GameSpot
action
adventure
driving
puzzle
role-playing
simulation
sports
strategy
news
reviews
previews
hints
downloads
See Also
videogames.com
gameguides.com
User
Services
join
help
feedback
contact us
ad index
international
vrml site map
Sponsored Sites
World
Opponent
Network(WON)
Professional
Gamers'
League(PGL)
|
|
|
Alpha Centauri
Page 2
Each faction excels at one or two important aspects of the game. Players can maximize these strengths by pursuing certain strategies. For example, the University of Planet under its leader, Saratov, acquires new technologies quickly. Saratov can maximize this strength by building Network Nodes (which increase Labs production) and assigning workers as engineers (also increasing Labs). He can also build Secret Projects, which speed up research, such as the Supercollider and the Network Backbone. As a result, his is often the most advanced faction in a game, tooling around the mountains of Alpha Centauri in Graviton Hovercraft when everyone else is still using Missile Crawlers. As their weaknesses, however, University citizens often riot, and their academic networks provide easy access for enemy infiltrators. As a result, those Graviton Hovercraft may have to spend some of the game acting as police units to quell rioters or moving back and forth between patrol markers on watch for sneaky enemy Probe Teams.
Our goal is to balance these strengths and weaknesses. For starters, you don't want a faction to be dependent on its strength. For example, sometimes the University may have to fight an early war or may have to terraform its way out of a difficult starting position. In these cases, another faction may get a jump on tech advances, grabbing the important Secret Projects - but the University should still be able to come back. Even when deprived of its optimal strategy, the faction's weaknesses should not be insurmountable. The University player in such a situation can pursue alternate strategies by building Secret Projects that suppress drone riots or base facilities that protect against Probe Teams.
At the same time, no faction power should be dominant over the rest. For quite a while, the Lord's Believers, under Sister Miriam, could build Colony Pods at an accelerated rate, expanding their empire quickly and building on their inevitable early lead. We experimented with severe weaknesses to compensate for her power, but this left her vulnerable to the problem described above: She was dependent on her strength. If she found herself on an island, where fast expansion was difficult, her weaknesses dragged her down to the point where her faction was no longer significant. Now, the Believers get a "fanatic attack" bonus when on the offensive, countered by somewhat slow tech research. These attributes balance themselves out nicely - the Believers may have technologically obsolete units, but their fanatic bonus gives them an edge if they initiate an attack. These attributes also suggest a strategy: Go on the offensive and capture techs from your enemies to compensate for your weakness.
Next: Keeping the balance, keeping it fun
 |  |  |  |
Copyright © 1998 GameSpot Inc. All rights reserved. Reproduction in whole or in part in any form or in any medium without express permission of GameSpot Inc. is prohibited. GameSpot, videogames.com, and VideoGameSpot are trademarks of GameSpot Inc. Computer Gaming World and Electronic Gaming Monthly are trademarks, EGM and EGM2 are registered trademarks of Ziff-Davis Inc., and are used by GameSpot Inc. under license. The Official U.S. Playstation Magazine is licensed by Sony Computer Entertainment America. PlayStation and the PlayStation logos are the trademarks of Sony Computer Entertainment Inc. Certain articles are reprinted from Computer Gaming World and Family PC. Copyright © 1998 ZD Inc. All Rights Reserved.
| |
|
