
>>48205955
You expressed suprise that a demagogue could be found charismatic.
>>48205964
Miriam is basically Patton with tits
>>48205857
>Shit, she should have been muslim.
Christianity and Islam worship the same God and all, read the same holy books, live by the same rules on different release edition.
A fanatic Christian is practically the same as fanatic Muslim.
Except back then, the height of religious fanaticism were cults like Jonestown, Mormons asking you on the street and the Christian protesting against teaching evolution in schools, anti-conception, et cetera.
Then came 2001 and US went apeshit over another group of religious fanatics...
The point is, religious fanatics are religious fanatics, it's not at all exclusive to some specific religion, or heck, fanatics in general aren't called fanatics because they are fans of analytics or something like that.
>>48206035
>Implying you wouldn't throw yourself on the wire for Patton-With-Tits.
>>48201920
Ain't no such thing as too much Yang, amirite?
>>48206046
Well that's a load of uneducated bullshit
>>48205955
Was she a warmonger?
I never got that from her. Annoyingly preachy? Oh fuck yes but no more so than every other faction leader.
>>48206168
>Was she a warmonger?
I mean, she gets pissy and declares war if you run your nation as literally anything but a fundamentalist theocracy, which no one but her ever does because Fundamentalism is a shit way to run your nation, mechanically.
>>48206168
They are taking it from how her AI reacts, she is very much a gibmedat which when you tell her no she chimps out and has to invade. That coupled with her early-game use of Probe teams to off-set her research penalty means she typically will be at war with several people by the time you find her.
The lore depiction of her is somewhat different, being a cautious counterpoint to the Univercity. The well hidden plot twist is that her faith is empty but she carries on for her people.
>>48204678
>>48204705
Very "hard". there is even a text file that shipped with the game that lays out the planetology of the setting.
>Solar constants Sun Alpha A Ratio
>Mass kg 1.99E+30 2.15E+30 1.08
>Luminosity W 3.89E+26 5.63E+26 1.45
>Radius m 6.96E+08 7.59E+08 1.09
>Atmosphere
>Total pressure Pa 101325 176020 1.74
>Nitrogen Pa 79125 160000 2.02
>Oxygen Pa 21228 15000 0.71
>Argon Pa 942 1000 1.06
>Carbon dioxide Pa 30 20 0.67
>Nitrogen 78.09% 90.90% 1.16
>Oxygen 20.95% 8.52% 0.41
>Argon 0.93% 0.57% 0.61
>Carbon dioxide 0.03% 0.01% 0.4
>Surface density kg m-3 1.22 2.06 1.68
>"Flammability" mmol K J-1 7.17 2.87 0.40
>Effective temp. K 253 261 1.03
>Greenhouse effect K +36 +32 0.90
>Surface temp. K 288 293 1.01
>Surface temp. C 15.4 19.7 1.28
>Solar constant W m-2 1383 1750 1.27
>>48203509
Actually, it started in the early days of colonisation when the factions didn't have massive resources, terraformed enviroment, or even a lot of advanced technology (lots of equipment was damaged/destroyed with Unity and IIRC most of the knowledge was lost too).
It started as a means to survive, and by the time they had enough resources for it not to be necessary, it was a tradition, "the way it was always done".
>>48206065
I still find it funny that Yang's city names are all variations of 'THIS CITY HAS LOTS OF PEOPLE'.
>>48206190
>>48206191
>At war with everyone
>Makes unreasonable demands and goes nuts when you tell her no
>Constantly prodding you for weaknesses
>Gets pissed when you don't do things her way
>Not entirely living by what she preaches
Just like every faction leader.
The difference being that she actually seems to give a shit about her subjects which makes her into the less shit than half the factions.
>>48205523
>good-quality GURPS sourcebook of Alpha Centauri
No such thing, that splat was an abomination of stupidity and fail.
>>48206168
From the game files:
>formal, desc, noun, masc/fem, sing/plural, name, gender, ai-fight, ai-power, ai-tech, ai-wealth, ai-growth
>The Lord's Believers, The Fundamentalist, Believers, M, 2, Miriam, F, 1, 1, 0, 0, 1,
Her combination of ai-fight and ai-power both at +1 makes her one of the most aggressive ais.
>>48206234
No game experience will ever beat swarming Planet's surface with wave upon wave of Yang.
>>48206059
At least Miriam didn't lead cavalry charge against her own hungry and unarmed veterans.
>>48206314
This. Maximum density of cities.
Every non-city tile is either a borehole, Mirror or Condenser.
Core bases just swarming wave after wave of colony pods and terraformers
Raising the sea to continue the growth.
Every other player finds their cities are becoming tiny islands in the Ocean of Yang.
99% of planetary population is Yang and that must be in the trillions of people by now.
Start space mining, orbital hydroponics and solar collection satellites.
Humanity is now adapted for it's tasks by genetic engineering, cybernetic enhancements and nerve stapling. None of this was done willingly. Consent is irrelevant.
Turns out you can murder and rape a planet.
crying_gaias_stepdaughters.jpg
>>48204973
I think you're mistaking Dream Twister's effect with Neural Amplifier. DT boosts PSI attack, NA improves defense
>"Against such abominations, we organize our defenses on the principle that one strong and able mind can shield the many."
Quotes related to those project (and other project and technologies, like Citizen Defense Force) tell the story of a massive terror campaign Gaians led against Sparta (Assassin's Redoubt is a name of Spartan base), using mind worms to wipe enemy faction without anyone realising what's going on. See quotes signed "Lady Deidre Skye, Our Secret War"
Gaians are pleasant enough when you're one of them, but they are an absolute (and literal, thanks to worms) nightmare to their enemies. No other faction (not counting Cult of the Planet from Alien Crossfire) comes near.
>>48206366
Even if it was possible to fight back (it isn't), the other players are totally fucked because they can't absorb all your bases, and they lose their trade if they genocide your cities. Bonus points if it's Lal or Morgan, their economies don;t function well without trade.
>>48206397
Yeah but they were forced into it, or thought they were. I don't think Sparta ever would have attacked, they smashed the Peacekeepers because Lal couldn't stop interfering, but their schtick is "armed peace", not "planetary domination". But I guess it would have been foolish for the Gaians to leave themselves at Sparta's mercy, /some/ kind of counter-strategy was needed and mind worms is just all they had.
>>48205140
>Mary had a little lamb,
>Little lamb little lamb,
>Mary had a little lamb,
>whose fleece was white as snow.
>—Assassins’ Redoubt,
>Final Transmission
I first played SMAC some 15 years ago, when I was still in grade school. That project scared the shit out of me then. When I played Dead Space about a year ago, I wasn't scared of the mutant space zombies, but the "twinkle, twinkle, little star" rhyme reminded me of Dream Twister and creeped me out more than any monster could have.
>>48206046
Except that we armed and trained fanatic Muslims to fight proxy wars against the USSR. After which they were still armed, trained, and fanatical. Oops.
>>48205802
Yes because providing funding is so illegitimate, how dare people with money pay for things.
>>48206046
You can compare a Christian Fanatic from the 16th century to a modern day Islamic Fanatic but not to a modern day one. As what makes the fanatic is that it is a step away from an extremist, over half of every major muslim country in the world belives Sharia should be the only law, believe Osama Bin Laden was a good leader, that believe in honor killings, beheadings and stonings.
You can not compare them today.
>>48206718
You got numbers to back that up, kiddo?
>>48206718
>believe Osama Bin Laden was a good leader
He really wasn't. He was middle-management material at best, and by the time we found and killed him he'd basically lost all control of Al Qaeda and spent his days drinking and fapping and fucking and shooting terrible pointless memos to the actual Al Qaeda leadership.
>>48206732
I assume Pew Research is valid for you, you pretentious cunt-flap?
Support for Sharia law
http://www.pewforum.org/files/2013/04/gsi2-overview-1.png
Opinions of US Muslims, note there are millions of them in the US and these are extremist views, therefor extremist muslims a step away from radicalization.
http://www.people-press.org/files/2011/08/2010-muslim-americans-s0-05.png
Nearly one quarter do not want to assimilate
http://www.people-press.org/files/2011/08/2010-muslim-americans-s3-01.png
A third see a problem with their religion and living in a modern world
http://www.people-press.org/files/2011/08/2010-muslim-americans-s3-05.png
So, you tell me.
>>48206759
Does not fucking matter, nignogs in Africa to sand-niggers in the Middle-East they viewed him as a leader of Islam and one to be followed.
>>48206759
Does it matter for uninformed masses who turn him into myth and ignore reality?
>>48206046
>read the same holy books
Haha, no.
>all the University fedoras hate Miriam because she's an unapologetic Christian
>my endless waves of loyal, holy martyrs are the only thing keeping Human Hive from rolling all across planet
Yeah, you're welcome pricks.
>>48205456
Pandora and ugh Beyond Earth.
Also. Justify Purity and Supremacy Deidre.
>>48207260
>implying you can hold back the waves of Yang
>>48206968
>expecting the general masses to know every single detail
Who cares, Osama was the largest financier at the time of 9/11 and was still the spiritual leader of Al Qaeda. Regardless of his falling out with the rest of the incredibly autonomous and independent networks of Al Qaeda and radial jihadists killing him still dealt massive fucking blow to morale.
>>48204143
Trump's not Obama, he's Reagan, a dumb mule who made no real promises to his voters, so he can't betray them.
>>48207302
>implying the Spartans and I didn't
We marched into streets of The Hive like kings (and queens).
>>48206824
>suicide bombings can be justified:
>often/sometimes: ~10%
>rarely/never: 85%
>view of Al Qaeda:
>very unfavourable: ~70%
>somewhat unfavourable ~10%
>favourable: ~5%
Whoa what an extreme majority.
Yang did nothing wrong.
>>48207428
Yang did everything wrong, hate that fucker
>>48207434
That's because you didn't overcome the crass demands of your flesh and bone anon.
Don't you know they warp the matrix through which we perceive the world?
>>48206046
I have never read anything so thoroughly uneducated and stupid in my life. Literally ever.
Congratulations. You have set a new bar in my head for the stupidest motherfucker to ever put hands to a keyboard.
>>48207348
I like how you used a post talking about how all candidates are shit and how the game is rigged no matter who wins to whine and bitch about the candidate you like the least personally. You completely missed the point.
Part of the issue with 'Mirium is aggressive' is that this is before 4x games had a cultural victory option (The diplomatic victory isn't quite the same).
So what mechanical role would you give her outside 'Be aggressive' if you wanted her to have a chance to win?
SMAC drove me mad with its interface. There isn't any pop-up window that would let me choose production, is it?
By the midgame I had automatic cities automatically building units, automatic units automatically waging automatic wars while I at best could manage a small taskforce.
>>48207682
she almost has it, in the form of espionage. Her spies are REALLY strong, due to the roll-over bug they're actually better than the Consciousness, and espionage is hella powerful in SMAC (far TOO powerful, imo).
>>48207806
>There isn't any pop-up window that would let me choose production, is it?
Not a pop-up, but there is a bases screen that lists all your bases, you can adjust builds from there. But the queue and autobuilds are pretty good so you seldom need to.
>>48207840
Problem, unbeliever?
>>48207660
Your "point" was boring, old, and nothing worth replying to. That Trump would be unable to do anything however is pure bullshit, because he'll have Republican support and the Republicans will control the Congress, which coupled with no ideology or promises made means he'll be able to push all kinds of shit, just like Reagan. Trump is too dumb to realize he can't be a good leader while making shit up as he goes along. This election, that stupidity made stupid voters sympathize with him: politicians are crooks, our method of communicating the sentiment is to make a reality TV actor and mediocre businessman into the highest ranked politician in the country. Reagan was dumber, but he's the only one comparably dumb. Of course, Reagan was just a hired actor, a front man for a bunch of criminals and crooks.
The game is also not rigged: it's the natural and intended outcome of the political ideology which American voters are virtually unanimously in favour of. They vote for free market capitalism, they vote for giving economical power to whatever private interest is competitive, then they get private interests with immense economical power. That's not a rigged game: it's the game the voters wanted.
>>48207876
Trump is God's perfect idiot, he's literally the hero we need but not the one we deserve.
really makes you think...
>>48207863
I've started my expeirience with CivIII which had a simple window asking what would I like to build every time a city finishes its work.
I really can't get over the fact that I need to check on my cities or they keep making unit after unit or revert to stockpile energy.
>>48207892
>What do I care for your suffering? Pain, even agony, is no more than information before the senses, data fed to the computer of the mind. The lesson is simple: you have received the information, now act on it. Take control of the input and you shall become master of the output.
>Chairman Sheng-ji Yang, "Essays on Mind and Matter"
>>48207914
Yeah old school games can be brutal like that. Also, production over the exact amount needed has no effect, it isn't stockpiled or saved for the next project, so if you /really/ love to micro-manage the optimal play is to make sure your cities produce only the exact amount needed, putting the excess into food production or science.
>>48207425
Nice cherrypicking, hun.
>>48207892
>>48207922
>We are all aware that the senses can be deceived, the eyes fooled. But how can we be sure our senses are not being deceived at any particular time, or even all the time? Might I just be a brain in a tank somewhere, tricked all my life into believing in the events of this world by some insane computer? And does my life gain or lose meaning based on my reaction to such solipsism?
>Project PYRRHO, Specimen 46, Vat 7. Activity recorded M.Y. 2302.22467. (TERMINATION OF SPECIMEN ADVISED)
>>48207876
>Anon still thinks he's not living in an oligarchy controlled by the rich.
Sad man.
>>48203125
I don't remember there being multiple versions of this game?
>>48207876
>This guy supports a woman who is tied up in hundreds of political corruption and just managed to slip the noose on a crime that'd have anyone else thrown in jail just because of her power
>>48207962
What I meant was that while I live in an oligarchy controlled by the rich (although I don't live in the U.S.), the U.S. is exactly that because its voters want it to be, it's the system they vote for. They want that system, they believe in that system. They're just tsundere about it sometimes.
>>48207876
>>48208003
Why not just take both of them out and put in some independent guy as the president?
>>48202878
>very other one is in some way a meritocracy in some of the following ways, Science, Religion, Fitness, Business
That doesn't mean those systems offer opportunity for advancement. The cases of people going from rags to riches are incredibly rare, even in capitalist systems. You often need money and contacts to make money and status.
The same goes for the other systems. The lower classes rarely have the time or money for education and no matter how pious you are it won't do nay good if don't access to the higher-ups to show them how pious you are.
Meritocracies are good in theory and work to extent, in fact they probably work marvellously in small communities. However in large scale societies they often end up enforcing the same class structure as every other system. The only real difference between it and other systems is that it gives the plebs happy, lottery dreams that one day their work might pay off.
It might, they could be the 1/100000 that make it but more likely power and class will go to the people who know the system, not to the strongest, smartest or hardest working.
>>48208038
Americans are married to a two party political system. Anybody outside of those two parties is just completely irrelevant and will never be anything but a mayor, more or less.
>>48208003
No, I'm, what? I said the game wasn't rigged any more than it's democratically been voted to be, and that Trump, if he wins the election, won't be in the same situation as Obama was, but more likely in the situation Reagan was in, for similar reasons. Hillary should be put in jail and Trump should be relegated to participating in Paradise Island.
>>48208038
Well, because the voters won't do that and the big money doesn't want it either.
>>48202126
Utah is a pretty good place to live.
>>48202126
>>48202809
>Miriam being best
>Miriam beating anyone
She's literally the worst. And it's not about fedora tipping. She's simply the epitome of Bible thrumping tele-evangelist in amok.
The exact same applies to her in those shitty books
>>48208060
Then delete the parties. Make it every man for himself.
>>48208062
And delete the voters and the big money too, while we're at it.
>>48202688
>Making shit up
Why 4chan is so hell-bend to make Deidre into a devil and white-wash Miriam into the best girl, most sane ruler and moral compass of the human race?
I'm trying to comprehend this phenomena ever since, and the only conclusion I've got is 4chan is contrarian.
>>48207955
Tech-quotes, special project videos and flavour text were what made that game.
How could they not have understood that for CivBE? In AC we had all the voices of the leaders and the occasional average Joe citizen giving a depth to the unfolding narrative. In CivBE we had that same Indian girl reading the thoughts and words of all leaders. Doesn't really draw you in.
>>48208136
There's still some nice flavour in description. But yeah, they made mistakes.
I understand they had to step down on leader personality with affinity system being more definitive to ideology.
https://storagebin.wikispaces com/file/view/Gurps_-_Alpha_Centauri.pdf
https://en.wikiquote org/wiki/Sid_Meier%27s_Alpha_Centauri
>>48208121
Don't ask me, both are shit. Deidre wants to destroy individuality and uses rape worms for everything, and Miriam is a psycho fundie who hates science.
>>48207890
>Trump is God's perfect idiot, he's literally the hero we need but not the one we deserve.
But you deserve Trump. Not sure if you need him, but you certainly deserve.
Hillary too. It's a win-win scenario. And then the other one gets to be vice-president.
It's like Christmas, but it'll last at least 4 years.
>>48208158
But the thing is that they already did the quotes and attributed them to the leaders. How much more effort, time and cash would it have taken to have more than one voice actor?
>>48208201
That's true, especially considering their leaders are already voiced.
>>48208121
>and white-wash Miriam into the best girl, most sane ruler and moral compass of the human race?
>"Woah man all this technology is pretty ethically questionable. We're literally cannibalizing the dead, shutting down the high motor functions of our people, and trying to tame psionic alien rape worms."
>'Yeah I dunno man maybe we should be careful about implementing this stuff, seems like it could go 1984 pretty fast at this rate.'
>DIS ITH THO UNTHIENTIFIC
>FUKN BIBLETHHUMPRZ HATE PROGRETTH
>>48208193
Zakharov ftw!
>>48208180
Thanks. This copy is hardly perfect, but at least its OCR'ed.
Free Drones were here, Yang can go suck a dick.
>>48208252
Isn't Domai to Yang like Aki to Zak? Or Cha to Deidre?
>>48208106
Yeah but if you are a christian everything's relatively fine for you there. It's not like her people are living in poverty or have to live like hermetic monks. And this is likely better than "People aren't people" Yang or "I'll stuff mindworms in your face because a sentient planet told me to" Deidre
>>48208282
In that they're all shit? Yes.
>>48208282
They're the same in that they all branched off the latter but Domai left Yang over reasons far more extreme than Aki or Cha Dawn.
>>48208282
Basically yes. The difference being he jumped off the train before it went to crazy town.
The others jumped on the train and diverted it to crazy town.
>>48208245
I imagine life is pretty shit for those in the university if you're not a 5 degree holding academic.
Those test subjects have to come from somewhere right?
>>48208282
Basically, but Domai was a trained engineer who decided to grab all the Drones he could, hijack a colony pod and fuck off to make a better life for the working class.
>>48208322
Its the grad students who do most of the research, not the professors.
>>48202809
As someone who's been through college, I strongly advocate viewing everything zakharov does through the lens of a postdoc program run amok.
"Guys miriam is invading again."
"Ugh fine, I guess we can't keep ignoring her forever. Go down to lab fourteen or wherever they're working on that antimatter pellet gun and tell the grad students they're doing some live fire tests in the field. It's what I keep them around for."
>>48208351
But the professors are the ones who get their names on the paper.
Congratulations, you've realized that grad students are the wage slaves of the intellectual elite.
>>48208351
What if you're not a grad student though
What if you're like the fucking janitor or something.
You live in a society where the most valuable thing is the pursuit of knowledge, the thing that measures your worth is the pursuit of knowledge and you're the janitor.
That'd be a pretty bad feeling
>>48208440
Somebody has to clean up all the experiments so you're decently safe.
>>48208335
so hes the one that gives a fuck about his citizents and isnt suffering of some kind of megalomania/ im the best fuck the rest? or i forgot some tidbit about him?
>>48202908
The other thing with yang is that the megadoom stacks all tend to not be all that great with offense. I mean, half of what drives them is the way that ECM silksteel sentinels only cost like him 20-odd production, so he can just crank them out at amazing rates, and he just swamps your borders under a human wave of moderately reasonable defensive units. But they can't actually take anything away from you that's decently defended, or get anywhere else particularly quickly. But once they get in somewhere they are obnoxiously hard to dislodge, and for every one you kill he's built three replacements.
I've found fighting yang is about surgically eliminating the actual effective offensive units in his armies, then cordoning off the masses of his armies with your own (smaller) mass of countersentinels while you nail his production centers with quick reaction forces. paratroopers or naval invasions or the like.
>>48208303
Anon, you don't get it. I am a Christian. A Catholic to boot. And Miriam is some sort of early Protestant bullshit about purging, promised land and other bullshit about chosen few that have a "God-given" right to impose their order on other and everything around them. This disgust me to no end.
Not to mention Miriam is full of shit
>>48208193
>Deidre wants to destroy individuality
That's Yang. And can't see how "not use" is the same as "destroy".
>>48208238
See?
This shit again.
Maybe it didn't occure to you, but every faction in the game runs on completely different set of ethics.
And Miriam is the only fucking one that is triggered by everything that is not fundamentalist jihad.
>>48208525
Deidre's dream is to join into a hivemind with the planet. That's the death of individuality.
>>48208468
No, that's pretty much it. The Free Drones really want a eudaimonia and they'll work themselves to death pursuing it.
>>48201920
There's a rain shadow to the east of any mountain, I believe. I might have it backwards, but it's there. Check to see which side of high altitudes are greener on your game.
The point is, you can use Tectonic Missiles to fucking starve one side of his island.
>>48208542
Maybe if all the other factions would stop being so evil they wouldn't run into problems like that.
Except for Lal, but he's an impotent cuck. Strong horse, weak horse, etc.
>>48208547
I don't think flavour text for transcendent victory agrees with you.
>>48208630
I've read it. Everyone is subsumed into the planet's mind.
>>48208193
>Deidre wants to destroy individuality and uses rape worms for everything
Needs to be more Deidre mindbreak tentacle rape porn.
>>48208649
The fact that there are already images of it when this game is pretty old is a miracle.
>>48208586
eudaimonia future society is best future society.
Not only does it turn you into an absurd industrial and economic steamroller, it also literally makes you star trek.
>>48208648
Then some just decide to build their own bodies and leave. Personalities are still present.
there's official SMAC lore?
why haven't I heard of this?
>>48208689
Those are fingers and branches of the planet's will.
>>48208706
Some left for Earth and your mind does not have a 24/7 uplink.
>>48208730
>The planet wanted to send people to earth
So?
>>48208440
>You live in a society where the most valuable thing is the pursuit of knowledge, the thing that measures your worth is the pursuit of knowledge and you're the janitor.
You are living in society where the most valuable thing is being born filthy rich. I'll make a wild guess - you haven't been born filthy rich, have you?
>>48208699
Because you don't read or listen to the in game audio.
>>48208468
>so hes the one that gives a fuck about his citizents and isnt suffering of some kind of megalomania/ im the best fuck the rest? or i forgot some tidbit about him?
He is literally brain-damaged (which might've caused his preference of extreme violence).
>>48208335
Domai also got nerve-stapled (possibly by accident) and turned into a drone himself, but he got better and started his rebellion
>>48208468
He's a shitty expansion faction, so there's that.
>>48208832
>Domai also got nerve-stapled (possibly by accident)
Not nerve-stapled.
> However, a cryopod malfunction following the meteor strike prematurely awakened him into a miasma of toxic gases vented by the crippled ship, causing temporary damage to his memory and communication faculties.
>>48208758
No and like many people I constantly question the point of my life.
>>48203851
Man I sure do hate those East-Asians. One day, Oceania will roll over those dirty Eurasians with the help of our noble East-Asian Allies
>>48208508
That is all absolutely true.
But as long as she's not dissecting me, breaking my bones for shit's and giggles, stapling me, feeding me to mind worms, or selling my kids on the free market her crazy little empire of god is going to be one of the better places to live.
Her ideals are insane but they are a human kind of insane. And in practice we've seen her kind of society "work" which is more than can be said of the other factions.
Just put up with the bullshit and enjoy your relatively unmolested and body and mind.
It beats the Hive.
>>48208617
Clear the way, burgeoise opressors!
Best Foreman coming through!
![pope-francis-kissing-feet[1].jpg](https://i.imgur.com/ttArB7S.jpg "pope-francis-kissing-feet[1].jpg")
>>48208508
>A Catholic to boot.
Figures that a Cuckolic would take issue with Miriam's intolerance for the intolerable.
We must dissent.
>>48208986
And then there's THIS commie.
>>48209023
Without a joke, he is my favourite guy and favourite fatcion by far.
Applied to extinction/survival events that kind of ethics can actually work.
AND he is absouletly far superior to the Hive.
Its about a collective serving the individual, not the individual serving the collective.
>>48208440
>You live in a society where the most valuable thing is the pursuit of knowledge, the thing that measures your worth is the pursuit of knowledge and you're the janitor.
After having worked in a handful of labs, I can say that any researcher worth his salt knows that the janitor is his best ally.
>>48208743
Not quite.
Some of the younger generation born within the hive mind left for Earth. Was it curiosity of what it looked like? Disbelief that it was real? Who knows.
But the thing is that they chose to leave and they left.
And we know that they came back because they told those in the Hive Mind what Earth had become.
So we can take from this that you can leave the mind, you don't have to be linked all the time and when given the option to leave and never come back people decided to come back any way.
>>48209143
>Brainwashed extensions of the planet's will came to rejoin the planet
So?
>>48208658
There are? Where? It's... for research. Yeah. Research
>>48209193
You can complain of brainwashing all you wan but the truth of the matter seems to be that there is the door and you are perfectly welcome to piss off.
Is it really brainwashing or are people just really comfy where they are? Is there a difference and should we care?
>>48209283
Yeah, I remember a picture of all the female faction leaders getting raped in a pile of mindworms.
>>48209283
Which ending do you think Zhakarov would have went for in canon?
>>48209451
>Abandon ship
Remake the Unity as a full fledged colony ship either to make way to their new home or as their new home.
Fuck demon boils, we leaving.
>>48209451
His last quote is on Voice of the Planet, so I assume he either supported Deidre or she hijacked his transcendence.
>>48209451
I'd say transcendence, though for a different reason than Deidre. Humanity and ethics doesn't mean that much to him, you need a ton of reasearch to pull it off, and he seems like someone who would do it just to see what would happen.
Cosmic knowledge is a nice bonus.
>>48208617
Yeah, and Miriam is fucking insane fundie, so get real, kiddo.
>>48209298
I suppose you don't know where to find it, do you?
>>48209666
>kiddo
>>48204143
>could be Godzilla
Anon, those mind worms belong outside the city, you're hallucinating again.
>>48209667
It used to get posted all the time in these threads.
>>48209023
>intolerance for the intolerable.
Her entire premise boils down to "we are right, because we say so and wave with Bible in our hand while doing so", while arbitrarely picking this or that as inacceptable, inmodest, wrong and bad.
In the end, she comes out as salty bitch who must find some excuse why her society is completely stagnant backwater while everyone is having flashy toys.
North Korea is doing the same shit, you know? And every other completely fucked up regime does the same shit. "Dissenting" and "being morally better", or "fighting for peace".
It's all bullshit.
And Miriam runs on bullshit.
>>48209451
I believe Deidres option is to coexist with planets mind while Zhakarovs is to scrub it in favor of the human collective conciousness
>>48209667
Is this it?
http://rule34.xxx/index.php?page=post&s=view&id=425305
rule34 sites with tags are great.
>>48209023
>Not being Catholic
>Considering himself better Christian
>>48203403
I'll take shit that honestly never happened for 10
