Alpha Centauri - a bit more

Alpha Centauri has managed to crush me several times now. I'm all but convinced that my win was due to a confluence of factors that basically meant I lucked out. I started as the warlike faction so I wasn't going to be attacked by that faction, and I started out on a small island surrounded by resource pods, but far away from everyone else except some of the less aggressive groups. All that water around my little island of what I think at its peak was five cities all closely clustered together made it a technological haven, and because I never took up a lot of territory I never was in a position to get in anyone's way.

A lot comes down to placement, as I'm learning.  And despite all the fiddly choices, sometimes luck will be against you. And... maybe I shouldn't have started on Librarian difficulty, but it's hard for me to go back now that I've won.

I can't escape the notion that I like building up a city more than tearing down others' cities. Someone suggested I should try Sim City for a less aggressive route, but I don't think it would be the same. As much as I admire what Sim City tries to do, at least Alpha Centauri offers up conflict with the environment and the rush for resources with the other factions. If war was a bit less of an automatic choice for these guys, it might seem a bit more grounded in reality. When the peaceful dude suddenly goes mad and starts messing with me just because he can, I'm reminded that, yeah, this is a 4X game.

Unlike with other games like this, though, I don't get the sagging feeling toward the end, like it's just more of the same on a bigger scale, slogging through to meet a victory condition. The four conditions actually allow factions to remain competitive: the military one is pretty much implied from the start, the diplomatic one is tied to overall success and not pissing off your neighbors, and the economic and transcendent endings let you start a project that everyone else can try to complete too-- may the best faction win.

The ending I got for the Transcendent route was actually pretty cool, like something you'd read out of a science fiction novel, and the eerie, out-of-control tech theme was still underlying a lot of the choices. The in-game effects were usually just points and possibilities, but I couldn't help but feel unsettled by some of my choices, and pleased by some of the narrative consequences down the road.

I've been warned that the update might not work right on the machine I'm running, so I don't feel any rush to load it. I wouldn't mind seeing some new faces, but I'm still learning to compete in this thing, still learning how not to die. :)