"And so we return again to the holy void. Some say this is simply our destiny, but I would have you remember always that the void EXISTS, just as surely as you or I. Is nothingness any less a miracle than substance?" – Sister Miriam Godwinson, "We must Dissent"

That's the tech that gets us solar shades, but launching them does require a Planetary Council vote. Looks like UK is on the wrong side of that vote. There will be other voters, though.

Furthermore, if a vote fails, you can try it again 10 or 20 years later (I don't remember which), and I can tell you that all sorts of horrible things can happen to a defiant faction over the course of 10 or 20 years. Terrible things.

While we'd disagree on details, I think a lot of people would agree these kind of games need some kind of shakeup. In SMACX (a game dear to my heart) there was always a point when you knew you'd won, and you'd only get more powerful at a higher rate than everyone else combined. Something has to be done about the endgame.

I'm glad that smart people are thinking about how to inject creativity.

Will we get to play it on Linux, like we did with Loki's SMACX port?

Tip: If you commit an atrocity (e.g. use nerve gas pods) against an enemy faction while communications are down due to solar activity, the other factions won't learn of it, so you'll avoid the imposition of sanctions.

I really like doing it to those pieces-of-shit Yang and/or Miriam, nerve-gas-armed needle jets attacking their base garrisons causing collateral damage to the civilian populations, all while maintaining lucrative civilized commerce with others.

This is good tech, no question about it. But the more exciting prospect comes from seeing that we're beginning to make the leap from wealth as currency to wealth as energy. Just remember, that while we make this transformation, we need to make sure we have a purely adaptable system.

If we can do that right, we'll have mastered Adaptive Economics.

This advance will allow us to integrate thermocline transducers into our tidal harness systems, increasing the amount of energy harvested. Tidal harnesses are great right off the bat, but to get their full potential (make them even better!) we should keep our eyes on the long-term prize of maximum energy extraction per sea square.

This is good tech, no question about it. But the more exciting prospect comes from seeing that we're beginning to make the leap from wealth as currency to wealth as energy. But in so doing, we need to make sure we have a purely adaptable system.

If we can do that right, we'll have mastered Adaptive Economics.

This advance will allow us to integrate thermocline transducers into our tidal harness systems, increasing the amount of energy harvested. Tidal harnesses are great right off the bat, but to get their full potential (make them even better!) we should keep our eyes on the long-term prize of maximum energy extraction per sea square.

"Important? Yes! Critical? Absolutely. I would go so far as to say that Superconducting Fiber alone makes our present economy possible." -- CEO Nwabudike Morgan, MorganLink 3DVision Live Interview

Are you fucking kidding me? SMAC came out 24 years ago, and who doesn't play that daily? We all need to hit the recreation commons from time to time, or else we'll turn into drones.

Dammit! How did I sleep through this thread?

“Planet’s Primary, Alpha Centauri A, blasts unimaginable quantities of energy into space each instant, and virtually every joule of it is wasted entirely. Incomprehensible riches can be ours if we can but stretch our arms wide enough to dip from this eternal river of wealth.” -- CEO Nwabudike Morgan, “The Centauri Monopoly”

"We estimate that during the next mission century most of Planet's industries will be moved off-planet to Nessus Prime and other orbital facilities. Many of our industries will benefit greatly from the low gravity environments available in space, particularly those involving genetically engineered microbes." -- CEO Nwabudike Morgan, "The Centauri Monopoly"

How could you avoid politics, or even want to? Without politics, SMACX would have almost nothing left.

(I prefer to not make comments about games other than Alpha Centauri, but even Tron has politics: should the system serve the users, or someone else?)

Whenever some rival faction is being completely intractable, I must admit it: I wait for a communications blackout caused by solar flares (so that other factions don't learn of my atrocities), and then I hit the fucker's bases with nerve gas needlejets, and maybe genetic plagues too. Really, I do that and I won't deny it. It's a fact, Jack.

And now you're expected to believe that I don't do such things outside the game? Really, you think I learn nothing from my in-game successes? Video games are getting cleared awfully fast here.

Your units have been spotted in my territory and must leave immediately.

"Why do you insist that the human genetic code is 'sacred' or 'taboo?' It is a chemical process and nothing more. For that matter we are chemical processes and nothing more. If you deny yourself a useful tool simply because it reminds you uncomfortably of your mortality, you have uselessly and pointlessly crippled yourself." -- Chairman Sheng-ji Yang ,"Looking God in the Eye"

"Our first challenge is to create an entire economic infrastructure, from top to bottom, out of whole cloth. No gradual evolution from previous economic systems is possible, because there is no previous economic system. Each interdependent piece must be materialized simultaneously and in perfect working order; otherwise the system will crash out before it ever gets off the ground." -- CEO Nwabudike Morgan ,"The Centauri Monopoly"